Writing

Make goals more salient to the student using a learning progression. See link to writing learning progressions.


Writing K-5 Progressions

See Reading Rockets research based reading strategies and resources organized by phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, comprehension, vocabulary and writing.

Complete prewriting activities to support composition including generating of ideas and organization structure.

  • Have students analyze writing prompts to review form, audience, and purpose.

  • Incorporate top down web to outline ideas and organization.

  • Use ABC chart to generate vocabulary related to the topic.

  • Use graphic organizers (Link to Google Drawings bank of organizers)

  • Allow students to draft their writing using speech to text. See resource.

  • Provide short quick writes on a topic. See video explanation of quick writes. See video for technology ideas for quick writes.

Ensure for oral rehearsal of ideas prior to and during writing.

  • Have students orally rehearse and record on digital tools like Vocaroo, FlipGrid, Screencast. Students listen to recording each time prior to writing to help recall ideas.

  • Allow students to draft their writing using speech to text. See resource.

Support drafting of ideas.

  • Text-to-speech tools within Google Education are available to assist students in crafting written work. Directions for supporting students can be found here.

Support students in identifying information for research and non-fiction texts.

  • See video for strategies for modeling paraphrasing.

  • Teach student two-column note taking format by providing models, thinking aloud, and scaffolds. See video to learn more about two-column note format.

Incorporate clear criteria, checklists, and opportunities for individual and shared feedback.

  • Provide student single point rubric outlining what it means to be meeting the expectations for the assignment.

  • Provide reference sheets that support writing such as list of transition words, sentence types, commonly misspelled words, adjectives, and power verbs.

  • Provide exemplars from mentor texts or by other students.

Support revision and editing process.

  • Use Kaziena or Goobric to provide audio comments for students who would benefit from the audio input of the text.

  • Use digital editors to help students highlight areas to edit and revise, such as PaperRater.

  • SAS Writing Reviser is a free Google Doc tool for helping students identify writing issues and improve their written work. Available as a Google Docs Add-On, SAS Writing Reviser analyzes a document for potential grammatical and syntax issues, highlights or lists the issues it finds, and provides information for resolving them.

  • Incorporate mnemonics such as ARMS, FANBOYS, and COPS to support process of editing and revising.

  • Provide editing checklist to guide editing process.

  • Provide opportunities for peer editing and revising throughout the writing process and not just at the end of the process.

Support student goal setting in writing.

  • See video of first grade teacher sharing success criteria with students.