1. Use the shared events of students' lives to inspire writing.

2. Establish an email dialogue between students from different schools who are

reading the same book.

3. Use writing to improve relations among students.

4. Help student writers draw rich chunks of writing from endless sprawl.

5. Work with words relevant to students' lives to help them build vocabulary.

6. Help students analyze text by asking them to imagine dialogue between authors.

7. Spotlight language and use group brainstorming to help students create poetry.

8. Ask students to reflect on and write about their writing.

9. Ease into writing workshops by presenting yourself as a model.

10. Get students to focus on their writing by holding off on grading.

11. Use casual talk about students' lives to generate writing.

12. Give students a chance to write to an audience for real purpose.

13. Practice and play with revision techniques.

14. Pair students with adult reading/writing buddies.

15. Teach "tension" to move students beyond fluency.

16. Encourage descriptive writing by focusing on the sounds of words.

17. Require written response to peers' writing.

18. Make writing reflection tangible.

19. Make grammar instruction dynamic.

20. Ask students to experiment with sentence length.

21. Help students ask questions about their writing.

22. Challenge students to find active verbs.

23. Require students to make a persuasive written argument in support of a final

grade.

24. Ground writing in social issues important to students.

25. Encourage the "framing device" as an aid to cohesion in writing.

26. Use real world examples to reinforce writing conventions.

27. Think like a football coach.

28. Allow classroom writing to take a page from yearbook writing.

29. Use home language on the road to Standard English.

30. Introduce multi-genre writing in the context of community service.

1. Use the shared events of students' lives to inspire writing.
Debbie Rotkow, a co-director of the Coastal Georgia Writing Project, makes use of the

real-life circumstances of her first grade students to help them compose writing that, in

Frank Smith's words, is "natural and purposeful."

When a child comes to school with a fresh haircut or a tattered book bag, these events can
inspire a poem. When Michael rode his bike without training wheels for the first time, this
occasion provided a worthwhile topic to write about. A new baby in a family, a lost tooth,

and the death of one student's father were the playful or serious inspirations for student

writing.

Says Rotkow: "Our classroom reverberated with the stories of our lives as we wrote, talked,

and reflected about who we were, what we did, what we thought, and how we thought

about it. We became a community."

ROTKOW, DEBBIE. 2003. "Two or Three Things I Know for Sure About Helping Students

Write the Stories of Their Lives," The Quarterly (25) 4.

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2. Establish an email dialogue between students from
different schools who are reading the same book.
When high school teacher Karen Murar and college instructor Elaine Ware, teacher-

consultants with the Western Pennsylvania Writing Project, discovered students were

scheduled to read the August Wilson play Fences at the same time, they set up email

communication between students to allow some "teacherless talk" about the text.

Rather than typical teacher-led discussion, the project fostered independent conversation

between students. Formal classroom discussion of the play did not occur until students had

completed all email correspondence. Though teachers were not involved in student online

dialogues, the conversations evidenced the same reading strategies promoted in teacher-

led discussion, including predication, clarification, interpretation, and others.

MURAR, KAREN, and ELAINE WARE. 1998. "Teacherless Talk: Impressions from Electronic

Literacy Conversations." The Quarterly (20) 3.

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3. Use writing to improve relations among students.
Diane Waff, co-director of the Philadelphia Writing Project, taught in an urban school

where boys outnumbered girls four to one in her classroom. The situation left girls feeling

overwhelmed, according to Waff, and their "voices faded into the background,

overpowered by more aggressive male voices."

Determined not to ignore this unhealthy situation, Waff urged students to face the problem

head-on, asking them to write about gender-based problems in their journals. She then

introduced literature that considered relationships between the sexes, focusing on themes

of romance, love, and marriage. Students wrote in response to works as diverse as de

Maupassant's "The Necklace" and Dean Myers's Motown and DiDi.

In the beginning there was a great dissonance between male and female responses.

According to Waff, "Girls focused on feelings; boys focused on sex, money, and the fleeting
nature of romantic attachment." But as the students continued to write about and discuss

their honest feelings, they began to notice that they had similar ideas on many issues. "By
confronting these gender-based problems directly," says Waff, "the effect was to improve

the lives of individual students and the social well-being of the wider school community."

WAFF, DIANE. 1995. "Romance in the Classroom: Inviting Discourse on Gender and

Power." The Quarterly (17) 2.

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4. Help student writers draw rich chunks of writing from
endless sprawl.
Jan Matsuoka, a teacher-consultant with the Bay Area Writing Project (California),

describes a revision conference she held with a third grade English language learner

named Sandee, who had written about a recent trip to Los Angeles.

"I told her I wanted her story to have more focus," writes Matsuoka. "I could tell she was

confused so I made rough sketches representing the events of her trip. I made a small

frame out of a piece of paper and placed it down on one of her drawings a sketch she

had made of a visit with her grandmother."

"Focus, I told her, means writing about the memorable details of the visit with your

grandmother, not everything else you did on the trip."

"'Oh, I get it,' Sandee smiled, 'like just one cartoon, not a whole bunch.'"

Sandee's next draft was more deep than broad.

MATSUOKA, JAN. 1998. "Revising Revision: How My Students Transformed Writers'

Workshop." The Quarterly (20) 1.

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5. Work with words relevant to students' lives to help them
build vocabulary.
Eileen Simmons, a teacher-consultant with the Oklahoma State University Writing Project,

knows that the more relevant new words are to students' lives, the more likely they are to

take hold.

In her high school classroom, she uses a form of the children's ABC book as a community-

building project. For each letter of the alphabet, the students find an appropriately

descriptive word for themselves. Students elaborate on the word by writing sentences and

creating an illustration. In the process, they make extensive use of the dictionary and

thesaurus.

One student describes her personality as sometimes "caustic," illustrating the word with a

photograph of a burning car in a war zone. Her caption explains that she understands the

hurt her "burning" sarcastic remarks can generate.

SIMMONS, EILEEN. 2002. "Visualizing Vocabulary." The Quarterly (24) 3.

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6. Help students analyze text by asking them to imagine
dialogue between authors.
John Levine, a teacher-consultant with the Bay Area Writing Project (California), helps his

college freshmen integrate the ideas of several writers into a single analytical essay by

asking them to create a dialogue among those writers.

He tells his students, for instance, "imagine you are the moderator of a panel discussion on

the topic these writers are discussing. Consider the three writers and construct a dialogue

among the four 'voices' (the three essayists plus you)."

Levine tells students to format the dialogue as though it were a script. The essay follows

from this preparation.

LEVINE, JOHN. 2002. "Talking Texts: Writing Dialogue in the College Composition

Classroom." The Quarterly (24) 2.

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7. Spotlight language and use group brainstorming to help
students create poetry.
The following is a group poem created by second grade students of Michelle Fleer, a

teacher-consultant with the Dakota Writing Project (South Dakota).

Underwater

Crabs crawl patiently along the ocean floor

searching for prey.

Fish soundlessly weave their way through

slippery seaweed

Whales whisper to others as they slide

through the salty water.

And silent waves wash into a dark cave

where an octopus is sleeping.

Fleer helped her students get started by finding a familiar topic. (In this case her students

had been studying sea life.) She asked them to brainstorm language related to the sea,

allowing them time to list appropriate nouns, verbs, and adjectives. The students then

used these words to create phrases and used the phrases to produce the poem itself.

As a group, students put together words in ways Fleer didn't believe many of them could

have done if they were working on their own, and after creating several group poems,

some students felt confident enough to work alone.

FLEER, MICHELLE. 2002. "Beyond 'Pink is a Rose.'" The Quarterly (24) 4.

