Summary of Content Knowledge

Writing instruction includes the writing process and the 6 traits of writing. To begin writing, student should brainstorm as a whole class or in small groups. This helps students to develop a list of interests in which they can write about. The next step in the writing process is rough draft. As students write their rough drafts, they should skip lines and only write on one side of the paper. Students should also number their pages and write without revising as this will come into play later. After students have completed their rough drafts, they will revise. This is where students will incorporate the 6 traits of writing (ideas, organization, word choice, voice, sentence fluency, and conventions). The students will pair up (maybe a few different times) and revise each others papers by adding or changing thoughts, improving questions, and using the revising guidelines. This step is used to improve the students overall writing. The next step of the writing process is the second draft. This draft includes students making any changes to their writing from the feedback they have received in the revising step. This draft should look and sound better. Following the second draft, is the editing step. During this step, students will edit their papers with teacher guidance. The teacher will teach students how to best edit a paper so the students learn the importance of editing. Once this step is complete, the final draft is either hand written or typed depending on how the student wishes to publish their work.

Apps

iTooch 5th Grade

This app will incooperate grammar, verbs, vocabulary, and spelling all in the writing instruction. It has 44 chapters that have lesson plans, examples, and figures to help the teacher and students with instruction. Overall this will help the students with their overall writing instruction.

With students, I would use this app as a whole class as we are learning new writing concepts. This app is interactive and great for the whole class to practice with when learning a new step of the writing process or a new trait of writing. This is a great app that I would use to help myself teach writing in the classroom.

WriteCore Lite

The app is a great app for students to learn how to write an opinion piece. They are first taught about how they should write an opinion piece. Then it has you take a picture of something you want to write about which it will go through the steps of writing the piece. It will allow the students to read or listen to the piece. The part of the app that you can pay for is informative, narrative, or custom sentence frames.

With students, I would use this app as a center during our reading time so that my students were practicing writing skills along with their reading skills. Students are exposed on how to write using their own opinion, so this center would be used when we are working on that type of writing.

Language Builder

This app is designed to help teach kids basic language skills: receptivity, comprehension, reading others' people intentions and word association. It collects all the data from the student allowing the teacher to check and analyze graphs and reports of the progress in order to further imrpove the students success.

With students, I would more so use this app when working on vocabulary building. This is great to incorporate as a writing strategy, however, because strong vocabulary helps to create stronger writing from students.

Strategies

Cause and Effect Chain

This is one type of graphic organizer students can use to organize their writing. Organization in writing is key to help the piece flow as well as it can. Students may use different types of graphic organizers for all different types of writing.

Think Sheets

Think sheets are checklists for the different revising and editing processes the students go through during writing. These sheets guide students in the right direction when making changes or even planning and organizing their papers.

Create a Classroom Magazine

This is a strategy that can be used to encourage whole class writing. Students first decide on what they want their overall theme of the magazine to be. They then decide who is going to contribute what part of the magazine. Once this is decided students begin to work on their pieces. After rough drafts are complete, the class turns into an editorial staff and revises and edits their peers work. Students continue to work through the writing process as they complete and finally publish their classroom magazine.

Journals

Students can have many different types of journals in the classroom to build their writing abilities. Students may have a personal journal, in which they may write whatever they want in. Students may have a partner journal that they exchange periodically discussing content learned in class or books being read. There are a plethora of different types of journals students can have in the classroom to further develop writing abilities.

Conduct an Interview

This is a strategy students can use when writing a more educational based paper. This can help students gain ideas about what to write about by asking a peer, adult, or other professional about a certain topic. This is a strategy that may be used when writing a career paper or a research paper.

Website

http://www.funenglishgames.com/writinggames.html

This is an interactive writing website that has fun and engaging games for students. The students can do the writing on debating, advertising, story, newspaper, letter, or writing instruction. These games will help the students enjoy and learn how to write in those specific styles.

References

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/

http://www.imschools.org/uploads/4/0/8/7/40873415/overview6traits.pdf

http://literacy.kent.edu/eureka/strategies/writing.html

^^TONS OF STRATEGIES^^

Artifact

This bookmark is a tool for students to use when revising and editing a piece of writing. Students may have this bookmark handy whenever they are completing writing tasks.