Improving Student Writing Skills - cse crafts

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Improving Student Writing Skills When designing mini lessons, be aware of the following things: • Teach one skill only, with high takeaway value. • You need not pair every lesson with an assessment; if you do, consider discussing to gauge retention. • Try to create routine with your mini lessons in format and usage. • Don’t worry about teaching lessons you find a bit boring—a mini lesson is short enough that even if it’s “nuts-and-bolts” material, students will be able to remain involved. • Make sure to reference your district standards so that your mini lessons support specific curriculum elements. • Consider collaborating with a team of teachers at your school to organize lessons for use with every trait. Some districts are now sponsoring summer workshops in which teachers write districtspecific lessons based on the traits. • For a ready-to-use compilation of lessons matched to every trait and every score in a full class, small group, and individual format (stand-alone and revision), reference Implementing an Effective Writing Program (Pikiewicz & Sundem, 2004). Monitoring Progress Through the Traits of Good Writing As instructors, teaching is a means to an end. Our goal is not to teach but to help students learn. Despite differentiating instruction based on trait assessment, if we don’t ensure progress, we haven’t achieved our goal. 116 http://www.books-foru.blogspot.com
Teaching Using the Traits of Good Writing One of the dangers in using the Traits of Good Writing is in the potential for each student to receive a hodge-podge of lessons, without a focused goal. On one assignment, a student may show the need for help with Organization, which you give as part of a small group lesson. On the next assignment, it looks like the student could use significant work on Word Choice, which you find time to offer individually. In large group lessons, you insert grammar and writing process strategies. Certainly, the student is consistently receiving quality instruction, but how can you ensure that the instruction is affecting the student’s skills? A simple solution is to monitor the evolution of trait-based assessment scores throughout the year (Hoover, 2001). The Seven-Trait Progress Chart on page 120 can also help you stay organized. Keep the Seven-Trait Progress Chart on hand while assessing students’ completed work. Note their scores on the progress chart and refer to it as a master list. If administrators, parents, or support staff have questions as to a student’s relative level or growth as a writer, you can easily refer them to the progress chart. In addition, you can use the chart to demonstrate classroom levels as a whole. The Seven-Trait Progress Chart provides a visual representation of your entire class, and as such is a good tool to use when planning mini lessons and small group lessons. Pinpoint your students’ difficulties and teach mini lessons on these topics. Also, by noticing students’ scores across a number of assignments, you will get a clear picture of which traits each student consistently scores high and low on. Perhaps you will choose to target Ideas rather than Conventions with a lesson based on a student’s score history, even though the scores for these two traits on the most recent assignment are the same. However, the chart brings with it the possibility of influencing assessment scores. Despite our best efforts, http://www.books-foru.blogspot.com 117
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Improving Student Writing Skills Ga
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Table of Contents Introduction.. .
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Introduction As a writing teacher,
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Vocabulary Review Vocabulary Review
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Vocabulary Review presentation Term
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Chapter One Your Physical Classroom
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Your Physical Classroom How Is Your
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Your Physical Classroom Basic Seati
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Your Physical Classroom independent
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Your Physical Classroom Supplies Ch
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Your Physical Classroom Chapter 1 R
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Chapter Two Frameworks for Classroo
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Frameworks for Classroom Time Also,
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Frameworks for Classroom Time Follo
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Frameworks for Classroom Time cessf
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Frameworks for Classroom Time sched
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Frameworks for Classroom Time Writi
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Frameworks for Classroom Time allow
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Frameworks for Classroom Time Figur
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Frameworks for Classroom Time Writi
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Chapter Three The Writing Process I
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The Writing Process Prewriting Duri
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The Writing Process and-fat,” “
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The Writing Process Bubbling Exampl
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The Writing Process Outline Example
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The Writing Process Cartoon Strip E
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The Writing Process Drafting Each u
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The Writing Process Revising Revisi
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The Writing Process dents will revi
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The Writing Process parents choose
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The Writing Process note that “yo
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The Writing Process Additionally, p
Page 67 and 68: The Writing Process with each step,
Page 69 and 70: Chapter Four Assessment and the Tra
Page 71 and 72: Assessment and the Traits of Good W
Page 101 and 102: Chapter Five Teaching Using the Tra
Page 103 and 104: Teaching Using the Traits of Good W
Page 117: Teaching Using the Traits of Good W
Page 125 and 126: Chapter Six Assignments In combinat
Page 127 and 128: Assignments Persuasive Prompts Spec
Page 129 and 130: Assignments Narrative Prompts Speci
Page 131 and 132: Assignments Daily Journal Prompts (
Page 133 and 134: Glossary expository writing—nonfi
Page 135 and 136: References References Adams, P. (19
Page 137 and 138: References Isernhagen, J., & Kozise
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