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8. Ask students to reflect on and write about their writing.
Douglas James Joyce, a teacher-consultant with the Denver Writing Project, makes use of

what he calls "metawriting" in his college writing classes. He sees metawriting (writing

about writing) as a way to help students reduce errors in their academic prose.

Joyce explains one metawriting strategy: After reading each essay, he selects one error

that occurs frequently in a student's work and points out each instance in which the error

is made. He instructs the student to write a one page essay, comparing and contrasting

three sources that provide guidance on the established use of that particular convention,

making sure a variety of sources are available.

"I want the student to dig into the topic as deeply as necessary, to come away with a

thorough understanding of the how and why of the usage, and to understand any debate

that may surround the particular usage."

JOYCE, DOUGLAS JAMES. 2002. "On the Use of Metawriting to Learn Grammar and

Mechanics." The Quarterly (24) 4.

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9. Ease into writing workshops by presenting yourself as a
model.
Glorianne Bradshaw, a teacher-consultant with the Red River Valley Writing Project (North

Dakota), decided to make use of experiences from her own life when teaching her first-

graders how to write.

For example, on an overhead transparency she shows a sketch of herself stirring cookie

batter while on vacation. She writes the phrase "made cookies" under the sketch. Then

she asks students to help her write a sentence about this. She writes the

words who, where, and when. Using these words as prompts, she and the students

construct the sentence, "I made cookies in the kitchen in the morning."

Next, each student returns to the sketch he or she has made of a summer vacation activity

and, with her help, answers the same questions answered for Bradshaw's drawing. Then
she asks them, "Tell me more. Do the cookies have chocolate chips? Does the pizza have

pepperoni?" These facts lead to other sentences.

Rather than taking away creativity, Bradshaw believes this kind of structure gives students

a helpful format for creativity.

BRADSHAW, GLORIANNE. 2001. "Back to Square One: What to do When Writing Workshop

Just Doesn't Work." The Quarterly (23) 1.

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10. Get students to focus on their writing by holding off on
grading.
Stephanie Wilder found that the grades she gave her high school students were getting in

the way of their progress. The weaker students stopped trying. Other students relied on

grades as the only standard by which they judged their own work.

"I decided to postpone my grading until the portfolios, which contained a selection of

student work, were complete," Wilder says. She continued to comment on papers,

encourage revision, and urge students to meet with her for conferences. But she waited to

grade the papers.

It took a while for students to stop leafing to the ends of their papers in search of a grade,

and there was some grumbling from students who had always received excellent grades.

But she believes that because she was less quick to judge their work, students were better

able to evaluate their efforts themselves.

WILDER, STEPHANIE. 1997. "Pruning Too Early: The Thorny Issue of Grading Student

Writing." The Quarterly (19) 4.

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11. Use casual talk about students' lives to generate writing.
Erin (Pirnot) Ciccone, teacher-consultant with the Pennsylvania Writing and Literature

Project, found a way to make more productive the "Monday morning gab fest" she used as

a warm-up with her fifth grade students. She conceived of "Headline News." As students

entered the classroom on Monday mornings, they wrote personal headlines about their

weekends and posted them on the bulletin board. A headline might read "Fifth-Grader

Stranded at Movie Theatre" or "Girl Takes on Responsibility as Mother's Helper."

After the headlines had been posted, students had a chance to guess the stories behind

them. The writers then told the stories behind their headlines. As each student had only

three minutes to talk, they needed to make decisions about what was important and to

clarify details as they proceeded. They began to rely on suspense and "purposeful

ambiguity" to hold listeners' interest.

On Tuesday, students committed their stories to writing. Because of the "Headline News"

experience, Ciccone's students have been able to generate writing that is focused, detailed,

and well ordered.

CICCONE, ERIN (PIRNOT). 2001. "A Place for Talk in Writers' Workshop." The

Quarterly (23) 4.

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12. Give students a chance to write to an audience for real
purpose.
Patricia A. Slagle, high school teacher and teacher-consultant with the Louisville Writing

Project(Kentucky), understands the difference between writing for a hypothetical purpose

 and writing to an audience for real purpose. She illustrates the difference by contrasting

two assignments.

She began with: "Imagine you are the drama critic for your local newspaper. Write a

review of an imaginary production of the play we have just finished studying in class." This

prompt asks students to assume the contrived role of a professional writer and drama

critic. They must adapt to a voice that is not theirs and pretend to have knowledge they do

not have.

Slagle developed a more effective alternative: "Write a letter to the director of your local

theater company in which you present arguments for producing the play that we have just

finished studying in class." This prompt, Slagle says, allows the writer her own voice,

building into her argument concrete references to personal experience. "Of course," adds

Slagle, "this prompt would constitute authentic writing only for those students who, in fact,

would like to see the play produced."

SLAGLE, PATRICIA A. 1997. "Getting Real: Authenticity in Writing Prompts." The

Quarterly (19) 3.

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13. Practice and play with revision techniques.
Mark Farrington, college instructor and teacher-consultant with the Northern Virginia

Writing Project, believes teaching revision sometimes means practicing techniques of

revision. An exercise like "find a place other than the first sentence where this essay might

begin" is valuable because it shows student writers the possibilities that exist in writing.

For Farrington's students, practice can sometime turn to play with directions to:

add five colors

add four action verbs

add one metaphor

add five sensory details.

In his college fiction writing class, Farrington asks students to choose a spot in the story

where the main character does something that is crucial to the rest of the story. At that

moment, Farrington says, they must make the character do the exact opposite.

"Playing at revision can lead to insightful surprises," Farrington says. "When they come,

revision doesn't seem such hard work anymore."

FARRINGTON, MARK. 1999. "Four Principles Toward Teaching the Craft of Revision." The

Quarterly(21) 2.

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14. Pair students with adult reading/writing buddies.
Bernadette Lambert, teacher-consultant with the Kennesaw Mountain Writing

Project (Georgia), wondered what would happen if she had her sixth-grade students pair

with an adult family member to read a book. She asked the students about the kinds of

books they wanted to read (mysteries, adventure, ghost stories) and the adults about the

kinds of books they wanted to read with the young people (character-building values,

multiculturalism, no ghost stories). Using these suggestions for direction, Lambert

developed a list of 30 books. From this list, each student-adult pair chose one. They

committed themselves to read and discuss the book and write separate reviews.

Most of the students, says Lambert, were proud to share a piece of writing done by their

adult reading buddy. Several admitted that they had never before had this level of

intellectual conversation with an adult family member.

LAMBERT, BERNADETTE. 1999. "You and Me and a Book Makes Three." The Quarterly (21)

3.

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15. Teach "tension" to move students beyond fluency.
Suzanne Linebarger, a co-director of the Northern California Writing Project, recognized

that one element lacking from many of her students' stories was tension. One day, in front

of the class, she demonstrated tension with a rubber band. Looped over her finger, the

rubber band merely dangled. "However," she told the students, "when I stretch it out and

point it (not at a student), the rubber band suddenly becomes more interesting. It's the

tension, the potential energy, that rivets your attention. It's the same in writing."

Linebarger revised a generic writing prompt to add an element of tension. The initial

prompt read, "Think of a friend who is special to you. Write about something your friend

has done for you, you have done for your friend, or you have done together."

Linebarger didn't want responses that settled for "my best friend was really good to me,"

so "during the rewrite session we talked about how hard it is to stay friends when met with

a challenge. Students talked about times they had let their friends down or times their
friends had let them down, and how they had managed to stay friends in spite of their

problems. In other words, we talked about some tense situations that found their way into

their writing."

LINEBARGER, SUZANNE. 2001. "Tensing Up: Moving From Fluency to Flair." The

Quarterly (23) 3.

