Engage your students in the learning process by

• Choosing high-interest topics your students will be excited about

• Giving students choices in what to write about 

• Giving students choices in how to present their writing such as in Google Docs, Google Slides, or handwritten

• Giving students choices in how to generate ideas for writing such as listening to a book, watching a video, or chatting with someone

• Getting the students physically moving with hand motions or other body movements during the writing process

• Including unique mediums with which to work such as music, chants, or hand signals

• Regularly checking for understanding by asking students to explain a specific thing they know about the lesson, asking true or false questions, or asking them if they agree or disagree with something; for example, "Do you agree or disagree that there needs to be an endmark at the end of this sentence?"

• Giving feedback that helps students make progress; for example, "It looks like you did many things on your birthday. It would make it more interesting for the reader if you added detail to each of those events by following up with another sentence to describe each thing you did."

• Allowing students to orally rehearse by verbally sharing what they are thinking of writing with a peer, sibling, or parent prior to writing or asking for ideas to add to their writing

• Displaying enthusiasm about what you are teaching/learning; it's catchy

• Equating success with learning rather than performance in statements such as, "I notice that you are experimenting with creating an interesting introduction. I like how you are taking risks as you learn."

Here are a few ways to maintain high expectations for your students:

• Acknowledge the challenging assignment and at the same time, let the students know that they can do it and that you will be there to help them.

• Talk about the process rather than just the end result and that the more they engage in the process, the more they will be pleased with the results.

• Notice and reward effort by saying things like, "I see that you've put time into drawing this detail and including that in your sentence."

• Challenge mediocrity by saying things like, "You are an observant person. I know you can put spaces between words so I can more easily read them next time."

• Make sure the student is able to do the task you are asking but is being pushed with a slightly more difficult task that may require help to complete.

• Show students you are doing difficult things yourself by completing tasks with them or by showing them some of your work.

• Make your feedback count by saying things like, "You have used a precise word to describe this person. What word can you use to describe the setting?"

• Send upward messages to your students like, "I believe you can do this even though it is a bit challenging." "I have seen what you can write and expect you to do well on this assignment." "Every effort you make counts. You will be happy with the results."

• Help your students climb Bloom's Taxonomy (remember, understand, apply, analyze, evaluate, create).

Your students can learn to self-assess by

• Seeing you model self-assessment as you talk out loud through the writing process (teacher: "I'd like to add a descriptive word here because I don't think my reader can picture this." or "I don't think I want to include that because it takes me off topic, so I think I'll leave that out." or "I'd like to use a more precise word here. I think I'll look one up with my thesaurus.")

• Revisiting the rubric to check their own work (students will need to have easy access to the rubric and be taught how to use it) 

• Knowing what success looks like (the teacher or learning coach can show other student's work, model the writing yourself, and point out what the students are doing that shows mastery)

• Having the words to describe why their work or another person's work is exemplary (Teach students to say things like, "You can read the words easily because I have spaces between the words." or "I have added detail to that idea by writing two more sentences describing it." or "My conclusion brings a sense of closure because I gave my reaction.")

You can set a positive tone for learning by

• Smiling 

• Creating a positive physical environment

• Showing care and interest

• Being responsive

• Knowing that all students want to learn but don't always know how

• Thanking them for asking questions (even if you just explained it - people generally need to hear something multiple times before it starts registering in their brain, so you might explain something over and over again before they hear it for the "first time")

• Knowing that your words are powerful

• Allowing students to help one another or helping one student as a whole group

Make your students feel safe to take risks and make mistakes by

• Modeling how you deal with mistakes as you write (without embarrassment, matter-of-factly, being solutions-oriented, and asking students for ideas or help)

• Thanking students for pointing out any mistakes you might have made and fixing them in front of your students

• Letting your students know that mistakes are an important part of learning and growing as a writer (mistakes show that a person is trying and moving forward)

• Telling your students that the writing process is messy (crossing things out, adding things in, changing words and paragraphs around)

• Asking your students if they have any ideas about what you can add to (or subtract from) your writing or if they have another word that might be more effective

• Not focusing on the mechanics of the writing first but letting students get their thoughts on paper before "cleaning it up"

• Letting your students know that grammar, punctuation, capitalization, subject/verb agreement, etc. is important not just because they are rules to follow but because they make it easier for the reader to understand what they are writing and not get distracted from what they are trying to communicate

Help all your students grow and get what they need to succeed by using these strategies:

• Scaffold their learning with Thinking Maps, sentence starters, word walls for things like transition words, adjectives, or strong verbs, and an end punctuation garden. Go to the garden and pick the end punctuation you want to use.

• Vary instruction according to their level. For example, if teaching a first grader and a third grader how to transition from one event to another, you can model the transition words at the start of the sentence for the first grader while modeling more complex transitions at the start of a paragraph for the third grader. Each can be given transition word/phrase options to use.

• Vary their assignments according to each student's level. For example, if you are teaching how to include detail to a kindergartener and a second grader, the kindergartener's detail will be reflected in the drawing while the second grader's detail will be reflected in a follow-up sentence.

• Vary the time expected for each student to engage in the lesson. For example, allow a first grader to get going on the assignment while explaining in further detail to the second grader about self-assessing after writing using the High-Frequency words list.

• Vary the writing process. For example, if teaching a kindergartener and a third grader how to brainstorm ideas to write about how they celebrated their birthday, include text and drawings so both students can reference the Circle Map tool for their writing.

• Vary teaching strategies by allowing the younger students to act out and verbalize what they want to write while allowing the older student to just verbally share their ideas for writing.