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(This is another link that goes with the reader response journal other post)

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When I first started teaching, I knew I wanted my kiddos to engage with text in a meaningful and purposeful way. Not just a worksheet that went with what we were reading... But a real way for my students to share their thoughts, ideas, and opinions as it related to what we were reading. My solution? Reading Response Journals or RRJ as I like to call them.

Reading Response Journals

So many of you have asked about this simple journal! I thought it's about time I share the ins and outs with you on why, year-after-year, I still have my students work in their Reading Response Journals or RRJ's.

What are Reading Response Journals?

Simply put, a Reading Response Journal is a place for students to write, draw, and share their opinions, ideas, or respond to text we have read in class. There's nothing fancy about these. They are just cheapy spiral notebooks I buy at BTS time for like 15 cents each. Then, we make a cover and keep them in our desks. You can grab the cover I use for FREE right here.

But let me set you straight on one thing about our Reading Response Journals...

They are NOT an Interactive Notebook
They are NOT an Interactive Notebook
Don't get me wrong, I "sorta" like using ISNs in math and science. (And by sorta I mean if there wasn't so much cutting and pasting with trash all over the floor...) But this notebook is much more casual then that.
Rarely are we cutting and pasting into it.
It is used as a grab and go, a quick write, share my opinion, write a sentence or paragraph, notebook.

How Does it Fit into my Routine?

Well that is the best part of a Reading Response Journal... it's a chameleon of journals. We use it for quick writes on a specific topic, or as a place to share our learning from particular unit. But most importantly it is the place where we WRITE ABOUT TEXT.We use them before reading, during reading, and after reading. We also use them during center time, and sometimes we even use them during Science and Social Studies!

(Read more about how we used our RRJ to improve our sentence writing HERE)

Reading and writing go hand in hand. We expect our students to absorb so much from the text that they are exposed to yet, we rarely give them time to process, sort, or "think through" what they've read in a non threatening way. Reading Response Journals bridge the gap between reading a text and writing to the text in a logical and easy way.

How to Use Reading Response Journals in Your Classroom

Here's a peak at a few ways I've used these journals in both second and third grade. For Quick Writes...

This is the main reason I started using Reading Response Journals. I wanted a place for students to write down their thoughts quickly... No passing out papers, no big long drawn out process... just a quick and dirty write up.

Here, we had just read the story, "Animals Should Definitely NOT Wear Clothing". This book is perfect for making an inference, but I wanted to engaged my kids before we started reading, so I had them tell me why they thought animals shouldn't wear clothing. This was a simple way to get them thinking without all the hoopla!

For Responding to Text... This is by far how we use our notebooks the most. After reading a text (and possibly SNOTS-ing it up!) We'll use what we've read for writing about it.

You can read more about this activity here!
For Retelling...
Our Reading Response Journals are the perfect place for students to retell a story in their own words.

Since our RRJ are always in our desks, they are the ideal spot for us to take notes that can be used later.

Here, we took notes on how animals clean themselves based on a book we had read.

Later, we used the chart to compare two of the animals.

I love using our Reading Response Journals as an easy place to make reference sheet for new skills we're learning!

Here, we were learning about the suffixes -less and -ful. After discussing these two common word parts, we made a quick reference page for when/how to use them and even did some practice!

Here's another reference sheet we had made for adding -er and -est to words.

I LOVE integrating Science and Social Studies into our literature block. It just brings the learning alive! So sometimes our RRJ are used to write about different processes we've learned about.

Here, during our Moon and Space study, we used our new found understanding of the moon to write about how the Moon and Earth are different.

We even took some notes on the Constitution after learning more about it on Constitution Day.

How to Grade Reading Response Journals

You know I am the queen of easy. When it comes to grading, I follow the "less is more" mentality. (You can read more about that here)

I'm sure most teachers would say, "Oh I collect their notebooks every week to check and correct every single page we've done.." and you know what? Maybe you are that teacher and all I have to say is good for you... But for me, the LAST thing I need is another thing to grade or collect!

That's why checking my student's Reading Response Journals is always done on the fly. If I am spot checking their work, I'll usually just put a star on the page that says, "hey- I saw this".

If I'm looking for something in particular, as students finish their writings, I'll go around and check what they've written.

Here we had documented how Officer Buckle reacts to different events in the story, "Officer Buckle and Gloria". A check plus means they've got it!

As I check over student's work, I can easily see who's met the objective and who still needs coaching. This allows me to reteach and provide immediate feedback as needed. No need to lug home tons of notebooks for review. Ain't nobody got time for dat! I also use the information that I can gather from their responses for forming my small group lessons later in the week. Class struggled with finding the main idea of a paragraph? Looks like I can cover that in my small group.

So, those are the ins and outs of my FAVORITE routine. Do you have your students keep a Reading Response Journal? If so, tell me what you have them write!

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The How and Why of Reading Response Journals

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When I first started teaching, I knew I wanted my kiddos to engage with text in a meaningful and purposeful way. Not just a worksheet that went with what we were reading... But a real way for my students to share their thoughts, ideas, and opinions as it related to what we were reading.

