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Big Ideas: G1 PL Meeting Supporting our Early Writers - Google Docs

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Big Ideas: G1 PL Meeting Supporting our Early Writers - Google Docs

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Big Ideas: G1 PL Meeting  Supporting our Early Writers

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Promoting Preschoolers’ Emergent Writing | NAEYC

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Promoting Preschoolers’ Emergent Writing | NAEYC

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Emergent writing is young children's first attempts at the writing process. Children as young as 2 years old begin to imitate the act of writing by creating drawings and symbolic markings that represent their thoughts and ideas (Rowe & Neitzel 2010; Dennis & Votteler 2013). This is the beginning of a series of stages that children progress through as they learn to write (see "Stages of Emergent Writing"). Emergent writing skills, such as the development of namewriting proficiency, are important predictors of children's future reading and writing skills (National Center for Family & Literacy 2008; Puranik & Lonigan 2012).

Teachers play an important role in the development of 3- to 5-year-olds' emergent writing by encouraging children to communicate their thoughts and record their ideas (Hall et al. 2015). In some early childhood classrooms, however, emergent writing experiences are almost nonexistent. One recent study, which is in accord with earlier research, found that 4- and 5-year-olds (spread across 81 classrooms) averaged just two minutes a day either writing or being taught writing (Pelatti et al. 2014). This article shares a framework for understanding emergent writing and ties the framework to differentiating young children's emergent writing experiences.

Understanding emergent writing

Researchers and educators often use the term emergent literacy to define a broad set of language and literacy skills focused primarily on the development and significance of emergent reading skills. To better understand writing development-and to support teachers' work with young children-researchers have proposed a framework to explain emergent writing practices (Puranik & Lonigan 2014). The framework is composed of three domains: conceptual knowledge, procedural knowledge, and generative knowledge.

Conceptual knowledge includes learning the function of writing. In this domain, young children learn that writing has a purpose and that print is meaningful (i.e., it communicates ideas, stories, and facts). For example, young children become aware that the red street sign says Stop and the letters under the yellow arch spell McDonald's. They recognize that certain symbols, logos, and markings have specific meanings (Wu 2009).

Procedural knowledge is the mechanics of letter and word writing (e.g., name writing) and includes spelling and gaining alphabet knowledge. Learning the alphabetic code (including how to form letters and the sounds associated with each letter) is an essential component of gaining procedural knowledge. Children benefit from having multiple opportunities throughout the day to develop fine motor skills and finger dexterity using a variety of manipulatives (e.g., magnetic letters, pegboards) and writing implements.

Generative knowledge describes children's abilities to write phrases and sentences that convey meaning. It is the ability to translate thoughts into writing that goes beyond the word level (Puranik & Lonigan 2014). During early childhood, teachers are laying the foundation for generative knowledge as children learn to express themselves orally and experiment with different forms of written communication, such as composing a story, writing notes, creating lists, and taking messages. Children can dictate words, phrases, or sentences that an adult can record on paper, or they can share ideas for group writing.

Developing conceptual, procedural, and generative knowledge of writing

Children gain knowledge of and interest in writing as they are continually exposed to print and writing in their environment. There are multiple strategies teachers can use to scaffold children's writing, such as verbally reminding children to use writing in their classroom activities and providing appropriate writing instructions (Gerde, Bingham, & Wasik 2012). By being aware of children's current fine motor abilities and their progress in emergent writing, teachers can use a mix of strategies to foster growth in each child's zone of proximal development (Vygotsky 1978).

Practicing name writing

One of the first words children usually learn to write is their first name (Both-de Vries & Bus 2008). Name writing increases children's conceptual and procedural knowledge. Names are meaningful to children, and preschoolers typically are interested in learning to write the letters in their name, especially the first letter (Both-de Vries & Bus 2008). Namewriting proficiency provides a foundation for other literacy knowledge and skills; it is associated with alphabet knowledge, letter writing, print concepts, and spelling (Cabell et al. 2009; Drouin & Harmon 2009; Puranik & Lonigan 2012).

Preschoolers benefit from daily writing experiences, so it is helpful to embed writing in the daily routine, such as having children write (or attempt to write) their names at sign-in and during choice times. Be sensitive to preschoolers' varying levels of fine motor skills and promote the joy of experimenting with the art of writing, regardless of a child's current skill level. Encourage invented spelling (Ouellette & Sénéchal 2017) and attempts at writing letters or letter-like symbols.

As Ms. Han's preschoolers enter the classroom, they sign in, with parental support, by writing their names on a whiteboard at the classroom entrance. Children in Ms. Noel's classroom go to a special table and sign in as they enter the room. Ms. Patel instructs her preschoolers to answer the question of the day by writing their names under their chosen answers. Today, the children write their names to answer the question "What are your favorite small animals-piglets, ducklings, or kittens?" Juan and Maria help their friends read the question and write their names under the appropriate headings. Pedro writes Pdr under the piglets heading, Anthony writes his complete name under ducklings, and Tess writes the letter T under kittens. In Mr. Ryan's class, children write their names during different activities. Today, children sign in as they pretend to visit the doctor in one learning center and sign for a package delivery in another. Meanwhile, Tommy walks around the room asking other preschoolers to sign their names in the autograph book he created in the writing center.

Tips for teachers

Develop a sign-in or sign-out routine that allows children to write, or attempt to write, their names each day. In some classrooms, or for some children, the routine may begin with writing the first letter instead of the whole name or with scribbling letterlike symbols.

Use peer helpers to aid children with the name-writing process.

Model writing your name and promote name-writing activities in several centers through the day, such as having children sign their name as they write a prescription or when they complete a painting.

Learning from teacher modeling

Children benefit from teachers modeling writing and from opportunities to interact with others on writing projects. Teachers can connect writing to topics of interest, think aloud about the process of composing a message (Dennis & Votteler 2013), and explain how to plan what to write (e.g., choosing words and topics, along with the mechanics of writing, such as punctuation). Children struggling to attain early writing skills benefit from explicit teaching (Hall et al. 2015). Teach children that letters create words and words create sentences. Use environmental print (e.g., labels, charts, signs, toy packaging, clothing, and billboards) to help children realize that print is meaningful and functional (Neumann, Hood, & Ford 2013). These types of activities build both conceptual and procedural knowledge.

When Ms. Noel sits with the children during snack, she talks with them about the different foods they like to eat. Ben tells her he likes chicken. She writes on a small whiteboard, "Ben likes chicken." She asks Ben to read the phrase to a friend. Later, Ben writes the phrase himself.

Mr. Ryan conducts a sticky note poll. He creates a giant spiderweb and writes the question, "Are you afraid of spiders? Yes or no." He gives the children sticky notes so each can write either yes or no and then place it on the giant web. This activity is followed by a discussion of spiders.

Tips for teachers

Explicitly model writing by showing the writing process to children and thinking aloud while writing. Instead of writing the question of the day or the morning message before the children arrive, write it in front of them.

​Label specific items in the room, and draw children's attention to the written words. Write out functional phrases on signs related to routines, such as "Take three crackers" or "Wash hands before eating," then read and display the signs.

​Have the children paint large classroom signs related to themes being explored, such as the National Weather Station, Snack Bar, Public Library, or Entomology Center.

