Welcome to the first installment of our Writing Masters blog series! With classroom-tested tips from our Curricular Resources authors on how to improve your teaching of writing at any grade level, each installment will share author insights and practical suggestions on teaching writing in the classroom that you can use the very next day. Today, Laura Robb offers tips to get to know your students as writers.
By Laura Robb
The more you know about your students, the easier it will be to meet them where they are and move them forward in their writing. When I help teachers initiate their writing classrooms and workshops, at the top of my list of things to share is the idea that they must set aside time to get to know their students as people and become familiar with their attitudes toward writing. That’s why, when I wrote Smart Writing: Practical Units for Teaching Middle School Writers, I included “Ten Questions about Writing.”
Students’ answers to the ten questions make a great starting point for short conferences to discuss their responses and as information to shape future instruction.
Once you have a sense of who your students are as writers, you will be ready to begin your writing program in earnest by establishing foundational routines and teaching practical writing skills that apply to all types and modes of writing. The first unit in Smart Writing is called “Getting Started: Establishing Foundations.” This unit contains lessons that you’ll weave through the fabric of your workshop and integrate into each genre unit that you teach—lessons on finding topics, using a writer’s notebook, brainstorming to develop topics, creating writing plans, analyzing mentor texts, evaluating leads and endings, establishing writing criteria, moving from planning to drafting, and strengthening student partnerships.
The appendix to this unit contains resources that will support your teaching of the lessons: mentor texts for writing informational and narrative paragraphs, a sample lead and ending from Harvesting Hope by Kathleen Krull, criteria for writing an effective paragraph for grades 5, 6, 7, and 8, and sample writing plans by professional authors Katherine Paterson and Jean Van Leeuwen.
As you move through the school year, you will want to observe your students frequently so that you can choose the right instructional moves to nudge them along the path to better writing.
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Next week, Nancie Atwell shares the importance of establishing an environment in which students always have ideas to write about, and she includes tips from her classic resource Lessons That Change Writers.
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