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Teaching Elementary School Students to Be Effective Writers-- Part 1

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Teaching Elementary School Students to Be Effective Writers-- Part 2

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Teaching Elementary School Students to Be Effective Writers-- Part 3

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Airasian, P. W. (1996). Assessment in the classroom. New York: McGraw-Hill.

Charney, D. (1984). The validity of using holistic scoring to evaluate writing: A critical overview. Research in the Teaching of English, 18, 65-81.

Christenson, S. L., Ysseldyke, J. E., & Thurlow, M. L. (1989). Critical instructional factors for students with mild handicaps: An integrative review. Remedial and Special Education, 10, 21-31.

Clay, M. M. (1979). The early detection of reading difficulties: A diagnostic survey with recovery procedures (2nd ed.). Auckland New Zealand: Heinemann.

Clay, M. M. (1982). Learning and teaching writing: A developmental perspective. Language Arts, 59, 65-70.

Clay, M. M. (1993). An observation survey of early literacy achievement. Auckland New Zealand: Heinemann.

Deno, S., Mirkin, P. K., & Wesson, C. (1984). How to write effective data-based IEPs. Teaching Exceptional Children, 16, 99-104.

Elbow, P. (1981). Writing with power: Techniques for mastering the writing process. New York: Oxford University Press.

Englert, C. S., Raphael, T. E., Anderson, L. M., Anthony, H. M., & Stevens, D. D. (1991). Making strategies and self-talk visible: Writing instruction in regular and special education classrooms. American Educational Research Journal, 23, 337-372.

Frank, M. (1979). If you're trying to teach kids how to write, you've gotta have this book! Nashville, TN: Incentive Publications.

Graham, S., & Harris, K. (April, 1986). Improving learning disabled students' compositions via story grammar training: A component analysis of self-control strategy training. Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association, San Francisco.

Harris, K. R., & Graham, S. (1992). Helping young writers master the craft: Strategy instruction & self-regulation in the writing process. Cambridge, MA: Brookline Books.

Hennings, D. G. (1982). A writing approach to reading comprehension - schema theory in action. Language Arts, 59, 8-17.

Isaacson, S. (1984). Evaluating written expression: Issues of reliability, validity, and instructional utility. Diagnostique, 9, 96-116.

Isaacson, S. (February, 1995). A comparison of alternative procedures for evaluating written expression. Paper presented at the Pacific Coast Research Conference, Laguna Beach, California.

Moffett, J. (1983). Teaching the universe of discourse. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin.

Moran, M. R. (1982). Analytical evaluation of formal written language skills as a diagnostic procedure. Diagnostique, 8 17-31.

Morris, N. T., & Crump, D. T. (1982). Syntactic and vocabulary development in the written language of learning-disabled and non-learning-disabled students at four age levels. Learning Disability Quarterly, 5, 163-172.

Parker, R., & Tindal. G. (1989). Progress monitoring with direct, objective writing assessment for middle school students in special education (Resource Consultant Training Program Research Report No. 1). Eugene, OR. University of Oregon, Special Education Area.

Powers, A. R., & Wilgus, S. (1983). Linguistic complexity in the written language of hearing-impaired children. Volta Review, 85, 201-210.

Resnick, L. B., & Klopfer, L. E. (1989). Toward the thinking curriculum: An overview. In L. B. Resnick & L. E. Klopfer (Eds.), Toward the thinking curriculum: Current cognitive research (1989 Yearbook of the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development). Alexandria, VA: ASCD.

Sinatra, R. (1991). Integrating whole language with the learning of text structure. Journal of Reading, 34, 424-433.

Spandel, V., & Culham, R. (1993). Analytical trait scoring guide. Portland, OR: Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory.

Stotsky, S. (1984). Commentary: A proposal for improving high school students' ability to read and write expository prose. Journal of Reading, 28, 4-7.

Videen, J., Deno, S., & Marston, D. (1982). Correct word sequences: A valid indicator of proficiency in written expression (Research Report No. 84). Minneapolis: University of Minnesota, Institute for Research in Learning Disabilities.

Welch, M., & Link, D. P. (1992). Informal assessment of paragraph composition. Intervention in School and Clinic, 27(3), 145-149.

