Writing+Best+Practices

Writing Best Practices

Y oung writers need to experience sustained and successful writing. Writing instruction is built on a foundation, piece by piece. Locking these parts together in a cohesive, comprehensive, and consistent plan will result in a strong writing program. After researching and comparing practices from resources and some real world school practices it has been found of all the practices each one is aimed at achieving the goal of enabling students to use writing flexibly and effectively to help students learn and communicate their ideas. Delve into the practices of providing daily time for students to write; using the writing process for a variety of reasons; teaching students to become fluent in handwriting, spelling, sentence construction, typing and word processing; and creating an engaged community of writers to integrate writing into the curriculum. Allow those practices to aid writing instruction, and the writing “puzzle pieces” will come together strengthened.

Writing is learned through guidance in a small-group context, particularly as students attempt to bridge the gap between the teacher's demonstration and modeling and their own independent writing. When authentic and targeted modeling of the ways in which writers work is presented by teachers and co-constructed with students during collaborative, rich discussion, learners develop understanding of the purposes, intrinsic motivation, and techniques of writing (Gibson, 2013). Several excellent frameworks for writing instruction accomplish these goals, including modeled, shared, interactive, guided or independent writing.

There are many great writing programs available for classroom instruction for all learners. Reading and Writing need to be taught simultaneously so that students become strong in both areas since they are both language based and teach communication skills. Here are just a few that can be used:
 * Guided Writing- temporary, small-group lessons teaching those strategies that a group of students most need to practice with immediate guidance from the teacher
 * Journal Writing/ Writer's Workshop- engaging a child's brain by putting pen to paper and just writing
 * Six Traits for Writing- systematic approach to writing one part at a time
 * Step-up to Writing- help students become proficient in the areas of informational/explanatory, narrative writing and personal narrative, and opinion pieces
 * Expanding Expressions- a multi-sensory approach for improved oral and written language

References: Gibson, S. (2013). //Strategy Guide: Guided Writing//. Retrieved from []