Week 8

Writing: Elementary Education

Housekeeping Article of the Week:
This Week: Check Elearning
Due Today: Next Week: Check Elearning
Reading Responses Week 8
Due Week 9 : Student/Teacher Midterm
Conferences:
Reading Responses Week 9
By Appointment Only
 Overview
Objectives & Goals Lessons
ü Composition (L.7) ü Spelling and Writing from last week
ü Spelling (L.9) ü Lesson Planning
ü Syntax (L.12) ü Sentence Construction with groups
Activities ü Planning
ü Take Notes in Writer’s Website Assessment
ü Kagan Structures
ü Group and Class Discussion, Exit Ticket
ü Group Writing Project
 Learning Outcomes
Students will select, craft, and assess instructional methods that
develop written composition abilities in a variety of motivating and
engaging contexts, including writing across the disciplines. Students
will explore the following instructional practices: setting writing goals,
offering/receiving/incorporating feedback, engaging the writing process
and strategies, and studying models and non-models of writing for a
variety of purposes and audiences.
 Learning Outcomes
Students will develop strategies to use diagnostic and formative
assessments to develop spelling instruction that emphasizes spelling
as a connection between individual and groups of phonemes (letter
sounds) and graphemes (letter symbols) and morphemes (meaning
units) that, among other things, allows readers to translate thoughts
into written words (encoding).
 Learning Outcomes
Students will select and use research-supported instructional
techniques to teach and assess syntax as a set of principles that govern
phrase and sentence structure, which varies across languages and
dialect (word order and meaning, grammar, parts of speech, word order,
varying complexity of phrases and sentences, etc.)
 Article of the
Week
Mackenna & Olivia
Madeline &
Hannah
Article of the
Week
Theresa & Gwen
Katie & Cecilia
Article of the
Week
Nicole & Lucas
Jess & Kayla
Kagan Structures

Round Robin
Kagan Structures
Cooperative
Learning Roles
 “Children acquire numerous
academic competencies
throughout their school
experiences – however, the ability
to translate their thoughts into
writing may be the most
complex.”
Sentence Construction
Writing is an essential tool for communication and learning across all
content areas. The most basic and critical component is the construction of
the sentence. A sentence is an idea unit marked by capitalization and
punctuation.
Sentence Combining
ü Composition in miniature that sounds right individually and fits well within a
multi-sentence text with a satisfying end
ü Sentence–leveled instruction
Sentence Construction
To construct or reformulate sentences, the writer must have knowledge of syntax –
the level of structure provided in a language for organizing multiple words into
sentence structures. Knowledge of punctuation marks to create sentence boundaries
is also necessary.
Young Learners
ü Learn through oral communication then transferred to written language
ü Learn to express themselves with different sentences (simple, compound, and
complex, and sentences with different functions (declarative, imperative,
interrogative and exclamatory)
ü Noun-verb pattern sentences
ü String together to make a paragraph
Sentence Construction
Young Learners Cont.
ü Sentence combining helps students produce more syntactically mature
sentences
ü Manipulate and rewrite basic phrases or clauses into more varied and
syntactically mature forms
ü Need instruction in formulating a concept of what a sentence is and what
syntactical options are possible
ü Should shift to other writing tasks such as awareness of audience needs
ü Syntactical fluency – ability to produce a variety of sentences leads to quality
writing
ü Refine their writing by combining, changing, adding, rearranging and deleting
words and ideas
Sentence Construction
We wrote one or two simple sentences. Then, we combined the sentences to form a
compound (two sentences put together with a comma and a conjunction) or complex
sentence. Please use the Chat Box to write two examples like the sentences below.

Examples:
from EmmaGrace Furgason to Everyone: 5:58 PM
The cat is cute. The cat's name is Cooper. The cat is cute, and his name is Cooper.

