Teaching Writing

1
Teaching Writing
2
How are we doing teaching writing?

• Still some work to do, according to the National
  Assessment of Educational Progress (The Nations
  Report Card)
• Good news 1998-2002 showed some improvement of
  writing skills in grades 4-8
• Bad news no improvement for grade 12

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Serious consequences of poor writing

• Writing is thinking with a pencil
• Writing is a premier way in which children think
  and express their ideas
• Writing is a way children express creativity,
  uniqueness, and indicate what they want
• Writing well and succinctly is increasingly
  important as children get older

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Is there a best way to teach writing?

• No consensus
• Process is important
• Children need a time, place, and reason to write
• Good instruction is crucial
• The key to children learning to write well is
  good instruction.

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Elements of good instruction

• An environment that supports writing (with space
  for children to write and the tools to do so)
• Teachers who read with a writers eye (so they
  can point out strategies that young writers used
  effectively)
• Teachers who model good instruction (so children
  will see how one goes about writing)
• Lots of opportunities to practice, accompanied by
  corrective feedback (praise the expressive aspect
  of the task, while helping the child form
  letters and write accurately and well)

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Current challenges in the field

• Schools of education need to offer pre-service
  teachers experience in learning what good
  writing is, how to teach writing, and knowledge
  about the genres of writing (e.g., expository vs.
  narrative writing )
• Schools need a greater focus on evaluation, so we
  can identify good writing and support children
  as they develop their skills

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Techniques teachers can use

• Morning message
• Talk about what is happening in the class,
  providing an opportunity for children to write
  about it
• Say something really exciting or ask a
  thought-provoking question about a timely issue
  or event (e.g., the upcoming election)
• Describe this
• Children want to learn, they are knowledge
  seekers. Provide opportunities for children to
  absorb information and then write
• Ask them to describe this and they will come up
  with wonderful language and ideas
• Innovations
• Take a favorite text like Brown Bear, Brown Bear,
  What Do You See? and create a new text using the
  same language model
• Students integrate new words and make stories
  their own

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Across the curriculum

• Writing is important in every subject
• In math, students can make their own math books
  and measure things
• Field trips offer an opportunities to summarize
  and put words and pictures together in
  interesting ways
• In science, even at the pre-K level, lab
  notebooks allow children to participate in an
  experiment and then write about what they
  observed
•  
• In all areas of the curriculum, give children
  the opportunity to realize that writing is an
  expressive, meaningful act that helps them learn
  about any subject.

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Writing instruction before kindergarten

• Example A journal by a four-year-old in which
  she writes just what
• she wants to
• The teacher captions each page with the childs
  words
• Over time, the child begins to see the difference
  between what she is writing and what the teacher
  is writing
• This exercise provides the child with an
  opportunity to write, and also an opportunity to
  learn from corrections

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Writing in early childhood

• Early on, children want to use writing to
  communicate ideas
• In the very early years, provide children every
  opportunity to write letters, recipes, lists,
  ideas
• The writing may be unconventional, but it will
  convey the idea that writing has a function and
  is very important

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Writing is different than handwriting

• Young children will dabble with a lot of
  interesting ways of writing
• Its important to focus on the meaning, on what
  theyre trying to say
• Composition and handwriting has a place in the
  early childhood curriculum, but sometimes hand
  muscles are not developed enough to write very
  small letters.
• Be encouraging and supportive!

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Children with learning disabilities and writing

• Kids who struggle with writing often have a hard
  time learning informally or incidentally. For
  example, they dont learn as much about spelling
  correctly just through reading and/or writing.
  Explicit teaching is vital for these children
• A lot of kids who have learning difficulties also
  have difficulties with self-regulation of their
  thoughts or behaviors. Skilled writing requires a
  lot of regulation planning, monitoring,
  evaluating, and revising

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Children with learning disabilities and writing
(cont.)

• Some kids with learning problems often have an
  incomplete or fragmented knowledge base. For
  example, if they dont have knowledge of the
  story genre, then they are at a disadvantage in
  constructing a good story
• Another issue for kids with learning disabilities
  is motivation. If you struggle with writing, its
  easy to develop an intense dislike for it. And
  the longer that goes on, the more difficult it is
  to deal with
• Often, all these things are interconnected.