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16. Encourage descriptive writing by focusing on the sounds
of words.
Ray Skjelbred, middle school teacher at Marin Country Day School, wants his seventh

grade students to listen to language. He wants to begin to train their ears by asking them
 to make lists of wonderful sounding words. "This is strictly a listening game," says

Skjelbred. "They shouldn't write lunch just because they're hungry." When the collective

list is assembled, Skjelbred asks students to make sentences from some of the words

they've collected. They may use their own words, borrow from other contributors, add

other words as necessary, and change word forms.

Among the words on one student's list: tumble, detergent, sift, bubble, syllable, creep,

erupt, and volcano. The student writes:

A man loads his laundry into the tumbling washer, the detergent sifting through the

bubbling water.

The syllables creep through her teeth.

The fog erupts like a volcano in the dust.

"Unexpected words can go together, creating amazing images," says Skjelbred.

SKJELBRED, RAY. 1997. "Sound and Sense: Grammar, Poetry, and Creative

Language." The Quarterly (19) 4.

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17. Require written response to peers' writing.
Kathleen O'Shaughnessy, co-director of the National Writing Project of

Acadiana (Louisiana), asks her middle school students to respond to each others' writing

on Post-it Notes. Students attach their comments to a piece of writing under consideration.

"I've found that when I require a written response on a Post-it instead of merely allowing

students to respond verbally, the responders take their duties more seriously and, with

practice, the quality of their remarks improves."

One student wrote:

While I was reading your piece, I felt like I was riding a roller coaster. It started out kinda

slow, but you could tell there was something exciting coming up. But then it moved real

fast and stopped all of a sudden. I almost needed to read it again the way you ride a roller

coaster over again because it goes too fast.

Says O'Shaughnessy, "This response is certainly more useful to the writer than the usual 'I

think you could, like, add some more details, you know?' that I often overheard in

response meetings."

O'SHAUGHNESSY, KATHLEEN. 2001. "Everything I Know About Teaching Language Arts, I

Learned at the Office Supply Store." The Quarterly (23) 2.

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18. Make writing reflection tangible.
Anna Collins Trest, director of the South Mississippi Writing Project, finds she can lead

upper elementary school students to better understand the concept of "reflection" if she
anchors the discussion in the concrete and helps students establish categories for their

reflective responses.

She decided to use mirrors to teach the reflective process. Each student had one. As the

students gazed at their own reflections, she asked this question: "What can you think

about while looking in the mirror at your own reflection?" As they answered, she

categorized each response:

I think I'm a queen - pretending/imagining

I look at my cavities - examining/observing

I think I'm having a bad hair day - forming opinions

What will I look like when I am old? - questioning

My hair is parted in the middle - describing

I'm thinking about when I broke my nose - remembering

I think I look better than my brother - comparing

Everything on my face looks sad today - expressing emotion.

Trest talked with students about the categories and invited them to give personal

examples of each. Then she asked them to look in the mirrors again, reflect on their

images, and write.

"Elementary students are literal in their thinking," Trest says, "but that doesn't mean they

can't be creative."

TREST, ANNA COLLINS. 1999. "I was a Journal Topic Junkie." The Quarterly (21) 4.

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19. Make grammar instruction dynamic.
Philip Ireland, teacher-consultant with the San Marcos Writing Project (California), believes

in active learning. One of his strategies has been to take his seventh-graders on a

"preposition walk" around the school campus. Walking in pairs, they tell each other what

they are doing:

I'm stepping off the grass.

I'm talking to my friend.

"Students soon discover that everything they do contains prepositional phrases. I walk

among my students prompting answers," Ireland explains.

"I'm crawling under the tennis net," Amanda proclaims from her hands and knees. "The

prepositional phrase is under the net."

"The preposition?" I ask.

"Under."
IRELAND, PHILIP. 2003. "It Seemed Like a Good Idea at the Time." The Quarterly (25) 3.

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20. Ask students to experiment with sentence length.
Kim Stafford, director of the Oregon Writing Project at Lewis and Clark College, wants his

students to discard old notions that sentences should be a certain length. He explains to

his students that a writer's command of long and short sentences makes for a "more

pliable" writing repertoire. He describes the exercise he uses to help students experiment

with sentence length.

"I invite writers to compose a sentence that goes on for at least a page and no fair

cheating with a semicolon. Just use 'and' when you have to, or a dash, or make a list, and

keep it going." After years of being told not to, they take pleasure in writing the greatest

run-on sentences they can.

"Then we shake out our writing hands, take a blank page, and write from the upper left to

the lower right corner again, but this time letting no sentence be longer than four words,

but every sentence must have a subject and a verb."

Stafford compares the first style of sentence construction to a river and the second to a

drum. "Writers need both," he says. "Rivers have long rhythms. Drums roll."

STAFFORD, KIM. 2003. "Sentence as River and as Drum." The Quarterly (25) 3.

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21. Help students ask questions about their writing.
Joni Chancer, teacher-consultant of the South Coast Writing Project (California), has paid a

lot of attention to the type of questions she wants her upper elementary students to

consider as they re-examine their writing, reflecting on pieces they may make part of their

portfolios. Here are some of the questions:

Why did I write this piece? Where did I get my ideas?

Who is the audience and how did it affect this piece?

What skills did I work on in this piece?

Was this piece easy or difficult to write? Why?

What parts did I rework? What were my revisions?

Did I try something new?

What skills did I work on in this piece?

What elements of writer's craft enhanced my story?

What might I change?

Did something I read influence my writing?

What did I learn or what did I expect the reader to learn?

Where will I go from here? Will I publish it? Share it?

Expand it? Toss it? File it?

Chancer cautions that these questions should not be considered a "reflection checklist,"

rather they are questions that seem to be addressed frequently when writers tell the story

of a particular piece.

CHANCER, JONI. 2001. "The Teacher's Role in Portfolio Assessment." In The Whole Story:

Teachers Talk About Portfolios, edited by Mary Ann Smith and Jane Juska. Berkeley,

California: National Writing Project.

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22. Challenge students to find active verbs.
Nancy Lilly, co-director of the Greater New Orleans Writing Project, wanted her fourth and

fifth grade students to breathe life into their nonfiction writing. She thought the student

who wrote this paragraph could do better:

The jaguar is the biggest and strongest cat in the rainforest. The jaguar's jaw is strong

enough to crush a turtle's shell. Jaguars also have very powerful legs for leaping from

branch to branch to chase prey.

Building on an idea from Stephanie Harvey (Nonfiction Matters, Stenhouse, 1998) Lilly

introduced the concept of "nouns as stuff" and verbs as "what stuff does."

In a brainstorming session related to the students' study of the rain forest, the class

supplied the following assistance to the writer:

Stuff/Nouns : What Stuff Does/Verbs

jaguar : leaps, pounces

jaguar's : legs pump

jaguar's : teeth crush

jaguar's : mouth devours

This was just the help the writer needed to create the following revised paragraph:

As the sun disappears from the heart of the forest, the jaguar leaps through the

underbrush, pumping its powerful legs. It spies a gharial gliding down the river. The jungle

cat pounces, crushing the turtle with his teeth, devouring the reptile with pleasure.

LILLY, NANCY. "Dead or Alive: How will Students' Nonfiction Writing Arrive?" The

Quarterly (25) 4.

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23. Require students to make a persuasive written argument
in support of a final grade.
For a final exam, Sarah Lorenz, a teacher-consultant with the Eastern Michigan Writing

Project, asks her high school students to make a written argument for the grade they think
they should receive. Drawing on work they have done over the semester, students make a

case for how much they have learned in the writing class.