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I love using reading response journals for a variety of purposes. First, this poster gives a great guide for students to use journals on their own to encourage them to actually think as they read and write down thoughts they are having. This other blog site (linked below) gives another teacher's ideas as to how she uses them for "quick writes" in class as students write down thoughts about texts. I have used journal differently with different grades, using them independently during reading mostly with 2nd grade or older. In first grade, I use them more for whole class jotting during an interactive read aloud or during reading groups.

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Overview of Guided Writing in the Primary Grades

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Overview of Guided Writing in the Primary Grades

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This resource provides a great overview of the framework for guided writing experiences in the primary grades. It lays out exactly the steps that need to take place for primary grade students to receive effective instruction and modeling in writing. I found this resource specifically for this assignment, and after I read it I had some great, new ideas to implement into my writing instruction in my own classroom. I would also share this with other primary grade colleagues of mine.

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Young writers need instruction. They do not improve their writing skills simply because teachers require them to write (Englert, 1992). Children need explicit scaffolding, constructed within expertly delivered instructional conversations that address the language, knowledge, and strategies required for problem solving in writing. Effective writing instruction provides "richly textured opportunities for students' conceptual and linguistic development" (Goldenberg, 1992, p. 317).

This article describes the theory and procedures for guided writing lessons, which are a specific format for primary-grade, small-group writing instruction based on (a) a sociocultural perspective (e.g., Vygotsky, 1978; Wertsch, 1991), (b) Clay's theories of literacy learning (2001), and (c) the author's study of second-grade guided writing instruction (Gibson, 2008). Guided writing is defined here as a small-group instructional framework presented to students who share similar needs at a particular point in time (Fountas & Pinnell, 2001). Guided writing provides an important context for teachers' in-the-moment assessment and immediate instructional scaffolding of students' construction of their own, individual texts. As students completed their hands-on examination of a celery stalk, for example, the following discussion supported their construction of an informative title for their own text.

Teacher: Okay, now that you've taken a good look at that celery stalk, I want you to think about one interesting idea about celery that you want to write about today. Sean, are you going to write about the strings that you found in the celery?

Sean: I'm going to say, How do you get strings out of celery? Hey, here's what I'm going to do. First, snap it in two.

Teacher: Good! How to get the strings out of celery. And you've thought of a good way to start your story as well.

Cari: That's his title. I don't want the strings.

Teacher: Are you thinking of your own title?

Cari: Let me tell you how celery looks.

Teacher: Great! You've all thought of one interesting idea to write about and are using a title to help your readers understand. I'll help you while you write your own text.

All writing is collaborative. Effective writing teachers collaborate with students, creating apprenticeships for them through guided practice (Englert, Mariage, & Dunsmore, 2006). Thus, writing instruction should include explicit teaching in which teachers step in to model and prompt and then step back to encourage students to make decisions and solve problems while writing (Englert & Dunsmore, 2002). Effective writing instruction should make the elements of good writing and the strategies of good writers visible and accessible to naive writers (Vaughn, Gersten, & Chard, 2000). The guided in guided writing lessons, then, refers to the essential nature of the support provided by expert teachers while students write. This article connects guided reading to guided writing instruction with emphasis on children's internalization of the thinking and self-scaffolding needed for effective writing.

The characteristics of effective reading instruction overlap with those of effective writing instruction. Reading and writing share rhetorical and communicative functions, knowledge, and cognitive processes (Nelson & Calfee, 1998). Critical shared knowledge between reading and writing includes metaknowledge, that is, knowing the functions and purposes of reading and writing; phonological and graphemic awareness; and procedural knowledge of the use of strategies (Fitzgerald & Shanahan, 2000). Clay (1998) emphasized the reciprocal relationship between learning to read and learning to write as well as the crucial role of strategic activity for both reading and writing acquisition. Both learning to read and to write requires the expansion of children's oral language resources and the application of these competencies to understanding and constructing texts within a variety of genres.

Poor writers' systems of learning and development (McNaughton, 1995) are both "limited and limiting" (Glasswell, 2001, p. 349). Young writers typically lack the control structures that allow them to use existing or developing skills to expand their knowledge base. However, these writers do learn strategic behavior for writing when such behavior is taught in supportive ways (Boocock, McNaughton, & Parr 1998; Bradley, 2001; Sipe, 1998). The study from which this article is derived (Gibson, 2008) analyzed the results of daily guided writing instruction presented by the author to five average-progress second-grade writers, referred to as Cari, Kim, Rachel, Sam, and Sean. This study addressed each child's internalization of strategic behaviors for problem solving during writing through analysis of videotaped weekly individual writing events as well as assessment of writing products. Each student demonstrated a strong, clear shift to a more active and strategic stance for writing, thus supporting expanded knowledge of language use for composing, for text and sentence structure, for phonemic awareness, and for orthography.

This article describes instructional steps and teaching behaviors for explicit primary-grade, small-group writing instruction in a supportive, guided context. Each section includes examples of teacher-student interaction during guided writing lessons. The article also describes two specific assessment procedures that support guided writing instruction.

