Goal

Help students plan, write, and revise expository essays. This intervention also encompasses strategies for helping students regulate their own behavior.

Mnemonic devices are techniques a person can use to help them improve their ability to remember something. It’s a simple shortcut that helps us associate the information we want to remember with an image, a sentence, or a word. A mnemonic device is used to teach students a consistent procedure for planning and organizing their writing ideas across types of writing assignments, and they can use a visual to utilize the strategy as they plan. A great one for organizing writing ideas is PLAN and WRITE.


Materials

  1. PLAN and WRITE acronyms to display

  2. Essay samples

  3. Highlighters

  4. Essay prompts for expository narratives

Options to Monitor Progress

  1. Work samples

  2. Writing CBM

  3. Functional essay elements rubric

Intervention Steps

Stage 1: Overview of Puprose

  1. Present PLAN and WRITE strategies on board

Stage 2: Activating Background Knowledge

  1. Put an essay on the board and read it together as a class. Have students identify the introductory, body, and concluding paragraphs along with transition words. Discuss whether or not the essay contains a good thesis statement.

  2. Have students identify different forms of sentences (simple, compound, and complex) and functions of sentences (declarative, imperative, exclamatory, and question). Next, have students identify vocabulary words that are exciting, interesting, and unique in the same essay that was previously discussed. Ask students to suggest how to change vocabulary words to enhance the essay.

Stage 3: Review of Students' Initial Writing Abilities

  1. Meet with students individually to discuss most recent baseline essay. During this brief conference, work with each student to identify 1-2 writing goals (i.e. staying on topic, limited grammatical errors, making essay interesting/exciting to read, etc.).

Stage 4: Modeling the Planning Strategy

  1. Put an essay prompt on the board and model how to use the PLAN and WRITE strategy using a "think aloud" approach.

Stage 5: Collaborative Practice

  1. Divide students into pairs or triads and give each group an essay prompt. Have students practice using the PLAN and WRITE strategy for the essay prompt and provide feedback/help when needed.

  2. After students have finished writing, have a class discussion about the essay components that were used.

  3. Have students trade papers to provide each other with feedback. Students can be given highlighters and asked to search papers for essay elements using the rubric.

Stage 6: Independent Practice

  1. Have students continue to practice applying the PLAN and WRITE strategy to given writing assignments.

  2. Conduct individual conferences with students to assess progress towards goals initially set using work samples.