"The key to convincing me," says Lorenz, "is the use of detail. They can't simply say they

have improved as writers they have to give examples and even quote their own

writing . . . They can't just say something was helpful they have to tell me why they

thought it was important, how their thinking changed, or how they applied this learning to

everyday life."

LORENZ, SARAH. 2001. "Beyond Rhetoric: A Reflective Persuasive Final Exam for the

Writing Classroom." The Quarterly (23) 4.

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24. Ground writing in social issues important to students.
Jean Hicks, director, and Tim Johnson, a co-director, both of the Louisville Writing

Project (Kentucky), have developed a way to help high school students create brief,

effective dramas about issues in their lives. The class, working in groups, decides on a

theme such as jealousy, sibling rivalry, competition, or teen drinking. Each group develops

a scene illustrating an aspect of this chosen theme.

Considering the theme of sibling rivalry, for instance, students identify possible scenes

with topics such as "I Had It First" (competing for family resources) and "Calling in the

Troops" (tattling). Students then set up the circumstances and characters.

Hicks and Johnson give each of the "characters" a different color packet of Post-it Notes.

Each student develops and posts dialogue for his or her character. As the scene emerges,

Post-its can be added, moved, and deleted. They remind students of the conventions of

drama such as conflict and resolution. Scenes, when acted out, are limited to 10 minutes.

"It's not so much about the genre or the product as it is about creating a culture that

supports the thinking and learning of writers," write Hicks and Johnson.

HICKS, JEAN and TIM JOHNSON. 2000. "Staging Learning: The Play's the Thing." The

Quarterly (22) 3.

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25. Encourage the "framing device" as an aid to cohesion in
writing.
Romana Hillebrand, a teacher-consultant with the Northwest Inland Writing Project (Idaho),

asks her university students to find a literary or historical reference or a personal narrative

that can provide a fresh way into and out of their writing, surrounding it much like a

window frame surrounds a glass pane.

Hillebrand provides this example:

A student in her research class wrote a paper on the relationship between humans and

plants, beginning with a reference to the nursery rhyme, "Ring around the rosy, a pocket

full of posies . . . ." She explained the rhymes as originating with the practice of masking

the stench of death with flowers during the Black Plague. The student finished the paper

with the sentence, "Without plants, life on Earth would cease to exist as we know it; ashes,

ashes we all fall down."

Hillebrand concludes that linking the introduction and the conclusion helps unify a paper

and satisfy the reader.

HILLEBRAND, ROMANA. 2001. "It's a Frame Up: Helping Students Devise Beginning and

Endings."The Quarterly (23) 1.

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26. Use real world examples to reinforce writing conventions.
Suzanne Cherry, director of the Swamp Fox Writing Project (South Carolina), has her own

way of dramatizing the comma splice error. She brings to class two pieces of wire, the last

inch of each exposed. She tells her college students, "We need to join these pieces of wire

together right now if we are to be able to watch our favorite TV show. What can we do?

We could use some tape, but that would probably be a mistake as the puppy could easily

eat through the connection. By splicing the wires in this way, we are creating a fire

hazard."

A better connection, the students usually suggest, would be to use one of those electrical

connectors that look like pen caps.

"Now," Cherry says (often to the accompaniment of multiple groans), "let's turn these

wires into sentences. If we simply splice them together with a comma, the equivalent of a

piece of tape, we create a weak connection, or a comma splice error. What then would be

the grammatical equivalent of the electrical connector? Think conjunction - and, but, or. Or

try a semicolon. All of these show relationships between sentences in a way that the

comma, a device for taping clauses together in a slapdash manner, does not."

"I've been teaching writing for many years," Cherry says. "And I now realize the more able

we are to relate the concepts of writing to 'real world' experience, the more successful we

will be."

CHERRY, SUZANNE. "Keeping the Comma Splice Queen Happy," The Voice (9) 1.

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27. Think like a football coach.
In addition to his work as a high school teacher of writing, Dan Holt, a co-director with

the Third Coast Writing Project (Michigan), spent 20 years coaching football. While doing
the latter, he learned quite a bit about doing the former. Here is some of what he found

out:

The writing teacher can't stay on the sidelines. "When I modeled for my players, they

knew what I wanted them to do." The same involvement, he says, is required to

successfully teach writing.

Like the coach, the writing teacher should praise strong performance rather than focus on

the negative. Statements such as "Wow, that was a killer block," or "That paragraph was

tight" will turn "butterball" ninth-grade boys into varsity linemen and insecure adolescents

into aspiring poets.

The writing teacher should apply the KISS theory: Keep it simple stupid. Holt explains for a

freshman quarterback, audibles (on-field commands) are best used with care until a player

has reached a higher skill level. In writing class, a student who has never written a poem

needs to start with small verse forms such as a chinquapin or haiku.

Practice and routine are important both for football players and for writing students, but

football players and writers also need the "adrenaline rush" of the big game and the final

draft.

HOLT, DAN. 1999. "What Coaching Football Taught Me about Teaching Writing." The

Voice (4) 3.

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28. Allow classroom writing to take a page from yearbook
writing.
High school teacher Jon Appleby noticed that when yearbooks fell into students' hands "my

curriculum got dropped in a heartbeat for spirited words scribbled over photos." Appleby

wondered, "How can I make my classroom as fascinating and consuming as the

yearbook?"

Here are some ideas that yearbook writing inspired:

Take pictures, put them on the bulletin boards, and have students write captions for them.

Then design small descriptive writing assignments using the photographs of events such as

the prom and homecoming. Afterwards, ask students to choose quotes from things they

have read that represent what they feel and think and put them on the walls.

Check in about students' lives. Recognize achievements and individuals the way that

yearbook writers direct attention to each other. Ask students to write down memories and

simply, joyfully share them. As yearbook writing usually does, insist on a sense of
tomorrow.
APPLEBY, JON. 2001. "The School Yearbook: A Guide to Writing and Teaching." The

Voice (6) 3.

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29. Use home language on the road to Standard English.
Eileen Kennedy, special education teacher at Medger Evers College, works with native

speakers of Caribbean Creole who are preparing to teach in New York City. Sometimes she

encourages these students to draft writing in their native Creole. The additional challenge

becomes to re-draft this writing, rendered in patois, into Standard English.

She finds that narratives involving immigrant Caribbean natives in unfamiliar situations

buying a refrigerator, for instance lead to inspired writing. In addition, some students

expressed their thoughts more proficiently in Standard English after drafting in their

vernaculars.

KENNEDY, EILEEN. 2003. "Writing in Home Dialects: Choosing a Written Discourse in a

Teacher Education Class." The Quarterly (25) 2.

Back to top
30. Introduce multi-genre writing in the context of
community service.
Jim Wilcox, teacher-consultant with the Oklahoma Writing Project, requires his college

students to volunteer at a local facility that serves the community, any place from the

Special Olympics to a burn unit. Over the course of their tenure with the organization,

students write in a number of genres: an objective report that describes the appearance

and activity of the facility, a personal interview/profile, an evaluation essay that requires

students to set up criteria by which to assess this kind of organization, an investigative

report that includes information from a second source, and a letter to the editor of a

campus newspaper or other publication.

Wilcox says, "Besides improving their researching skills, students learn that their

community is indeed full of problems and frustrations. They also learn that their own
talents and time are valuable assets in solving some of the world's problems one life at

a time."

WILCOX, JIM. 2003. "The Spirit of Volunteerism in English Composition." The Quarterly (25)

2.