A framework for guided writing instruction

Guided writing instruction in a small-group context allows teachers to provide high levels of immediate, targeted support while each student writes his or her own short but complete text. A typical format for a 20-minute guided writing lesson might include the following four steps:

1. Engagement in a brief, shared experience that is of interest to students, including both a linguistically and informationally rich activity and accompanying conversation, and expansion of students' ability to talk about content of interest

2. Discussion of strategic behavior for writing, including a presentation of a think-aloud or a cue for strategic activity along with active discussion of ways in which students can integrate this strategy into their own writing

3. Students' time to write individually with immediate guidance from the teacher, who "leans in" to interact with individual students about immediate decisions and strategies and uses prompts to guide students' thinking for problem solving while writing

4. A brief sharing activity in which the writer's immediate work is shared with an audience, and writers experience their newly written texts as a whole

Grouping practices are too often the missing link in effective writing instruction (Flood & Lapp, 2000). It is not necessary, however, for every student to participate in a guided writing lesson every day. Instead, teachers should make intentional, thoughtful decisions about which students are in need of a "shot in the arm" regarding writing at any point in time. A series of guided writing lessons might be presented to students who are not producing much text during classroom writing time, for example, or to students who write a sufficient quantity of text but lack a sense of ownership for their writing. Alternatively, the teacher may work with students who are not appropriating the elements of good writing described in whole-class lessons. Guided writing groups should be flexible in nature and based on observations of students' current needs. These lessons are most successful when presented on a daily basis to the same group of students, perhaps for several consecutive weeks.

The writing produced during guided writing will typically be the result of about 10 minutes of concentrated individual writing time and may or may not be extended, revised, or edited outside of the guided writing context. Guided writing lessons do not take the place of such frameworks as a writing workshop model (Graves, 1983) or interactive writing (McCarrier, Pinnell, & Fountas, 2000). A guided writing lesson might occur after a whole-class writing lesson has been completed and students are writing independently. Teachers typically spend the first weeks of each school year establishing expectations for independent work time prior to beginning guided writing lessons. Guided writing thus provides a strong context for teachers' support of students as they put whole-class instruction into practice. The instructional procedures for guided writing lessons are now described, divided into four steps.

Step 1: Brief, Shared Experience

The orientation provided for students when reading a new book insures that the meaning and language of this particular text are accessible to readers (Clay, 1991). The teacher

creates a scaffold within which children can complete a first reading of a whole story. The teacher and children have rehearsed some responses; others are recent and familiar because the teacher modeled them. The children's own background knowledge has been called to mind, and some new knowledge has been introduced in a measured way. (p. 265)

As described in the next sections, Step 1 of guided writing lessons captures students' interests for writing and allows them to rehearse their use of important conceptual and linguistic resources.

Provide a Strong, Supportive Introduction.

The introductory section of guided writing lessons should (1) expand students' interest and orient them to the writing task, and (2) provide opportunities for students to hear and use the language structures needed for their writing. Possible activities include study of an interesting topic, a short read-aloud from one section of an informational text, and a brief experiment.

Teacher: Today we're going to try an experiment to see how many paperclips will stick to one magnet. I want you to think about the writing that you will do next, though, before you get your magnets. What would be a good first sentence for your own story?

Kim: I, I, I don't know.

Teacher: How could you tell your readers about the magnets and the paperclips?

Teacher: Yes. Do you think you want to write anything about the paperclips too? First I tested...

Rachel: Magnets and paperclips.

Sean: What did it stick on?

Teacher: Yes. You have to put some details in too, don't you? So your text might be about the magnet and the paperclips. You could start your own sentence with something like, This experiment...

Sean: First, I did the experiment. I took my magnet and put the paperclips on it.

Teacher: Good! Listen: First, I did the experiment, period. I took my magnet and put the paperclips on it, period. Say his sentences again: First, I did the experiment. I took my magnet and put the paperclips on it. You are thinking about great ways to start writing. Let's try our experiment, and then you can write your own story.

Engage Writers in Conversation and Rehearsal.

In guided writing lessons, students rehearse new ways of talking about topics of interest using literate and increasingly complex forms of language. Discussion immediately prior to and during individual writing expands students' language base and prepares them to write well. Rehearsal of language structures should be explicit and well connected to the type of text and topic about which students are currently writing.

It is important to recognize the challenges faced by young writers as they work to appropriate the more complex structures of written language. Composing is a skill that has to be learned, just like spelling or the correct use of punctuation. It requires expertise with both overall organization and sentence structure. With strong and consistent input through discussion and teacher explanation, students' written texts can move from simple to complex uses of language. Sean's story about bats, for example (see Figure 1), was written during a guided writing session and supported by a discussion of a section of the book Bat Loves the Night by Nicola Davies. In contrast to his earlier writing, Sean began this text with a topic sentence and used a variety of sentence structures. He composed his text with relatively sophisticated details about bats, using specific vocabulary. Sean also wrote with an appropriate voice and stance for informational text, including a pronunciation guide for echolocation and a picture to illustrate this important concept. He completed this text in approximately seven minutes of sustained writing, supported by immediate discussion of the language, content, and writing strategies needed for his work.

