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I've written a lot about the value of scaffolded writing frames for students - English Language Learners and those who are proficient in English - to use when they are responding to prompts. As my colleague Lara Hoekstra says, "As long as we're clear that these are some ways to write, not THE ways to write, they can be helpful."

Some of the teachers at our school met today, and shared the different writing frames we use. They've given me permission to share them here, and I'm also including links to previous posts where I've shared different related ideas (you can lot of other resources at The Best Posts On Writing Instruction). Please share your own in the comments section:
"Point, Quote, Connect" Helping Students Respond To Writing Prompts "They Say, I Say" Is A Great Writing Resource Exploratree Here Are Some Examples Of Using "Concept Attainment" In Writing Instruction "RACE" Looks Like A Useful Writing Strategy
The Text-Evidence Strategy That Changed My Classroom is from Scholastic and is also about RACE.

I've previously shared an example of how I scaffolded an ABC writing prompt (Answer the question, Back it up with a quotation, make a Comment & Connection). Based on the conversation we had today, I made some minor, but important changes. I have a picture of the revised version here, and you can download both the old and new versions here (the new version is the second one in the file).

This next one is from my talented colleague Nichole Scrivner - the well-known PEE frame is simple and effective:

Here's a short excerpt from "They Say, I Say" (see a link earlier in this post) that Lara Hoekstra gives to students so they can use it as the "Back it Up With A Quotation" part of the ABC writing frame (or as the "Q" in the "PQC" - Make a Point, use a Quotation to back it up, and make a Comment):

Nicole Simsonsen shared a strategy called T-BEAR:
T- Topic Sentence B- Brief Explanation/Bridge to Examples E- Examples\Evidence R- Recall/Reflect/Relate
You can find lots of examples and graphic organizers illustrating T-BEAR online. Here's an image of one she uses:

You can download the next three examples here.

Jen Adkins shared her own version of an ABC response:

Jen also adapted an excellent strategy from our colleague Chris Coey to help students develop an "analytical paragraph." Also note the strategic way they have students highlight different parts of their paragraph to help them self-analyze if they are placing a higher priority on the "commentary and context":

Mary Osteen shared a sheet her students use to provide peer feedback. However, she gives it to them as they are writing, so it functions as a writing frame scaffold, too:

Antoine Germany, another very talented colleague at Luther Burbank High School and the head of our English Department, shared three very helpful documents he developed about writing frames. He's given me permission to share them on this blog.

The first two are on PQC (Point, Quote, Comment) and on PEE (Point, Evidence, Explain). You can download them here.

The third document is on ABC (Answer the question, Back it up with evidence, Comment with an explanation). You can download that document here.

Turning Misinformation, Misunderstandings and Misconceptions into Questions That Drive Us... https://t.co/fwVnQWaleS pic.twitter.com/CLynYoZbaW

- Jess (@Jess5th) February 5, 2017

Stoked to better guide students beyond a literal understanding of our class novel this week, after training with @Doug_Lemov. Thanks! pic.twitter.com/f9IxoSHulZ

- Kelsey Uribe (@KelseyUribe) February 12, 2017

Robert Peal shares a nice writing scaffold at Planning a knowledge-based scheme of work. Part 2: Writing.

Comprehending Non-Fiction: Setting Kids Up for Success is by Russ Walsh. I'm adding it here because of his discussion of an after-reading writing activity called RAFT.

ON SCAFFOLDED DESCRIPTIVE WRITING OPENINGS is from The Learning Profession.

Mary Osteen, one of my many talented colleagues, shared this one today at an English Department meeting. She calls it "AREE!" with an explanation point so she can sound like a pirate 🙂

It stands for Assertion, Reason, Evidence, Explanation:

I think it's a helpful frame.

However, what I believe really makes it stand out from some of the other frames on that "Best" list is this sheet that she's developed to teach the frame:

She has students fill in the blank squares as a way to scaffold learning the writing frame progression. For International Baccalaureate Theory of Knowledge teachers, this kind of form will look familiar because that's how IB encourages us to teach the concept of Knowledge Questions.

You can download both of the documents pictured in this post here (Mary has given me permission to share). By the way, I've recently given up the use of my regular document scanner and instead use an amazing iPhone app called Genius Scan, which works great!

Here's another one in the form of a tweet:

Using WHAT-HOW-WHY rather than PEE has been life-changing! Thanks to teachers on here for sharing. So useful for prompting deeper thought. pic.twitter.com/pvpSorNGHo

- Erin Miller (@Miss_E_Miller) April 2, 2017

Here are some links to resources and research on these kinds of frames:
The Impact of Sentence Frames on Readers Workshop Responses
This newsletter contains a nice paragraph frame for science writing (you'll have to scroll a couple of pages down).
Writing Frames With Content Examples
Critical Thinking and Beginning Writing Skills is from ELT Research Bites.
Geography Writing Frames For ELLs (They Can Be Used In Other Subjects, Too)
Tips for Teaching RACE Constructed Response Strategy is from Teaching To Inspire.

The Teaching Channel has a nice video on Scaffolding Text Structure for ELLs, though it's useful for everybody.

