Teaching students to write is no easy feat, and it鈥檚 a topic that has on this blog.
It鈥檚 also a challenge that can鈥檛 have too much discussion!
Today, four educators share their most effective writing lessons.
鈥楾hree Practices That Create Confident Writers鈥�
Penny Kittle teaches first-year writers at Plymouth State University in New Hampshire. She was a teacher and literacy coach in public schools for 34 years and is the author of nine books, including Micro Mentor Texts (Scholastic). She is the founder and president of the Book Love Foundation, which annually grants classroom libraries to teachers throughout North America:
I write almost every day. Like anything I want to do well, I practice. Today, I wrote about the wild dancing, joyful energy, and precious time I spent with my daughter at a Taylor Swift concert. Then I circled back to notes on Larry鈥檚 question about teaching writers. I wrote badly, trying to find a through line. I followed detours and crossed out bad ideas. I stopped to think. I tried again. I lost faith in my words. I will get there, I told myself. I trust my process.
I haven鈥檛 always written this easily or this much. I wouldn鈥檛 say I鈥檓 a 鈥渘atural鈥� writer because I don鈥檛 believe they exist. Writing is work. When I entered college, I received a C-minus on my first paper. I was stunned. I had never worked at writing: I was a 鈥渇irst drafter,鈥� an 鈥渙nly drafter.鈥� And truthfully, I didn鈥檛 know how or what to practice. I was assigned writing in high school and I completed it. I rarely received feedback. I didn鈥檛 get better. I didn鈥檛 learn to think like a writer; I thought like a student.
I鈥檝e now spent 40 years studying writing and teaching writers in kindergarten, elementary school, middle school, and high school, as well as teachers earning graduate degrees. Despite their age, writers in school share one remarkably similar trait: a lack of confidence. Confidence is a brilliant and fiery light; it draws your eyes, your heart, and your mind. But in fact, it is as rare as the Northern Lights. I feel its absence every fall in my composition courses.
We can change that.
Confidence blooms in classrooms focused on the growth of writers.
This happens in classrooms where the teacher relies less on lessons and more on a handful of practices. Unfortunately, though, in most classrooms, a heap of time is spent directing students to practice 鈥渨riting-like鈥� activities: restrictive templates for assignments, with detailed criteria focused on rules. Those activities handcuff writers. If you tell me what to do and how to do it, I will focus on either completing the task or avoiding it. That kind of writing work doesn鈥檛 require much thinking; it is merely labor.
Practice creating, on the other hand, is harder, but it is how we develop the important ability to let our ideas come and then shaping them into cohesive arguments, stories, poems, and observations. We have misunderstood the power of writing to create thinking. Likewise, we have misunderstood the limitations of narrow tasks. So, here are my best instructional practices that lead to confidence and growth in writers.
1. Writing Notebooks and Daily Revision. Writers need time to write. Think of it as a habit we begin to engage in with little effort, like serving a tennis ball from the baseline or dribbling a basketball or sewing buttonholes. Writers need daily time to whirl words, to spin ideas, to follow images that blink inside them as they move their pen across the page. In my classroom, writing time most often follows engagement with a poem.
Likewise, writers need guidance in rereading their first drafts of messy thinking. I鈥檝e seen teachers open their notebooks and invite students to watch them shape sentences. They demonstrate how small revisions increase clarity and rhythm. Their students watch them find a focus and maintain it. Teachers show the effort and the joy of writing well.
Here鈥檚 an example: We listen to a beautiful poem such as 鈥淢ontauk鈥� by Sarah Kay, her tribute to growing up. Students write freely from lines or images that spring to them as they listen. I write in my notebook as students write in theirs for 4-5 minutes. Then I read my entry aloud, circling subjects and detours (I don鈥檛 know why I wrote so much about my dog, but maybe I have more to say about this 鈥� ). I model how to find a focus. I invite students to do the same.
2. Writers Study Writing. Writers imitate structures, approaches, and ways of reaching readers. They read like writers to find possibilities: Look what the writer did here and here. A template essay can be an effective tool to write for a test, but thankfully, that is a very small and insignificant part of the whole of writing for any of us. Real writing grows from studying the work of other writers. We study sentences, passages, essays, and articles to understand how they work, as we create our own.