Figure 1. Sean's Writing

Step 2: Discussion of Strategic Behavior for Writing

Guided writing lessons provide maximum opportunities for active student engagement in their own writing, supported by the teacher's immediate guidance and explicit teaching of the strategic behaviors used by good writers. In Step 2, teachers work to expand their students' awareness of specific cognitive strategies for writing.

Describe Writing Strategies to Students.

Following a brief shared activity, teachers can present a short think-aloud or introduce a cue card (Scardamalia & Bereiter, 1986) for a specific strategic activity to students (see Figure 2). Teachers and students should then discuss ways in which students can integrate this strategy into their own writing. In the following example, the teacher extends her think-aloud, demonstrating the construction of a strong opening sentence to students' own thinking.
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Figure 2. Cue Cards Designed to Facilitate Students' Writing Processes

Teacher: I want to be sure to write something about Velcro that people will think is interesting. This cue card can help me to remember what to think about as I start writing: Think of a good first sentence. That's what I'm going to do right now. I'm going to tell how Velcro works. The two sides, the hooks and the strings, are how it works. And I think most people don't know that. So this is my sentence: Let me tell you how the strings and the hooks in Velcro work. Put your cue card in front of you. What are you thinking about?

Sean: I really don't know what to write.

Teacher: You've got to make a choice, don't you?

Sean: I don't really know how Velcro works. I mean, I know the two different textures of the sides.

Teacher: And you know how the two sides work.

Sean: Yeah.

Kim: What does this side do to that side?

Cari: It kind of catches it, the hook.

Teacher: Yes, those are good details. How are you going to start writing?

Sean: I think Velcro's so complicated! It's driving me nuts!

Teach Students How to Write Well.

Teachers need to do more than just tell young writers that they must include appropriate ending punctuation for all sentences or enough detail for clarity. If teachers present an immediately useful and well-contextualized way of thinking about writing, the stage is set for students' success. Writing is a cognitive process (Flower & Hayes, 1981), requiring instruction in how to think and act (Higgins, Miller, & Wegmann, 2006). When teachers provide mental, linguistic, and physical tools, such as cue cards, diagrams, graphic organizers, and clear examples of sentence and text structures, they are directly supporting students' use of procedural steps and higher order strategies for effective writing (Englert, Mariage, & Dunsmore, 2006).

Step 3: Students' Time to Write Individually With Immediate Guidance From the Teacher

The intent of guided writing lessons is not simply to provide more time to write. Instead, lessons are structured so that students are actively engaged in their own sustained, successful writing. Given well-supported, guided concentration on the immediate completion of a short but complete writing product, young writers are able to practice and internalize what they have been taught.

Provide Immediate Guidance for What Students Are Writing Next.

After getting set up for success with a language- and content-stimulating activity combined with teacher think-alouds or cue cards for strategy use, students then write as independently as possible. Teachers should lean in and assist with what each student is currently constructing in his or her writing, providing strong "feed forward" for the individual writer. Feedback evaluates what the writer has already written. In contrast, feed forward focuses the writer's attention on what strategies to use next. In the following example, the teacher provided feed forward to Rachel as she became stuck while writing.

Teacher: Rachel, what do you need to say next in your writing?

Rachel: They're made of metal.

Teacher: So you're going to tell your readers about metal, different kinds of metal?

Rachel: Yeah. And this is different than the others.

Teacher: Think about what your readers would want to know. What could your sentence be?

Rachel: They're made of different kinds of metal.

Teacher: Great sentence. Paperclips are made of different kinds of metal, period. You're ready to keep writing now.

Scaffold Students' Writing Through Prompting.

Teachers should provide immediate guidance that will improve the writer's expertise, not just the written product itself (Gibson, 2007). Prompting during students' writing takes a proactive stance, guiding a young writer's ability to focus attention on composing and in-the-moment revising. Clay (2001) defines reading work as a strategic activity "when the reader directs attention, picks up and uses information, monitors the 'reading,' makes decisions, and activates self-correcting to revise a prior decision" (p. 128). Writing work, then, might be defined as an activity whereby the writer (1) directs his or her attention to key aspects of composing and transcribing tasks, (2) picks up and uses information from interests and resources, (3) monitors the writing piece as it is constructed, (4) makes decisions about the next steps, and (5) self-corrects to improve a text. Teachers should prompt for the in-the-moment writing work in which a student needs to engage.

Table 1 provides a list of prompts, organized by category, that may be useful for teachers during guided writing lessons. When leaning in to guide an individual writer, teachers must decide whether they are calling the student's attention to composing or transcribing processes or perhaps prompting the student to use a strategy to maintain fluency.

Table 1. Teacher Prompting During Guided Writing Lessons

Category

Teacher prompting

Directing students' attention to key aspects of composing tasks

Pick one small but interesting idea to write about.

Think of a title that tells what you are writing about.

What would be an interesting first sentence for your story?

How will you introduce your readers to the next part of your story?

What word(s) would make your readers know what you really mean?

Could you start the next sentence like this...?