Yes! The CER (Claim-Evidence-Reasoning) text structure is super-helpful as a language scaffold for our students *and* for adults when engaging in critical thinking! 🌟 Thank you @ENLACE_Lawrence for continuously inspiring educators and for leading by example. 🌟 pic.twitter.com/RPlYACj7Jp

- Sarah B. Ottow (@SarahOttow) July 21, 2018

TWO "WRITING FRAMES" FOR ELLS & EVERYBODY ELSE
Awaken English has some Arabic translations that can help with student Writing Frames.

'Writing Frames Help Students Organize Their Thinking' is the headline of one of my Education Week Teacher columns. In it, Matthew Perini, David Campos, Kathleen Fad, Jocelyn A. Chadwick and Diane Mora finish up a three-part series on writing frames.

Sentence Stems or Sentence Frames is by Valentina Gonzalez.

#VirtuEL19 How to support #ELLs in social studies class. FANTASTIC strategies include:
1.TEA writing scaffold
2.1-point rubric w/ COLO
3. Intro paragraph
4. TPRS (narrative + images) https://t.co/jKnXmSaK7p @DiGENLTech https://t.co/kyWBK9rY0h #esl #eal #eld #esol pic.twitter.com/8A2Jvpq0C0

- Tan Huynh (@TanELLclassroom) June 16, 2019

Note to Self: Don't Fear Structured Writing Prompts comes via The National Writing Project.

This is the writing practice I'm talking about! They used those boxes the ENTIRE semester! Practice. Persistence. Patience. Eventually as moved from the boxes and went straight to writing in test format. The scaffold was no longer needed! #WritingMatters #ellchat_bkclub pic.twitter.com/wqhZ9fedRB

- Carlota Holder (@carlota_holder) December 14, 2019

Trail of Bread Crumbs has tons of great graphic organizer writing structures.

Just in case anyone else gets sentence frames and sentence stems confused. I used to use the terms interchangeably, but I found it really helpful to think about the different purposes they serve. pic.twitter.com/CZszbozjvq

- John @ Kid-Inspired Classroom (@kid_inspired) November 25, 2022

As you can see, I'm pretty lucky to be able to work with such talented and generous educators!

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The Best Scaffolded Writing Frames For Students

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I've written a lot about the value of scaffolded writing frames for students - English Language Learners and those who are proficient in English - to use when they are responding to prompts. As my colleague Lara Hoekstra says, "As long as we're clear that these are some ways to write, not THE ways to write, they can be helpful."

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These Stage based documents list syllabus content that form the basis for the stage progression statements in the Textual Concepts and Processes. These documents are particularly useful for programming and lesson design if you need to refer directly to syllabus content in your planning documents. They show how content from various outcomes are related to several concepts and processes.

The value of this document is that syllabus content has already been aligned with Textual Concepts and Processes. This will support conceptual programming and planning in subject English.

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The Textual Concepts and Processes resource

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The resource can be downloaded in a variety of ways to suit your purposes. This enables you to view the Textual Concepts and processes as progressions across all stages of learning from K-12 or to view the specific content related to the stage that you are currently teaching.

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All of the resources on this site have been created by Lizzie Chase OR sourced from Super 6 web-based PDFs. Thanks to Lisa Darwick and Katherine Gonzaga for their Super 6 and Quality Teaching poster. Click on the folder below - Go to FOLDER ACTIONS - DOWNLOAD.

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I love teaching author's purpose...maybe it's the cozy PIE image it conjures up, or maybe it's the fact that for most kids, this is a concept that they "get" for the most part (with a little bit of explaining and some hands on practice). It's kind of the opposite of long division that way, if you know what I mean! :)

So, how do I teach author's purpose? I follow an 8 step recipe:

Mentor texts are my go-to strategy for almost anything to do with reading and author's purpose is no exception. I round up some great examples for each of the three PIE strategies (Persuade, Inform, Entertain) and read them to the class over a few days. Sometimes we can even read just a few pages for the kids to get the gist of what the author was trying to do. Doing this as a whole class is always great because it reinforces the kids who are on the right track, and it helps the kids who are lost in the woods, to get some help from others.

2. Use Baskets of Books with Small Groups

I love to put the kids in small groups of about three and hand them a basket full of books to sort into PIE categories. I usually supplement my collection of books with picture books from the school library, especially to find books that are meant to persuade. The kids really love this scavenger hunt type "game" and I like it because it allows them to go through multiple books at one sitting.

Here's another way to practice identifying types of purposes and kids really enjoy this one. I save extra book orders (Scholastic, for instance) and pass them out. Kids cut out the tiny pictures of books and determine which category they fall into. A bit of glue onto a three sectioned piece of paper, labeled with PIE, and we're set!

