The Steps of Writing

One of the focuses of my long practicum has been helping my students to develop their writing skills. In my job as a support worker, I have been fortunate to watch a team of two master teachers go through the writing process with students. I love their approach of breaking down the writing process into steps. I have decided to try out the process in my own practice.

I copied this wonderful visual of the writing steps from the teacher I work with.
I cannot thank him enough for sharing his ideas and materials. 

 The first step involves gathering ideas. At this point in the writing process "Anything goes" Students use webs to get down any idea that comes to their heads. If you have never heard of webbing process. I highly recommend checking it out in the book 50 Literacy Strategies: Step by Step by Gail E. Tompkins. It is full of great ways to incorporate literacy across the curriculum. I constantly refer to it during my planning.

In our case we focused our first writing project on ourselves. You know what they say; "Write what you know!"

The next step is to organize and prioritize ideas. The students took another look at their webs and chose the ideas that they wanted to write about and develop. The great part of the organizing process is that it helps to focus the writer and lays a foundation on which to build a solid piece of writing. I scaffolded both the webbing and organizing processes for my students.

Warning! The writing process gets messy. This is a good thing:)

The next step involves using putting ideas into words through a retelling. Students read aloud the webs over and over developing ideas and and adding details. Initially they work independently them move onto reading to a partner. It's a great way to also develop individual listening and questioning skills. 

The final step is to turn ideas into sentences. At this point the mechanics of a "good" piece of writing are introduced. Kids work on piecing their ideas together incorporating an introduction, transitions and conclusion. This process goes through  many phases in it self until the student has a published piece of writing.

 

Model of turning ideas into sentences. Notice how the kids were eager to correct my mistakes?

Actually teaching the writing steps to the class has been a slow process. I am finding the retelling stage to be taking longer than expected. But I think patience is the order of the day. Initially giving the kids lots of time to develop their ideas will pay off in the future.

I am also very lucky to have such a socially strong group of kids. They are supportive of one another and are good at sharing their ideas. One thing I did notice during the group retelling is the tendency of the kids to focus on me instead of the class. Even when sitting in the circle. I realized how trained they are to look to the teacher. My FA suggested trying inside/outside circles to focus the kids on one another instead of me. Maybe I'll try it out when we read our drafts to one another. 

Another issue I seem to run into during the teaching of writing is the amount of time spent by students sitting and watching. My kids did great but I think less time watching and more time doing needs to factored in for the little ones who need to move. 

After listening to the kids and looking at their webs I think I'll celebrate their first publishing effort by making a class book. I am so excited to go to the next step and see what the kids put to paper.