Writing throughout the day

Preschoolers enjoy experimenting with the writing process. Emergent writing experiences can include spontaneous writing during center time and teacherguided writing activities. Writing can become an important component of every learning center in the preschool classroom (Pool & Carter 2011), especially if teachers strategically place a variety of writing materials throughout the classroom and offer specific guidance on using the materials (Mayer 2007). (See "Learning Centers: Adding Meaningful Writing Materials and Literacy Props.")

Teachers can intentionally promote peer-to-peer scaffolding by having children participate in collaborative writing experiences. Read-alouds are also a wonderful means of promoting writing; there are a number of stories that feature characters in books writing letters, stories, messages, and lists (see "Books That Promote Writing"). Model writing stories, making lists, or labeling objects, and then encourage your preschoolers to write a response letter to a character in a story, create their own storybook, or write a wish list or a shopping list. Such a variety of writing experiences will also build their generative knowledge of writing.

Ms. Han has strategically placed a variety of writing materials throughout the classroom-a scientific journal in the discovery area so children can record their observations and ideas; a graph paper notebook in the block area for drafting blueprints with designs and words; and a receipt book, paper, and markers in the dramatic play area. Savannah sits at the discovery center looking at a classroom experiment. Ms. Han asks, "Savannah, could you write about your observations in our science journal?" Savannah begins writing in the journal.

Three boys are playing in the block area. Ms. Han asks, "What are you building?" Marcus replies, "We are going to build a rocket ship." Ms. Han says, "Could you create a blueprint of your rocket and then build it?" The boys eagerly begin drawing a plan. Several children in the dramatic play center are drawing different types of flowers for a flower market. Ms. Han says, "In a flower market, signs tell customers what is for sale and how much it costs. Would you like to create some signs?" The children readily agree and start to create signs.

Tips for teachers

Strategically place writing materials, such as sticky notes, small chalkboards, whiteboards, envelopes, clipboards, journals, stencils, golf pencils, markers, and various types, sizes, and colors of paper throughout the classroom.

Provide specific teacher guidance to scaffold children's writing. While some children may be off and running with an open-ended question, others might be better supported if the teacher helps write their ideas-at least to get them started.

Create writing opportunities connected to your current classroom themes or topics of interest. Involve the children in collaborative writing projects, such as creating a diorama after a farm visit and making labels for the different animals and the barn. With teacher support, the class could also develop a narrative to describe their farm visit.

Home-school connection

Both preschool writing instruction and home writing experiences are essential components of helping children develop writing skills. A major advantage of the home- school connection is that children see the value of what they learn in school when parents actively participate in the same type of activities at home. Teachers can encourage parents to display photos of their child engaged in writing activities at home and to share samples of their child's writing or drawings from home to inform instruction (Schickedanz & Casbergue 2009). To maximize parental involvement and support, teachers should be sensitive to the diversity of the families in their programs and be inclusive by promoting writing in children's home languages. These experiences can help promote children's conceptual, procedural, and generative knowledge.

Ms. Noel wants to strengthen home-school connections with the families in her program. She decides to introduce the children to Chester (a stuffed teddy bear). She tells the children that Chester wants to learn more about what the children do at home and to go on some weekend adventures. She says, "Each weekend, Chester will travel home with a child in our class. During the time Chester stays at your house, take pictures of the activities you do with Chester and write about them in the Chester Weekend Adventures journal. At the beginning of the week, bring Chester and the journal back to school to share what you did. We will put Chester and the journal in the classroom library when he is not on a visit, so everyone can see where he has been." The children are excited about taking Chester home and writing about their adventures.

Tips for teachers

Find writing opportunities that strengthen home-school connections. For example, encourage families to create books at home related to a particular theme or a specific topic. Invite children to share their books with the class and then add them to the library.

Invite families to share the types of writing activities their children engage in at home. Encourage parents to establish routines that include writing lists, messages, stories, and letters.

Give families postcards to mail to friends in other states and countries. Have them ask their friends to mail a reply to the preschool class. Create a display of the return messages and postcards.

Teachers play an important role in promoting emergent writing development by scaffolding writing activities that engage young children in building their conceptual, procedural, and generative knowledge. Writing can easily be embedded in daily routines as children write their names, engage in learning centers, practice writing for a purpose based on teacher and peer models, and contribute to group writing activities. Be intentional during interactions with children and incorporate best practices. Promote the development of emergent writing-and emergent literacy-by implementing purposeful strategies that encourage writing in the classroom and at home. Teachers who provide young children with a diverse array of early writing experiences lay the foundation for kindergarten readiness.

Authors' note: A special thanks to all of the teachers who participated in the Striving Readers Literacy Program and shared their literacy ideas. Thanks to Barbara Berrios for sharing the Chester Bear idea.

References

Both-de Vries, A.C., & A.G. Bus. 2008. "Name Writing: A First Step to Phonetic Writing? Does the Name Have a Special Role in Understanding the Symbolic Function of Writing?" Literacy Teaching and Learning 12 (2): 37-55.

Cabell, S.Q., L.M. Justice, T.A. Zucker, & A.S. McGinty. 2009. "Emergent Name-Writing Abilities of Preschool-Age Children with Language Impairment." Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools 40 (1): 53-66.

Dennis, L.R., & N.K. Votteler. 2013. "Preschool Teachers and Children's Emergent Writing: Supporting Diverse Learners." Early Childhood Education Journal 41 (6): 439-46.

Drouin, M., & J. Harmon. 2009. "Name Writing and Letter Knowledge in Preschoolers: Incongruities in Skills and the Usefulness of Name Writing as a Developmental Indicator." Early Childhood Research Quarterly 24 (3): 263-70.

Gerde, H.K., G.E. Bingham, & B.A. Wasik. 2012. "Writing in Early Childhood Classrooms: Guidance for Best Practices." Early Childhood Education Journal 40 (6): 351-59.

Hall, A.H., A. Simpson, Y. Guo, & S. Wang. 2015. "Examining the Effects of Preschool Writing Instruction on Emergent Literacy Skills: A Systematic Review of the Literature." Literacy Research and Instruction 54 (2): 115-34.

Mayer, K. 2007. "Emerging Knowledge about Emergent Writing." Young Children 62 (1): 34-41.

National Center for Family Literacy. 2008. Developing Early Literacy: A Scientific Synthesis of Early Literacy Development and Implications for Intervention. Report of the National Early Literacy Panel. Washington, DC: National Institute for Literacy.

Neumann, M.M., M. Hood, & R.M. Ford. 2013. "Using Environmental Print to Enhance Emergent Literacy and Print Motivation." Reading and Writing 26 (5): 771-93.

Ouellette, G., & M. Sénéchal. 2017. "Invented Spelling in Kindergarten as a Predictor of Reading and Spelling in Grade 1: A New Pathway to Literacy, or Just the Same Road, Less Known?" Developmental Psychology 53 (1): 77-88.

Pelatti, C.Y., S.B. Piasta, L.M. Justice, & A. O'Connell. 2014. "Language- and Literacy-Learning Opportunities in Early Childhood Classrooms: Children's Typical Experiences and Within-Classroom Variability." Early Childhood Research Quarterly 29 (4): 445-56.

Pool, J.L., & D.R. Carter. 2011. "Creating Print-Rich Learning Centers." Teaching Young Children 4 (4): 18-20.

Puranik, C.S., & C.J. Lonigan. 2012. "Name-Writing Proficiency, Not Length of Name, Is Associated with Preschool Children's Emergent Literacy Skills." Early Childhood Research Quarterly 27 (2): 284-94.