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Simple Ways to Assess the Writing Skills of Students with Learning Disabilities

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Student writing can be evaluated on five product factors: fluency, content, conventions, syntax, and vocabulary. Writing samples also should be assessed across a variety of purposes for writing to give a complete picture of a student's writing performance across different text structures and genres.

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Instructional Strategies for Teaching Writing to Elementary Students

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This comment came from Jake York, a poet and teacher who was facilitating a summer institute workshop offered by the Denver Writing Project. I immediately copied this statement into my writer's notebook. Jake had been helping us unravel the meaning behind a tricky poem. He kept encouraging us to stick with it and assured us we would be rewarded with greater understanding. Because my work as a district literacy coordinator means I lead teachers in carefully examining and assessing student writing, I began to wonder whether it is possible to read student writing in the same way Jake suggested we read poetry.

Can student writing "teach" us how to read it if we look carefully at what the writer has to say, where the writer shines in saying it, and what instruction would increase the writer's polish? And if so, can we use this technique of careful reading as a kind of formative assessment to guide instruction? And can the rubrics now so common in evaluating student writing help teachers read more deeply?

Moving Beyond the Score

Teachers use rubrics, scoring guides that define expectations at various performance levels, to guide their reading of student work. When any group of teachers meets to assess student writing, their first step is often to examine the rubric. Rubrics are meant to make the scoring of writing less subjective, but although this is a laudable goal, I have seen teachers in many scoring sessions wrestle to reach agreement on a particular score.

In my school district, which is heavily involved in using rubrics to examine student work, teachers often spend many hours scoring and cross-scoring samples of writing, determining which pieces best reflect various performance levels. Some good comes from this: We have raised our expectations for student writing, and we are more transparent about what we expect. But when our thinking doesn't move beyond reaching a score in these meetings, we are not taking advantage of what the writing can teach us.

Last spring, I worked with a group of about 20 teachers from grades K-12 in my district. We were meeting to align our district's benchmarks document with actual student writing samples. During one particular session, we decided to discuss one piece in a large group to clarify our own thinking. We chose the following 4th grade piece: My favorite place to play is my bedroom. My bedroom is painted extremely light pink. Also I have a peanut-colored carpet. It is full of meowing. It never stops! Most of the time I play by myself. My friend Megan comes over sometimes. When Megan is in my room we play Pokemon Stadium. Another thing we do is play with my multicolored cat. Her name is Maxie. We throw a lime green toy mouse for Maxie and she sprints after it. Megan and I also throw a ball for Maxie to get. We also play Conga sometimes. I play in my room at 3:30 pm with Megan. I like to play in my room because it is very fun and it is mine. I love to play in my room!

We spent about 15 minutes debating whether the student scored a 4, 3, or 2 based on our state-designed writing rubric (see fig. 1). Several teachers scored the paper a 2, eight teachers scored it a 3, and the rest gave it a 4. That means this student could either be marked as an advanced, proficient, or partially proficient writer. The inconsistency concerned me because if a student consistently scores below proficient on standardized assessments in my district, then the school must develop a learning plan, hold a parent conference, and discuss interventions for the student. So if we intend for rubrics to clarify, how did this group of teachers end up in a potentially high-stakes debate on this student? And why did we spend 15 minutes talking about a score without thinking about how this piece might inform our instruction for this writer? If rubrics are to be used successfully for formative assessment, we must look beyond the search for a score.

Figure 1. Holistic Writing Rubric for the Short Constructed-Response Task - Grades 4-10

Courtesy of Unit of Assessment, Colorado Department of Education. This material also appeared in When Writing Workshop Isn't Working, by Mark Overmeyer, 2005, Portland, ME: Stenhouse. Used with permission.

Using Rubrics Formatively

Holistic rubrics that give only one score-which evaluators often use for state and national testing-are particularly difficult to use for informing instruction because the assessor cannot separate out individual qualities of the writing. Each piece can only receive one score. Trait-based rubrics lend themselves better to differentiated comments, but assessors still must give a single score for each trait. So even if a piece has strengths, readers can't highlight strengths fairly in the push to give the entire paper one mark. But teachers can, and should, adapt rubrics to serve the purposes of guiding our instruction as well as the purposes of testing.

