Ten Writing Instructional Strategies Every Teacher Should Know

1. Ten Writing Instructional Strategies Every Teacher Should Know Douglas Fisher San Diego State University dfisher@mail.sdsu.edu

2. Language Experience Approach • Students are active language users • Teacher transcribes students’ words (whole class, small group, or individual) • Students extend text

3. Interactive Writing • Oral Language • Composition & Construction • “Sharing the pen” students write in front of their peers

4. Writing Models • Offers a pattern or form to scaffold writing • Using existing text students insert original writing

5. Generative or “Given Word” Sentences • Focus on the craft of writing • Lessons to refine practice • Use student examples for editing • “No excuse”

6. Word Pyramids • Requires students to consider lots of words • Explores and expands word knowledge • Dictionary use?

7. Power Writing • Brief, timed writing events to improve fluency • Students chart their own progress • Extension - progressive writing

8. Found Poems • Student use existing text • Select specific words/phrases • Arrange them in free-verse • Requires re-reading of texts

9. RAFT Writing • Role, Audience, Format, and Topic are explicitly taught • Perspective taking is the focus

10. Writing to Learn • What do students know and think? • Brief prompts • Yesterday’s news – a review of class from the previous day • Crystal ball – a prediction of what might come next • Best thing I learned – a summary or analysis of the best part of class • Exit slip – a written review of the class completed before leaving the room • Not process papers

11. Independent Writing • Based on a prompt, students produce original writing • Multiple genres • Rubrics guide students’ completion of the task

12. Interactions: Writing and the Language Arts • Read aloud or shared reading • Independent reading • Word study (word wall) • Collaborative learning centers • Individual and small group instruction