I
am sharing my love of the written word as a part of the Superb Writers’
Blogathon. In partnership with Grammarly grammar checker, this series
is bringing helpful advice to aspiring superb writers all across the
world wide web.
I've blogged about writing workshop several times because it really is one of my favorite parts of the our day. I love seeing my students develop as writers throughout the year and writing workshop is a time where their creativity shines. In our room, we start writing workshop on day one by learning that we are all authors with unique ideas to share. I think it's important for students to realize that authors aren't just grown-ups or professionals! I really drive this point home by "publishing" student work each month.
I wanted to share some of my favorite writing minilessons with you. I've found that teaching students to include a few key components greatly improves the quality of their writing. I teach these components throughout the year under the umbrella of "stretch out, slow down" and hang them in our room for reference. Here they are:
1. Action: It might sound obvious, but think about how many students write and write and write without ever really getting to the important part of their story. Some of them fall into the description trap while others have runaway conversations. I stress to my students that their stories must have action that the reader could see happening.
2. Descriptions: After my students have mastered action, I move on to descriptions. I encourage my students to use their five senses to find ways to pull the reader into their story. Descriptions should help readers make "mind movies" to connect with the text. This one requires a delicate balance because students can use too much description, but it's definitely worth teaching.
3. Thoughts and Feelings: When teaching my students to add thoughts and feelings, it provides a natural connection to reading workshop and discussion of point of view. Most of my students tend to write personal narratives in the first person point of view, so I stretch their boundaries a little by encouraging them to take a different perspective. Adding the inner thoughts or showing the feelings of their main characters helps bring writing to life. I also teach my students to show these ideas through their characters' actions without always stating the obvious.
4. Dialogue: I know several teachers who refuse to let their students use dialogue because it is so tricky to punctuate. I would challenge you to think of your favorite books (for yourself and your classroom). Many, perhaps even most, of them have dialogue. We study dialogue in published texts before attempting to write our own. With support, students can learn to write dialogue that builds on the action in their stories.
5. Powerful Words: Students tend to write sentences with the first words that pop into their minds. They'll use the same boring words like "happy" over and over. This is a fine way to write a first draft, but something that is easily improved through revisions. We work on making more powerful words choices through replacing those boring words. I have my students highlight words that are repeated in their stories as well as words that have more powerful synonyms. Initially students need my help selecting those words, but with practice the boring words begin to jump out.
6. Transitions: We study sentence variety and transitions at the same time. This one is the hardest, so I save it for last. Some students are natural writers and their sentences easily flow together, but others have robot-like sentences that feel more like reading a list. Teaching students to use simple transitions such as "after that" or other prepositional phrases really helps improve readability.
Those six strategies have greatly improved the quality of writing in our room. If you're interested in using them in your classrooms, you can grab my poster set for free. These are my original ideas and creations so they may not be redistributed, but you are welcome to use them in your classrooms.
You can also read about my other writing workshop ideas by clicking here. I'd love to hear some of yours!
I've blogged about writing workshop several times because it really is one of my favorite parts of the our day. I love seeing my students develop as writers throughout the year and writing workshop is a time where their creativity shines. In our room, we start writing workshop on day one by learning that we are all authors with unique ideas to share. I think it's important for students to realize that authors aren't just grown-ups or professionals! I really drive this point home by "publishing" student work each month.
I wanted to share some of my favorite writing minilessons with you. I've found that teaching students to include a few key components greatly improves the quality of their writing. I teach these components throughout the year under the umbrella of "stretch out, slow down" and hang them in our room for reference. Here they are:
1. Action: It might sound obvious, but think about how many students write and write and write without ever really getting to the important part of their story. Some of them fall into the description trap while others have runaway conversations. I stress to my students that their stories must have action that the reader could see happening.
2. Descriptions: After my students have mastered action, I move on to descriptions. I encourage my students to use their five senses to find ways to pull the reader into their story. Descriptions should help readers make "mind movies" to connect with the text. This one requires a delicate balance because students can use too much description, but it's definitely worth teaching.
3. Thoughts and Feelings: When teaching my students to add thoughts and feelings, it provides a natural connection to reading workshop and discussion of point of view. Most of my students tend to write personal narratives in the first person point of view, so I stretch their boundaries a little by encouraging them to take a different perspective. Adding the inner thoughts or showing the feelings of their main characters helps bring writing to life. I also teach my students to show these ideas through their characters' actions without always stating the obvious.
4. Dialogue: I know several teachers who refuse to let their students use dialogue because it is so tricky to punctuate. I would challenge you to think of your favorite books (for yourself and your classroom). Many, perhaps even most, of them have dialogue. We study dialogue in published texts before attempting to write our own. With support, students can learn to write dialogue that builds on the action in their stories.
5. Powerful Words: Students tend to write sentences with the first words that pop into their minds. They'll use the same boring words like "happy" over and over. This is a fine way to write a first draft, but something that is easily improved through revisions. We work on making more powerful words choices through replacing those boring words. I have my students highlight words that are repeated in their stories as well as words that have more powerful synonyms. Initially students need my help selecting those words, but with practice the boring words begin to jump out.
6. Transitions: We study sentence variety and transitions at the same time. This one is the hardest, so I save it for last. Some students are natural writers and their sentences easily flow together, but others have robot-like sentences that feel more like reading a list. Teaching students to use simple transitions such as "after that" or other prepositional phrases really helps improve readability.
Those six strategies have greatly improved the quality of writing in our room. If you're interested in using them in your classrooms, you can grab my poster set for free. These are my original ideas and creations so they may not be redistributed, but you are welcome to use them in your classrooms.
You can also read about my other writing workshop ideas by clicking here. I'd love to hear some of yours!
these are great ideas to help kiddies write moe!
ReplyDeleteJust Wild About Teaching
Thanks for sharing your helpful tips on writing!! :)
ReplyDeleteLisa
Learning Is Something to Treasure
These will be great things to work on with my students. I teach 2nd and 4th grade spec ed writing. The visuals will be awesome:) I pinned this for later use. Thank you:)
ReplyDeleteWe are ALL Special!