How to Teach Writing
Suggestions and lesson plans for teaching writing, grades 3-8.
Writing: Don't just assign it. Teach it.
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Writing is hard.
Teaching writing is harder.
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Writing instruction is an uncomfortable topic for many of us.
Students can be resistant, parents don’t know how to help, and as teachers, we don’t always know exactly what we’re supposed to be teaching.
What is writing instruction and what isn’t?
To ramp up your writing instruction, you need to get one principle clearly in mind.
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* National Board Certified Teacher
* Nation-wide teacher coach.
* Reading Specialist
* 35 years teaching in grades K – 8
* 25 years in Title 1 schools,
Let me help you be a brilliant writing teacher so your students can be brilliant writers!
1. What is Teaching Writing and What Isn’t? Writing instruction is an uncomfortable topic for many of us. Students can be resistant, parents don’t know how to help, and as teachers, we don’t always know exactly what we’re supposed to be teaching. What is writing instruction and what isn’t? To ramp up your writing instruction, you need to get one principle clearly in mind. read more here
2. Overcoming Writing Teacher Block. Let’s face it, few of us are in line for a Pullitzer. Maybe you didn’t like writing as an elementary student. Maybe in college, you got help with your papers. Maybe the sight of a blank page produces a cold sweat. But hear what I’m saying to you: You can still be an effective writing teacher! read more here
3. How to Establish Behavior Expectations for Writing Class
Before we talk about writing instruction, give some thought to the behavioral expectations you want to establish for your writing class. A typical writing lesson includes a teacher-directed portion, indepenent writing or revising, and a brief sharing section at the end. This article discusses expectations for the teacher-directed portion. read more here
4. What Can I Do about Spelling?
Spelling! It’s everyone’s demon! Many schools don’t have a dynamic phonics/spelling program in K-2, and anyway, you’re teaching 3-8. Your daily schedule may have 0 minutes allotted for spelling instruction, so now what? read more here
5. Persuasive Writing in Middle School
Middle Schoolers are increasingly capable and interested in opinion or persuasive writing. Here are some tips for choosing topics that
resonate with students
produce high quality essays
teach the analytic and critical thinking skills you want to foster, read more here
6. How to Grade Writing with a Rubric Part 1
Thinking about this article, I intentionally decided to use the word “grading” instead of “assessing”. If you are using an approach to writing instruction that I describe in this blog, you are constantly assessing. More than that, you are teaching your students to assess, and to bring that assessment into revising and editing.
But that’s different from grading, isn’t it? Report cards are due in a few weeks, and you have a stack of paragraphs or essays to which you have to assign a hard and fast letter grade or percentage.
Grading writing is a challenge. It’s time-consuming. And no matter how hard you try to be objective, there’s always a subjective element. And what about communicating progress to parents and students? Or even harder, explaining your instruction and grading to a parent who wants to know why their child doesn’t get all A’s? read more here
7. How to Grade Writing with a Rubric, Part 2
What you grade is what you’ll teach. Recently I saw a scoring tool, a rubric, that consisted of these items:
- Sentences start with a capital letter.
- Sentences end with punctuation.
- The first line is indented.
- Spelling is correct.
What will that teacher focus her instruction on? read more here
Questions? Comments? Ideas or advice you'd like to share?
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