This post is for all students, especially ones who are in the RTI process, ones with an IEP, and ones who need more challenge.

I bet these questions have crossed your mind a time or two if you’ve attempted to teach students to write. What do I do with a student who struggles with getting ideas on the paper? What about spelling? Fluency? Grammar? Style? Focus? Why is writing growth so hard to measure?

Here, I will attempt to simplify goal-setting, but I am going to be blunt. It won’t happen if you don’t get out of the boat. It will take some work, but the dividends will be worth it. Keep reading.

Before setting goals, let’s remember that students must first have something on the paper. If that is difficult, this may be your first goal…fluency. Students need to write DAILY for a variety of audiences and purposes. Not all writing is “graded.”

Informal writing includes, but is not limited to, writing to summarize, to solve problems, response to reading in logs and journals, and quick writes.

How much do students need to write at a time? Do not tell students how much to write, but tell them how long. Set a timer and build some perseverance. They need to get something on paper without concentrating on the length. Fluency needs to be built.

Establish a baseline. Does that sound familiar? Well, it can be done with writing. It has to be specific. A baseline may include writing prompts, fluency probes, spelling lists, and standards-based assessments.

You determine the area of greatest need: Fluency, focus, content, style, conventions, etc. The tool to be used needs to be explained to the student. Are you checking for the amount of words written? Total number of sentences? Is it based on a rubric? All of this needs to be considered when establishing a baseline.

CONTENT GOALS

This includes getting down ideas and developing/supporting them.

Examples of CONTENT GOALS:

1.Given a writing assignment, _______________will improve his score from doesn’t meet the standard to meeting in IDEAS on the school rubric.

2. Using a graphic organizer, ________________ will write a __(A number)____paragraph essay that includes topic sentences, _(A number)_____transition words, and a conclusion.

3. _______ will write a _______ sentence paragraph with a topic sentence and _________ detail sentences.

FLUENCY GOALS

Fluency goals will depend upon the level/age/grade of the students. Goals may measure letters written, words written, words written correctly, or sentences written.

1. Given 5 minute timed probe, _________will increase the number of _____________ written from ________(current baseline) to ____________.

FOCUS GOALS

A writer needs to stay on topic, not confuse the reader, or give information that isn’t relevant.

1. Given a written assignment at ______ grade level, _______ will stay on a given topic/stay focused and will move from level _______ to _________.

Goals can also be set for students to move from meets to exceeds.

CONVENTIONS AND EDITING GOALS

1. Given a one-paragraph writing sample at the ________ grade level, _______ will correct spelling, punctuation, and grammatical errors accurately with fewer than ___________ errors.
2. Given a prompt, __________ will complete ___________ sentences using correct capitalization and punctuation with ________% accuracy from the baseline of _________%.

STYLE GOALS

Teaching students to find their voices is hard to teach and difficult to measure. Be specific as to what you expect. Read to students all the time, so that they hear other voices.

1. _______ will include ________ descriptive words in a given written assignment.
2. Given a three paragraph assignment, _______ will vary sentence structure throughout each paragraph.
3. ________ will correctly include one or more simile and/or metaphor in a written assignment.
4. Given a written assignment, _________ will begin each sentence in a different way.
5. Given a writing assignment, _______ will use a combination of simple and compound sentences. (Given the students/grades, they may also be required to write complex and compound-complex per their standards.)

What I have shared is a start. Make the goals pertinent to your students and schools. Use these if they work for you. Seek out more information. I am here to help.

Resources that may provide more information about setting writing goals:

• Meredith Laden
• National Writing Project
• WISE Writing Consulting
• IEP Goals and Objectives Bank

I love to journal and love to teach about journaling. What many do not realize is that various types of journaling exist. Journaling can be one outlet for expressive writing. It is my hope that this post will explain in a nutshell what expressive writing is and how therapeutic it can be for many.

Gregory Ciotti and James Pennebaker have written extensively about expressive writing and how it may help the whole person. Many of their ideas are used in today’s post. Expressive writing is a more structured approach.

Think about it as journal therapy for mental health and the soul. Expressive writing is more about how one feels about what happened or is happening than about what already happened. Sometimes we use journaling to regurgitate events so that we don’t forget. This is different.

When we start writing about our feelings, it seems emotions may seem to get worse before better . Try to work through this, but if things get worse and don’t improve, stop writing and get help from a trained specialist. Expressive writing works for many, but it is not for everyone. I do hope you see benefits if you try it, however.

So how does this look? Expressive writing can take many paths.

