Written Expression

Written expression is a process involving the transfer of thoughts from your head to paper.

The writing process involves 7 steps that when taught explicitly can help students to become better writers and more effectively get their thoughts out on paper.

Planning involves gathering information and generating ideas. This often involves note taking and graphic organizers. Using prior knowledge and discussions can be helpful in planning out ideas for writing. This is also the stage where ideas are organized in order to fit the purpose of the text that is being written.
Drafting is the stage where a copy of the writing is created but not finished. This is a rough layout of the text with preliminary word selection and sentence structures.
Sharing is an opportunity for students to share their written thoughts with each other or with the teacher. They can get constructive criticism from others in order to determine where the weaknesses in their writing are so that they can more accurately write and present their ideas.
Evaluating is done independently or with others. This is a re-read of the text in order to determine if the idea is being communicated the way the writer wants it to be communicated.
Revising refers to content changes such as word choice and sentence structure. Restructuring the paper, adding or subtracting paragraphs, and changing the order of ideas can also be part of this stage.
Editing is the process where the writing is checked for spelling errors and grammatical errors.
Publishing is the presentation of the end product. This gives students the opportunity to share their hard work with others. It teaches students to appreciate that writing provides a way for the world to communicate thoughts and feelings with each other. Providing opportunities to share final products helps students understand the power of writing.

Writing Stages:

Scribbling/ Drawing- Children scribble or draw but without giving much thought to what it represents. At this stage they have not developed the awareness that symbols have meaning. Improper holding of a writing utensil is common at this stage.

Helpful to provide: thick markers, crayons, and unlined paper

Letter-like forms and shapes- This is the stage where students begin to understand that symbols have meaning. Students begin with making shapes but without any real form. The shapes do not necessarily read left to right. It is common in this stage to have a student show you their writing and ask "What does this say?"

Helpful to provide: Tubs of markers, crayons, and paper

Letters- In this stage, students tend to write random uppercase letters without spacing awareness. Often learning the letters in their name first. They still lack the understanding of sound-symbol relationship.

Helpful to provide: different types of paper, smaller pens and pencils, tubs of foam letters and letter magnets

Letters and spaces- Students begin building awareness of spacing between words as well as awareness that spoken words match written words. Students often use their index finger to guide as they read words to help build awareness of words. During this stage, students are able to usually identify beginning letter and end letter and write them. They begin spelling high frequency words and writing words the way they sound. This is also a stage where students beginning experimenting with punctuation.
Conventional writing and spelling- At this point, students spell most words correctly. They correctly use punctuation and capitalized letters. They know how to write for different purposes.

Helpful to provide: Opportunities to share writing

https://www.readingrockets.org/article/how-writing-develops

Writing Conferences

Incorporating writing conferences is important to check in individually with students on writing goals. This allows students to take risks in a safe way with the teacher and a private journal. The conference takes about 5-10 minutes and should be done frequently in order to track progress and set goals. This allows students to grow as writers with feedback as they learn. The work should be done by the student with teacher encouragement. This is done by asking the student how they think they did and what they would do to make their paper better. This way students can learn how to do this process independently.

Strategies

Author's Chair

Students get an opportunity to share something that they wrote with peers. The teacher demonstrates how to give feedback after the author shares their writing. Giving and receiving feedback is an important part of the writing process (Teaching Elementary School Students to Be Effective Writers).

Sentence Combining

This activity is for practicing creating a complex sentence out of 2 simple sentences. This helps students become more aware of how they can say the same thing in a sentence that flows better.

(U.S. Dept of Education).

Make a Class Book

Using a wordless book, discuss the events of the story. Students draw pictures similar to those of the wordless book and glue sentence strips to the bottom of the page. Students then put the pages in order so that each new page flows with the story. It is also fun to bind the book and add it to the class library.

Graphic Organizer

Graphic organizers are useful to help students organize their thinking before writing. This helps them plan out how to communicate their message to an audience.

Click the image for more graphic organizers

RAFT

This writing strategy helps students practicing responding by taking on different roles. This makes them think about the role they have as a writer and who their audience is so that they can write based on audience and role. This can be used to look at literature, a historical event, a science project etc. This is versatile and helps students dig deeper into a topic that is being explored and discussed.

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Interventions

Framing Your Thoughts

Tiers: 1, 2, & 3

Grades: K-12

Small Group.

This program focuses on practicing sentence structure. This also helps students practice with punctuation and capitalization.

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Step Up to Writing

Tiers: 1, 2, & 3

Grades: K-12

Whole group and small group.

This program helps students familiarize themselves and practice 3 types of writing.

-Informative/ Explanatory

- Opinion/ Argument

-Narrative

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Ready Writing

Tiers: 1 & 2

Grades: 2 - 5

Small Group

This program uses passages from i-ready reading, making it fit right into a classroom that is already using the reading program. This program also weaves writing skills into content lessons making it easy to integrate into a classroom that is struggling to find time for writing instruction.

