Essential lessons for teaching writing skills to children and creative writing prompts with rigorous rubrics for grading.
We learn to write by the act of writing. Often we teachers get a bit too caught up in making everything a formal lesson, don’t we?
There is a time and a place for writing lessons. Yet there is also a need for allowing our students to write frequently, on their own terms, about moments that are meaningful to them.
Part of our role as teachers is to help our students develop the autonomy and willingness to write frequently, and in a safe space.
We have to show students how to plan their writing and develop meta-awareness of what they have written. Students have to be directly taught about the purposes for writing and how to meet those needs.
If we want better writers, teachers have to get better at how we question and conference with young learners. We have to know how to assess both formatively and summatively, while providing valuable feedback.
Teachers must be able to ask open ended questions and step back from taking control of the writing process.
Along with drawing on life experiences (small moments) our students need to have a solid grasp of the mechanics of good writing (structure and clarity). They should also be able play with words and tell their stories with image-rich vocabulary.
This is a huge order for any teacher, isn’t it? You can read more on these points at the National Council of Teachers of English.
9 Ways to effectively implement teaching writing strategies
These are what I believe are the essential parts of teaching writing strategies:
- Focus on small moments they have personally experienced
- Write for real audiences at least some of the time
- Romance your students to develop a love of word play and figurative language
- Expect students to use good mechanics – punctuation, capital letters…it does matter!
- Use mentor texts to provide a foundation for styles of writing
- Understand the stages of writing children progress through
- Provide many opportunities for expression every day
- Guide students through the writing process
- Be encouraging of their efforts and allow them to share frequently
Resources for Teaching writing Strategies
The following evidence based writing lessons and tips are authentic and straight from the classroom.
These will develop young writers and provide the structure teachers need to be successful.
- Why is it critical to romance young writers
- Writing Rubrics aligned to Common Core standards (K-5)
- 4 developmental writing stages of writing
- How kindergarteners write amazing reports in a small group
- Using a stoplight to write a paragraph that passes any test.
- How to teach the five paragraph essay
- 20 creative writing ideas you will want to use right now.
- Creative writing topics for any classroom
- Download some writing prompts to use with daily journaling
- An idea for a creative story that kids will love
- Get to know the 6 Trait process of writing
- Teaching ideas for 6 Trait Writing
- 7 benefits of journal writing for elementary students
- Journal writing ideas and topics