Steve Graham, a professor of education at Arizona State University, has made a

career out of monitoring research studies on teaching writing, to figure out which
methods actually work. For a forthcoming article*, Graham and two
colleagues, Karen Harris of ASU and Tanya Santangelo of Arcadia University, looked
at approximately 250 of the most prominent studies on how to teach writing to
students from kindergarten through 12th grade.
Grahams review of the research doesnt resolve the age-old debate of whether
students learn writing best naturally just by doing it or through explicit writing
instruction.

But there are effective practices where the research is unequivocal. Distressingly,
many teachers arent using them. We have confirmation of things we know that work,
but are not applied in the classroom, said Graham.

Here are three:

1. Spend more time writing: To teach kids to write well, you need to ask them to
write a lot. Youre not going to become a great basketball player unless you play a lot
of basketball. The evidence is strong that this is true for writing too. Five studies of
exceptional literacy teachers found that great teachers ask their students to write
frequently. In nine separate experiments with students, 15 additional minutes of
writing time a day in grades two through eight produced better writing. Seventy-eight
percent of studies testing the impact of extra writing found that students writing
quality improved.

Several studies found unexpected bonuses from extra writing time. Not only did
writing quality improve, so did reading comprehension. Another cluster of studies
proved that writing improves a students mastery of the subject; the act of writing
helps you learn. (Another reason for teachers to refrain from spoon-feeding printed
notes to students.)

However, surveys of U.S. teachers reveal that after third grade, very little time is
spent writing in classrooms. In fourth through sixth grade, on average, 20-25 minutes
a day is spent on writing, according to Graham. Writing assignments rarely extend
beyond a page; sometimes theyre not more than a paragraph. This is what teachers
self-report, and if anything theyre probably overstating how much writing theyre
asking of students.

[READ: Master Needed College Writing Skills]

In a 2011 survey of classroom writing instruction, A Snapshot of Writing Instruction

in Middle Schools and High Schools, published in English Journal, Arthur Applebee
and Judith Langer at SUNY Albany found that U.S. students were expected to write
only a total of 1.6 pages of extended prose for English a week, and another 2.1 pages
for all their other subjects combined. Applebee and Langer also observed classrooms
across the four core subjects (English, science, math and social science/history) and
found that, on average, only 7.7 percent of classroom time was devoted to writing a
paragraph or more. Applebee and Langer called that distressingly low.

Why so little writing? Graham hypothesizes that many English language arts teachers
are more passionate about literature than teaching writing. But in surveys teachers
often say they dont assign more writing because they dont have the time to read and
provide feedback on frequent long assignments. I can sympathize with a high school
English teacher who has 37 kids in her class.
One could argue that fewer high quality writing assignments might be better than a
bunch of low quality ones. But again, the teacher surveys and classroom observations
reveal that students are more commonly asked to write summaries. We dont see a
high level of writing activities that involve analysis and interpretation, said Graham.
Were not seeing development of skills you need for college and the workplace.

Common Core may change things, as the standards ask for more writing and analysis,
not just in English class but also in the social sciences, hard sciences and math.

[READ: The Common Core English Standards: Content and Controversy]

Its unclear what the ideal amount of time for writing is. Graham, who wrote a
teachers guide of evidence-based techniques for teaching writing for the What Works
Clearinghouse unit of the Department of Education, recommends one hour a day. He
admits he doesnt have research to substantiate that number. But he may be onto
something: When Poland increased its language arts classes to more than four hours a
week for each student, its scores on international tests began to soar.

2. Write on a computer: In 83 percent of 30 studies on the use of word processing

software, students writing quality improved when they wrote their papers on a
computer instead of writing by hand. The impact was largest for middle school
students, but younger students benefited, too. The theory is that students feel more
free to edit their sentences because its so easy to delete, add and move text on a
computer. The more editing, the better the final essay.

I was concerned about how these experiments were constructed. Could graders have
been more biased toward these word-processor essays because typed fonts are more
legible than hand-written ones? In most cases, the hand-written essays were retyped
first before the graders scored them. So graders had no idea which essays had been
drafted by computer and which by hand, and still the word-processor essays were
rated higher.

Its also possible that the spell checkers and grammar checkers that are sometimes
bundled with word processing software enable students to submit cleaner drafts,
which are perceived to be of higher quality.

Some educators feel passionately about the importance of writing by hand, convinced
that the act of writing neurologically imprints stronger memories. And theres some
early evidence that note taking might be more effective by hand. But if your goal is
writing quality and not memorization, it seems the evidence points to word processing,
especially beginning in middle school.

Another benefit for educators who believe that students should write not just for
teachers: computerized text files are easier to share with classmates, providing more
opportunity for a real audience and feedback.

Despite this evidence, teacher observations and surveys reveal that teachers have been
slow to adopt this basic technology. In Arthur Applebee and Judith Langers
observations, students used word processing software in only 5.1 percent of the
classes. Separate 2008 and 2010 surveys by Graham show that too many schools still
use pencil and paper as the primary or only writing medium, he wrote.

3. Grammar instruction doesnt work: Traditional grammar instruction isnt

effective. Period. Six studies with children in grades three to seven showed that
writing quality actually deteriorated when kids were taught grammar. That is, graders
scored the essays of students whod been taught traditional grammar lower than those
of students who had not received the lessons.

Three studies did show that teaching kids how to combine two simple sentences into a
single complex sentence was beneficial. (As a writer, I find that baffling as I am
always trying to shorten my sentences! That makes me question the judgment of the
essay graders.)

But traditional grammar diagramming sentences or teaching grammar rules

didnt help. Graham suspects thats because grammar lessons often feel disconnected
from actual writing. Graham found one study that showed great improvement in
student writing quality when teachers modeled correct usage, showing how to use
grammar rules in sentences that students were drafting. But not many experimental
studies are looking at effective procedures for teaching grammar.

In this case, classroom practice isnt totally at odds with the research. Grammar
instruction has declined in U.S. classrooms over the last 40 years. But that might be
because there isnt much writing instruction going on at all.

What does the research show?

The list of recommendations presented below is based on scientific studies of students in

grades 412. The strategies for teaching writing are listed according to the magnitude of their
effects. Practices with the strongest effects are listed first. However, the effects of some
writing interventions differ minimally from the effects of others. Therefore, one should not
assume that only the first several strategies should be implemented. All of the strategies are
potentially useful, and we encourage teachers to use a combination of strategies to best meet
the needs of their students.

Evidence of the effectiveness of each strategy or technique was compiled from research
studies that met several criteria. First, a recommendation was not made unless there was a
minimum of four studies that showed the effectiveness of a writing intervention. Second, in
each study reviewed, the performance of one group of students was compared to the
performance of another group of students receiving a different writing intervention or no
intervention at all. This permitted conclusions that each intervention listed below resulted in
better writing performance than other writing strategies or typical writing teaching in the
classroom. Third, each study was reviewed to ensure it met standards for research quality
and that study results were reliable (reducing the chance that error in assessment contributed
to the results). Fourth, studies were only included if students overall writing quality was
assessed post-intervention. This criterion was used to identify strategies that had a broad
impact on writing performance, as opposed to those with a more limited impact on a specific
aspect of writing such as spelling or vocabulary.

