Writing Anchor Walls |
The Writing Cycle |
Examples of Writer's Notebooks
An online article about writing conferences with leading questions can be found here.
Here is a document you can use to keep track of conferences or you can use an app like Stream Reading or Confer. Another recommendation is to use a composition notebook with 1-2 pages for each student. On the back, you can paste a roster and write dates that you confer with students on it so you keep track of who need to talk to next. Use post-its on the pages so you can keep adding to each page easily and can use one notebook for all your classes. |
The slideshow below has the purpose, steps, mini-lesson ideas, and conference questions you may ask your students to start their writing, reflect on their writing, and find an appropriate, differentiated teaching point for each student.
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What does a writing instruction look like?
1. Use model/mentor essays and focus on specific exemplars that support their unique writing needs or struggles. (For STAAR, use the doc at right.)
2. Chunk the teaching of the writing on a daily basis, where it is easier for you to grade sections at a time. This will also give you more of an idea for where students (and the class, in general) are struggling. Example for an expository STAAR essay (click here for Smore with a more detailed breakdown)
4. Use SOTC (Status of the Class) at the beginning of writing time.
6. Most important: "Write often. Write Daily." |
Writing: Instructional Tools
A sample writing block might look like:
1. Model using text and/or provide a mini-lesson based on class needs that support the genre you are asking them to write. (5-10 minutes) ***This may include a quick write after reading the short, mentor text. 2. Offer writing time, while you conference with students and/or groups of students in a workshop. (15-25 minutes) (See left - SOTC - to determine order of importance for who to conference with and what workshops to offer) 3. End with golden lines - students share 1-2 lines at the end of writing time. (1-2 minutes) |
Struggling with how to Teach the STAAR Essay?
A few things to consider:
Good writers need to see good writing. A lot of good writing. This doesn't just include STAAR "3" or "4" essays. It also means a lot of exposure to real expository and non-fiction texts. Try the Op-Ed section of NY Times or newsela.com. For student essays, know that you can't provide written feedback for ever piece, nor can you allow revision for each piece of writing, because in reality, STAAR doesn't. Sometimes, students need to earn the grade they scored on the essay without having an opportunity to revise. Students need to know their "real" score, without your comments and their revision steps. And you need to know their "real" score so you can track their growth, progress, and needs. Expect multiple essays per six weeks so one doesn't impact their grade as significantly. In addition to expository essay process pieces (that you do with students), you should do 1 timed write/week, if possible. Kelly Gallagher recommends having students write at least twice what you can grade. In essence, writing A LOT. Just like reading makes students better readers, lots of writing practice is the only way they'll get better at writing. |
This document (above) has exemplar essays. You may need to download it so that the hyperlinks work effectively. Idea: Print the document and put it in a binder. Then, tab each section so that you can refer students after conferencing with them to specific tabs based on their needs.
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