Directing students' attention to key aspects of transcribing tasks

Say your sentences. Can you hear where the period/question mark/exclamation point might go?

Say that word slowly to yourself. What sounds do you hear?

Clap that word to help you know what parts to write.

Prompting students to use information from interests and resources

Think about everything you know about this topic.

Did you read or write something like this that you could look at to help yourself?

Prompting students to monitor their writing as it is being constructed

Say it to yourself before you write it. How should your sentence sound?

Have you included enough details so that your readers will understand and be interested?

Supporting students' decisions about the next steps to take for writing

What could you do now to help yourself keep writing?

What information are you thinking about next?

When you get stuck, rereading will help you to start writing again.

When you get stuck, talking to yourself or to a friend about your ideas will help you to start writing again.

It is important to remember that any list of prompts serves only as shorthand for the conversational interaction between teacher and students. For example, as Kim finished writing about veins in an early guided writing lesson (see Figure 3), she lost momentum and asked for assistance.

Figure 3. Kim's Writing

Kim: I said about the veins.

Teacher: Do you know what to write next? What else do you think would be important to add?

Kim: I already put about to tear a leaf.

Teacher: Yes! Your idea is to write about discovering a leaf, and you added information about tearing and listening and then about seeing the veins in the leaf. Have you included enough details so that readers will understand?

Kim: I could say about oxygen.

Teacher: Good! What do people want to know about leaves and oxygen? Go ahead and write!

The teacher structured her talk to improve Kim's ability to integrate an awareness of information already included in her writing with the need for further details, using prompts like, Have you included enough details so that readers will understand?

Provide Lots of "Just Right" Help as Soon as Students Struggle.

Writing teachers need to provide high levels of instructional scaffolding. Teachers should provide more and appropriate kinds of help as soon as a student is struggling and then either fade the kind and amount of further support or raise the level of challenge (Wood, 1998). Teacher prompting guides students' immediate thinking by directing their attention to both the visible (e.g., use of space on the page, letter formation) and invisible (e.g., phonemes, language choices) aspects of writing. Teachers can provide instructional scaffolding on a continuum from full modeling and explanation to independent task completion (Gaskins et al., 1997). Prompting during writing (see Table 2) requires teachers to decide whether full modeling of a task is necessary (e.g., "When bats are asleep, comma, you shouldn't wake them up. Listen to where I put the comma.") or whether simple cueing of aspects of the task (e.g., "How can you help yourself get started writing?") is the right amount of support.

Table 2. Instructional Scaffolding During Guided Writing Instruction

Instructional scaffolding stages

Scaffolding during writing instruction

Full modeling and explanation

T: When bats are asleep, comma, you shouldn't wake them up. Did you hear where I put the comma?

Element identification through assisted modeling and generic questions

T: Here's my sentence about straw. I think the reason the water stays in the straw is because of the air pressure. What sentence about the way a straw works are you thinking about?

Cueing aspects of tasks, naming and reinforcing strategies

T: We're going to do an experiment today so that you'll have something very interesting to write about. But first of all, I want you to think about your writing. How can you help yourself know how to get started?

S1:First, think of things.

T: Like one little thing that's interesting?

S3: Why not make it easy? You could have an object to look at and write about it.

T: So then you have it in front of you to help you choose ideas.

Strategy naming and prompting

T: I heard you clapping. Did the clapping help you? You put under. What part of the word do you need to write next?

Step 4: Connecting Students' Immediate Writing to an Audience

Writers need an audience. Young writers typically dedicate significant attention to transcription and need to experience their own newly written texts as a whole. Dedicate a few minutes for sharing that same day's texts at the end of each guided writing lesson; this provides an immediate audience and context within which the text is revisited. This sharing also supports the development of students' active attempts to convey information to readers clearly and focuses instruction on writers' decision making.

Teachers may want to highlight a different student's writing each day, reading it aloud to the group and asking the writer to comment on decisions made while writing. As his teacher read his story to the group, for example, Sean explained his decision to include parenthetical information.

Teacher: Oh, parentheses!

Sean: Yeah, I put echolocation. So when people read it and say, What's that? then they'll find out.

Students in the group may read their completed text to a partner or switch papers and read a piece of writing independently. It may also be feasible to extend the audience beyond the small-group context. Each author may choose a friend in the classroom and invite him or her to the guided writing table to share a text.

It is also useful to maintain individual portfolios of the texts constructed during guided writing lessons. A three-ring binder or blank journal can be used for all writing accomplished during a series of lessons. These portfolios become a strong resource for students' extended writing and for the teacher's ongoing assessment and sharing of student progress.

Assessment for guided writing instruction

Effective instruction cannot occur in the absence of ongoing and insightful assessment practices. During guided writing instruction, teachers develop a strong knowledge of individual students' writing expertise in a detailed manner, allowing for accurate on-the-spot decisions regarding task difficulty. This section describes an instructional level for writing tasks as well as two specific assessment procedures for guided writing instruction.