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How parents can support writing

• Help kids get their thoughts together and
  organize what they want to say
• Plan an approach to the assignment
• Dont just leave them to sit at the table and
  agonize if they seem stuck, help them get started

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Mastering writing is a life-long process

• Remember, writing is the most complicated
  language skill that any of us have to learn
• Parents need to empathize with kids, knowing that
  they work very hard to accomplish their writing
  assignments

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Front load the process

• Have the child talk about what theyre going to
  write about
• Write down the words they want to use but dont
  know how to spell
• Help them organize the main points that theyre
  writing about
• Review the goal of the assignment know where
  youre going and how youre going to get there
• Plan something fun for afterwards.
• Give a time limit put the timer on and do the
  hard thing first

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VIDEO

• Invented Spelling
• Mary T. Murphy Elementary School, Branford,
  Connecticut
•  
• A first grade class makes a party list using
  invented spelling
• The teacher works with students to see what their
  invented spelling tells her about the students
  knowledge of word structure, speech sounds, and
  how they use letters to represent those sounds
• The teacher allows students to practice their
  phonemic awareness abilities, while providing
  teachable moments about accurate spelling

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Spelling

• Too often seen as the poor relation of language
  arts instruction
• Accurate spelling is a courtesy to the reader
• Spelling knowledge is very closely associated
  with reading comprehension. Spelling is a way of
  being word conscious, which is associated with
  knowing word meaning and comprehension which
  results in better writing
• Those who spell well are more likely to write
  longer and better structured compositions as they
  move into the higher levels of written expression

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Invented spelling

• Also called inventive spelling
• Its a beneficial step for four- and
  five-year-olds who have not yet entered into
  formal instruction
• From kindergarten on, kids will learn spelling
  better and faster if they are taught it
  explicitly

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Phonemic awareness and invented spelling

• The best kindergarten writers have teachers who
• teach kids how to spell the highest-frequency
  words accurately rather than relying on invented
  spelling, and
• study the structure of words from a phonological
  (sound) and orthographic (spelling) perspective

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Invented spelling as diagnostic tool

• If children can put together a logical
  representation for all of the sounds in a word,
  it is very likely that they have good word
  decoding skills.
• Being able to segment the sounds in a word and
  correlate them with letters is key to both
  decoding and spelling.

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Teach kids directly how to

• form the letters
• identify the speech sounds
• spell high-frequency and pattern-based words
  accurately
•  
• and they will write longer compositions with
  more detail
• and structure

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Automatic operations of writing

• Writing is like juggling a lot of balls in the
  air
• If you have automatic mastery of some of the
  basics, you can focus more attention on the
  demanding complex reasoning skills

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How to use invented spelling as a diagnostic tool

• If a child writes the word bump as B U P
• Thats pretty good inventive spelling for
  kindergarten. Leaving out the M is
  understandable, because linguistically the mmm
  sound disappears in the articulation of bump. A
  little more instruction is needed to get that
  point across
• But, if the child wrote P E P for the word
  bump, that would indicate that that child was not
  segmenting the sounds in that word
• A good inventive spelling of the word balloon
  might be B L U N
• But, by first grade, wed want to see the student
  break it into sounds (ba ah la oo un)
  and know something about how each of those sounds
  is typically spelled

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Moving from invented writing to standard writing

• You need a sequence of lessons thats planned
  out. Dont leave it to chance
•  A good writing program should encompass
• Time to develop the component skills
• A fostering of fluency and accuracy with the
  component skills
• Application of those skills to inventive,
  expressive writing

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Spelling supports reading

• One of the most effective ways of teaching kids
  decoding is to teach it through spelling,
  through phoneme/grapheme correspondence
• Through spelling, you can teach kids about word
  origins
• Spelling and word meaning are connected
• We want children to master the most commonly used
  words in the language at a level of automaticity

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When do spelling errors denote a problem?

