Writing strategies for struggling writers from TeachWriting.org: https://www.teachwriting.org/blog/2017/6/14/12-strategies-to-support-struggling-writers-in-elementary
Students orally share ideas before writing (with a peer, as a whole group, or even record ideas using a technology device) - This gets their creative juices flowing. Students who struggle with coming up with their own ideas might get inspired by their classmates’ thoughts. Having students share ideas also helps to solidify and ground the idea so it isn’t lost.
This is an opportunity for the whole class to get involved. Instead of having students start writing on their own, first, collaboratively write together as a class. Have different students share ideas to create a collaborative writing sample. This demonstrates for struggling writers how to approach the assignment and it provides them with ideas of what to write about.
These are really helpful for triggering ideas in struggling writers. Often times a student will say, “I don’t know what to write about,” and a sentence starter can help guide them with their writing.
Writing warm-ups are great to help students get their creative juices flowing. They are also helpful to encourage students to write down their thoughts. Using a writing warm-up like Power Writing or Freewriting: (where students write without stopping or without worrying about spelling or grammar) their ideas can flow and they don’t have to deal with writing paralysis.
This is a critical step for helping struggling writers construct ideas. Using tools like brainstorms or Focus Storms, help students quickly get as many ideas as possible. The blank page can be daunting to a young writer who struggles with coming up with ideas. Brainstorming is a powerful tool to help writers flush out all the ideas and then a Focus Storm helps them to organize and fine-tune their ideas. This is also helpful because it is a visual for students to see that they have lots of ideas. If students ever get stuck for ideas, they can refer back to their brainstorm and focus storm.
Many struggling writers do better with a visual. Breaking writing up into more manageable chunks (i.e.. breaking a paragraph into sentences) makes the task seem less daunting and more doable. An example of this is a FLEE map which is illustrated in the Writing Process link below.
Before having your students begin a writing assignment, show them models (either teacher created, or exemplar student examples from the past). Additionally, if you are having a student write a hook, model to the class, how you would write a hook. By thinking aloud, this demonstrates for the struggling writers how they can approach the same situation. This is a good time to encourage students to share their samples. Additionally, this helps spark ideas in students who might be stuck.
Don’t expect students to know how to write an engaging lead sentence, or use transitional phrases fluently. These are excellent mini-lessons to incorporate into your writing block. Take 10 - 15 minutes to teach and practice a writing strategy (like writing a lead sentence for an informative writing assignment). Once you teach the skill, have students immediately practice it in their writing. As you introduce more mini-writing lessons, don’t forget to still touch on ones you have covered in the past.
Giving students a writing toolbox will give them a resource to get support with their writing. For instance, provide students with a list of transitional words and phrases for the writing they are tackling. Or give students a list of Dead Words that they should avoid using in their writing and a list of alternative words to use instead. Giving students a resource to refer to while writing will help them overcome their writing challenges.
Give students choice with what they write about. Even a little choice goes a long way with student writing. When students feel invested in a topic they will have more to say, thus more to write.
Except for those teacher-pleasers and highly intrinsically motivated students, there is little drive and motivation to do their best work when students are simply writing for a teacher to grade. Thus it is important to create an authentic writing situation for students. Have them write a blog post to share with the entire third grade, or have them create a persuasive travel brochure. When there is a greater purpose to their writing, even struggling writers invest more in the assignment.
Since students are so different with their writing abilities and their struggles, it is important to find a time to meet with students in small groups or individually to identify each students’ strengths and weaknesses. Knowing which areas to target for each writer will allow you to scaffold and support each student in the area in which they could benefit the most.
**Handwriting is a very important skill for children of all ages. Practice using correct letter formation, print letters for grades K-2 and cursive for grades 3-5.
**Writing is heavily linked to reading.
**Spelling is important!!
Using the Writing Process: https://www.dvusd.org/cms/lib/AZ01901092/Centricity/Domain/4076/wftb-Writing-Process.pdf
Writing Activities to do at Home:
**mad libs: https://www.woojr.com/spring-ad-libs/
**Write a paragraph about their day at school.
**Write about a book they are reading. Do they like it? Why? What is the best part? Can they make a connection to the book?
**Write a thank you note to someone.
**Make a comic strip or a graphic story.
**Make a card for someone.