Puranik, C.S., & C.J. Lonigan. 2014. "Emergent Writing in Preschoolers: Preliminary Evidence for a Theoretical Framework." Reading Research Quarterly 49 (4): 453-67.

Rowe, D.W., & C. Neitzel. 2010. "Interest and Agency in 2- and 3-Year-Olds' Participation in Emergent Writing." Reading Research Quarterly 45 (2): 169-95.

Schickedanz, J.A., & R.M. Casbergue. 2009. Writing in Preschool: Learning to Orchestrate Meaning and Marks. 2nd ed. Preschool Literacy Collection. Newark, DE: International Reading Association.

Vygotsky, L.S. 1978. Mind in Society: The Development of Higher Psychological Processes. Ed. & trans. M. Cole, V. John-Steiner, S. Scribner, & E. Souberman. Rev. ed. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Wu, L.Y. 2009. "Children's Graphical Representations and Emergent Writing: Evidence from Children's Drawings." Early Child Development and Care 179 (1): 69-79.

Photographs: pp. 75, 76, 77, 78, 79, 80, courtesy of the authors; p. 74, © iStock

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Emergent writing skills, such as the development of namewriting proficiency, are important predictors of children's future reading and writing skills.

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As an English teacher, I've had numerous conversations with college professors who lament the writing skills of their first year students. But not all writing. Most students are capable of solid expository writing. It's their skill with persuasive writing that's the problem. Specifically, they're weak at writing a thesis statement that can be argued.

I spend three years teaching my high school students how to write a persuasive essay. For many students, it takes that long. (And I'm lucky to have them that long in my school.)

Part of the problem is that our current school systems - and not just in Canada - aren't great at producing independent thinkers. Without this ability, it's hard to create a great thesis statement, anticipate the arguments against it, and then compose your own argument in light of what you understand about the pros and cons of an issue.

So for three years, I write for them, and with them. We talk about opening paragraphs, and they learn how to write them with their thesis statement either as the first or last sentence. (The latter requires more skill.) They learn to use transition words, embed quotations to support their argument, consider the advantages of active vs. passive voice, vary their sentences, and many other skills, all in the hope of creating a strong argument.

The truth is lately I've come to question the point of much of this. Does the average person, once they leave school, spend a lot of time composing academic essays? Is this the best way for our students to show their learning? In some places, the academic 5 paragraph essay is hailed as the Holy Grail of non-fiction writing achievement. Yet even if a student can become a great persuasive essay writer, they're still only semi-literate, at least according to the definition of 21st Century Literacies.

Blogging is a different beast

While traditional essay writing may not help alleviate this situation, I think blogging can. Here's the problem; Blogging is an entirely different beast. And one of the things I've learned about my students is that they don't necessarily transfer a skill they've learned in one area to another without difficulty, or even prompting.

For one, the paragraphing is different. The large, solid paragraphs of prose that can be found in a typical persuasive essay, can feel arduous and cumbersome to all but the most determined reader.

Instead, blog paragraphs tend to be shorter. It allows the piece to feel fluid and speeds up the rate at which your reader reads (often through the glare of a computer monitor or on a phone or tablet screen). And while the effective blogger still uses transition words, as many aren't necessary to provide the piece with a feeling of fluidity and coherence.

Sometimes a paragraph is one simple sentence, used for emphasis.

Another thing is the thesis statement. Its placement, in a blog, is up for grabs. Did you catch where mine is? Actually, I haven't written it yet. Huh?!

Double-dog daringly different

Blogging also requires a different voice. The way I blog isn't quite how I talk, but it's no where close to how I write a formal essay. Furthermore, the voice used in blogging needs to be rich, sharp and distinct, to gain an audience. And while some may argue that academic writing could stand to have a bit more colour and flair, I'm not sure that's currently the accepted norm (although I wish it was).

In a formal essay, I would never use a sentence fragment. Ever. In a blog, it provides emphasis. Nor would I use slang in an essay. But here? Yep. In one of my posts, I double-dog dared my readers. Could you imagine double-dog daring anyone in an academic essay? If you try it, let me know the result.

Another thing that changes is providing your reader with evidence to support your points. In teaching the typical formal essay, I show my students how to quote directly, indirectly, and using individual words. Blogs still use direct quotes, but an indirect quote can be as simple as a vague mention and a link.

We discover my thesis statement...

I think blogging is the new persuasive essay -my thesis, finally.

Truth is, I love writing essays. There's something satisfying about rendering the chaos of thoughts into an elegant form. But I love blogging more. It feels like playing.

I also find it more useful. While our students will need to know how to write essays to get through university, many won't use it after that, unless they remain in academia. I think writing and persuasive thinking skills are important. However, I question the current products we require of students as proof of their learning. Most of the essays written by our students likely end up in the garbage or the computer trash can. And most are for an audience of one.

Blogging has the potential to reach and influence many. Furthermore, it has greater potential for being a life-long skill. And isn't that our goal in education? People from all walks and professions blog for the purpose of teaching, creating, and informing. A number of my recent Masters courses didn't require papers; instead, they required blogging. Why?

Because blogging is the new persuasive essay.

If we're trying to prepare our students to think critically and argue well, they need to be able to blog. It allows for interaction. It allows for ideas to be tested. And the best posts anywhere in cyberspace tend to have a point that can be argued.

I think blogging across the curriculum, not just in Language Arts, allows for both formative and summative assessment. Blogs allow us to see the progression in the development of both thinking and writing. It may actually take more talent and skill to create an interesting persuasive post (or series of posts) on the French Revolution than a traditional essay.

We need to teach blogging as a skill

Students definitely need to understand how and why the mechanics (and style) of blogging are different.

The solution? Blogging needs to start earlier, much earlier. I read recently of a kindergarten teacher who blogs with her students. Great idea. There's a teacher in my division who does amazing things with her grade one class.

I'm not proposing that you need to do things radically different. Teach whatever you teach for Language Arts, or other subjects, but include a blog component. So if you're teaching sentence structure, teach your students to create complete sentences while blogging. Blogs, like traditional writing, need great structure. If you're focusing on capitalization or punctuation, transfer this skill to blog writing as well.

If you're teaching paragraph structure, teach students the paragraph structure required for traditional essays and that for blogs. They're different. Explain why. It's likely they won't be good at it at first. But there is merit to the quote, "Anything worth doing, is worth doing badly."

A middle years teacher at my school used to stress out when we talked about student writing. She wanted to know if she was teaching them enough. My reply: "All I need them to do is write solid paragraphs. If they can do that, I can teach them all kinds of things." Really, everything I teach is either an addition to, or a subtraction from, a solid paragraph. My work builds on her work. I don't need her to teach what I teach. That's my job. But without her previous work, mine becomes much more difficult.

The same is true with blogging. Starting from scratch with blogging in grade 10 isn't impossible. But we could do so much more if they already had the basics. In order to write well, you need to write a lot.

If you don't currently teach your students to blog, please start. Our students need you to. And if you already teach your students to blog, keep it up. Because blogging is an important 21st century skill. It's the new persuasive essay.

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As an English teacher, I've had numerous conversations with college professors who lament the writing skills of their first year students. But not all writing. Most students are capable of solid expository writing. It's their skill with persuasive writing that's the problem. Specifically, they're weak at writing a thesis statement that can be argued.