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Writing City

Tiers: 1, 2, & 3

Grades: K - 5

whole group and small group

This program has video lessons, grammar discussions, and opportunities for cooperative learning. It is an interactive writing program that uses short activities to keep students engaged.

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Jump into Writing

Tiers: 1, & 2

Grades: 2 - 5

small groups and conferencing

This program teaches writing skills through writing workshops. Students write and share in groups. This helps them not only write but give and receive feedback too.

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Formal Assessments

Test of Written Language 4th Edition (TOWL-4)

Author: Donald D. Hammill, PhD & Stephen C. Larsen

Cost: $310

Age: 9 yrs 0 months - 17 yrs 11 months

Time: 60-90 minutes

This test measures written expression through 7 subtests:

-Vocabulary

-Spelling

-Punctuation

-Logical Sentences

-Sentence Combining

-Contextual Conventions

-Story Composition

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Feifer Assessment of Writing (FAW)

Author: Steven G. Feifer, DEd

Grade: pre-K through College

Time: 15 minutes for pre-K

20 minutes for K-1

55-65 minutes for 2nd grade and up

Cost: $714

This test looks for 3 sub types of written language disorders; Graphomotor Index, Dyslexic Index, and Executive Index.

The subtests are:

Alphabet Tracing Fluency
Motor Sequencing
Copying Speed
Motor Planning
Homophone Spelling
Isolated Spelling
Executive Working Memory
Sentence Scaffolding
Retrieval Fluency
Expository writing
Copy Editing
Story Mapping

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Informal Assessments

Writing Portfolio

Using writing samples can help to identify where the weaknesses in writing are. Using specific rubrics to look for different patterns make it easier to use writing samples as diagnostics. This needs to be an ongoing process using writing samples throughout the year.

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Writing Journal

Students will practice writing regularly in a journal and sharing their writing with the teacher. This helps the student practice writing and sharing. The teacher gives feedback and goes over a checklist of prompts to make sure all entries are accounted for. The student should already have checked off the writing entries on the checklist to self monitor. Together they go through and discuss the student's writing. The teacher can look for common errors through this and with the feedback, overtime notice the errors fade.

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Apps

Simple Mind

This app is available for purchase on windows, google, and apple. This app helps to organize thoughts and provide a visual representation to plan out writing. This is a digital graphic organizer.

Story Wheel

This app is available on apple. This app provides students with a picture to help guide story writing. 1-4 students can play together. They record their voice talking about a picture and build on the previous part of the story.

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Writing Challenge for Kids

This app is available on apple, google, and amazon. This app provides prompts for writing that challenge students to use certain vocabulary words in addition to providing setting prompts and character prompts.

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Essay Launcher

This app is available for purchase on apple. This app asks the writer questions to guide them through the writing process and help them organize writing. It is designed specifically for students with learning differences. The font is made specifically to help students with dyslexia.

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Grammaropolis

This app is available for purchase on apple. This offers an interactive approach to learning about parts of speech. There are songs and videos to help guide students.

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References:

Discover ready writing-sample lesson. Discover Ready Writing-Sample Lesson. (n.d.). Retrieved May 18, 2022, from https://www.curriculumassociates.com/programs/i-ready-learning/ready/writing-sample-lessons

How writing develops. Reading Rockets. (2013, November 7). Retrieved May 15, 2022, from https://www.readingrockets.org/article/how-writing-develops

Graphic organizers to help kids with writing. Reading Rockets. (2020, June 9). Retrieved May 17, 2022, from https://www.readingrockets.org/article/graphic-organizers-help-kids-writing

Journal writing. Reading Rockets. (2020, January 3). Retrieved May 18, 2022, from https://www.readingrockets.org/article/journal-writing

Jump into writing!: Writing workshop curricula grades 2–5. Zaner. (n.d.). Retrieved May 18, 2022, from https://www.zaner-bloser.com/writing/jump/index.php

Knatim. (2010, November 12). Precision teaching: Writing conferences student and teacher. YouTube. Retrieved May 17, 2022, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=njLGV3drzRo

Language Circle Enterprises. (2021, December 2). Project read - sentence structure. Language Circle Enterprises. Retrieved May 18, 2022, from https://www.projectread.com/sentence-structure/

National Center for Education Evaluation and Regional Assistance (ED), & What Works Clearinghouse (ED). (2017). Teaching Elementary School Students to Be Effective Writers. Practice Guide Summary. In What Works Clearinghouse. What Works Clearinghouse.

Raft: Classroom strategy. Reading Rockets. (2022, February 28). Retrieved May 18, 2022, from https://www.readingrockets.org/strategies/raft

Teacher resources. WritingCity. (n.d.). Retrieved May 18, 2022, from https://www.writingcity.com/teacher-resources

Unparalleled writing instruction. Writing Solution | K-12 | Step Up to Writing. (n.d.). Retrieved May 18, 2022, from https://www.voyagersopris.com/literacy/step-up-to-writing/overview

U.S. Department of Education, Office of Vocational and Adult Education. (2011). Just Write! Guide. Washington, DC: Author.

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