Simple Writing Tips for EVERY student!

When teachers think of the word writing.… often a negative word is associated with it. It’s true… writing can be scary. I hear the words “frustrating”, “chaos”, and “overwhelming” come up quite often when I work with teachers and writing is brought into the conversation.

While writing can be scary… it doesn’t have to be! I think as teachers we get caught up in what the highest possible writing expectation could be and base our student’s writing ability on that unrealistic level.

Our students are coming in on every writing level… from scribbles and what appears to be a hot mess…. to students who are decoding and writing words and matching illustrations.

All of those writing levels from top to bottom and everything in between…. is COMPLETELY OK!

That is where we the teacher come in and support each and every writer through small groups and writing conferences on their specific writing goals to show progress.

We are NOT here to tell students WHAT to write…. but the process that they are confidently writing in is where our support comes in!

At the beginning of the year, I create a folder for each student in my class. Inside I put 2 sheet protectors that will hold additional writing support materials!

The first and most important thing included in their folder is their writing goal sheet! (once students start putting print to the page and not just scribbles)

GRAB THE GOAL CHART – click HERE

These are specific goals that students can work towards while they are writing. This stays in the student folder in the dry erase sleeve and I can easily mark their goals so while they are writing… the support is there independently!

The center goal (being a brave speller) is simply building the confidence for our young writers to write the sounds they hear in the words they are putting on paper. Example: If the student is writing about their family and want to write the word “brother” – they will say the first sound /b/ and find the matching picture on their linking chart that makes the same sound “bear” – and use that to write!

GRAB THE LINKING CHARTS: click HERE

Later in the school year, I also include the blends and digraphs support chart for students who are ready to use that in their writing!

These are also placed inside the students writing folder!

One of the most common questions I get asked…. How do I get my students to pick a topic…. “I don’t know what to write about”.

Often… to solve the problem, we give students a prompt. Research tells us that our students should be writing free choice AT LEAST 80% of their classroom experience. While prompts are necessary at times… it shouldn’t be the crutch that we give our students.

Through the writers workshop model, we can give intentional mini lessons and use author studies to help generate new ideas with our students.

Did you know that writing ideas come from FOUR main places?! We call these the FAB FOUR in our class!

We can get ideas from:

• Things we LOVE (if we love something… we are passionate and able to explain or express those things)
• Things we KNOW a lot about! – For students who have passions or play sports or know about specific animals…. these create amazing writing pieces!
• Things we SEE around us and in our environment (home, school, community)
• Things we READ or have been exposed to in text!

To help make this connection with my students be successful… we make hearts at the beginning to give a visual for things we love.

This can be a project done in the classroom where students illustrate the things they love, cut out of a magazine, OR can be sent home to include REAL pictures with meaning of things they love.

This heart stays in their folder as a support tool when they are struggling with developing a writing topic!

What else is inside the student folder?

Their folder contains their linking charts, heart for writing support, writing goal checklist (that is specific to their personal goal), and of course their WRITING!

In the picture above you will see the student folders and two baskets. One with completed books and ready to conference and a basket with blank books for their next book!

My ultimate goal for their folder is that they have all of the support with them during writing IF I am not there one on one with that student. Our goal is to build independent writers who LOVE writing!

If students are still struggling with finding an idea to write about, I do keep a basket of magazine pictures that I have just cut out and laminated – for students to grab and generate new writing ideas.

Students can select a picture and then:

• write a list of things they see
• write a sentence describing the picture
• write a prediction about what is happening
• write a question for the content in the picture
• create speech bubbles for the people in the pictures
• write a story about the picture

The ideas are endless…. but all it takes is a picture prompt!

Think about your writing center for just a minute! What do you have for support in your writing area?

While I am the first to admit that I look a cute graphic and clipart… our students need to see authentic writing samples.

I am constantly grabbing and hoarding ALL of the restaurant menus, out of town brochures, zoo maps, tourist brochures, toy magazines, recipes, newspaper headlines…. anything that is real life authentic print for my students to see!

Thinking about how to teach those mini lessons in a writers workshop model?

Think about:

• author studies (pick a few books from a selected author or a theme of books) to show students different characters, different types of illustrations, books with labels or speech dialogue bubbles, books with poems or rhyming…. just getting students to see different styles of writing through integrating reading and writing.
• Some great authors – Jan Brett, Ezra Jack Keats, Mercer Mayer, Bill Martin Jr., Eric Carle, Robert Munsch, and many more!

• All About Books – these really help students focus staying on topic! Students can write books all about sports, an animal, an event, a place they have been to, the ocean, ANYTHING! It’s also great to tie in that non-fiction text to your writing and reading integration!

While I could write for DAYS about writing…. I just wanted to share these simple things you can do to get your students started within writing (without the frustration).

Our students should be writing EVERY DAY! By setting these goals for each student and providing these supportive tools (ways to get ideas, support for sounding out and writing words)…. your students WILL show progress and begin to learn to love writing. They aren’t prompted… they aren’t told WHAT to write about… they are given free choice to create and write what is meaningful to them!

Just know that EVERY student is at a different place in their writing development… we’re here to support that development and encourage them with positivity, with support, and with confidence!

Happy Teaching!