Writing Instruction

Writing Instruction Kim Bowen, NCDPI ELA Consultant kbowen@dpi.state.nc.us Phyllis Blackmon, NCDPI ELA Consultant pblackmon#@dpi.state.nc.us

“Good writing and writing on demand are not contradictory.” Gere, Christenbury, and Sassi, Writing on Demand, 2005

Features of Writing • Shaped by purpose, audience, context • Common across all writing • NC Writing Assessment (Grades 4, 7, 10) • IPT • NAEP • Classroom writing tasks

Features of Writing • Focus • Organization • Support and Elaboration • Style • Conventions

Effective Instructional Strategies • Writing Next, Alliance for Excellent Education, 2006 • Meta-Analysis of research on adolescent writing instruction • Comparing effectiveness of specific teaching strategies • 11 recommendations ranked by strength of effect (statistical analysis)

1. Strategy Instruction • ES = .82 • Explicitly teach students strategies for planning, revising, and/or editing text. • Resource: High School Writing Across the Curriculum Teacher Handbook • Specific strategies organized within features • Content area concerns and examples included • Can be used 4-12

2. Teaching Summarization • ES = .82 • Explicitly teach students how to summarize texts.

Activity • Read the assigned text and summarize on index card – no more than 25 words. Group 1 – p. 3 top Group 2 – p. 3 bottom Group 3 – p. 4 middle Group 4 – p. 4 bottom Group 5 – p. 5 left Group 6 – p. 5 right Group 7 – p. 6 left + top Group 8 – p. 7 bottom Group 9 – p. 9

3. Collaborative Writing • ES = .75 • Have students work together to plan, draft, and/or revise their compositions.

Activity • At table, each person reads individual summary aloud. • Compare summaries. • Write a new group summary of no more than 25 words. This summary will be shared with the whole group to let your peers know the information in your section. • Copy summary onto chart paper to post in room.

4. Specific Product Goals • ES = .70 • Assign students specific, reachable goals for their writing. • Purpose of assignment • Characteristics of final product

5. Word Processing • ES = .55 • Have students use word processing and related software when writing.

6. Sentence Combining • ES = .50 • Teach students to construct more sophisticated sentences by combining 2 or more simpler sentences into a more complex one.

Sentence Combining Example • Writing is important. • Writing is a skill. • Writing develops. • Writing takes time to develop.

7. Pre-Writing Activities • ES = .32 • Engage students in activities prior to writing that help them generate and/or organize ideas for their papers.

8. Inquiry • ES = .32 • Engage students in inquiry activities that help them develop ideas and content that they use when writing.

9. Process Approach • ES = .32 • A writing program that involves extended opportunities for writing; writing for real audiences; engaging in cycles of planning, translating, and reviewing; personal responsibility and ownership of writing projects; high levels of student interactions; creation of a supportive writing environment; self-reflection and evaluation; personalized individual assistance and instruction; and in some instances more systematic instruction.

10. Study of Models • ES = .25 • Have students study and emulate models of good writing.

11. Writing As A Tool for Learning • ES = .23 • Have students use writing as a tool for learning content material.

Fool’s Gold -- Grammar • ES = -.32 (NEGATIVE effect) • Explicit teaching of grammar • Parts of speech • Structure of sentences • “The answer is not eliminating grammar but teaching with relevance in the context of writing.”

Grammar in Context • Objectives determined by student data (observation, writing samples, etc.) • Demonstration of concept • Guided application in student writing • Independent application in subsequent writing • Assessment through continued collection of data

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Writing Instruction