Transcript Document

www.interventioncentral.org
Writing Interventions That Really
Work
Jim Wright
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Jim Wright
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Workshop Agenda
In today’s workshop, we will:
• Analyze the subskills that make up ‘writing ability’
• Identify barriers that can prevent students from being
effective writers
• Review effective writing interventions
Jim Wright
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Writing Sample
[If lost on an island] I woud drink
water from the ocean and I woud eat
the fruit off of the trees. Then I
woud bilit a house out of trees, and I
woud gather firewood to stay warm. I
woud try and fix my boat in my spare
time.
Jim Wright
www.interventioncentral.org
Writing Sample
Existing is being unique. Existence, reality,
essence, cause, or truth is uniqueness. The
geometric point in the center of the sphere
is nature’s symbol of the immeasurable
uniqueness within its measurable effect. A
center is always unique; otherwise it would
not be a center. Because uniqueness is
reality, or that which makes a thing what it
is, everything that is real is based on a
centralization.
Source: Sandy LaFave, West Valley College, Saratoga, CA http://instruct.westvalley.edu/lafave/writsamp0.htm
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Elbow Group Activity:
When was your ‘writing
breakthrough’ point?
•In your group, discuss when each member felt that
they reached the ‘breakthrough’ point when they felt
they were competent writers.
•Be prepared to share your discussion with the larger
group.
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The Act of Creating a Piece of
Writing Is…
• Not a single unitary skill but instead is a…
• Spectrum of interrelated skills and…
• A process of plan, write, revise
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Written Expression: A Spectrum of Skills
‘Style’
Content
Punctuation
Spelling
Syntax
Grammar
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Students must learn that
writing is a process not a product.
The Horse in Motion
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Eadweard Muybridge, 1904
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Barriers to Writing
The physical act of writing…
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Origins of the Latin Alphabet
Egyptian Hieroglyphs:
Hieratic Script
Early & Later Greek
Alphabets
Middle Bronze Age
Alphabets
Latin (Western)
Alphabet
Proto-Canaanite
Alphabet
Phoenician
Alphabet
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Origins of the Latin Alphabet:Phoenician Alphabet
Source: Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phoenician_alphabet
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Origins of the Latin Alphabet:Early Greek Alphabet
Boustrophedon: ‘ox trail’: Script alternates between left-to-right and
right-to-left
Source: http://www.translexis.demon.co.uk/new_page_2.htm
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Barriers to Writing
Spelling…
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George Bernard Shaw’s Spelling of ‘FISH’…
GHOTI
•‘F’ as in ‘ENOUGH’
•‘I’ as in 'WOMEN
•‘SH’Jimas
in
‘NATION’
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‘Simplified’ Spelling
behaviour
defence
behavior
enough
enuf
receive
reseev
incandescent
inkandesent
defense
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Barriers to Writing
Grammar…
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"If all the grammarians in the
world were placed end to end, it
would be a good thing."
– Oscar Wilde
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Grammar: A Definition
“Grammar is the study of rules governing
the use of language. The set of rules
governing a particular language is the
grammar of that language; thus, each
language can be said to have its own
distinct grammar.”
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/
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Grammar’s Dueling Perspectives:
Who Defines Good and ‘Bad’
Grammatical Usage?
• Descriptivists: Collect neutral ‘field study’
information of ‘the patterns through which
meanings are typically created in functional
speech and writing’
• Prescriptivists: Set grammatical rules for
how language ought to be used
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/
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The Complexities of English Grammar: A Sampling
Tense: Future tenses (from Wikipedia):
• Simple future: "I shall/will listen." This is used to express that an
event will occur in the future, or that the speaker intends to
perform some action.
• Future continuous: "I shall/will be listening." This is used to
express an ongoing event that has not yet been initiated.
• Future perfect: "I shall/will have listened." This indicates an
action which will occur before some other action in the future:
Normally two actions are expressed, and the future perfect
indicates an action which will occur in the future but will, at the
time of the main future action expressed, be in the past (e.g. "I
will know the tune next week because I will have listened to it").
• Future perfect continuous: "I shall/will have been listening."
Expresses an ongoing action that occurs in the future, before
some other event expressed in the future.
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/
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The Complexities of English Grammar: A Sampling
Tense: Verb Moods (from Wikipedia):
• Indicative, or declarative, mood:the simplest and most basic
mood. (Examples: I am walking home. We are very happy.)
• Subjunctive mood: used to express counterfactual (or
conditional) statements, and is often found in if-then statements,
and certain formulaic expressions NOTE: Casual spoken English
rarely uses the subjunctive, and generally restricts the
conditional mood to the simple present and simple past.