3. Writers Have Conversations as They Work. When writers practice the skills and embrace the challenges of writing in community, it expands possibilities. Every line read from a notebook carries the mark of a particular writer: the passion, the voice, the experiences, and the vulnerability of each individual. That kind of sharing drives process talk (How did you think to write about that? Who do you imagine you are speaking to?), which showcases the endless variation in writers and leads to 鈥渨riterly thinking.鈥� It shifts conversations from 鈥渞ight and wrong鈥� to 鈥渉ow and why.鈥�
Long ago, at a local elementary school, in a workshop for teachers, I watched list on the chalkboard subjects he was considering writing about. He read over his list and chose one. From there, he wrote several sentences, talking aloud about the decisions he was making as a writer. Then he turned to accept and answer questions.
鈥淲hy do this?鈥� someone asked.
鈥淏ecause you are the most important writer in the room,鈥� Don said. 鈥淵ou are showing students why anyone would write when they don鈥檛 have to.鈥� He paused, then added, 鈥淚f not you, who?鈥�
Developing 鈥楽tudent Voice鈥�
A former independent school English teacher and administrator, Stephanie Farley is a writer and educational consultant working with teachers and schools on issues of curriculum, assessment, instruction, SEL, and building relationships. Her book, is available from Routledge Eye on Education:
Teaching writing is my favorite part of being a teacher. It鈥檚 incredibly fun to talk about books with kids, but for me, it鈥檚 even more fun to witness students鈥� skills and confidence grow as they figure out how to use written language to communicate what they mean.
A lesson I used to like doing was in 鈥渧oice.鈥� My 8th graders had a hard time understanding what I meant when I asked them to consider 鈥渧oice鈥� in their writing. The best illustration I came up with was playing Taylor Swift鈥檚 song 鈥淏lank Space鈥� for students. Some students groaned while others clapped. (Doesn鈥檛 this always happen when we play music for students? There鈥檚 no song that makes everyone happy!) But when they settled down, I encouraged them to listen to the style: the arrangement, her voice as she sang, the dominant instruments.
Then, I played a cover of 鈥淏lank Space鈥� by Ryan Adams. Eyes rolled as the song unfurled through the speakers, but again I reminded students to listen to the arrangement, voice, and instruments. After about 60 seconds of the Adams version, heads nodded in understanding. When the music ended and I asked students to explain voice to me, they said it鈥檚 鈥渕aking something your own 鈥� like your own style.鈥� Yes!
The next step was applying this new understanding to their own writing. Students selected a favorite sentence from the books they were reading, then tried to write it in their own voice. We did this a few times, until everyone had competently translated Kwame Alexander into 鈥淩osa-style鈥� or Kelly Link into 鈥淢ichael-style.鈥� Finally, when it was time for students to write their own longer works鈥攕tories, personal essays, or narratives鈥攖hey intentionally used the words and sentence patterns they had identified as their own voice.
I鈥檓 happy to report this method worked! In fact, it was highly effective. Students鈥� papers were more idiosyncratic, nuanced, and creative. The only change to this lesson I鈥檇 make now is trying to find a more zeitgeist-y song with the hope that the groans at the beginning die down a little faster.
Teaching ELLs
Irina McGrath, Ph.D., is an assistant principal at Newcomer Academy in the Jefferson County school district in Kentucky and the president of KYTESOL. She is also an adjunct professor at the University of Louisville, Indiana University Southeast, and Bellarmine University. She is a co-creator of the ELL2.0 site that offers free resources for teachers of English learners:
Reflecting on my experience of teaching writing to English learners, I have come to realize that writing can be daunting, especially when students are asked to write in English, a language they are learning to master. The most successful writing lessons I have taught were those that transformed the process into an enjoyable experience, fostering a sense of accomplishment and pride in my students.
To achieve this, I prioritized the establishment of a supportive learning environment. At the beginning of each school year, I set norms that emphasized the importance of writing for everyone, including myself as their teacher. I encouraged students to write in English and their native language and I wrote alongside my English learners to demonstrate that writing is a journey that requires hard work and dedication, regardless of age or previous writing experiences. By witnessing my own struggles, my students felt encouraged to persevere.