Effective writing practices

Writing strategies: Explicitly teach students strategies for planning, revising, and
editing their written products. This may involve teaching general processes (e.g.,
brainstorming or editing) or more speci?c elements, such as steps for writing a
 persuasive essay. In either case, we recommend that teachers model the strategy,
provide assistance as students practice using the strategy on their own, and allow for
independent practice with the strategy once they have learned it.
Summarizing text: Explicitly teach students procedures for summarizing what they
read. Summarization allows students to practice concise, clear writing to convey an
accurate message of the main ideas in a text. Teaching summary writing can involve
explicit strategies for producing effective summaries or gradual fading of models of a
good summary as students become more proficient with the skill.
Collaborative writing: Allow students to work together to plan, write, edit, and revise
their writing. We recommend that teachers provide a structure for cooperative writing
and explicit expectations for individual performance within their cooperative groups or
partnerships. For example, if the class is working on using descriptive adjectives in
their compositions, one student could be assigned to review anothers writing. He or
she could provide positive feedback, noting several instances of using descriptive
vocabulary, and provide constructive feedback, identifying several sentences that
could be enhanced with additional adjectives. After this, the students could switch
roles and repeat the process.
Goals: Set specific goals for the writing assignments that students are to complete.
The goals can be established by the teacher or created by the class themselves, with
review from the teacher to ensure they are appropriate and attainable. Goals can
include (but are not limited to) adding more ideas to a paper or including specific
elements of a writing genre (e.g., in an opinion essay include at least three reasons
supporting your belief). Setting specific product goals can foster motivation, and
teachers can continue to motivate students by providing reinforcement when they
reach their goals.
Word processing: Allow students to use a computer for completing written tasks.
With a computer, text can be added, deleted, and moved easily. Furthermore,
students can access tools, such as spell check, to enhance their written compositions.
As with any technology, teachers should provide guidance on proper use of the
computer and any relevant software before students use the computer to compose
independently.
Sentence combining: Explicitly teach students to write more complex and
sophisticated sentences. Sentence combining involves teacher modeling of how to
combine two or more related sentences to create a more complex one. Students
should be encouraged to apply the sentence construction skills as they write or revise.
Process writing: Implement flexible, but practical classroom routines that provide
students with extended opportunities for practicing the cycle of planning, writing, and
reviewing their compositions. The process approach also involves: writing for
authentic audiences, personal responsibility for written work, student-to-student
interactions throughout the writing process, and self-evaluation of writing.
Inquiry: Set writing assignments that require use of inquiry skills. Successful inquiry
activities include establishing a clear goal for writing (e.g., write a story about conflict
in the playground), examination of concrete data using specific strategies (e.g.,
observation of students arguing in the playground and recording their reactions), and
translation of what was learned into one or more compositions.
Prewriting: Engage students in activities prior to writing that help them produce and
organize their ideas. Prewriting can involve tasks that encourage students to access
what they already know, do research about a topic they are not familiar with, or
arrange their ideas visually (e.g., graphic organizer) before writing.
Models: Provide students with good models of the type of writing they are expected
to produce. Teachers should analyze the models with their class, encouraging
students to imitate in their own writing the critical and effective elements shown in the
models.

What we know

Evidence-based practices for teaching writing include:

Teaching strategies for planning, revising, and editing
Having students write summaries of texts
 Permitting students to write collaboratively with peers
Setting goals for student writing
Allowing students to use a word processor
Teaching sentence combining skills
Using the process writing approach
Having students participate in inquiry activities for writing
Involving students in prewriting activities
Providing models of good writing

Very few native speakers will ever start writing at the top of
the first page and continue straight through until they finish at
bottom of the last one. The entire process has five steps, but
the first step in the writing process is coming up with your
thoughts and ideas, also known as prewriting. Prewriting helps
students gather ideas and give them a bank of possibilities for
their writing. This way, as students write they do not have to
make decisions simultaneously about content and
language. Help your students get a head start before they
write with any of these six methods for prewriting. The
bank of ideas they will generate will be an invaluable resource
as they write.
How To Generate Writing Ideas
1. 1
Brainstorming
Brainstorming is an activity with which most people are
familiar. The object in brainstorming is to compile as
large a list as possible of potential examples for a given
topic. This is a great activity to do in small groups or
with the entire class. Brainstorming a list of ice
cream flavors is an easy one to start with when
introducing the concept. Naturally, one idea will spark
another, so it is helpful to have students working
together when brainstorming. Give your students
permission to be as creative as they like. Anything goes
with brainstorming. Challenge your students to come up
 with as many examples as they possibly can for
whatever topic you give them.

2.2
Free writing
Free writing is an individual activity for getting thoughts
from your head on to paper. Explain the concept of
stream of consciousness to your students and tell
them that free writing is simply putting on paper every
thought that is going through their heads. Like with
brainstorming, anything goes. The goal of this activity is
to never let your pen or pencil stop writing. Help
students understand that though they will begin with a
particular topic in mind, it is okay to veer off on tangents
as they write. Spelling and grammar are not important
for this activity; it is ideas that we are trying to grasp.
Give your students a set length of time for this
activity. If they are young you may want to limit it to
two or three minutes; older students can probably
write for five to ten minutes. Then when students have
completed the activity, have them go back and read
what they have written digging through the mire for the
gems hidden within.

3.3
Journalistic Questions
 Journalistic questions approach a topic in a more
structured manner. Start by reviewing the question
words: who, what, where, when, why and how. Then,
for your given topic, ask questions starting with each of
these words. For example, if your topic was study
habits, you might ask, Who has good study habits?
Who benefits from good study habits? What are the
good habits? Where do people with good study habits
study? Where to they keep their books? Where do they
organize notes and homework? When do they study?
When do they complete assignments? ... There are an
infinite number of questions you can ask about any
given subject. This activity can be done either
individually or in groups with success. Have students
write answers to each question. When finished
prewriting, have them go back and read what they have
written and organize their thoughts in preparation for
writing.

4.4
Cluster Mapping
Cluster mapping, also called idea webbing, is a
great way to show relationships between
ideas. Cluster mapping is also part idea generation and
part organization, so students will know exactly how to
group their ideas once they are ready to write. To
begin, write your topic in the center of the page and
put a circle around it. Then you can move in one of
 two directions. With younger children, have them think
of questions about the topic. For example, if the topic is
spiders, they may ask, What do spiders eat? Where to
spiders live? What do spiders look like? Each
question should be written in a bubble connected
to the central topic. Tell students to spread these
bubbles out over the page as they will be adding to
each. Then, have students answer the questions
connecting still smaller bubbles to the bubbles
containing the questions. If their question was What do
spiders do? then they might make connecting bubbles
saying they capture flies, they spin webs, they scare
nursery rhyme characters, etc. With students who have
more knowledge about their central topic, their bubbles
connected to the central idea should include subtopics
and/or details about the subtopics. A student may start
with spiders as the central theme, make a connecting
bubble with the subtopic of diet, then connect bubbles
to that subtopic with different types of insects on which
spiders feed. Generally speaking, each of the
subtopics would be one paragraph in a composed
piece of writing with examples and support for the
idea surrounding it.

5.5
Flow Charting
Flow charting is similar to cluster mapping in that it
shows relationships between ideas. However, flow
 charting is most effective when examining cause
and effect relationships. With the central theme drug
abuse in the center of your page, to the left students
would make list of causes for drug abuse with arrows
pointing at the central idea. What causes drug abuse?
Peer pressure, medical need, parental example and
boredom are all potential causes of drug abuse. Each
would therefore be in its own box in the diagram with an
arrow pointing from it to the central idea of drug abuse.
Then examine the effects of drug abuse and place
those in separate boxes to the right of the central idea
each with an arrow going from the central idea to it.
Homelessness, loss of jobs, failure in school, isolation,
further abuse and addiction may all be results of drug
abuse. When writing, students can then focus on either
half of the diagram (causes of drug abuse or effects of
drug abuse) or follow the cause and effect pathway
from cause to effect and cause to effect. Depending on
the topic, students may create a chain of cause and
effect relationships and choose to write about the series.