After sorting through so many examples, my students are feeling more comfortable with the concepts and are ready to make their own flip book. We make a simple one using 9 x 12 construction paper, fold it hot dog style and then using rulers, we section the top flap into thirds by marking off the 4 inch and 8 inch places, so we know where to make the cuts (on the top side only). Please note that I teach 4th/5th, so they're able to do this themselves. Younger kids might need this step simplified for them. On the top of the Flip Book, we put the three types of author's purposes, with BIG capital letters to start each word. On the inside, you can put a variety of things. Kids can list the titles of the books they sorted, from the small group activity. They can glue the Scholastic Book order books here for each category or t hey could make a list of the kinds of reading materials that would typically be found under each category. For example, fiction passages are usually "Entertain", a travel brochure is usually "Persuade" and a text book is often "Inform". The possibilities for the Flip Book are endless.

No concept in reading is complete in my mind until the kids have done at least one set of task cards. These little gems will give your kids the quick, but oh so meaningful practice that they need. I always give my kids a clipboard and put them into pairs to go around the room and tackle the task cards together. When I hear them quietly discussing the author's purpose, and everyone is on task, enjoying the day while learning, my little heart sings!

6. Introduce Three Topics for One Purpose

This is where it becomes a bit more challenging. We talk about how a topic might be presented in a number of different ways, depending upon what the author wanted to say. I like to use the example of a cat because all of the kids are familiar with them and most generally like them. We make an anchor chart showing how we might persuade someone using this topic. It might be that cats are the best pets, or maybe it's to persuade our mom or dad to buy us a cat...Then we talk about how an author would write to inform us about cats. Maybe he/she might write about different types of cats, or how house cats are related to big cats...Lastly, we discuss how an author would write to entertain us using the topic of cats. Could he/she use a joke book or comic book to tell the story of a superhero cat? Or maybe it's a folktale or a fairy tale about a cat...
Another idea for three topics for one purpose, is to use fun sized candies (M&M's if you have no peanut allergies or Skittles if you do...if your school allows candy). I like to have the kids make a three sectioned poster describing how they could write for each of the three purposes, with the candy as the topic.

7. Have Your Kids Become the Authors

This is the time when I ask the kids to become the authors and to choose a topic (it could be anything they're interested in) and then to choose a purpose. They can write to persuade, to inform, or to entertain. Each child writes a mini-book that showcases one of these purposes and then we share them out. I like to have the kids share in small groups and to have their classmates identify the purpose after the story is read.

8. Time for More Practice with Text

Next, I like to give the kids practice with lots of passages. I have created an Author's Purpose unit for They also include a set of third grade and one for fourth and fifth. These not only have lots of opportunities for practice with text, but have a set of task cards included too. It's nice to just print and go! Author's Purpose Posters that I offer as a freebie in my TpT store. Grab them here:

What types of activities do you use for author's purpose. I always love to hear what other teachers are doing!

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I love teaching author's purpose...maybe it's the cozy PIE image it conjures up, or maybe it's the fact that for most kids, this is a concept that they "get" for the most part (with a little bit of explaining and some hands on practice).

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Educational technology in the literacy classroom can take many forms. There are tools helping students collaborate with peers and ways for students to publish writing to share with the real world. Technology can also inspire writers by providing engaging and unique experiences.

Augmented Reality (AR) is a technology experience where users have a tablet or smartphone loaded with an AR app. When the AR app is held over a special piece of paper, also known as an AR trigger, an image pops off of the page. There are lots of ways to incorporate AR triggers into learning spaces. For example, in a LitWorld library space families can scan AR triggers posted on bulletin boards and these posters connect families to sing-a-long videos, read alouds, and information about the books in the library.

Augmented Reality Writing Prompts

Many teachers have used augmented reality to inspire writers by providing students space to create. Coloring book pages from the app Quiver are a great example of what students can do with both iOS and Android devices. Students can color in a page at home or in school and scan it with the Quiver app. When they scan their picture with this AR app their drawing will pop off the page.

Here are a couple of writing prompts you can use with the AR app Quiver:

Tell a story about the character you created focusing on setting. Where do they live? What season or time of year is your story set?

Use colors that are not normally associated with the animal you've chosen, like a neon green shark. Tell a story that shows how their life would be different if they looked this way.

Augmented reality can be used in conjunction with skill-based instruction. You might incorporate AR-inspired writing prompts into descriptive language lessons or to help students collect adjectives related to an AR image. The picture on this page is from the Quiver app, but there are other fun ones to check out including Crayola Alive or Chromville. However you decide to incorporate augmented reality into your classroom, make sure that you are putting the learning objective first.
Check out my book This post was originally published on LitLife's blog about using augmented reality as a literacy tool! Check out LitLife's blog for more posts and literacy tips. Deeper Learning with QR Codes and Augmented Reality: A Scannable Solution for Your Classroom.

Tags: augmented reality, writing prompts

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Using Augmented Reality for Writing Prompts - Class Tech Tips

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Educational technology in the literacy classroom can take many forms. There are tools helping students collaborate with peers and ways for students to publish writing to share with the real world. Technology can also inspire writers by providing engaging and unique experiences.

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NSW

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Our schools at a glance | Going to a public school

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Alphabetical index of common topics of inquiry about NSW public schools including attendance, curriculum, homework, parent organisations, transport an

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Cluster 11

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I have made these I Can clusters for student's desks. They will fit into CD sleeves so they can be adhered to desks. This is a PDF, but if you want the editable PowerPoint, then click here .