Helping writers to succeed

Hello, Paula here from Paula's Place

and this week I am blogging about what makes a writer succeed.

Setting the scene

As teachers we think and rethink our classroom set up for hours (read days).

We consider the flow of the room, the light, where posters will go, how will the tables and chairs fit, who will sit with who. That's the tip of the iceberg really. 

The routines for how our class works, impacts on the writing sessions we have (well everything we do really).

So setting up our Writing Centre and Six Traits Plus 1 reference charts is vital.

The listing of what happens in 'Work On Writing' time and what happens at conference time, just makes for a smooth writing time.

Word Walls are necessary for children to be able to check in with at any age. 

Then we think what will I teach?

We look at Curriculum, past teacher judgements, we participate in writing moderation and look at samples of work. We consider what should be next and then devise a plan of action. So armed with all this research we begin to plan our lessons. 

Writing is a cycle

This is an agreed cycle that my grade and I put together and we revisit it and make changes as we need to. 

Even though we call it a cycle - with some tasks we don't always get to the publishing stage.

The writing phase

With early writers they need to be able to have a topic that is relevant and for some they just cannot write about their choice. I am a huge advocate of using Discovery Learning (you may call it by another name). This way they will always have something to write about. 

Our students need to have plenty of options. 

These books are ready for them to record in and add an illustration. 

They share them with a buddy or a group and get feedback before the book goes back for someone else to use. 

We also use writing groups where there are tasks for them at point of need - these are driven by the conference time and setting goals. 

Displaying writing creates better writers

If you can, display as much writing as possible. Display it in a variety of ways - books, charts, on walls, hanging and let them interact with the texts. 

We conference - and we set goals

Conference time means being super organised. 

Students need to prove what they know and explain how it has changed their writing. 

  

Students need to walk away from a conference knowing their next goal. It needs to be in student friendly language and accessible to look at before they start their next text. 

I like being able to look back and be able to share with parents and the student how fa they have come over time. 

   

Great writing resources to have

  

  

This one is in a series. 

Here are some packs form our collaborators that will help excite your writers to write. 

Click on the images to see more.

Writing Goals

Genres, Text Types and Structure

   

           

Writing Process Packs

Writing Ideas for Independent Writing

  

        

Happy writing everyone. 

signing off from