She believes that teaching creative writing helps students excel on standardized tests, that deeply analyzing and unpacking a poem is a fabulous way to spend an hour or so, and that Shakespeare is always better with sound effects. The Writing Corner: How to Teach the Writing Process to Students. The Process of Publishing Your Students’ Writing. Don’t just describe the step—for each step of the process, show them multiple examples of how it’s done. After all this work teaching them the importance of process, make sure that they understand that you really value this work. It might be a mess at this point, but there is enough clay to be molded into something better. The draft is often defined as the time to just get it all on paper— to make a rough slab of clay that can then be sculpted. September 13, 2016 You teach students to combine sentences, and I find it helpful to see writing an essay or story or poem like creating a sculpture out of clay. While much can be learned from just about any writing assignment, perhaps the best way to teach the writing process to elementary students is to tie it all together in the form of a classbook project. Yes, a lot of their writing is pretty unoriginal after I model my writing, but that’s why we do a second or third of that writing type on their own. These elements of structure are best presented to students in the form of samples of writing. It takes many steps to create a good final draft. Think of this step as the artist simply finding enough clay to work with. Christina Gil was a high-school English teacher for sixteen years, but she recently left the classroom to follow a dream and move with her family to an ecovillage in rural Missouri. By assigning the steps in class, you will give students the message that the process is important. What is the writing process? While the writing process is being taught, stu-dents fill in the boxes as directed by the teacher. It takes many steps to create a good final draft. Teaching writing can seem a lot like that. Yet students often have the idea that they should be able to sit down, start writing an essay, and when they get to the last word they are done. Gradually release writing responsibility from the teacher to the student. Good writers know that writing is a process. Write a terrible first draft of a poem or an essay or a paragraph, and then revise it. If students fill each box as the teacher introduces the stage or strategy, students have time to internalize Good writers know that writing is a process. When you squeeze one part of the balloon, it pops out somewhere else. Input from others is also key—it might be in the form of peer conferences or teacher conferences, but as writers, we write for an audience, and so it is important to know if our message is getting across to an audience. For each writing type, I extensively model the process. But first, teachers need to guide students and can use the Writing Process Chart page to begin this guid-ance. Teach students the writing process. The first step, which might take the form of brainstorming, free writing, making lists or diagrams, is often called prewriting; it is the best way to avoid writer’s block from the start. You might have a student who has to look at seven examples of revision, but finally understands what you want—in late May. by Teach.com. I teach a mini-lesson for each part, showing students which organizers they should use to pre-write, organize, draft, and revise. It’s simpler and easier to solely grade students on their final product. Big surprise: students who receive a 100 on process usually have an A on their final draft. It will take time, especially when they are first learning how to do it, but if you do dedicate class time to showing them the importance of this valuable skill, the benefits will last. Teach students strategies for the various components of the writing process. Sit down with a student in front of the class and model a peer conference. Think of this as the artist cutting away major pieces of the clay, or perhaps adding entire sections. So check in with students, either by reading over their shoulders or by having them share a googledoc with you so that you can check on their progress or by observing their peer conferences. Teaching the writing process is not easy. There aren’t any right answers, and it takes time for students to fully appreciate the value of each step. Teaching process can be messy and vague and hard to pin down, but the effort is so worth it. The final step in the writing process, editing, is when the piece is polished, just as that clay sculpture might get a final shine. In any type of writing instruction, students need to interact with samples of the type of writing … Revision means not just changing a few commas, but making major adjustments—maybe cutting a paragraph or adding multiple sentences or changing the focus of the piece all together. Come back to these steps over and over throughout the year. 1. For better or for worse, the way that we often show students that we value something is by assigning it a grade. So until grades are done away with completely, this too should get a grade. And then push them to do more. 3. Teach students to use the writing process for a variety of purposes. When she is not hauling water to her tiny home, she can be found homeschooling her two kids or meeting with her neighbors about the best way to run their village. And then show them all of the work that you put into making it better. But you can teach students to understand the how-to as well as the importance of the writing process by following these steps. I start with 100 and then take off points for whatever is missing. Students will often do the bare minimum that they think will be accepted, and when it is something uncomfortable and new and strange, like going back and really reflecting on work that they have done, they will be even more likely to try to get by with less. Show students how awful and vague and underwritten your draft was. 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Disclosures, How I Teach the Writing Process in Elementary, Organizing Writing: How I Use Binders to Simplify Our Writing Block, My 4 Favorite Books About Teaching Authentic Writing in Grades 3-5, How to Be Successful at Teaching Writing with 1:1 Devices, Distance Learning: Using Zoom to Record Writing Lessons, Mentor Texts for Teaching Narrative Nonfiction Writing. If you haven’t had a chance to collect student samples of drafts or revision or peer conferences, you're going to have to create your own. This is the time to worry about the placement of a single word or comma. If you have one little unit at the beginning of the year when students are graded for their writing process, they will realize that it is not something that you truly value. Let’s say you teach commas or dialogue, the next thing you know you have commas and dialogue everywhere. I find it helpful to see writing an essay or story or poem like creating a sculpture out of clay. It takes a lot to finish a piece: brainstorming, drafts, revision, revision, more revision, input from others, more revision, and editing. Recommendation 2a. 2. Give them examples of the kinds of sentences you’d like them to have in their essays. The way that I have done this in the past is to make a list of what is expected of students, usually brainstorm, draft, two revisions, two peer conferences, an edit, and a final draft. September 13, 2016 by Teach.com . Teaching writing is a bit like squeezing an underinflated balloon. In the boxes as directed by the teacher is missing organize, draft, then... 100 and then revise it you can teach students to use the writing is. Students how awful and vague and hard to pin down, but there is enough clay to work with their! Or for worse, the next thing you know you have commas and dialogue.! 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