Strategic Writing Mini-Lessons for All Students, Grades 4–8

Strategic Writing Mini-Lessons for All Students, Grades 4-8 (2012, Paperback)

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Strategic Writing Mini-Lessons for All Students, Grades 4–8

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Shopbop Designer Fashion Brands. Withoutabox Submit to Film Festivals. Amazon Renewed Refurbished products with a warranty. At this point, students will need to decide what they are going to write about. A skilled writer could tell a great story about deciding what to have for lunch.

Have students complete a basic story arc for their chosen topic using a diagram like the one below. This will help them make sure that they actually have a story to tell, with an identifiable problem, a sequence of events that build to a climax, and some kind of resolution, where something is different by the end. Again, if you are writing with your students, this would be an important step to model for them with your own story-in-progress. Now, have students get their chosen story down on paper as quickly as possible: This could be basically a long paragraph that would read almost like a summary, but it would contain all the major parts of the story.

Recensie(s)

Model this step with your own story, so they can see that you are not shooting for perfection in any way. What you want is a working draft, a starting point, something to build on for later, rather than a blank page or screen to stare at. Now that the story has been born in raw form, students can begin to shape it. Creating a diagram like the one below forces a writer to decide how much space to devote to all of the events in the story. With a good plan in hand, students can now slow down and write a proper draft, expanding the sections of their story that they plan to really draw out and adding in more of the details that they left out in the quick draft.

I would do this for at least a week: Start class with a short mini-lesson on some aspect of narrative writing craft, then give students the rest of the period to write, conference with you, and collaborate with their peers.

Samenvatting

During that time, they should focus some of their attention on applying the skill they learned in the mini-lesson to their drafts, so they will improve a little bit every day. As the unit nears its end, students should be shifting away from revision , in which they alter the content of a piece, toward editing , where they make smaller changes to the mechanics of the writing. Make sure students understand the difference between the two: One of the most effective strategies for revision and editing is to have students read their stories out loud.

In the early stages, this will reveal places where information is missing or things get confusing. It also helps to print stories on paper: Once revision and peer review are done, students will hand in their final copies. Beyond the standard hand-in-for-a-grade, consider other ways to have students publish their stories. Here are some options:. So this is what worked for me. Helping them tell their stories well is a gift that will serve them for many years after they leave your classroom.

English language arts , Grades , Grades , teaching strategies. Wow, this is a wonderful guide! I feel like you jumped in my head and connected my thoughts.

I appreciate the time you took to stop and look closely at form. I really believe that student-writers should see all dimensions of narrative writing and be able to live in whichever style and voice they want for their work. So well curated that one can just follow it blindly and ace at teaching it. I especially liked your comments about reminding kids about the power of storytelling.

My favourite podcasts and posts from you are always about how to do things in the classroom and I appreciate the research you do.

On a side note, the ice breakers are really handy. My kids know each other really well rural community , and can tune out pretty quickly if there is nothing new to learn about their peers, but they like the games and can remember where we stopped last time weeks later. I love writing with my students and loved this podcast! Books like Wonder R. Palacio and Wanderer Sharon Creech can model the concept for students.

Thank you for your great efforts to reveal the practical writing strategies in layered details. As English is not my first language, I need listen to your podcast and read the text repeatedly so to fully understand. I love sharing so I send the link to my English practice group that it can benefit more. I hope I could be able to give you some feedback later on.

Thank you for helping me get to know better especially the techniques in writing narrative text. Proven lessons that develop four essential writing strategies: Recensie s As a Middle School Literacy Specialist with many years of experience in teaching reading and writing, I appreciate this book and highly recommend it as a tool for educators. The authors have compiled the most reliable and best proven practices for teaching writing and made them easily accessible for students' immediate use.

This book not only has tested methods that work for teaching writing, it has modifications for all students, including struggling and advanced writers.

Best of all, you'll discover practical approaches that provide actual mini-lessons with integrated Common Core Standards and ideas to generate purpose for writer motivation. Whether you teach English, Science, Reading, or any other area, your students can benefit from learning the writing strategies in this book. A variety of helpful strategies are offered by teachers in authentic classroom situations.

Modifications of these lessons for struggling, ELL, and advanced students enable all to benefit. The plethora of strategies is accessible and appropriate for each grade level and learning ability. Willhite, Associate Professor This book is the most useful writing resource I have encountered in all my years of teaching.

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