• Individual aptitude for spelling varies. However,
  poor spelling is a hallmark of dyslexia. Watch
  for
• difficulty beginning to emerge from first grade
  on inability to spell the highest-frequency words
• continued invented spelling even after good
  instruction and practice
• spelling words in a dysphonetic way (with little
  correspondence between the sounds that are in a
  word and the spelling)
• inability to remember a letter sequence and
  difficulty with speech sounds
• lack of strategies for thinking about words
•  
• When spelling is a problem, it cant be allowed
  to interfere with learning to compose, which
  is a fundamental tool for academic success.

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Systematic assessment

• Assessment is difficult because really good,
  widely used tools have not yet been developed.
• Best practice is to
• decide on a rubric
• talk to kids
• organize around explicit expectations

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English language learners

• Writing and spelling are even more complicated
  when there is an overlay of the first language on
  a second language
• Sound-symbol constructions may carry over from
  first language to second (e.g., the difference
  between the pronunciation of the letter J in
  English and Spanish)
• May learn to fill in the slots of a sentence
  with correct spelling without knowing what the
  words mean

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Writing instruction for ELL students

• Good instruction for ELLs should include
• dialogue and vocabulary instruction
• oral language modeling
• oral language expression (saying sentences aloud)
  
• talking about the words
• interactive instruction

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Differentiated writing instruction

• Difficult, but it really makes a difference
• Best to work from a common framework for the
  whole class, then adapt from this framework for
  individual students
• Need the structure to make the adaptation possible

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Teachers as writers

• If teachers dont enjoy writing themselves, they
  will
• shy away from it
• provide too few opportunities for students to do
  it
• not evaluate childrens writing carefully
• not be able to teach children the characteristics
  of genre

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Why genre is important

• The story genre has
• a beginning
• challenges
• events
• a problem and a resolution
•  
• When children write a story, teachers should
  evaluate it against the conventions of that
  genre.

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The red pen

• Marking all over the page can lead kids to think
  that writing is only about capitalization,
  punctuation, and spelling
• Its important for teachers to provide feedback
  on content as well. Dig deeper than word count
  and grammar
• Model good writing, so children can learn by
  example
• Focus on both the medium and the message. Discern
  where children are doing well or need additional
  help

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VIDEO

• Writing Poems
• Poe Elementary Houston, Texas
•  
• Using a Columbia University program called The
  Writers Workshop, second graders learn to become
  lifelong writers
• The program connects literature and writing
• It is a structured approach, in which the teacher
  explicitly teaches the processes of writing

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Tools to encourage creativity

• A pleasant environment where kids feel free to
  take risks
• A clear connection between reading and writing
  (what you read can be a model for what you
  write)
• Process the opportunity to plan, draft, revise,
  and edit
• Opportunities to share writing with peers and
  teachers

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Encouraging young writers

• Model the process. The work that goes into
  writing planning, drafting, revising, and
  editing all goes on inside the mind. Make it
  visible to students
• Help make handwriting, spelling, and sentence
  construction routine (automatized, so students
  dont have to stop and think of each word)
• Provide grammar and vocabulary instruction

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Negative consequences of poor handwriting and
spelling

• If you cant read the message, you cant get it
• If the message is illegible (because of spelling
  miscues, for example) people will devalue what
  you say
• Difficulties in this area interfere with other
  writing processes

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Extra attention to the fundamentals pays off

• As a students handwriting improves and their
  spelling improves, there is a carryover effect
  in
• improved sentence construction
• increased amount of writing
• increased quality of the writing

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How to model sentence formation

• Take small, kernel sentences
• Show how to make those into more complex
  sentences
• Have kids work with you to do the same thing,
  then work with each other
• Have them apply the practice in their own writing

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Mechanics versus content

• Often interrelated. For example, if you struggle
  writing the words youre going to produce less
  content
• If a kid struggles with mechanics, provide
  focused instruction in letter formation and
  spelling to help kids move past that point. Look
  for alternatives to help the student keep up
  (e.g., word processing software, speech synthesis
  software)
• If a kid struggles with content, sometimes its a
  structure issue or a knowledge issue.
  Instruction should center on how to get ideas and
  ways to organize ideas