6.6
Double/Triple Entry
Double or Triple Entry is another focused
brainstorming activity. This is especially useful
when comparing and contrasting two or three
topics or when exploring two or three areas of one
topic. With this prewriting method, have students make
 two (or three) columns on their paper. Each column
should have a topic which focuses the idea generation.
For example, if you were going to compare love and
hate, you might label your columns similarities and
differences and list your ideas in the appropriate
sections. If your students are writing about their ethnic
heritage in comparison to another, you could have them
label one column with each culture. When finished,
students should have a good idea of the points on
which they can compare or contrast their topics.
Whether you choose to use all these methods with your
students or only one or two, prewriting gives your students
the tools and foundation for successful writing. Prewriting
alleviates students anxiety freeing their minds to focus on
words after generating ideas instead of completing both steps
simultaneously. Prewriting will give your students
confidence and direction as they write not to mention
improve the quality of their ideas and organization in their
writing. Why not try it with your students before assigning
your next writing topic?
 Basic Skills

1.

1
Teach letters. Teaching the fundamentals of letters (what a letter is, what each letter
is called, and how it sounds) is where you should begin if you want to teach literacy
effectively. Regardless of age level or language, literacy must begin with an
understanding of letters. If you are teaching a language with a non-roman alphabet,
the same principle applies: teach the characters first.

Teach your students how to recognize the different shapes of the letters. They will
need to be able to easily differentiate between letter which look the same or letters
which sound the same.
Size variation is an important part of learning to write letters. Teach your students
about capital letters and lowercase letters and when to use them. If teaching a non-
roman alphabet, this will be less of a problem.
 Directionality is another important skill. Your students will need to know what
direction letters face and how to properly place them next to each other. For roman
lettering, this will be right to left and horizontal. For other languages it can also be left
to right or vertical, depending on the region.
Spacing is an important skill as well. Teach your students how to place space in
between words, sentences, paragraphs, etc.

2.

2
Teach phonics. Phonics is all about learning what sound letters make, how to
identify those sounds, and how to work with them. Developing your students
understanding of phonics will be key to teaching them to read and write.

Teach your students to hear. They need to be able to listen to speech and recognize
that those words are composed of individual sounds.
 Once they grasp the concept of those sounds, teach them to identify the sounds. For
example, your students will need to be able to hear an aaaaahhhh sound and know
that it is written with an a.
Once they are comfortable identifying sounds, you will also need to teach them how
to manipulate sounds within words. They should be able to recognize when words
rhyme or when one word out of a set begins or ends with a different sound than the
others. They should be able to think of their own examples as well.
Teach compound sounds as well. You will need to explain that when certain letters
appear together, it changes how they sound. For example, in English the th or sh,
in Spanish the ll, and in German the ch or eu.

3.

3
Teach the forming of words. Once your students have a solid grasp on letters and
their associated sounds, you can move on to using those letters and sounds to form
 words. Read to them frequently at this stage, as well as writing lots of examples for
them to look at. This will give them opportunities to see how words are formed.

An important part of teaching word formation is teaching your students the difference
between vowels and consonants. Teach them which letters are which and explain the
necessity of vowels within a word. Teach the basic principles regarding where in a
word vowels can go. For example, it is very rare for the only vowel in a word to go at
the very end of the word but quite common to have the second letter or sound of a
word be a vowel.

4.

4
Understand sentence structure. You students will need to learn and understand
sentence structure once they have mastered forming words. Sentence structure is
the order in which words or parts of speech go, the sequences in which they are
used. Understanding sentence structure will be necessary if they are to form written
 sentences which sound correct. Often people will have difficulty writing naturally like
this, even if they speak correctly.

Your students should learn how to identify nouns. Teach them what a noun is and
where it usually goes in a sentence. The easiest way to explain it will likely be the
tried-and-true person, place, thing or idea.
Your students will need to be able to identify verbs, too. Teach them about action
words and give them lots of examples. You can have them act out different verbs in
order to solidify the concept in their mind. Explain where verbs go in a sentence.
Your students will need to be able to identify adjectives as well. Explain that
adjectives describe other words. Teach them where these words go in a sentence
and how they attach to other words.

5.

5
 Teach proper grammar. Teaching proper grammar will be absolutely essential to
your students learning to write sentences which can be understood and sound
natural.

Using parts of speech together is an important concept in grammar. Your students

should develop an understanding of how nouns, verbs and adjectives interact and
how they fit together. Where these words go in a sentence and when they must be
preceded or followed by another is also important to understand.
Tense is a key concept to understanding how to form proper sentences. Your
students should learn and practice creating sentences which take place in the past,
present, and future. This will teach them how words must be changed in order to
indicate time. This is a complex skill and is often not truly mastered until much later.
Conjugation and declension are other important skills. Conjugation is how verbs
change, depending on how they interact with the other words in the sentence. For
example, in English we say I jump but we also say she jumped. Nouns can go
through a similar process, called declension, but it is nonexistent in English.
Though it has largely been removed from English, many other languages have case
systems which your students will need to understand if they are learning one of those
languages. Cases denote the different functions that nouns and pronouns can serve
in a sentence and, at least in those languages with a case system, how the case
changes the noun (generally with a shift in suffix).
6.

6
Dont forget punctuation. A difficult skill to master, the use of proper punctuation
will be vital to creating well constructed sentences. Later in life, proper punctuation is
often seen as a mark of intelligence and education, so building your students skills in
this area will be very important for opening up opportunities for them in the future.
 Method 2
Teaching Small Children and Preteens

1.

1
Focus on the simplest skills. When teaching literacy to children and pre-teens, it is
important to focus on building the simplest skills first. Emphasize the fundamental
building blocks discussed above, as having a thorough understanding of these
concepts and skills will give your students a solid foundation on which to build future
reading and writing skills.

For elementary age children, literacy skills will place a stronger emphasis on things
like spelling, whereas literacy education for pre-teens will spend more time with
grammar.
2.

2
Introduce the types of writing. There are many different types of writing which your
students will need to learn about. Knowing how to recognize and reproduce different
styles for different contexts will be very important later on in life.

Teach your students to recognize narrative writing. This is writing which conveys a
story and is the form most often read for pleasure. It is commonly used as an
exercise to increase literacy skills. Examples of narrative writing include novels,
biographies, history, and newspaper articles. It is easily recognized by the format:
This happened, and then this happened, and then this happened. and so on.
Teach your students to recognize persuasive writing. This is writing which lays out a
logical argument. Examples of persuasive writing can be seen in job applications,
editorials, and academic papers.
 Teach your students to recognize expository writing. This is writing which explains,
informs or describes something. What you are reading now is an excellent example
of expository writing. Newspaper articles can also fall into this category, along with
encyclopedias and reports.

3.

3
Teach the elements of storytelling. Children in this age-group will need to learn the
basic elements of storytelling. This will give them the tools they need later in life in
order to analyze the things they read.

Elements of storytelling include beginning, middle and end, crisis or climax, and
character. These are most easily taught to children when done in tandem with
reading a book aloud over the course of a few weeks. This gives you the opportunity
to discuss and analyze the text, so that they can see how these ideas work in
practice. Solidify these skills by having them write stories of their own.
4.

4
Introduce the Five Paragraph Essay. The Five Paragraph Essay includes an
introduction, three body paragraphs (usually argumentative in some way), and a
conclusion. This common form of writing will be used throughout their lives and
should be introduced as early as possible.

Introductory assignments could include a review of their favorite toy or game, a

persuasive essay about why they should be allowed to eat more candy, or a
biography of their favorite family member.
5.

5
Teach the use of voice. Voice refers to who is speaking in a text. Voice can be but
should generally not be mixed within a text. Being able to identify and manipulate
voice will be important for your students to learn, as this will help them analyze the
things they read.

