Teaching Writing

mariabecht
Nov 19, 2017
3 min read

Teaching writing in the classroom is one of my favorite things to do! Writing is in the middle of the day, as shown in the Pictures Exchange Communication system (also known as pecs) schedule. This is listed to aid students with disabilities or students who have difficultly with transitions. I have a student come over to the schedule to show what is coming up during the day. This helps with transitions and getting my students ready for what is next in the day (Differentiated Instructional Strategies).

The standards below are what apply to my recent writing lessons. I use this to guide my planning as it is what my student need to do in Kindergarten.

Standards:

LAFS.K.W.1.2 Use a combination of drawing, dictating, and writing to compose informative/explanatory texts in which they name what they are writing about and supply some information about the topic.

LAFS.K.RF.3.3 Know and apply grade-level phonics and word analysis skills in decoding words

LAFS.K.RF.1.1Demonstrate understanding of the organization and basic features of print.

LAFS.K.L.1.2 Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English capitalization,punctuation, and spelling when writing

In modeling writing I go through the steps of thinking, drawing, labeling, and then writing. I have my students sound out the words and I write what they say. This is called phonetic spelling (Words Their Way). I then go back and edit after my sentence is done to show the proper spelling, because as an adult I know the spelling rules. Below is an example of my work.

I used a variety of grouping in my writing lessons. Classroom That Works states that excellent teachers group children in different way to provide opportunities to learn. I used whole group instruction to provide explicit instruction at the start of these lessons. Whole group is beneficial and let me give all my learners explicit instruction on writing. Independence release gives students a meaningful opportunity to write. During their independence work, I provide the accommodation of having my ELL trace words and verbally communicate her ideas to me. Classroom That Works states that students who are learning English will attempt writing if the teacher respond with enthusiasm to their ideas and that writing is an avenue for this to become literate in English. I am supportive of my ELLs in their writing process and I support them in their idea making and sentence crafting.

Afterwards students will come back to the carpet to share. We rotate sharing so all students get an experience sharing their ideas on differing topics. Managing Diverse Classroom stresses how sharing involves students in their learning, engages them, has students learn from their peers, and has then feel a sense of pride in their work. My CT and I have students share their ideas and writing under the Elmo. This lets students to explain their work and lets all the students see.

Moving on, My teacher and I provide feedback and praise to the students based on what they did. For example, we acknowledge sight words, finger spaces, punctuation, sounding out words, labels, and more when students come up to share. This feedback and what we are focusing on is also highlighted in the parent newsletter that is sent home to parents in their binders. This communication lets parents know what we are working on in class.