• Diaries
• Journals
• Memoirs
• Personal songs and/or poetry
• Opinion pieces
• Personal observations
• Blogs
• Reflections
• Narratives

Basically, it is working through emotions and changes we may encounter. It’s talking on paper. William Wordsworth said, “Fill your paper with the breathings of your heart.” It’s a way to keep from pressing emotions deep inside to surface only when we least expect it. The best way to get through life, I think, is to face it head on. I have not always been successful, but writing does help me. Perhaps this will help you, as well.

What are the benefits of regular/often expressive writing?

• Reduces stress
• Improves sleep
• Has a positive impact on mental health
• Helps mood and well-being
• Reduces neural overload (too much going on in the brain)
• Improves retention of info if done by hand
• Builds motor memory better than a keyboard

Graham Gibbs, former Oxford professor, suggests the following plan for expressive “writing to heal.”

1. Describe what happened. (Description)
2. What were you thinking and feeling? What are your feelings now? (Feelings)
3. What was good and bad about the situation? (Evaluation)
4. What sense can you now make of the situation? (Analysis)
5. What else could you have done? (Conclusion)
6. If it arose again, what would you do? (Action Plan)

I have added Step 7.

7. Write a letter to yourself making peace with the event. This may be completed at a later date.

If you would like more information about expressive writing, email me at slpholbert@gmail.com.

• Engages students in learning
• A means to evaluate mastery of content or of written form
• Forms and extends thinking
• Engages students in becoming invested in their ideas and learning
• Writing-to-learn : Literary modes, free writing, sentence-combining, rubrics
• Students engage with the text in order to understand it.
• Must be planned with a purpose and audience…authentic
• Discover, connect, clarify, and communicate through writing.
• Daily writing

Students should be writing often and at extended opportunities.

If students get to high school and are struggling writers, we must find ways to close the gap. No excuses.

High school students need multiple opportunities to use journals and logs. They need to write informational and argumentative pieces, as well as research papers. They need a chance to write creatively. (I think we have lost the creative writing along the way…)

Read the previous posts about writing in math and science classes for suggestions.

We cannot continue to ignore the writing research. Students won’t learn to write if they never get the opportunity. One doesn’t learn to swim without jumping in the water. Same with the skill of writing.

I challenge you to read many of my posts at wisewritingconsulting.com and choose some new ideas to try. You can do it. Happy writing.

Steve Graham, well-known writing authority, says that writing is a neglected skill, and I agree wholeheartedly. Most teachers know what it takes, but it gets forgotten in the demands they face. Stakeholders don’t always see the importance , and lack of time is a “factor” for teachers when asked why writing isn’t happening.

Writing is needed for student success; it IS a fundamental skill. The United States is not the only country facing the issue . Graham also states that writing instruction is inadequate in many countries and many grades. Most countries. Let that sink in…

The last two years have been so difficult on everyone. Education and students have suffered, I don’t care how well students did with virtual learning. It just was not the same. Gaps were evident before the pandemic, and I believe we will only be able to see the real effects of the pandemic on education as we move forward. We must find a way to reach our students, to make up what they missed, and to fill in important cognitive gaps in the quickest way we can.

I believe writing is more important today than it has ever been. We have got to change how we teach so instruction improves and students have cognitive gains. Writing is a means to an end. A solid writing plan and research-based strategies are a must, now more than ever. Writing is the most important cognitive tool we have readily available that also improves reading along the way. Why do we continue to ignore the benefits of having our students write regularly?

Gregory Ciotti and James Pennebaker write extensively about the benefits of writing. Ciotti in 2014 reminded us that writing by hand improves retention of information and builds motor memory better than using a keyboard. That needs to be shouted from the rooftop.

Teachers must be trained in the “why” and the “how” and then adequate time—extensive time— must be built in to the schedule. Writing cannot be an afterthought, and it cannot be neglected any longer.

Let’s ask ourselves a couple of questions. What do we want our students to be able to do? How do we use writing? Think hard. Be honest. If you teach math, really think about how your class is organized and what you expect of your students.

I believe most of us want our students to succeed and will do anything we can to make that happen. What would you say if I told you that having your students write is one of the best ways to your students’ success? Would you decide you already have too much on your plate and that it’s just one more thing? I’m serious and it may take removing some of the activities you have had the habit of using with your math students. Stay with me, and please read with an open mind.

Having students write in math class will

• help students reflect on learning
• encourage deeper understanding
• help to make connections
• help access formatively and summatively
• help solidify thinking
• help students gain new perspectives
• and help both teachers and students discover holes in logic and missing steps.