Common voices include first person (heavy use of I/me), second person (heavy use
of you), and third person (heavy use of names and they). Tense can also be
applied to each of these voices, modifying how it sounds and reads.
First person example (past tense): I went for a walk today. My dog, Spike, came with
me. Spike likes to go on walks with me.
Second person example: You went for a walk today. Your dog, Spike, came with you.
Spike likes to go on walks with you.
 Third person example: Sarah went for a walk today. Her dog, Spike, went with her.
Spike likes to go on walks with her.

6.

6
Avoid setting limits. Especially with elementary age children, try to leave as many
doors open as possible within their exercises and assignments. Children at this age
are very creative (a trait which will be very helpful later in life) and it is better for them
if this creativity is not discouraged or downplayed.

Children will also learn better by being forced to think for themselves, so giving them
opportunities to do that (by leaving assignments and exercises open-ended) will help
them significantly.
7.

7
Keep it as fun as possible. Make learning fun. Children will be distracted easily if
they find their work too boring or non-engaging. In fusing learning and play, you will
ensure that your students are engaged and absorbing information.

For example, with middle-school age children you can have them create a game and
then write rules for the game. This will be fun but it will also force them to think about
writing specific language which is also easy to follow.
For elementary children, let them write, edit and illustrate their own books. This will
work on developing their understanding of story and character, while simultaneously
improving their ability to form correct sentences with proper spelling.
8.

8
Teach pre- and post-writing process skills. It will be important for children to learn
that there is more to writing that just putting words on a page. Teaching pre- and
post-writing skills will teach children to analyze writing, as well as working to build
their language skills.

Outlines are an example of a pre-writing skill. Outlining what they intend to write will
help learners work through logical processes. It will also teach them to think of
elements of writing (different paragraphs or subtopics) as a unified whole, rather than
pieces simply placed next to each other.
Editing is an example of a post-writing skill. Editing their own work, as well as the
work of others, will build language skills. This will make your students more
competent writers, as well as increasing their confidence in their writing. If they know
 how to look for mistakes and correct them, they will be less restrained by fear of
failure.
Method 3
Teaching Teenagers

1.

1
Build on earlier skills. Just because your students should have learned basic
grammar or spelling when they were younger does not mean that those skills should
be neglected now. Continue to build on and maintain skills like grammar, spelling,
parts of speech, voice, tense and writing style. This will keep their skills sharp, as
well as helping any students who may have fallen through the cracks.
2.

2
Encourage creativity. By this older stage, many people will have a reduced capacity
for creativity. Creative thinking skills, however, lead people to be better problem
solvers and innovators, so such skills should be fostered in any way possible. Writing
is one of the best opportunities for students to bring creativity into their academics.
Encourage them to take new approaches to assignments and methods of reading.
3.

3
Emphasize critical thinking. During this time in their lives, children should be
developing the skills necessary to prepare them for higher learning. This will ensure
that they have the most opportunities possible. An absolutely necessary skill for
higher education, as well as a vital life skill, is critical thinking. Encourage your
students to really think about the things they are reading and writing. This will
prepare them to do everything from analyze news stories to participating fully in the
political process.

Have your students ask questions about what they are reading. Who wrote this book?
Why did they write it? Who did they write it for? What impact did the environment
around them have on the text? There are many questions like these which can serve
to illuminate information hidden within the things they read.
 Have your students ask questions about their own writing. Why did I choose this
voice? Why do I have the opinion I've expressed? Why is this something I care about?
What would I rather be writing? These kinds of questions can lead your students to
learn a lot about themselves but it will also help them make more conscious
decisions about the things they write.

4.

4
Prepare for real, academic writing. If you want your students to have a real
opportunity at getting a higher education, they will need to be able to do the more
complex types of writing which are common in colleges, universities, and training
programs. This means employing argumentative skills, expressing themselves clearly,
using logic, and following proper formats. Give them opportunities to practice these
skills while pursuing topics that interest them.
5.

5
Encourage reading. We often become better writers by reading excellent examples
of the craft. Get your teens reading well written, classic literature. Give them books in
widely varying styles so that they can see differences in voice, description and word
choice. They should be given older works which remain classic, in order to see why
certain techniques are timeless and hold wide appeal. They should also read newer
material, so that they have solid models to build on for their own writing.

This will have the added benefit of often expanding a students vocabulary.
Encourage them to look up any word they dont know. This will help give them the
adult vocabulary which is often a mark of a good education, which will help them
exponentially in further academic and professional environments.
6.

6
Teach careful word choice. Many inexperienced writers will often use far more or
far fewer words than they need to. Guide them until they learn to balance description,
dialogue, detail and information. This is a very difficult skill to learn and will take time
as well as a great deal of practice.

Get overly wordy writers to learn what should be included and what is just overkill.
This will often be a wealth of adjectives or repetitive sentences. Show them how to
weed out extras and get their sentences down to the basics.
A smaller portion of writers will have a hard time getting descriptive and specific
enough. Teach them to remove themselves and approach their writing with a list of
requirements. Could this be understood by someone entirely new to the subject?
Could someone come to a specific page and be able to follow along? Give them
 exercises, such as having to write an entire page describing an apple, to improve
their skills.

7.

7
Develop handwriting skills. An important skill for teens to develop is adult-level
handwriting. While rounded, uneven characters with childish shapes are acceptable
for beginning students, teens will want to develop a more adult appearance to their
handwriting if they want to be taken seriously in future academic and professional
endeavors.

Give teens lots of opportunity to practice their handwriting. Most assignments are
typed these days and this removes a students chance to improve their handwriting.
Require shorter assignments to be handwritten or find other ways for them to spend
time improving their skills.
 Encourage legibility, even lettering, and clean lines. The writing doesnt need to be in
cursive in order to look adult and professional, it simply needs to be precise. When
teens excel at this, reward them. If they struggle, show them what needs to be
improved and give them opportunity to fix mistakes.
Give handwriting exercises as minor extra credit. Repeated lines of the same letter
will give students great practice and allow them to easily see improvements and
become acquainted with appropriate gestures.
Method 4
Teaching Adults

1.

1
Simplify. Adults should learn literacy in many of the same ways as a child would.
These are basic building blocks and should not be skipped, just because they are
 simplistic. Streamline the learning process by giving your students the most basic
skills so that they will be prepared for the more complex ones.

2.

2
Build trust. Because there is such a social stigma attached to adult illiteracy, you will
absolutely have to develop trust with your students. Do not judge them, do not make
them feel stupid, do not criticize them for mistakes and be patient with them at all
times.

Most of all, show them that you make mistakes too. Show them when you dont know
things. Let them see you look a word up in a dictionary, to find its spelling or meaning.
Let them see you ask for help when you need it, such as if you are unsure of the
grammar of a sentence. Modeling behavior in this way will show your students that
not knowing something is not a sign of stupidity or weakness of character.
3.

3
Build self confidence. Build their self confidence. Illiterate adults are often ashamed
of themselves for not knowing how to read or write. Building their confidence will
encourage them to take risks without fear of mistake or rejection. Doing that is
essential to the learning process. When your students do well, tell them so. When
your student makes a mistake, emphasize any way in which they were right or acting
logically before showing them how to do it correctly.
4.

4
Foster passion. People who love something will always put more work into it and do
it better at it than those who are doing something they dont like. Give your students a
reason to love what they are doing. Men might enjoy being able to read sports stories
or game descriptions, where women might enjoy reading about beauty tips or how to
make their own clothes and accessories.
5.

5
Build skills to correct levels. Slowly move them from the basic skills to the higher
levels, as outlined in the teen section. With time they will reach a skill level
appropriate with their age. This will significantly improve their work prospects as well
as their confidence.