PROCESS WRITING

Team 7 Special Services Teachers

Alabama State Department of Education

“ If not me, then who?”

That’s Not My Job

This is a story about four people named Everybody, Somebody, Anybody, and Nobody.There was an important job to be done and Everybody was sure that Somebody would do it. Anybody could have done it, but Nobody did it. Somebody got angry about that, because it was Everybody’s job. Everybody thought Anybody could do it, but Nobody realized that Everybody wouldn’t do it. It ended up that Everybody blamed Somebody when Nobody did what Anybody could have done!

“Attitude is contagious!”

• Speak of writing in an enthusiastic manner.

• Model writing for your students often.

• Praise efforts and move towards mastery.

• Celebrate writing by sharing and displaying.

Process Writing Inservice Objectives

• To recognize that writing is a process that must be taught.

• To recognize that writing increases learning.

• To gain some strategies to assist our students produce better writings.

Research Findings On Process Writing

• Model - Increased opportunities to write without appropriate instruction will not, in and of itself, cause improvement.

• Peer review - Response to early drafts of writings by peers and teachers can serve to help writers clarify their ideas and purposes for writing. It also helps to eliminate mechanical errors which prevent comprehension.

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• Praise - Comment on what students do well rather than focusing on areas in which they do poorly.

• Prewriting - This will lead to improvement in students’ writings.

• Sentence-combining exercises - These increase the ability to write better sentences.

• Encourage extensive reading and author studies - This will improve writing styles.

Writing Is a Basic Life Skill

• It helps us learn about ourselves and the world.

• It develops thinking skills.

• It generates new ideas.

• It helps us survive in an increasingly dynamic and complicated society.

Tips For Teaching Writing

• Start a writing folder at the beginning of the year for each student. Include diagnostic writing samples and other on-going examples of student work.

• Keep a portfolio of each student’s work. Formulate a plan for managing this portfolio. Pass folios on to the teachers at the next grade level.

• Begin writing by guiding prewriting activities.

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• The most difficult problem to deal with is clumsy, unclear writing. Work for clarity first. Next, develop expansion of writing.

• Encourage writing across the curriculum.

• Encourage students to do some group work and peer editing while composing.

• Have all students develop a “mechanics” checklist that they can use while editing their own writings.

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• Celebrate writing! Publicly display examples of good writing. Publish magazines and/or newspapers or booklets.

• Implement an assessment program in writing. Examples:– Collect pre and post samples.– Collect and retain writing samples regularly.– Collect objective test scores.

Steps in the Writing Process

• Prewriting - It begins when a writer decides to write or when a writer is given a writing assignment and continues until the writer decides on a topic and has determined what idea or ideas to begin with.

• Drafting - It is the “sloppy copy”. The writer jots down ideas gleaned from planning and searching as quickly as possible. It is the beginning product as the writer goes into the revising phase..

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• Revising - After completing the first draft, the writer and/or a peer or teacher reads over the writing to determine if the assignment requirements are met, checks for accuracy, and sequence, and for the completeness of the piece.

• Editing and Proofreading - Once content and organization are in order, the necessary corrections in mechanics, grammar, usage, and sentence structure are made.

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• Publishing - Essentially, publishing is a method of sharing the written piece. This stage is very important. It causes the writer to sense the validity of the task.

Principles of An Effective Writing Program

• It should be a schoolwide effort to involve writing as a means of learning in all curricular areas.

• It should provide a wide range of writing experiences for learning in all subject areas.

• It should build on students’ interests and on their reading and oral language matter areas.

• It should encourage students to develop a level of fluency before expecting perfection.