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Does writing by hand still matter in the digital age? | Teacher Network | The Guardian

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Does writing by hand still matter in the digital age? | Teacher Network | The Guardian

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Cast your mind back to the most recent thing you've written. Maybe it was a document for work, a message to a friend, or a simple shopping list. Did you use a pen? Or did you type it?

The decline of writing by hand - particularly among young people and children - has been in the news. Last month, paediatric doctors warned that children were finding it difficult to hold pencils due to excessive use of technology. Letters to Santa are increasingly sent by email, and Cambridge University is piloting the use of laptops instead of pen and paper for selected exams after requests from students. Some academics have noted the "downward trend" in students' handwriting.

But what of the role that handwriting plays in learning and development? And with technology changing how we live and work, what place does handwriting have in the modern classroom? These were the questions put to the teachers, academics and specialists in education and technology at the Guardian's roundtable event on 27 February. The roundtable was supported by the Write Your Future campaign, run by Newell Brands.

The delegates noted with interest that everyone at the table had chosen to use pens, not laptops, to make notes. One reason for this could be that writing plays a social role in our lives, said Dominic Wyse, professor of early childhood and primary education at UCL and incoming vice-president, president elect of the British Educational Research Association (BERA). Having a laptop open would be rude in such circumstances, he argued - and he would find it more difficult to engage.

The level of engagement involved in writing by hand is important, said Diana Strauss, co-founder of Write Dance Training, which helps children develop their handwriting skills through music. She pointed to recent research carried out in France in which one group of adult learners was told to write notes while another typed them. Those writing by hand were later found to have a deeper level of learning.

Ros Wilson, founder of Andrell Education's Big Writing model for teaching writing, described the process of handwriting as "creating a mental picture of the world" and said computer processing did not create the same picture in the brain.

This is why teachers encourage children to draw in the sand or water, which embeds learning in the early years, noted Naveed Idress, headteacher of Feversham Primary Academy in Bradford. "You never know what an A is unless you've physically drawn it."

In terms of writing in schools, there was agreement that increasing use of computers in university assessments could have a knock-on effect lower down the education system. "One of the concerns is that if you put high-stakes tests onto a computer it changes what schools have to prepare children for," said Jane Medwell, director of teaching and learning at the University of Nottingham School of Education and consultant for the Write Your Future campaign. Encouraging children to concentrate on using computers too early might not be in their best interests in terms of development.

You never know what an A is unless you've physically drawn it

Angela Webb, a psychologist and chair of the National Handwriting Association, explained that engagement with the physical environment activated certain areas of the brain and stimulated cognitive development, so picking up a pen has a positive impact not just on literacy but on other disciplines too.

One example of this is the way that it helps to develop the muscles needed to sit at a desk for long periods, said Strauss. She said learning to write by hand aided physical coordination, rhythm, stamina and posture. Secondary school students are at risk of physical problems later in life if not taught to sit and write properly.

Wyse said that while he would like to see children taught to touch-type early in school, it was rare to find children who had formed their first words on a keyboard. But educators should also be careful not to teach handwriting before students were physically ready, argued Jonathan Rodgers, primary advisory teacher for the Centre for Literacy in Primary Education. He criticised the "rush to mark-make, or to write when they should be mark-making before they have actually been squeezing things and climbing things and hanging from things".

Idress agreed that handwriting should be part of children's holistic development. One way his school helped itself out of special measures was by focusing on music, which helped build focus and readiness to learn in the children. He believes handwriting gives children similar skills to those gained through music - resilience, creativity and the ability to interact socially. "We are not just talking about mechanical skills here," he said. "We are talking about how children learn. We are making them ready for life."

Nina Iles, head of EdTech at the British Educational Suppliers Association, said it was important to balance digital and written awareness and for children to be able to express themselves creatively through technology and writing. "The key is learning to do it well," she said. "Sometimes if a child is struggling with their handwriting, that can be a barrier to them being able to use it effectively to inform and express themselves."

Delegates agreed it was important to achieve "automaticity" - the ability to get letters down automatically - to free up the brain to focus on creativity. But for Guy Merchant, professor of literacy in education at Sheffield Hallam University, this can take place with a keyboard or touchscreen just as well as with a pen.

Helen Boden, chief executive of the British Dyslexia Association, said touch-typing can give dyslexic children the kind of automaticity they struggle with when learning to write by hand. Some are wary of putting marks on paper that would be a permanent symbol of their difficulties and are more comfortable with a tablet or computer where making corrections is easier.

Technology can also help those with little or no English to interact with their classmates, said Hana Emami, early years project manager at the National Literacy Trust. Yet she warned that not all young people have good access to computers in their schools or at home, meaning too much emphasis on technology could set up educational inequalities.

Teachers can sometimes be wary of technology because it doesn't always fit with their idea of what educational success is, said Boden. But Merchant insisted digital literacy was essential, especially in a world where means of communication are rapidly diversifying.

So is there a balance to be struck in how we teach children to write? For Idress, this is key: making sure we help children choose the right tool for the task in hand - whether that's a pen, a laptop, or something else.

At the table

Louise Tickle (chair), education journalist, The Guardian

Helen Boden, chief executive, British Dyslexia Association

Hana Emami, project manager, early years, National Literacy Trust

Naveed Idress, headteacher, Feversham Primary Academy

Nina Iles, head of EdTech, British Educational Suppliers Association (BESA)

Jane Medwell, director of teaching and learning, University of Nottingham

Guy Merchant, professor of literacy in education, Sheffield Hallam University

Jonathan Rodgers, primary advisory teacher, Centre for Literacy in Primary Education

Diana Strauss, co-founder, Write Dance Training

Angela Webb, psychologist and chair of the National Handwriting Association

Ros Wilson, education consultant and founder of Big Writing

Dominic Wyse, professor of early childhood and primary education, UCL Institute of Education
Follow us on Twitter via @GuardianTeach, like us on Facebook, and join the Guardian Teacher Network the latest articles direct to your inbox Looking for a teaching job? Or perhaps you need to recruit school staff? Take a look at Guardian Jobs, the education specialist Topics

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Does writing by hand still matter in the digital age?

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Cast your mind back to the most recent thing you've written. Maybe it was a document for work, a message to a friend, or a simple shopping list. Did you use a pen? Or did you type it? The decline of writing by hand - particularly among young people and children - has been in the news.

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Develop the art of story telling by understanding how telling a story affects the brain! WOW! | Magical Educator

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Develop the art of story telling by understanding how telling a story affects the brain! WOW! | Magical Educator

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I came across this info graphic on twitter and have shared it with all my followers and the feedback has been immense. I always love starting a lesson or the day with a story of some sort, fiction or non fiction. It is very useful to try and understand what is happening in a child's mind when they are reading a book, being told a story during an assembly or even being read at bed time. This can help you develop the art of story telling and get your learners further engaged in whatever activity you are focused on. This information can be used to adapt teaching pedagogy or even develop pupil memory retention skills through the idea of visual story telling. Also take a look at getting students to understand how their brains work and use the information below to get a better understanding of what is happening under the bonnet when it comes to a pupil learning and story telling.

Comments are FREE, please leave one below. Did you find this useful? How have you used it in your classroom? Do you tell stories in your lessons?

This is a summary of what happens to the brain during the art of story telling;

Neural Coupling - A story activates parts of the brain that allows the story in their own ideas and experiences thanks to a concept called neural coupling.