My English learners understood that errors were expected and that they were valuable opportunities for growth and improvement. This created a comfortable atmosphere where students felt more confident taking risks and experimenting with their writing. Rather than being discouraged by mistakes, they viewed them as steppingstones toward progress.
In my most effective writing lessons, I provided scaffolds such as sentence stems, sentence frames, and word banks. I also encouraged my students to use translation tools to help generate ideas on paper. These scaffolds empowered English learners to independently tackle more challenging writing assignments and nurtured their confidence in completing writing tasks. During writers鈥� circles, we discussed the hard work invested in each writing piece, shared our work, and celebrated each other鈥檚 success.
Furthermore, my most successful writing lessons integrated reading and writing. I taught my students to read like writers and utilized mentor texts to emulate the craft of established authors, which they could later apply to their own writing. Mentor texts, such as picture books, short stories, or articles, helped my students observe how professional writers use dialogue, sentence structure, and descriptive language to enhance their pieces.
Instead of overwhelming students with information, I broke down writing into meaningful segments and taught through mini lessons. For example, we analyzed the beginnings of various stories to examine story leads. Then, collaboratively, my students and I created several leads together. When they were ready, I encouraged them to craft their own leads and select the most appropriate one for their writing piece.
Ultimately, my most effective lessons were those in which I witnessed the joyful smiles on my English learners鈥� faces as they engaged with pages filled with written or typed words. It is during those moments that I knew my writers were creating and genuinely enjoying their work.
To access a self-checklist that students and EL teachers can use when teaching or creating a writing piece in English, you can visit the infographic at .
鈥楳odel Texts鈥�
Anastasia M. Martinez is an English-language-development and AVID Excel teacher in Pittsburg, Calif.:
As a second-language learner, writing in English had not always been my suit. It was not until graduate school that I immersed myself in a vast array of journals, articles, and other academic works, which ultimately helped me find my academic voice and develop my writing style. Now, working as an ESL teacher with a diverse group of middle school multilingual learners, I always provide a model text relevant to a topic or prompt we are exploring.
When students have a model text, it gives them a starting point for their own writing and presents writing as less scary, where they get stuck on the first sentence and do not know how to start.
At the start of the lesson, prior to using a model text, I create a 鈥渄o now鈥� activity that guides my students鈥� attention to the topic and creates a relevant context for the text. After students share their ideas with a partner and then the class, we transition to our lesson objectives, and I introduce the model text. We first use prereading strategies to analyze the text, and students share what they notice based on the title, images, and a number of paragraphs. Then, depending on the students鈥� proficiency level, I read the text to the class, or students read the text as partners, thinking about what the text was mostly about.
After students read and share their ideas with partners and then the whole class, we transition to deconstructing the text. These multiple reengagements with the text help students become more familiar with it, as well as help students build reading fluency.
When deconstructing the model text, I guide my students through each paragraph and sentence. During that time, students orally share their ideas determining the meaning of specific paragraphs or sentences, which we later annotate in the model text using different colored highlighters or pens. Color coding helps visually guide students through similar parts of the model text. For instance, if we highlight evidence in paragraph 2 in one color, we also highlight evidence in the same color in the following paragraph. It helps students see the similarities between the paragraphs and discover the skeleton of the writing. Additionally, color coding helps students during their writing process and revision. Students can check if they used all parts of the writing based on the colors.
Furthermore, one of the essential pieces during deconstructing model texts that I draw my students鈥� attention to is transition words and 鈥渂ig words,鈥� or academic vocabulary. We usually box them in the text, and I question students about why the author used a particular word in the text. Later, when students do their own writing, they can integrate new vocabulary and transition words, which enhances their vocabulary and language skills.
As the next step, I invite students to co-create a similar piece of writing with a partner or independently using our model text as their guide. Later, our model text serves as a checklist for individual and partner revisions, which students could use to give each other feedback.
Model texts are an essential part of the writing process in any content-area class. As educators, we should embrace the importance of model texts, as they provide a solid foundation upon which students can develop their unique writing skills, tone, and voice.
Thanks to Penny, Stephanie, Irina, and Anastasia for contributing their thoughts!
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