Tasks presented to students through teacher prompting should be at an instructional level so that students will encounter some challenges requiring strategy use but will also be able to complete much of the task accurately and fluently. Therefore, one of the primary goals of the teacher's instructional scaffolding during writing is to ensure a high level of student success with a few opportunities for problem solving. As teachers observe students' success with these challenges, they are then able to introduce new strategic processes that raise the difficulty level appropriately.

Anecdotal Observation of Student Writing Behavior

Learners are always appropriating, learning, and adapting a series of strategies from which they choose for the particular task at hand (Siegler, 2005). Assessment procedures, then, need to identify those strategies that are well within a student's independent control, those that the student can use but only with the teacher's input (as well as some effort and a few errors), and those that are presently beyond the student's reach.

Although it is not practical to attempt something as systematic and comprehensive as a running record (Clay, 2002) for writing behavior, anecdotal notes made both during and immediately after each lesson will help teachers know what aspects of instruction have or haven't been appropriated by students. Table 3, for example, shows anecdotal notes made as Kim wrote her text describing her examination of a leaf. The teacher identified four specific points during the writing for which Kim demonstrated interesting writing behavior. During the lesson, the teacher took brief notes, indicating the text being written at each point in time as well as Kim's writing behavior and any support provided to her. After the lesson, the teacher analyzed these notes and made tentative plans for the next steps in instruction. In this instance, Kim's teacher noted aspects of Kim's spelling, sentence structure, and composing processes. The teacher found that Kim needed to move beyond an alphabetic stage (Bear, Invernizzi, Templeton, & Johnston, 2004) for spelling while writing and expand her language base for informational text.

Table 3. Analysis and Anecdotal Observation of Kim's Writing Behavior

Text written

Description of observed writing behavior

Assistance provided

Analysis

Comments

"descofer" (discover) "lisin" (listen)

Kim tapped on table and articulated slowly

None

Listens for syllables and phonemes

* Hears most phonemes well

* f/v confusion

"and"/"And,"

Kim self-corrected; during rereading, heard need for new sentence; smiled at teacher to celebrate a success

None

Monitors the sound of sentences for ending punctuation

Needs to become more automated and fluent at sentence structures

"Next you can do is when you tear it you can see the veins."

Kim repeated first, next to self

Peer assisted with idea for veins; Kim consulted her own texts

Uses resources well

Attempts complex sentences with difficulty

Kim stuck; requested assistance

Teacher prompted: What else is important?

May have had limited interest in this topic

Needs more attention to planning and elaboration of ideas

Teachers may want to focus anecdotal notes on a different student during each lesson or keep a clipboard at hand to take notes for any student as time allows. These observations should not interrupt instruction but should be made as time allows.

Analytic Assessment of Written Products

Periodic analytic assessment (Fearn & Farnan, 2001) of the writing products arising from guided writing lessons-focused specifically on those strategies that have been taught to students-will help teachers finetune their short- and long-term teaching decisions.

Analytic assessment (Fearn & Farnan, 2001) does not rely on any checklist or rubric, but it is closely matched to instruction. The teacher determines a short list of those skills and strategies that he or she has already taught to a guided writing group and examines a set of recently written texts for those specific factors. The teacher should always be teaching to and assessing both composing and transcribing behavior, from generating ideas to sentence structure and mechanics. Analytic assessment provides a format within which a teacher investigates the degree to which each student has appropriated this instruction. It is important to ask: Are my students actually using the strategies I have taught?
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For example, during one point in time, specific strategies for writing clear, understandable texts, with lead sentences, details, and signal words as well as the spelling of high-frequency words, had been taught to Cari, Kim, Rachel, Sam, and Sean. Each student's current text was examined for these specific factors (see Table 4). Based on this analysis, their teacher determined that (a) Rachel was in need of higher levels of support for the planning and structure of ideas within her writing, (b) all students in the group needed to become comfortable writing with more complex sentence structures, and (c) further instruction on spelling strategies would be helpful to all students. This analysis provided specific instructional targets for language development, composing, and spelling. To address spelling, the teacher introduced a more sophisticated spelling strategy to students in the next lesson.

Table 4. Analytic Assessment

Teacher: You know how to say a word slowly and listen for sounds. Another way to spell a word is to clap it so that you can hear the parts. Then think of another word that's like it. Let's try it. Clap the word magnet. What's the first part you hear?

Teacher: That's the first part of the word. Does mag sound like the word bag? Bag is spelled B-A-G. So how would you spell the first part of the word magnet?

Rachel: M-A-G.

Teacher: So when you need to spell a word today while you write, you can clap and hear its parts and maybe think of another word like it. Will that work?

Rachel: Like when it has two syllables?

Teacher: Yes. If you hear two syllables, then you can think about how each syllable should look.

Summary

Young writers need instruction. The missing link in effective writing instruction may not only be grouping practices (Flood & Lapp, 2000) but also teaching to each student's ability to write better drafts over time. Drafting is absolutely central to the planning, revision, editing, and publishing processes. Conversely, each student's ability to produce text is dependent on his or her ability to engage in immediate planning, revision, editing, and consideration of readers' viewpoints.