Dopamine - The brain releases dopamine into the system when it experiences emotionally charged events, making it easier to remember concepts and with greater accuracy.

Mirroring - Listener will not only experience the similar brain activity to each other but also share the same activity with the speaker.

Cortex Activity - When processing facts, two areas of the brain are activated. A well told story can engage many additional areas, including the motor cortex, sensory cortex and the frontal cortex.

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Develop the art of story telling by understanding how telling a story affects the brain! WOW! | Magical Educator

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The art of story telling I came across this info graphic on twitter and have shared it with all my followers and the feedback has been immense. I always love starting a lesson or the day with a story of some sort, fiction or non fiction.

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Warming up with grammar games | TWO WRITING TEACHERS

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Warming up with grammar games | TWO WRITING TEACHERS

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Warming up with grammar games

Before my daughter plays a soccer game or scrimmages, her team goes through several warm-up exercises. Watching the go through the motions, I'm impressed that they all seem to enjoy the warm-ups, and they also can explain the purpose of them.

It has helped me to think of these grammar games as the girls think of their soccer warm-ups. They're quick, they're fun, and they're relevant to writing.

The first thing I'll say about this is that kids LOVE it. I started the lesson by showing the a three word sentence: The dog barked. Then, I showed them how I could make it a six word sentence: The big, black dog barked loudly. They got really interested when I took the sixteen word challenge and the twenty word challenge. However before I did that, I showed them a chart of word parts. Because they needed the word parts in order to play a game, they were really interested in how an adjective or an adverb would be perfect choices if you needed to change your sentence by just a few words. But, if you need to make more substantial changes, prepositions are your friends, and for major changes, conjunctions come into play.

This was a game, and it only lasted about fifteen minutes. However, the teacher and I sifted in reflective conversations throughout the rounds about the usefulness of words, and their responses were indicative of not only recognizing parts of speech, but thinking about how to use them meaningfully, both on their whiteboards within the parameters of a game and beyond the game and into the realm of their writing.

This sentence sentenced generated great conversation about how we have to be careful as to where we place our prepositional phrases.
2. Move around the words
This was MUCH more engaging to the kids than I ever imagined it would be! Before I challenged them, I modeled for them with a sentence, showing how, without changing or adding words, I could make the sentence different.

The gentle, kind mother fed the hungry, tired boys.

The mother, gentle and kind, fed the hungry tired boys.

The mother, kind and gentle, fed the hungry tired boys.

The mother, kind and gentle, fed the tired hungry boys.

The mother, gentle and kind, fed the tired hungry boys.

(You get the idea, and so did they!)

What was more important and interesting to me was their analysis of what the changes did. One student explained how when you connect two adjectives with the word "and", you make them both stronger. As a larger group, we debated which position-first or second-gave the adjective more impact. (This is a third-grade classroom!) And then they got into how much more beautiful the sentence sounded when the adjectives came second. They couldn't explain why, but they liked my suggestion that maybe it sounded more song-like.

A lot of the time, we teach grammar in isolation, and we teach only for recall and recognition. Sometimes, we ask students to correct mistakes, an activity that involves slightly higher order skills. I loved these activities not only because students were playing, but also because students were creating and analyzing. And, even more importantly, taking those sentence stretching and word order understandings to their own writing.

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Before my daughter plays a soccer game or scrimmages, her team goes through several warm-up exercises. Watching the go through the motions, I'm impressed that they all seem to enjoy the warm-ups, and they also can explain the purpose of them. It has helped me to think of these grammar games as the girls think...

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Best Mentor Texts for Narrative Writing in Grades K-2

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Best Mentor Texts for Narrative Writing in Grades K-2

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Do you use the Teachers College Reading and Writing Project Units of Study? Not sure? You might call it the Lucy Calkins Writing Program. If so, you might be completely, utterly, and totally sick of the mentor texts you've been using year after year. We asked teachers to share their favorite mentor texts for narrative writing in K-2 and here's what they told us. You're welcome.

Use this for teaching kids how to present an emotional conflict in a story.

Ruben feels like he is the only kid without a bike. His friend Sergio reminds him that his birthday is coming. The story goes on to detail how Ruben's family doesn't have much money and so he may never get a bike. Then Sergio sees a $100 bill fall out of a woman's pocket and he keeps it to help his friend get a bike. Is this okay?

Use this for showing how to stretch a small moment over several pages.

Jabari has done every thing he needs in order to learn how to jump and swim in water. He's ready for the diving board. He stops to stretch. Then he stops to think. He just doesn't feel ready.

Use this to show students how to write about the small moments in their family lives.

A little girl wakes up in her house because music is playing downstairs. She wakes up her brother and they sneak downstairs to find their parents dancing in the living room. Their parents welcome them and invite them to join the dance.

Use this to teach small moment writing and text/writing features that students love to emulate-using dashes to stretch out words, using CAPITAL letters to place emphasis on words, and using sound words.

This picture book is all about one ride on a roller coaster and all the emotions and excitement that delivers.

5. The Sandwich Swap by Queen Rania of Jordan Al Abdullah and Kelly DiPucchio

Use this to teach how words can be powerful and we must choose them carefully.

Lily and Salma are best friends. They like doing all the same things, and they always eat lunch together. They eat different things at lunch and this makes them uneasy with each other. A fight breaks out and we learn how they resolve it.

6. Twister! by Darleen Bailey Beard

Use this for getting kids thinking about writing storm-experience narratives. It's also an excellent source for writing craft moves--similes, onomatopoeia, personification and a beginning and ending that click together.

Lucille and Natt are caught in the beginnings of a tornado. Mama gets them safely to the cellar, but then she must leave to help Mr. Lyle, an elderly neighbor. She tells the children not to open the door until she comes back. But Mama doesn't come back, and the children must weather the storm alone, but together.

7. Thundercake by Patricia Pollacco

Use this for modeling interesting openings, setting a scene, words that sound like what they mean, strong verbs, punctuation and the style of a recipe at the end of the story.

There is a loud thunderstorm at Grandma's old farmhouse. "This is Thunder Cake baking weather," calls Grandma, as she and her granddaughter hurry to gather the ingredients around the farm. A real Thunder Cake must reach the oven before the storm arrives, and the closer it gets the more determined they become.

8. Tight Times by Barbara Shook Hazen

Use this for teaching about inferencing and how to create a scene that lets readers decide what's happening.

A little boy wants a pet, but his family has no money. On the day his father loses his job, he finds a stray kitten.

Use this to spark memories of student's family visits and trips which are always good inspiration for narrative writing.

The relatives came in a rainbow-colored station wagon. Everyone hugged and hugged all over the house. They stayed on summer, gardening and playing music. When they finally had to leave, they were sad, but knew they would be together next summer.

Use this to teach about sensory details and how it allows the reader to experience the story hand in hand with the author.

Set in rural Alabama in 1964, a boy remembers spending Saturdayshis Mammaw's house. He would ride his bicycle there and spend the day mowing the lawn, picking vegetables, eating lunch, and making delicious, sweet teacakes.

11. Fireflies by Julie Brinckloe

Use this to teach first person narrative, as well as writing descriptive sentences.

A boy catches fireflies and puts them in a jar. He loves the light they give, but soon realizes they will die if they stay in the jar.

Use this to teach about finding writing ideas.