All students in all classes need to write, and research supports this. Marilyn Burns says, “I can no longer imagine teaching math without making writing an integral aspect of students’ learning.”

When do they write? Students need to write consistently and daily, if possible, in all classes. This writing must be planned and purposely to achieve the desired results: increased understanding of the math content.

It is not easy to teach students to write, but it can be done. Nothing happens by accident. It helps to connect their speaking to writing. I like to call writing “thinking on paper.” Have them to put their math thoughts on paper.

What are some ways to accomplish this?

• Think-Write-Pair-Share
• Post prompts and key vocabulary you want students to use.
• Use a rubric to guide responses.
• Journals and logs

Prewriting, even in math, is important.

• Webs
• KWL Charts
• Pictures and labels
• Definitions to words
• Writing about real-life math applications using specific concepts and skills
• Think about understanding of a skill on a scale of 1-5 and explain to the students what the scale means.

Some prompts might include

• I agree with…
• I started the problem like…but then…
• I don’t agree with…

Assign specific, reachable writing goals. Use computers as instructional support. Have students analyze concrete data to develop ideas for a writing activity. USE WRITING AS A TOOL FOR LEARNING CONTENT.

What might you look for from your math students when they write?

• Evidence of logical conclusions
• Justification of answers and processes
• Use of facts to explain thinking
• Explanations about how they solved a problem
• Solutions to problems
• Reports describing contributions of mathematicians

Some examples of writing assignments:

• Define parallel (or another term) in your own words.
• Cut out a graph and write a paragraph about it.
• Write one sentence that…
• How do you know one-sixth is smaller than one-half?
• Write everything you know about…
• What are three things you learned today?
• What confuses you about today’s lesson?

Example of a log
Date. Name of topic, chapter, video… Pages read, length of discussion, etc. Main points. Summary of main points. (Students must be taught how to summarize before the can summarize.

Cornell Notes:
Pair Cornell notes with a reading assignment, video, mini-lesson, etc. Students summarize on the left. Respond to the summary on the right which is inferential and critical thinking.

or

Write the problem on the left. Write the way to solve it on the right. Add a third column and have them write a personal reflection that describes what was easy, frustrating, confusing, etc.

To review, writing helps students problem-solve and think critically. Writing supports mathematical reasoning. We must teach the vocabulary before expecting the students to use or understand in their writing.

For more information:

Two of Marilyn Burns’ books, 10 Big Math Ideas and Options for Writing in Math

Math Journals Boost Real Learning

Math Out Loud

Greg Tang’s Poems in Math Class? Yeah. Write!

National Council of Teachers of Mathematics

Writing Next research by Graham and Perin

WISE Writing Consulting

Students are never too young to write. It should be a focus of early education to instill a love of literacy in students. We generally get from our students what we expect. With that being said, I am sharing with you a few tips for your ELA classrooms in Elementary and even Primary schools. (Much has already been said about the upper grades in previous posts.)

• Teach, teach, teach the writing process.
• Write EVERYDAY at least 45-60 minutes actively…
• It really is as easy as PIE: Persuade, Inform, Entertain
• Review the Traits of Writing.
• Be familiar with the writing standards.
• Have high expectations for all.
• Develop routines and classroom management.
• Conference with all students. Conferencing can be as simple as sitting down and talking 2-4 minutes about the writing. Students can move to you, you may go to students, or you may just rove about the class and stop for impromptu conferences. Students can share what they are writing, you can ask questions, or you can read parts of the papers. Always leave students with something to try or revise.
• Decide how you will keep writing records. Find something that works for you. Schedule a few conferences daily. Devote any extra time to struggling students.
• Read, read, read to and with students. Talk about the reading. Journal about the reading.
• Teach important vocabulary words. Use research-based strategies to teach.
• Revise, revise, revise the writing. (See Cleaning-up-the-Mess posts.)
• Writer’s Workshop (Writing Workshop) still works.
• If you are using the Daily Five approach, remember that the writing center is only part of the suggested writing time. There is also a recommended writing block that is often ignored…
• Get creative. Buy funky writing utensils and paper. Have them use thin white paper plates as paper. Write on cardboard. Do whatever it takes.
• Research is available that supports using paper and pencil over word processing. Balance is the key.
• Think. Reflect. Organize. Start with a clear learning and writing goal. Give short, direct writing assignments with real-life applications. Model writing as thinking.
• To facilitate spelling:
  • Word wall with pictures when appropriate
  • Books, books, books
  • Poems
  • Charts
  • Posters
  • Writing

Who’s to blame if a student doesn’t master a standard if we are not teaching it?