Guided writing lessons provide opportunities to observe and teach intensively, using an instructional framework that includes (1) engagement in a linguistically and informationally rich activity, (2) discussion of strategic behavior, (3) immediate teacher guidance while each student writes his or her own short but complete text, and (4) sharing of texts. Thus, guided writing lessons will help students to bridge the gap between whole-class writing instruction and their own active engagement in successful, independent writing.

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Effective Framework for Primary-Grade Guided Writing Instruction

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Young writers need instruction. They do not improve their writing skills simply because teachers require them to write (Englert, 1992). Children need explicit scaffolding, constructed within expertly delivered instructional conversations that address the language, knowledge, and strategies required for problem solving in writing.

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Writer's Workshop Professional Resource: "About the Authors"

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Writer's Workshop Professional Resource: "About the Authors"

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This is another professional resource that I had gotten for an undergraduate literacy course. I love this text because it is geared specifically toward primary grades and writers' workshop. It provides a great overview of setting up writers' workshop in the classroom, as well as ideas for mini-lessons throughout the year and genre studies. Although my current school uses Lucy Calkins' writing units, there are still great additional ideas for mini-lessons in this text for getting students to add to their writing.

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Jan Richardson Guided Reading/Writing Book

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Jan Richardson Guided Reading/Writing Book

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This is a text that I use all the time in my classroom, and the primary grade classrooms did a book study of this text last school year as well to help our literacy instruction. I chose this professional resource as a great tool for writing because it has great options for guided writing about text for various text levels. This text has really helped my guided writing instruction in knowing how to specifically help students when they are responding to text after they have read it. It's also great that it's broken down by specific reading levels/stages.

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The Next Step in Guided Reading: Focused Assessments and Targeted Lessons for Helping Every Student Become a Better Reader

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Teachers facing the challenge of meeting the diverse reading needs of students will find the structure and tools they need in Jan Richardson's powerful approach to guided reading. Richardson has identified the essential components of an effective guided reading lesson: targeted assessments, data ...

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This resource is a pdf document that lists different activities for the word wall. Additionally, it provides information on the importance of word walls and how to introduce words to the word wall. I would utilize this resource in my own classroom by using the activities to do whole class practice/review of sight words on our word wall, as well as have students complete the activities in small groups or with a partner during centers.

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One way to make a word wall interactive in the younger grades is by placing it in a low area for students to see/reach better. In my previous classroom I had it placed below whiteboards, down near the ground. I also used velcro to attach the pieces so that students could actually take them off the wall. That way, they could be removed for playing games as well as for students to take off and bring to their desk to spell in writing.

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This resource is more of a professional resource that could be shared with other educators to simply give information about word walls. It provides some great reminders and key points to consider when including word walls in your classroom. The suggestions make the word walls practical and purposeful.

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In my classroom, it is easy to find evidence that I value and teach the basics - it's all over the walls. I am not referring to commercially prepared charts or bulletin boards; rather, my students and I collaboratively build Word Walls as we learn and practice phonics, spelling, and language conventions in the context of authentic reading and writing activities. A Word Wall is an interactive, ongoing display (on a chart, bulletin board, or other exhibition medium) of words and/or parts of words, used to teach spelling, reading and writing strategies, letter-sound correspondence, and more. Word Walls are not simply dÃ©cor - they are useful works in progress, built over time as words are harvested from meaningful contexts. They provide support and references for children, and serve as a clear record of their language learning.

Here are some hot tips for making Word Walls really work in your classroom!

1. Make Them Memorable

Use favorite rhymes, poems, chants, songs, or stories as contexts for pulling key words for your Walls. For example, last year we enjoyed a version of our school song performed as rap. We lifted words from the song to add to our Chunking Wall. (A Chunking Wall helps students decode unknown words by analogy and promotes phonemic awareness.) While rereading the song chart, we used highlighters and word frames to call attention to these words.

Potential pitfall: Using arbitrary lists of words for key references. If the key words are "any old words," they are likely to be treated as such!

2. Make Them Useful

The more you use the Word Walls to spell high-frequency words during modeled writing, to generate correct spelling while writing aloud, or to decode a masked word in text, the more your students will use the Walls to do the same. Demonstrations and think-alouds take only seconds, and if done frequently, give you a lot of bang for your buck. ("Yes, I can read this word. I see /br/ like the beginning of Brendan's name, and /ast/ like our key word last; this word must be breakfast. It fits here and makes sense!")

Potential pitfall: Putting up the Word Wall at the beginning of the year, telling kids to use it, but failing to demonstrate how.

3. Make Them Practical

Incorporate Word Walls into your daily wordplay activities. Use Word Wall words you've already targeted, for making word ladders, word sorts, and word hunts. Such practice helps kids gain automaticity with these key references. Use key words as spelling words, too.

Potential pitfall: Doubling your workload by basing wordplay on arbitrary words. Don't treat your wordplay and Word Walls as separate parts of the literacy puzzle. They fit together naturally, helping you avoid overloading students with too many words at once.

4. Make Them Hands-On

Make your Walls interactive by attaching key words with Velcro strips or sticky tack. If this isn't possible, put pockets under your Wall at the children's eye level. Place copies of key words in the pockets. These techniques allow students to go to the Wall, remove a word, use it at their desks, and return it.