When the teacher group I lead in finding exemplars for our district finally moved the conversation away from scoring the 4th grader's paragraph, we engaged in discussion about what this writer did well and how she could improve. We all agreed that the student clearly stayed on the topic, provided sufficient supporting details, and showed some strong word choice. We soon began discussing instructional strategies, which is a crucial step in assessing student writing. Everyone agreed that although specificity and rich vocabulary were the writer's strong suit, she could benefit from thinking about how to organize details within a piece of writing. This experience helped us realize as a group that the goal of looking at student writing must be to develop strategies to help students write better.

Signaling Strengths and Weaknesses

Because our group began focusing more on how to help teachers see our thinking about each piece of writing, we had to devise a format that would show teachers that deeper thinking and give them a model for using a rubric to inform instruction. Our goal was to provide a more helpful document than a tidy, completed rubric. We created a chart on writing strengths and weaknesses (shown in fig. 2). This format draws from the state-created rubric (fig. 1) but shows how a teacher can annotate student work in such a way as to discover what to teach a student next-in other words, to hear what the writing has to teach.

Figure 2. Strengths and Weaknesses Found in a 4th Grader's Essay

Meets or Exceeds These Benchmarks

Does Not Meet These Benchmarks

Suggested Next Instructional Strategies

Sample chart annotating a piece of writing's strengths and weaknesses in terms of benchmarks on a standardized rubric. Benchmarks are drawn from the Colorado Department of Education's rubric for student writing.

Overmeyer, M. (2007/2008). What Student Writing Can Teach Us. Educational Leadership, 65(4) [Online].

Figure 2 shows how we pinpointed strengths and weaknesses for the 4th grader's piece on her room. It indicates which benchmarks from the rubric this writer meets (such as including relevant details), which benchmarks need more work (such as organization), and a few suggested next steps (such as creating a bulleted list). Comments on a chart like this can be directly aligned to the rubric, as shown here, or be based on teacher discussion. Either way, the goal is to read more deeply and go for teaching points.

We explained to administrators and curriculum leaders in language arts departments throughout the district our thinking about how student writing samples can be used to inform instruction and made this annotated format accessible on our district Web site. Teachers at all grade levels have used the format to work with student writing.

Like a well-written poem, each piece of student writing can teach us how to read it-and how to read the author's needs. Every piece of writing we collect from students can become part of formative assessment.

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This comment came from Jake York, a poet and teacher who was facilitating a summer institute workshop offered by the Denver Writing Project. I immediately copied this statement into my writer's notebook. Jake had been helping us unravel the meaning behind a tricky poem.

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Annotated student writing samples illustrating the integration of content understanding and writing in the three types of writing expected by college- and career-ready standards, including the CCSS. The resources presented are from In Common: Effective Writing for All Students, authored by the Vermont Writing Collaborative with Student Achievement Partners and CCSSO.

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Explore annotated writing samples from kids in pre-K through grade 3, and see next-step suggestions for instruction. You'll also learn about writing milestones and different purposes of writing - along with ideas for how to make room for writing during the day.

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TeacherWriter - Inspiring Writing Teachers

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I love opinion writing! That may surprise you, especially if you've only considered it as a way to share your thoughts in an op-ed piece or as a classroom assignment to get through.

Certainly there are topics which are heavy and important for opinions. However, you can start out with simple prompts that students think are fun and that build classroom community. There's a secret to this that I'll share in this post.

When to Begin Teaching Opinion Writing

Opinion writing can be a great way to get to know your students better. When they share their opinions with each other, it builds classroom community. There's nothing better than seeing smiles and hearing happy voices as they chat about their opinions and why they feel the way they do.

Before you begin to teach opinion writing, hopefully you've already laid a foundation in expository writing.

Once your students are comfortable with writing summary and compare/contrast papers, they're ready for you to begin teaching opinion writing. Let the fun begin! Once students have mastered opinion writing, the next step is to expand it to persuasive writing.

Opinion Writing Can Be Fun

Young people have an opinion about almost everything, right? Yet they don't often have a way to express their opinions or even understand how to do it well.

When teaching English learners, one of the exercises we practice with them works fantastically well for opinion writing. It's this question that you've probably used many times in your class.