Happy writing.

Argumentative writing is all around us. It’s everywhere in the real world. When we teach our children this mode of writing, we are preparing them for their tomorrows. Argument writing is not new and includes

• Professional debates
• Cover letter pitches
• Interviews
• Grant Applications
• Executive summaries
• Letters-to-the-editor.

What it is NOT: It’s more than throwing a persuasive prompt at students every now and then.

What it IS: It’s the heart of all career-based writing.

What do we need to remember?

• The writer must take a prominent position.
• We must develop an eye for argument in students and comfort in the genre.
• We need to know how to teach and to assess it.
• We need to be familiar with the standards.
• Textual evidence is needed.

How do we get students to see connections?

• Showcase various subjects in the world.
• Post examples on the bulletin board and webpage.
• Bring in articles about the subject.
• Find examples in texts, movies, noels, picture books, life.

Needed Components

• Thesis statement (needs to taught in ELA)
• Added commentary (Expanding the evidence)
• Transition stems
• Counterarguments

Adding Commentary (expanding the evidence)

1. Make a prediction on the basis of argument.
2. Pose a thoughtful question.
3. Connect topic to self/world/current events.
4. Find metaphor.

Transition Stems

• nevertheless
• admittedly
• according to
• in other words
• conversely
• what the expert means is…
• on the other hand
• in addition
• As one may see,

Summarizing: GIST

Counterarguments:

Remember that those who disagree may have vital points. Start by recognizing authors’ and characters’ perspectives.

Let’s think about…

1. How can writing teachers incorporate more content-area writing into ELA classes?
2. How can content-area teachers incorporate more writing into their subjects?

An example of a topic:

Choose two civilizations. Write a paper arguing the benefits of living in one of the civilizations rather than the other. Use evidence from your text to support your answers.

Strategies for teaching argument (Remember to support claims with relevant evidence.)

1. Explicit
2. Active engagement
3. Modeling
4. Scaffolding

The biggest difference between argument and persuasion is that argument relies on evidence. Persuasion uses more of an emotional appeal. Persuasion aims to persuade the reader that the position is correct…trying to win over. Argument presents a strong claim and supports that claim with evidence and reasoning.

Is a process followed? Yes.

Pre-writing/planning is VERY important.

• Choose topic.
• Explore and decide the position.
• Predict opposing arguments.
• Who is the audience?
• Decides points of discussion.
• Write a focused thesis.
• Research for facts, statistics, and testimony from experts.
• Analyze the data. What will be used? What will be directly quoted?

Write your first draft/rough draft/sloppy copy. Revise. Edit. Make a final copy. (Information about these are in other posts.)

Stay focused. Happy writing.

Good writers follow a process. Teaching students the writing process is setting them up for more success. The first copy is also called a rough draft or a sloppy copy and is created after the prewriting step. Once the sloppy copy is complete, students need specific, descriptive, and formative feedback. Rough drafts/sloppy copies are part of the learning process.

Feedback on writing is formative and motivates students to complete a written piece used as a summative evaluation. Summative comes only after feedback and corrections. Typically, corrections come through revision and editing. I like to think about revision as a way to change the way a piece of writing sounds, not how it looks on the printed page, which is editing.

Here, we will look at revision and how it is used to improve a written assignment. What exactly is revision? Revision is working with words and ideas to make a paper more interesting and detailed. The skills and procedures used in revision must be taught and understood by students if revision is going to help. We cannot assume that students already know what to do when asked to revise a paper.

Teaching techniques through mini-lessons and then having students apply these in their own writing is key. Students also need to see adults revising their own work. Teachers need to model the process for whole class, in small groups, and individually with students.

When revising, reading a paper aloud can really benefit the process. In revision, we work on vocabulary, order of sentences and paragraphs, effective introduction and conclusions. (Spelling, punctuation, formatting, and capitalization come during editing.)

Almost forty years ago, a consultant from Fulton County, GA, worked with some of us as we wrote a school’s writing plan. Something I took away from her was a strategy for revision that she called “Cleaning up the Mess.” I used it faithfully in my classroom and have taught it to hundreds of teachers since then. It WORKS. MESS is an acronym.

“Cleaning up the Mess” is a strategy that can be done alone, with partners, in groups, or with the teacher. Research shows that collaboration does make a difference. Having students reading their papers aloud to one another is beneficial for helping students hear their errors.
Students also need mini-lessons and MUCH practice before being expected to use any strategy.