A boy named Ralph has zero writing ideas. Nothing ever happens to him. His life is so boring. Sound familiar?

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12 Great Mentor Texts for Narrative Writing in K-2

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Do you use the Teachers College Reading and Writing Project Units of Study? Not sure? You might call it the Lucy Calkins Writing Program. If so, you might be completely, utterly, and totally sick of the mentor texts you've been using year after year.

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Michael Rosen: How 'knowledge about language' for schools could be so much better

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Michael Rosen: How 'knowledge about language' for schools could be so much better

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If you think of language as a whole, then 'knowledge about language' is made up of anything and everything that describes language or can explain why and how we use it in the ways that we do.
Over the last few years, 'knowledge about language' in the hands of the government, the DfE and Michael Gove has been reduced to 'grammar' and 'grammar' has been reduced to one model, one form of what 'grammar' might be - a so-called 'structure and function' model.
This single model of 'grammar' (treated as if it's the only model) and enforced through the Grammar, Punctuation and Spelling test, then holds sway over primary education, and primary aged children.
First, to be clear, there are other models of grammar, which, say, treat that word 'function', not as how words 'function' inside sentences (e.g. this noun is the subject of the sentence) but as social functions (e.g. why have so many of us started saying 'So...' at the beginning of our utterances).
For some reason, this form of grammar was not the one implemented and enforced.

Over the last 150 years, a huge amount of work has gone into examining how the many different uses of language work and have created disciplines such as
There is, though, an even more important criticism to make. 'Knowledge about language' is a massive subject and can't be reduced to 'grammar' of any kind. Since the time of Aristotle, linguists have tried to examine language, describe it and explain it. Aristotle was particularly interested in the 'effects' of particular uses of language and did a damned good job of it. We all know, for example, what 'catharsis' is, thanks to him, but he did more than that in his book 'Poetics'.
narratology, stylistics, pragmatics and intertextuality. Though these are mostly written about in very academic ways, they can be broken down into very accessible (and enjoyable) ways for children and school students to use. To be clear: these are also 'knowledge about language', and because they are tied very closely to 'language in specific uses' and not 'abstract ideals', they are especially useful in helping children speak and write.
Narratology, for example, enables us to examine how stories (or any kind of writing) are 'told': e.g. who narrates? how does the narration change? what kind of narrator is narrating? what devices does the narrator use to 'talk' to us?
Narratology can help us look at how the narration enables us to know how characters think. There are several very different devices that have grown up, all the way from 'she thought' to the 'free indirect discourse' favoured by Jane Austen and many writers of children's books.
Narratology can help us look at 'foregrounding' and 'point of view' - how these shift, favouring one or more characters and why?
Narratology is very useful at helping us with time frames which often change via flashback, flash forward and invocations of continuous time or continuous existence.
Stylistics can take us into how texts 'sound' (prosody) - showing us how repetition of structure and letter sounds make rhythms in texts.
Stylistics can draw attention to sentence length, sentence complexity or simplicity, how paragraphs are constructed across texts, why and how these change as the need to express different things change.
Stylistics can draw attention to 'register' - how informal/formal a text is? How much does it draw on modes of text from which sources - does the writing empty speech modes? Are there deliberate attempts to 'borrow' language from specific sources e.g. from a field different from the one in the text, e.g. from science in a novel?
Stylistics can draw attention to which class of words are repeated e.g. many adjectives, many adverbs - or none?
Pragmatics can draw attention to how dialogue is structured and where the narrator dialogues with the audience/readership. Dialogue can be structured in many different ways in fiction and pragmatics can help us make distinctions.
Intertextuality can help us with the matter of 'borrowing' that I mentioned earlier. In essence, all writing is borrowing in that it borrows the sounds, structures and meanings that have gone before in order to do whatever it does. However, some borrowings are more obvious than others and/or more significant. This can be at the level of a whole genre e.g. Hamlet as 'revenge tragedy' or at the level say of using literary motifs or tropes e.g. 'the pathetic fallacy'. Or again allusion to writing or speech that comes before (as Dickens does in the opening pages of 'A Christmas Carol') and so on.
If the government and the DfE had been really interested in a holistic view of language and 'knowledge about language' it would have talked to applied linguists about all this, and then got hold of people who know about pedagogy and asked them to produce materials which applied this 'knowledge about language' in age-appropriate ways, using imitation, and practice and investigation as much as description and direct instruction, so that this 'knowledge about language' could have been applied directly to helping children write well.
But they didn't.
The main reason why they didn't is because the Bew Report of 2011 imposed the SPaG test instead. This was because Michael Gove told them to.

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How 'knowledge about language' for schools could be so much better

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If you think of language as a whole, then 'knowledge about language' is made up of anything and everything that describes language or can explain why and how we use it in the ways that we do.

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Growing Extraordinary Writers Calkins Ehrenworth.pdf - Google Drive

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Growing Extraordinary Writers Calkins Ehrenworth.pdf - Google Drive

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Choice Literacy - Articles & Videos - Full Article

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Choice Literacy - Articles & Videos - Full Article

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Choice Literacy - Articles & Videos - Full Article

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By studying texts with some simple closure, these books have helped us begin conversations about why and how authors end their pieces. What often happens because of these discussions and close reading is that students begin experimenting in their own pieces. Then student pieces become the mentor texts we learn from and share.

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Borrowing from Mentors to inspire our own writing

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Why Are We So Obsessed With Teaching Kids Cursive Handwriting? | MindShift | KQED News

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Why Are We So Obsessed With Teaching Kids Cursive Handwriting? | MindShift | KQED News

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Rachel Sapp/Flickr

As computers become a common part of daily life for most adults and children, the debate about whether handwriting should be taught in school has heated up. Some claim it will be more important for students to learn keyboarding than writing with pen and paper given the ubiquity of digital communication. But there's a lot of strong research showing that learning to write by hand aids cognition. Linking motor skills and the sense of touch to writing helps the brain recognize letters, an important part of learning to read. But while handwriting is supported by research, as well as the link between writing by hand and memory, it is far less obvious that students must learn cursive in order to get those cognitive benefits.

In a Nautilus article dissecting the claims made about cursive, Philip Ball writes:

But imposing cursive from an early age is another matter. There should be a sound reason for it, as there should be reasons for teaching anything to children. Yet the grip that cursive exerts on much of teaching practice is sustained only by a disturbing blend of traditionalism, institutional inertia, folklore, prejudice, and bribery. It suggests that what teachers "know" about how children learn is sometimes more a product of the culture in which they're immersed than a result of research and data. It seems unlikely, in this regard, that teaching cursive is unique in educational practice. Which forces us to wonder: What happened to evidence?

Ball writes that teachers often cite three reasons for teaching cursive: it's faster, helps with spelling and helps children with dyslexia. In this article he takes on those claims one by one, looking at the research, and the myths behind them. This deep dive into the research on handwriting - both manuscript and cursive - cuts through the noise and emotion often raised when the subject of handwriting comes up.

A recent newcomer at one of the home-education groups my family attends explained that one of the frustrations that led her to take her son out of the school system was that he wasn't being allowed to write stories. It's something he loves to do, and it seems strange that a school should obstruct that enthusiasm.

Why Are We So Obsessed With Teaching Kids Cursive Handwriting?

Author

Katrina Schwartz

Katrina Schwartz is a journalist based in San Francisco. She's worked at KPCC public radio in LA and has reported on air and online for KQED since 2010. She's a staff writer for KQED's education blog MindShift.