Would you rather? Give me two reasons why.

For example, you ask your student, "Would you rather be a farmer or an astronaut?" The student gives you their answer.

Then you continue, forcing them to expound with support as they express their ideas. "Great! Give me two reasons why."

This practice can be quite difficult for early to intermediate level English learners. Yet it's a super effective way to get them to proficiency in oral expression.

You can use this exact same exercise with your students to get them expressing their opinions in writing. First, have them talk to a partner or table group. Give them a "one or the other" type of prompt that is non-controversial. Then require them to give two or three reasons in support of their opinion.

15 Simple, Non-Controversial Opinion Writing Prompts

1. Which ice cream is better? Chocolate or vanilla?

2. Do dogs or cats make the best pet?

3. What sport is more fun? Swimming or soccer?

4. Would you rather be a talented artist or a talented athlete?

5. Would you rather be a singer or a drummer?

6. Which is the better way to read a book, digitally or in print?

7. Should pets be allowed in restaurants or not?

8. What is the best way to spend a weekend? Camping or playing sports?

9. Do you prefer to go to the beach or go to the mountains?

10. Which is better? Solar power or wind power?

11. What's the best thing to do with a sick friend? Watch movies or play board games?

12. Which is better? Chocolate chip cookies or chocolate cake?

13. Do you think it's important to learn cursive writing? Why or why not?

14. Do you think there is life on other planets? Why or why not?

15. Would you like to take a vacation to Mars? Why or why not?

Mentor Texts for Opinion Writing

Mentor texts can be a great source of opinion writing prompts. If you read my posts about mentor texts and mentor text routines, you know I'm a fan of Chris Van Allsburg books for this. His books always leave a sense of mystery, and students love to write their opinions about what really might have happened.

Some of his books that I have used and highly recommend are:

The Garden of Abdul Gasazi, The Stranger, Zathura, and The Widow's Broom. I loved using The Polar Express before it became a movie.
*Just so you know, as an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. If you click on one of these titles and buy it, I receive a small commission.*
You can also choose mentor texts that express an opinion. You might even begin by reading the opinions out of a school magazine like Scholastic or National Geographic for Kids.

We Are Teachers has a blog post with a list of 29 mentor texts you can use to teach opinion writing.

The Problem Solving Teacher shares how to choose and use an inspiring mentor text when you're ready to take opinion writing to the next level, which is persuasive writing.

The key is to find articles and topics that students can talk about and write about without causing any contention. Keep them light and fun. (At least in the beginning of learning how to write opinion pieces.) This way they'll love expressing and sharing their opinions.

Using Opinion Writing to Build Classroom Community

This is the capstone of opinion writing. Why learn how to express an opinion without the opportunity to share it?

Students can share their opinion writing in many ways. They can do it in small groups or in a writing workshop meeting. They can turn and talk to share it with a partner. Table groups of three or four students are another way to share opinions.

With the types of prompts I shared above, you can also turn it into a class graphing activity. We always graphed our favorite ice cream flavors. It was fun to graph the opinions about pets.

A quick and simple way to create a class graph is this.

Give each student a square sticky note.

Have them write their name and their opinion on it.

Draw a graph on the whiteboard. It doesn't have to be anything fancy.

Have the students place their sticky notes in the appropriate column.

Don't forget to take a picture of the graph. You can use it to talk about their opinion in a classroom meeting.

Anytime you can get your students talking with one another about topics they think are fun, you'll be building classroom community.

How To Teach Opinion Writing

Feel free to download or pin this infographic as a short and simple reminder to your students about opinion writing. There's another infographic on the other opinion writing post, too.

That's it for this post, friends! Have fun and I hope you find the joy in teaching opinion writing!

Books mentioned in this blog post:

As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. Thank you for considering a purchase of one of these books and helping to support this site!

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I Love Opinion Writing! Here's Why - TeacherWriter - Inspiring Writing Teachers

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I love opinion writing! That may surprise you, especially if you've only considered it as a way to share your thoughts in an op-ed piece or as a classroom assignment to get through. Certainly there are topics which are heavy and important for opinions.

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Excellent resources with samples of student writing and samples of all types of writing rubrics at a variety of levels.