from Isabella Shae Molina to Everyone: 5:58 PM

Joan went to the store. Joan got potatoes. Joan raced to the store, she needed to get potatoes before the
party started!
 Instructional Recommendations
Step 1
Students are separated into
groups.
Group #1: pages 246-247
Group #2: pages 248-249
Group #3: pages 250-251
Group #4: pages 252-253
Group #5: pages 254, 257, 258
Step 2 Step 3
Each group will read and One student from each
discuss their assigned group will share the
pages. Together, your
information with the
group will prepare a
entire class. The other
summary to present to the
class. One student will be students will write in
the speaker to share out the Chat what Group #
the groups’ ideas. they participated with.
The Book Whisperer
The next book we will highlight is The Book Whisperer by Donalyn
Miller. As a former elementary education teacher, this book is by far
the best that I have read for Language Arts instruction. Check this out:
“I have been admonished by parents and fellow teachers because I
let children read a book more than once. My most treasured books
have been read many times by me and each time I discover
something different. Books are multilayered; one reading is not
enough and this is known only to those who truly read.”
The Book Whisperer
Not only do I love this book, I recommend it to any one I meet who
teaches Language Arts. Of course, the best readers are the best
writers. If I was studying to teach elementary education for the first
time, I would buy this book immediately!
“Any book that helps a child to form a habit of reading, to make
reading one of his deep and continuing needs, is good for him.”
~Richard McKenna
 Planning
● Planning is meant to be the first stage of the
writing process, it is frequently the step that
students skip or rush
● Precedes and coincides with the drafting
process
● It can take place before, during, and/or
throughout
● Strategies must be taught for generating ideas
(from memory and/or outside sources)
● Teach genre structures and ways to organize
ideas
● Set goals
● Planning is engaging in the selection, collection, and
organization of ideas in preparation and throughout
the writing process
● Includes: dissecting the prompt/assignment,
understand expectations, conducting research, taking
notes, discussing ideas, brainstorming
● Uses outlines, clustered notes, webs, storyboards
● Ideas that address the assignment, genre, audience
● Is interactive and recursive
● Sometimes called prewriting
● Positively impacts writing
● Interventions may be used
 Planning Strategies Instruction
Learning Strategies are an individual approach to a task. Strategies Instruction are direct instructions
using modeling with think alouds, genre instruction, and scaffolded support.
Self-Regulated Strategy Genre Structure Modeling
Development Teaching students all of the elements Think Alouds are effective. They are
genre structure is an example of modeling by speaking aloud all of the
Ability to consistently evaluate one’s
strategy instruction, and is a essential things we are teaching from generating
own response to a situation and
prewriting instruction. See Table 11.1 ideas to the final draft (entire process)..
engage in strategies to produce the
for a genre based mnemonics. See table 11.2 for the .TONES strategy.
desired response. (intervention).

Understanding Writing Question Asking Evidenced Based

Requirements
Instruction is using modeling, guided
practice to teach how to analyze
prompts.
All strategies in this chapter are
Journalist’s Five Ws – Who, What.
evidenced based.
Where When, Why
Four Bedford Questions - Page 271
Feasibility Questions – Page 271
 Planning Strategies Instruction
Commonly Used Approaches
Talk It Out Brainstorming
Students talk in pairs to talk about the Technique used to generate good ideas
assignment/topic. They can also talk for writing.. Students write down all
out loud to themselves. the ideas they have about the topic in
a rapid-fire format.
Freewriting Outlining
Increases the flow of ideas and Short writing task organized to make a
develops writing fluency. Set a timer simple list. Difficult to use for students
and students write anything that because of Roman Numerals, but can
comes to mind. use Arabic numbers, letters, or bullets.
Cluster/Web/Mind Map
Used to think about a topic in different
ways and to record what is already know
about the topic. Use think aloud all the
idea the teacher/students can think in
the center of a page clustering ideas
around the topic.
Storyboard/Drawing
Creating a visual sequence for laying
out a narrative or any ideas best
represented by drawing. Students can
use folded paper computer and
graphic art.
 Planning Strategies Instruction
Commonly Used Approaches
Technology for Planning
Computer based apps can facilitate the
organization of ideas generated and
collected during planning activities. Apps
are flexible mechanisms for organizing
and modifying the ideas for writing.
Writing from the Plan
Once a plan has been created, then the
teacher should announce that the student
will begin the first draft. The teacher can
make memories by asking what the students
think they should do next and maybe even
pretend to toss the plan in the trash. Then,
they begin with the plan on one side and a
blank paper on the other and use a talk aloud
to begin to write.
 Planning Strategies Instruction
Special Writing Tasks
Writing from Source Text
Writing from a source requires special attention.
Students are expected to read multiple texts,
sometimes in varying genres, and synthesize
information across the texts. Students are then
expected to craft essays including required elements of
the genre supporting their thinking with text-based
evidence (information students glean from sources to
reinforce their response to the writing prompt. See
page 281 for instructional practices.
Standardized Assessments
The time limits often prohibit the
prewriting/planning stage in the writing process.
There is no time allowed for ideas, planning, revision,
or editing—all the other aspects of the writing
process. Students are faced with typing on a small
computer screen without adequate tools for
planning. Teach to the test???? What do you think?
 Planning Strategies Instruction
Conclusion
Planning is an important stage in the writing process. By including
essential elements of the genre and meaningful details in the plan,
students are able to free their minds to be creative throughout the
drafting stage and better manage the cognitive load associated with
thoughtful composition.
What questions
do you have?