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Why Are We So Obsessed With Teaching Kids Cursive Handwriting?

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As computers become a common part of daily life for most adults and children, the debate about whether handwriting should be taught in school has heated up. Some claim it will be more important for students to learn keyboarding than writing with pen and paper given the ubiquity of digital communication.

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The work of 213,284 kids was analyzed. These are the writing and critical-thinking skills that stumped students. - The Washington Post

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The work of 213,284 kids was analyzed. These are the writing and critical-thinking skills that stumped students. - The Washington Post

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It's often said that young people today don't know how to write, or, at least cannot write as well as their parents' generation did. (Not that their parents were great writers, either). So how bad is the problem?

Pretty darn bad, and in specific ways that have now been evaluated by the people behind NoRedInk, a Web-based platform that attempts to help students in sixth through 12th grade improve their writing and critical-thinking skills through an adaptive, Internet-based curriculum. The material, including an evidence-based argument program, challenges students on a number of different skills, such as making logical deductions from a set of facts and recognizing vague language.

NoRedInk was started about five years ago by Jeff Scheur, a National Board Certified Teacher who taught - and graded high school English papers - for eight years, then decided to find a way to help students beyond his own classroom. There are both free and paid versions of the platform, which he said is used in about half of the school districts in the country.

Scheur said in an interview that the company decided recently to try to drill down on seven proficiency areas in which students get in trouble when it comes to writing and thinking critically about written material. From the more than 3 billion questions that students have so far answered on NoRedInk, the company analyzed questions answered by 213,284 students (see the demographic breakdown below) in sixth through 12th grade across all 50 states. The proficiency areas were:

* Evaluating Undeveloped and Undefendable Claims - Can students evaluate when claims are undefendable or too obvious to be debated?
* Identifying Arguments That Don't Progress - Can students identify when arguments fail to advance?
* Making Logical Deductions - Can students make logical deductions based on evidence?
* Distinguishing Between Claims, Evidence, & Reasoning - Can students distinguish between claims, evidence, and reasoning?
* Analyzing Evidence - Can students tell when evidence is irrelevant, not credible, or not factual?
* Recognizing Vague Language - Can students detect and strip away vague or ambiguous language in arguments?
* Revising Wordiness - Can students detect and eliminate wordy, redundant, or unnecessary language from arguments?

The percentages of students who can do these specific things are low, as you can see below from the analysis.

"The reason why it is happening is prima facie," Scheur said. "Kids don't get strong modeling and they don't get sufficient practice. They need strong modeling. They need practice."

Large class sizes can make it difficult for teachers to assign a lot of long writing projects.

"I have a teacher in Michigan [who uses NoRedInk] with 38 students," he said. "Imagine having five classes of 38. What approach do you take to grading those papers and giving feedback, and then asking for revisions and then evaluating those revisions? Teachers rush through and give cursory feedback, or they take their time to give real feedback, but that naturally limits the number of such assignments they can give over the year."

And, of course a lot of writing instruction in recent years has been geared toward getting students to perform well on standardized tests that either don't require real writing or call for essays of several paragraphs.

Another issue, Scheur said, is where students get their information. Many get it from the Internet, without evaluating for accuracy.

"Democracy depends on an informed citizenry and the mutual commitment to reasoned rational argument," he said. "Those are the underpinnings of a system where we make decisions together. So the fact that students are having trouble with this is concerning."

Here's the breakdown of the students and results in the NoRedInk analysis:

This comes from NoRedInk's analysis:

* EVALUATING UNDEVELOPED AND UNDEFENDABLE CLAIMS
Modern political discourse has veered away from substantive discussion. Some claims are either entirely self-evident or are patently untrue and have no viable evidence to support them, making them inappropriate for substantive debate. Our curriculum presents students with claims that are worthy of debate, completely undefendable, and entirely self-evident to assess if they can differentiate between them.

Even when students have a 33% chance of guessing correctly, about half of them (47%) can't identify when claims "aren't defendable" enough for substantive debate.
-0-0- *IDENTIFYING ARGUMENTS THAT DON'T PROGRESS
Another challenge in modern political discourse is the Twitterization of our culture: making clickbait or 140-character arguments and failing to advance them.

Candidates frequently repeat themselves to drive home a point, rather than digging into the actual subject matter.

NoRedInk tests this skill by giving students claims that are followed by mere restatements and seeing whether they can identify the problem.

We also give students a series of statements to see if they can drag in the ones that actually advance the argument.

Fewer than half of students (47%) can identify when the follow-on statement is a mere repackaging of the original claim, even in a multiple-choice format.

*MAKING LOGICAL DEDUCTIONS
We also assess whether students can tell when arguments leap to unjustified conclusions based on the evidence.

Students do only 2% better than a coin flip (52%) when asked whether a piece of reasoning logically connects claims and evidence.
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*DISTINGUISHING BETWEEN CLAIMS, EVIDENCE AND REASONING
To construct logical, persuasive arguments, students need to be able to understand the separate roles of claims, evidence, and reasoning. NoRedInk creates persuasive arguments on interesting topics and measures whether students can identify the different parts of the argument.

Again, less than half of students (49%) were able to complete the task successfully.
-0-0- *ANALYZING EVIDENCE
Among the biggest challenges of modern political discourse is the lack of evidence to defend one's claims. Often, the "evidence" provided is not credible, not factual, or not relevant. NoRedInk's curriculum assesses students on each of these dimensions.

Only about half of students (54%) can tell that these arguments are weak.
NOT CREDIBLE

Only 42% of students can tell that these arguments are weak.

Only about half (54%) of students can tell that these arguments are weak.

-0-0- *RECOGNIZING VAGUE LANGUAGE
When individuals hide behind vague language, they can obscure the truth or present misleading information.

And here is an example of how our curriculum trains students to flag ambiguity:

Unfortunately, only 35% of students are able to detect vague or ambiguous language that's used in arguments like this.
-0-0- REVISING WORDINESS
In order for students to advocate for themselves, it's important that they be able to articulate their ideas clearly and crispy, shedding
words that distract and detract from their arguments.

The last skill area that NoRedInk assessed is students' ability to eliminate wordy, redundant, or irrelevant language that has the potential to weaken their arguments.

We found that only 33% of students are able to detect and remove language that qualifies as "wordy," "redundant," or "irrelevant."
(Update: removing extraneous words that were not part of the slide presentation)

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Analysis | The work of 213,284 kids was analyzed. These are the writing and critical-thinking skills that stumped students.

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It's often said that young people today don't know how to write, or, at least cannot write as well as their parents' generation did. (Not that their parents were great writers, either). So how bad is the problem?

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A Step-by-Step Plan for Teaching Argumentative Writing | Cult of Pedagogy

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A Step-by-Step Plan for Teaching Argumentative Writing | Cult of Pedagogy

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For seven years, I was a writing teacher. Yes, I was certified to teach the full spectrum of English language arts-literature, grammar and usage, speech, drama, and so on-but my absolute favorite, the thing I loved doing the most, was teaching students how to write.

Most of the material on this site is directed at all teachers. I look for and put together resources that would appeal to any teacher who teaches any subject. That practice will continue for as long as I keep this up. But over the next year or so, I plan to also share more of what I know about teaching students to write. Although I know many of the people who visit here are not strictly English language arts teachers, my hope is that these posts will provide tons of value to those who are, and to those who teach all subjects, including writing.