As stated earlier, MESS is an acronym for Movability, Expansion, Sentence-combining, and Slotting.

Movability: Capable of being moved or rearranged

• This involves moving words, sentences, ideas, and even paragraphs to enhance organization and clarity. It is where we cut clutter and redundancy in our writing.

Expansion: Think about expanding.

• This is where students expand ideas. They tell the who, what, when, where, and why of the matter.
• Students can circle places they need more detail and then add it.
• They can add specific details that apply to the senses. They can add word illustrations, and examples. For example, instead of ” her hair was in a ponytail,” maybe say “her frizzy hair was in a messy ponytail,”

Sentence-Combining:

• Sentence-Combining involves combining short, choppy, simple sentences into more advanced compound and/or complex ones. (This is the perfect place to teach students the appropriate usage of commas in compound and complex sentences.)
• Combine elements like subordinating one clause to another. Use appositives to connect participial phrases. (Maybe stop and teach a min-lesson about appositives.)
• Vary sentence structure and length.

Slotting:

*Students read their papers and listen for overused or dead words. Students choose these in their papers and take them out. They then fill in the SLOTS with new and more descriptive words.

• Change verb tense during slotting.
• Change active to passive voice, etc.
• Avoid weak helping and linking verbs and replace/slot with interesting action verbs.
• Give things and people the dignity of a name: nouns
• As a way to practice slotting, use nursery rhymes and songs and slot for different words and then have students work on their own papers.

If students peer revise, have them

• Check for one skill at a time.
• Check the beginnings of sentences to see if they begin in a variety of ways. (I had my students look at their own papers and circle or highlight the first word in each sentence. I told them they could have no more than two sentences beginning with the same word. That forced them to write different types of sentences.
• Use a checklist with students. Before turning them loose with the list, please teach them what they are looking to change.

OTHER IDEAS FOR REVISION:

• Choose 2 (or another number) places to “zoom in” for detail. Maybe have younger students use magnifying glasses as a hook to revision.
• Post a “DEAD WORDS” wall. Place words that are overused on that wall. Give students or have them find synonyms for these words. They can slot in their writing using this wall.
• Have students write about a certain topic (like a sunset) or write one as a class. Then read to them a description of a sunset and have them make comparisons to their papers. They can make changes by adding more.
• Musical papers: Music starts as all students move around the room. When it stops, they all pick a desk nearby and help revise that paper for specific skills, whatever has been identified beforehand.
• This could also be done with papers being passed up and down rows or around a table if teachers aren’t comfortable with all the movement.
• When new skills are taught, students should be required to use those skills in their writing.
• Celebrate all successes!

Writing FORCES thinking, about the unknown, as well as the known. This forces ACTIVE learning. Writing strengthens understanding, allows connections with prior learning, increases retention, and helps develop vocabulary. Since this is all accurate, why are we not having our students, even those science students, writing every single day?

Writing is writing, but it should be pertinent to the subject matter being taught and reflected upon. Science writing is objective, logical, and precise. Writing in science can take on many faces.

• Lab reports
• Writing prompts to summarize
• Writing text to explain graphs
• Analyzing
• Writing journals to outline procedures and findings
• Writing to evaluate lectures and seminars

Summarizing in informational texts should not be a problem if students have strategies to use.

• One-sentence summaries
• Cornell Notes
• Big Picture Questions
• Synthesizing
• RAFT: Helps writing appear more authentic

Creativity has a place in science writing, as well. Examples:

• First Person account of a major volcano
• A story describing food’s journey in the body
• A child’s book explaining a scientific concept
• You get the idea…

Writing is the perfect way to see what our students are actually learning.

Valentine’s Day. For many, it’s a day of love, endless joy,

and doting on those we hold dear.

Chocolates, flowers, handmade cards,

and words of affirmation pepper the atmosphere.

For others, it’s a reminder of the hurt from the past,

when possibly a heart was torn in two

that left a weary soul grasping for love

not knowing what else to do.

For those a change of heart is needed

and maybe even a reminder of God’s love.

He’s there to mend a heart broken

as he rains down love from above.

Sometimes finding love in our lives

means letting go of the past

in order to move into the future

to find hope that will last.

So commit to letting go of pain

and realize it is our own choice

to release the hurt and sadness

and help our broken heart rejoice.

Find folks who make your heart happy

and allow peace to enter in.

There is someone waiting out there

just longing to be your friend.

When days like today bring sadness and pain,

just know it doesn’t have to be.

You can choose happiness again

and set your hurting heart free.

SL Holbert 2/14/22