5. Make Them Space Efficient

If you lack adequate wall space or you want your Walls to be more "up close and personal," use three-panel display boards (like those employed in science experiments during fairs) or foam display boards (available at office supply stores). These freestanding materials don't require any wall space, and can be moved around the room and placed on tables for easy visibility. As a reading specialist, I simply fold one Word Wall down and put up another when a new student group arrives.

Potential pitfall: Failing to build a Wall with students because of presumed lack of space.

6. Make Them Your Way

There is no one right way to build a Word Wall. What to build, what key words to add, and when to add them all depend on what your students need. If you are teaching kindergarten and want to reinforce the alphabet, create a Name Wall that highlights first letters in students' names. Or build an ABC Wall, using key words from nursery rhymes. If your students commonly misspell words like they, said, and because, create a Words-We-Know Wall, featuring high frequency, irregularly spelled words. A Chunking Wall helps developing readers and writers learn to use spelling patterns to read and write new words. You can also combine these varied types of key words into one Word Wall; add new words each week and build them up over time. Organize your Walls in a way that is practical to students. Be creative and trust your observations.

Potential pitfall: Bogging yourself down by thinking, "I'm not doing it right." If your students are using the Word Wall to better their reading and writing skills, you're doing it right!

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In my classroom, it is easy to find evidence that I value and teach the basics - it's all over the walls. I am not referring to commercially prepared charts or bulletin boards; rather, my students and I collaboratively build Word Walls as we learn and practice phonics, spelling, and language conventions in the context of authentic reading and writing activities.

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This resource is a blank running record sheet that can be used when taking a running record on any text. Especially for lower level readers, it is important to monitor their reading by taking running records besides just those formal benchmark ones around report card time. This is a sheet that I have used in my classroom to analyze student reading in between formal assessment periods. I would share this out with my team members and other staff members in my school as well.

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This is another activity that I have just begun incorporating into my sight word center. This activity allows students to practice reading the words, allows them to manipulate individual letters to build the word out of magnetic letters, and then also includes writing practice of the word. This is a great independent activity for sight word practice.

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This is a short article, but it gives some great, quick tips for doing running records, such as how to organize data for students and about goal-setting. It provides an easy overview for those that might just be getting started conducting running records, or just great tips for anyone who conducts them. I would come back to re-read this myself, and I would also share it with colleagues and new teachers as well.

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Edutopia is a free source of information, inspiration, and practical strategies for learning and teaching in preK-12 education. We are published by the George Lucas Educational Foundation, a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization.

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This resource from Reading A-Z provides background on running records, including how to conduct, assess and analyze them. This would be a beneficial resource to go back to to check codings, as well as to see how often to conduct running records on different leveled readers. As a member of our school's literacy team, I would share this out with other staff members that conduct running records, and I would also be sure to share this article with new teachers who may be conducting running records for the first time.

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I love any ways that we can get quick, easy sight word practice in with my students. I could imagine adding this easy thing to my classroom, where I post 5 hands by the door and each week put the 5 different focus sight words on them. As students leave the room for something such as dismissal, lunch or recess, they would choose one to "high five" and read the word. This would be one quick easy informal assessment for me to do to see whether individuals can identify the words.

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One way that students practice sight words in my classroom is during a sight word center while I meet with reading groups. For the sight words that we focus on, students are expected to both read and write them. This game would be a fun individual or partner activity that could be done for students to practice reading and writing our focus sight words each week.

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This is a chant that can be used with weekly sight words as a way for students to practice spelling them. In my classroom we focus on 5 new sight words each week. They are introduced on Monday and then practiced in different ways throughout the week. This would be a great way for students to have some fun while incorporating oral spelling practice of the words.

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One of my most favorite things to teach in Kindergarten is sight words! We practice them forward and backward, inside and out! I love seeing the little light bulbs go off when my students are able to read and write a new sight word!

Last week, my sweet friend Emma shared this pin on her Facebook page and I absolutely adore it! I think it would be a great way to practice reading our new sight words! I've heard many people say they use this chant with their students names too!

It looks like it's from Katie and Company, but after some serious searching, I can't seem to find the original source anywhere! If you know where it is, please tell me!!!

I've re-typed it and added some cute Melonheadz clip art to use in my classroom.
When we learn a new sight word, I will hold up our word and have my students practice reading it in all these ways. This will also be a great chant to say as we transition between reading centers. I am so excited to use this!

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Emma also shared with me two more ways to practice the word! "See it" let's them practice seeing the word in their minds. Have them close their eyes and visualize the word. What a fabulous idea! She also thought of "write it" where you have the kids write the word in the air with their fingers. My kiddos also love to "write" words on the carpet with their finger too.

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Lastly, I had a request to make this into a chant to practice letters instead of words. Great idea too!

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Do you have any fun chants or songs you use to teach your sight words?

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One of my most favorite things to teach in Kindergarten is sight words! We practice them forward and backward, inside and out! I love seeing the little light bulbs go off when my students are able to read and write a new sight word!