(Example: If I were you, I would bet on the lottery)
• Imperative mood: used for commands or instructions.
(Examples: Let me do the talking, Put the package down on the
table.)
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/
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Synergistic Relationship Between Reading & Writing
Reading
•Spelling
•Vocabulary
•Grammar
•Syntax
•Style
Writing
•Genre
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Writing Samples: Student Analogies
• Her face was a perfect oval, like a circle that had its two sides
gently compressed by a ThighMaster.
• She grew on him like she was a colony of E. Coli, and he was
room-temperature Canadian beef.
• She had a deep, throaty, genuine laugh, like that sound a dog
makes just before it throws up.
• Her vocabulary was as bad as, like, whatever.
• The little boat gently drifted across the pond exactly the way a
bowling ball wouldn’t.
Source: Funny analogies http://writingenglish.wordpress.com/2006/09/12/the-25-funniestanalogies-collected-by-high-school-english-teachers/
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Writing Samples: Student Analogies (Cont.)
• Her hair glistened in the rain like a nose hair after a sneeze.
• He fell for her like his heart was a mob informant, and she was
the East River.
• Shots rang out, as shots are wont to do.
• The plan was simple, like my brother-in-law Phil. But unlike
Phil, this plan just might work.
• He was as lame as a duck. Not the metaphorical lame duck,
either, but a real duck that was actually lame, maybe from
stepping on a land mine or something.
Source: Funny analogies http://writingenglish.wordpress.com/2006/09/12/the-25-funniestanalogies-collected-by-high-school-english-teachers/
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Study Skills Checklist
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Writing ‘Blockers’
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Physical Production of Writing
___Y ___N
Writing Speed. Writes
words on the page at a
rate equal or nearly equal
to that of classmates
• Teach keyboarding skills
• Allow student to dictate ideas into
a tape-recorder and have a
volunteer (e.g., classmate, parent,
school personnel) transcribe them.
___Y ___N
Handwriting. Handwriting
is legible to most readers
• Provide training in handwriting
• Teach keyboarding skills.
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Mechanics & Conventions of Writing
___Y ___N
Grammar & Syntax.
Knowledge of grammar
(rules governing use of
language) and syntax
(grammatical arrangement
of words in sentences) is
appropriate for age and/or
grade placement
• Teach rules of grammar, syntax
• Have students compile
individualized checklists of their
own common grammar/syntax
mistakes; direct students to use the
checklist to review work for errors
before turning in.
___Y ___N
Spelling. Spelling skills
are appropriate for age
and/or grade placement
• Have student collect list of own
common misspellings; assign words
from list to study; quiz student on
list items.
• Have student type assignments
and use spell-check.
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"The difference between the
right word and the almost right
word is the difference between
lightning and the lightning bug."
– Mark Twain
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Writing Content
___Y ___N
Vocabulary. Vocabulary in
written work is age/grade
appropriate
• Compile list of key vocabulary and
related definitions for subject area;
assign words from list to study; quiz
student on definitions of list items
• Introduce new vocabulary items
regularly to class; set up cooperative
learning activities for students to
review vocabulary.
___Y ___N
Word Choice.
Distinguishes wordchoices that are
appropriate for informal
(colloquial, slang)
discourse vs. formal
written discourse
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• Present examples to the class of
formal vs. informal word choices
• Have students check work for
appropriate word choice as part of
writing revision process.
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"Your manuscript is both good
and original. But the part that is
good is not original, and the part
that is original is not good."
– Samuel Johnson
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Writing Content (Cont.)
___Y ___N
Audience. Identifies
targeted audience for
writing assignments and
alters written content to
match needs of projected
audience
•Direct students to write a ‘targeted
audience profile’ as a formal (early)
step in the writing process; have
students evaluate the final writing
product to needs of targeted
audience during the revision
process.
___Y ___N
Plagiarism. Identifies when
to credit authors for use of
excerpts quoted verbatim
or unique ideas taken from
other written works
•Define plagiarism for students. Use
plentiful examples to show students
acceptable vs. unacceptable
incorporation of others’ words or
ideas into written compositions.
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"Nothing is particularly hard if
you divide it into small jobs."
– Henry Ford
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Writing Preparation
__Y __N
Topic Selection.
Independently selects
appropriate topics for
writing assignments
•Have student generate list of general
topics that that interest him or her; sit
with the student to brainstorm ideas
for writing topics that relate to the
student’s own areas of interest.