So let's begin with argumentative writing, or persuasive writing, as many of us used to call it. This overview will be most helpful to those who are new to teaching writing, or teachers who have not gotten good results with the approach you have taken up to now. I don't claim to have the definitive answer on how to do this, but the method I share here worked pretty well for me, and it might do the same for you. If you are an experienced English language arts teacher, you probably already have a system for teaching this skill that you like. Then again, I'm always interested in how other people do the things I can already do; maybe you're curious like that, too.

Before I start, I should note that what I describe in this post is a fairly formulaic style of essay writing. It's not exactly the 5-paragraph essay, but it definitely builds on that model. I strongly believe students should be shown how to move past those kinds of structures into a style of writing that's more natural and fitting to the task and audience, but I also think they should start with something that's pretty clearly organized.

So here's how I teach argumentative essay writing.

Step 1: Watch How It's Done

One of the most effective ways to improve student writing is to show them mentor texts, examples of excellent writing within the genre students are about to attempt themselves. Ideally, this writing would come from real publications and not be fabricated by me in order to embody the form I'm looking for. Although most experts on writing instruction employ some kind of mentor text study, the person I learned it from best was Katie Wood Ray in her book Study Driven (links to the book: Bookshop.org | Amazon).

Since I want the writing to be high quality and the subject matter to be high interest, I might choose pieces like Jessica Lahey's Students Who Lose Recess Are the Ones Who Need it Most and David Bulley's School Suspensions Don't Work.

I would have students read these texts, compare them, and find places where the authors used evidence to back up their assertions. I would ask students which author they feel did the best job of influencing the reader, and what suggestions they would make to improve the writing. I would also ask them to notice things like stories, facts and statistics, and other things the authors use to develop their ideas. Later, as students work on their own pieces, I would likely return to these pieces to show students how to execute certain writing moves.

Step 2: Informal Argument, Freestyle

Although many students might need more practice in writing an effective argument, many of them are excellent at arguing in person. To help them make this connection, I would have them do some informal debate on easy, high-interest topics. An activity like This or That (one of the classroom icebreakers I talked about last year) would be perfect here: I read a statement like "Women have the same opportunities in life as men." Students who agree with the statement move to one side of the room, and those who disagree move to the other side. Then they take turns explaining why they are standing in that position. This ultimately looks a little bit like a debate, as students from either side tend to defend their position to those on the other side.

Every class of students I have ever had, from middle school to college, has loved loved LOVED this activity. It's so simple, it gets them out of their seats, and for a unit on argument, it's an easy way to get them thinking about how the art of argument is something they practice all the time.

Step 3: Informal Argument, Not so Freestyle

Once students have argued without the support of any kind of research or text, I would set up a second debate; this time with more structure and more time to research ahead of time. I would pose a different question, supply students with a few articles that would provide ammunition for either side, then give them time to read the articles and find the evidence they need.

Next, we'd have a Philosophical Chairs debate (learn about this in my discussion strategies post), which is very similar to "This or That," except students use textual evidence to back up their points, and there are a few more rules. Here they are still doing verbal argument, but the experience should make them more likely to appreciate the value of evidence when trying to persuade.

Before leaving this step, I would have students transfer their thoughts from the discussion they just had into something that looks like the opening paragraph of a written argument: A statement of their point of view, plus three reasons to support that point of view. This lays the groundwork for what's to come.

Step 4: Introduction of the Performance Assessment

Next I would show students their major assignment, the performance assessment that they will work on for the next few weeks. What does this look like? It's generally a written prompt that describes the task, plus the rubric I will use to score their final product.

Anytime I give students a major writing assignment, I let them see these documents very early on. In my experience, I've found that students appreciate having a clear picture of what's expected of them when beginning a writing assignment. At this time, I also show them a model of a piece of writing that meets the requirements of the assignment. Unlike the mentor texts we read on day 1, this sample would be something teacher-created (or an excellent student model from a previous year) to fit the parameters of the assignment.

Step 5: Building the Base

Before letting students loose to start working on their essays, I make sure they have a solid plan for writing. I would devote at least one more class period to having students consider their topic for the essay, drafting a thesis statement, and planning the main points of their essay in a graphic organizer.

I would also begin writing my own essay on a different topic. This has been my number one strategy for teaching students how to become better writers. Using a document camera or overhead projector, I start from scratch, thinking out loud and scribbling down my thoughts as they come. When students see how messy the process can be, it becomes less intimidating for them. They begin to understand how to take the thoughts that are stirring around in your head and turn them into something that makes sense in writing.

For some students, this early stage might take a few more days, and that's fine: I would rather spend more time getting it right at the pre-writing stage than have a student go off willy-nilly, draft a full essay, then realize they need to start over. Meanwhile, students who have their plans in order will be allowed to move on to the next step.

Step 6: Writer's Workshop

The next seven to ten days would be spent in writer's workshop, where I would start class with a mini-lesson about a particular aspect of craft. I would show them how to choose credible, relevant evidence, how to skillfully weave evidence into an argument, how to consider the needs of an audience, and how to correctly cite sources. Once each mini-lesson was done, I would then give students the rest of the period to work independently on their writing. During this time, I would move around the room, helping students solve problems and offering feedback on whatever part of the piece they are working on. I would encourage students to share their work with peers and give feedback at all stages of the writing process.

If I wanted to make the unit even more student-centered, I would provide the mini-lessons in written or video format and let students work through them at their own pace, without me teaching them. (To learn more about this approach, read this post on self-paced learning).

As students begin to complete their essays, the mini-lessons would focus more on matters of style and usage. I almost never bother talking about spelling, punctuation, grammar, or usage until students have a draft that's pretty close to done. Only then do we start fixing the smaller mistakes.

Step 7: Final Assessment

Finally, the finished essays are handed in for a grade. At this point, I'm pretty familiar with each student's writing and have given them verbal (and sometimes written) feedback throughout the unit; that's why I make the writer's workshop phase last so long. I don't really want students handing in work until they are pretty sure they've met the requirements to the best of their ability. I also don't necessarily see "final copies" as final; if a student hands in an essay that's still really lacking in some key areas, I will arrange to have that student revise it and resubmit for a higher grade.

So that's it. If you haven't had a lot of success teaching students to write persuasively, and if the approach outlined here is different from what you've been doing, give it a try. And let's keep talking: Use the comments section below to share your techniques or ask questions about the most effective ways to teach argumentative writing.

Want this unit ready-made?

If you're a writing teacher in grades 7-12 and you'd like a classroom-ready unit like the one described above, including mini-lessons, sample essays, and a library of high-interest online articles to use for gathering evidence, take a look at my Argumentative Writing unit. Just click on the image below and you'll be taken to a page where you can read more and see a detailed preview of what's included.

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A Step-by-Step Plan for Teaching Argumentative Writing

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The art of persuasion is an essential life skill. It also happens to be part of the required curriculum for many, many teachers. In this post, I'll share my method for teaching argumentative writing.

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Andrew Stanton: The clues to a great story | TED Talk | TED.com

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Andrew Stanton: The clues to a great story | TED Talk | TED.com

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Filmmaker Andrew Stanton (“Toy Story,” “WALL-E”) shares what he knows about storytelling -- starting at the end and working back to the beginning. Contains graphic language ... (Note: this talk is not available for download.)