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Writing difficulties

• Many children first show difficulties with text
  transcription (e.g.,
  handwriting and spelling)
• Some kids have self-regulation difficulties which
  make it hard to plan, organize, monitor, and
  evaluate their own writing process
• Many kids have trouble with both
• Overlaying transcription and/or self-regulation
  issues can be motivation problems and a
  persistent reluctance to write

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Explicit instruction

• Explicit Instruction helps all students those
  with and without learning disabilities
• Instruction should be explicit about
• Process planning, revising, and helping kids
  learn to monitor what theyre doing
• Goals why kids are being asked to do the
  writing assignment and what they intend to give
  the reader

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How technology can be motivational

• The ease with which one can move text
• The abatement of transcription difficulties
• In searching for ideas for writing

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Other effective strategies

• Explicitly teach children how to form sentences
• Use reading as a model for writing
• Have kids do research and ask questions to get
  ideas for writing
• But nothing beats a well-prepared,
  knowledgeable, dedicated teacher in helping kids
  become good writers.

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Advice for teachers

• Teachers will have to self-teach themselves in
  many aspects of
• writing instruction. Some ways to do this
• Take time to write
• Join with peers and create a regular time to
  write and talk about writing
• Talk with colleagues and share effective
  strategies and ideas
• Provide time every day to have children write

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Is there a specific sequence of skills children
should master?

• No fully developed, specific scope and sequence
  of writing skills for all K-12 students exists
  yet. Each state has its own, and even districts
  can differ within a state
• Teachers will need to create a sequence for their
  own classrooms. It is critical for teachers to
  develop a sequence and plan for how to teach
  writing
•  Look at basal readers for ideas

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Writing on paper versus writing on the computer

• Some kids approach the word processor much like
  they approach their written text Im going to
  change a little something here Ill try to get
  this spelling error there. In these cases,
  writing on a computer is very much like writing
  on a piece of paper
• Some kids come at word processing with big
  ideas. They make many more revisions upfront
  and during drafting, than kids who are writing
  by hand

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Does text messaging have a deleterious impact?

• Yes, in a way. It is essentially a different form
  of language and communication
• It cant replace academic writing skills
• Some teachers are using text messaging and the
  enthusiasm students have for it as a starting
  point for writing, then working with the ideas to
  transform the writing into something more formal.
  This strategy demonstrates how to switch codes
  from very informal to formal

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From product to process

• Educators originally thought of writing as a
  product, and good writing equaled a lot of text
  on the paper
• Educators then switched to thinking of writing as
  a process, focusing on thinking, planning,
  revising, and editing
• Now is the time for a balanced approach, so that
  the wonderful process of childrens writing
  eventually results in correct form and good
  final product

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Automaticity is vital

• The automatic operations of writing (spelling,
  grammar, structure) dont restrict creativity
  they actually enhance it. 
• The key to developing automaticity is a complete
  program of instruction. For example, in a
  40-minute writing lesson, devote the first 15 or
  20 minutes to skill development and then the next
  half to the more creative aspects of writing (of
  any kind expository, narrative, poetic,
  sentence manipulations)
• But we must get away from dichotomous thinking
  that skills inhibit creativity. They do not.

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Writing is not solely creative

• Inevitably, good writing also is informational in
  nature
• Description and accuracy are important and need
  to be emphasized

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Reading and writing are connected

• The National Reading Panel (NRP) brought a sharp
  focus to reading and as a result, reading
  instruction has improved
• Separating reading and writing in the NRP report
  was a mistake. We need to bring them back
  together and help educators understand the unity
  of these language functions, their
  interrelationships, and common denominators

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Writing is all about writing

• It is not enough for teachers to post explain
  expect (P.E.E dont do it in the classroom).
• Rather, teachers must present and model writing
  with students. Bring students to mastery so they
  can write well by themselves
• Children have to write in order learn to write.
  At every grade level, writing narrative text,
  expository text, or on topics of their own
  choosing, we want them to be excited about writing

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Thank you!

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• discussion questions, and more about this topic
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