__Y __N
Writing Plan. Creates
writing plan by breaking
larger writing assignments
into sub-tasks (e.g., select
topic, collect source
documents, take notes
from source documents,
write outline, etc.)
•Create generic pre-formatted work
plans for writing assignments that
break specific types of larger
assignments (e.g., research paper)
into constituent parts. Have students
use these plan outlines as a starting
point to making up their own detailed
writing plans.
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Writing Preparation (Cont.)
__Y __N
Note-Taking. Researches
topics by writing notes that
capture key ideas from
source material
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•Teach note-taking skills; have
students review note-cards with the
teacher as quality check.
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"When I sit at my table to write, I
never know what it’s going to be
until I'm under way. I trust in
inspiration, which sometimes
comes and sometimes doesn't. But
I don't sit back waiting for it. I work
every day."
– Alberto Moravia
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Writing Production & Revision
__Y __N
Adequate ‘Seat Time’.
Allocates realistic amount
of time to the act of writing
to ensure a quality final
product
• Use teacher’s experience and
information from proficient student writers
to develop and share estimates of
minimum writing ‘seat time’ needed to
produce quality products for ‘typical’
writing assignments
• Have students keep a writing diary to
record amount of time spent in act of
writing for each assignment. (Additional
idea: Consider asking parents to monitor
and record their child’s writing time.)
__Y __N
Oral vs. Written Work.
Student’s dictated and
written passages are
equivalent in complexity
and quality
• Allow student to dictate ideas into a
tape-recorder and have a volunteer (e.g.,
classmate, parent, school personnel)
transcribe them
• Permit the student to use speech-to-text
software (e.g., Dragon Naturally Speaking)
to dictate first drafts of writing
assignments.
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Writing Production & Revision
__Y __N
Revision Process. Revises
initial written draft before
turning in for a grade or
evaluation
•Create a rubric containing the
elements of writing that students
should review during the revision
process; teach this rubric to the
class; link a portion of the grade on
writing assignments to students’ use
of the revision rubric.
__Y __N
Timely Submission. Turns
in written assignments
(class work, homework) on
time
• Provide student incentives for
turning work in on time.
• Work with parents to develop
home-based plans for work
completion and submission.
• Institute school-home
communication to let parents know
immediately when important
assignments are late or missing.
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Writing ‘Blockers’
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Elbow Group Activity: What
are the major writing
concerns in your school?
•Look over the
Writing Skills Checklist
•As a group, select the TOP TWO areas that teachers
in your school are most concerned about.
•Brainstorm possible intervention ideas to address
these concerns.
•Appoint a spokesperson to share your group’s
selections.
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CBM Administration: Writing
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CBM Writing:
Preparation
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CBM Writing Assessment: Preparation
• Select a story starter
• Create a CBM writing probe: a lined sheet with the
story starter at the top
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CBM Writing Assessment: Preparation
Story Starter Tips:
• Create or collect story starters that students will
find motivating to write about.
• Avoid story starters that allow students simply to
generate long lists: e.g., “What I want for my
birthday is…”
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CBM Writing Probes:
Administration
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CBM Writing: Student Directions
I want you to write a story. I am going to read a sentence to you
first, and then I want you to write a short story about what
happens. You will have 1 minute to think about the story you will
write and then have 3 minutes to write it. Do your best work. If
you don't know how to spell a word, you should guess. Are there
any questions? For the next minute, think about . . . [insert storystarter].
The examiner starts the stopwatch. At the end of 1 minute, the
examiner says, Start writing.
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CBM Writing Probes: Scoring
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CBM Writing Assessment: Scoring
Total Words:
I woud drink water from the ocean and I woud
eat the fruit off of the trees. Then I woud bilit a
house out of trees, and I woud gather firewood
to stay warm. I woud try and fix my boat in my
spare time.
Total Words = 45
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CBM Writing Assessment: Scoring
Total Words: Useful for tracking a
student’s fluency in writing
(irrespective of spelling,
punctuation, etc.)
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CBM Writing Assessment: Scoring
Correctly Spelled Words:
I woud drink water from the ocean
and I woud eat the fruit off of the
trees. Then I woud bilit a house
out of trees, and I woud gather
firewood to stay warm. I woud try
and fix my boat in my spare time.
Correctly Spelled Words = 39
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CBM Writing Assessment: Scoring
Correctly Spelled Words: Permits
teachers to (a) monitor student
spelling skills in context of writing
assignments, and (b) track
student vocabulary usage.
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CBM Writing Assessment: Scoring
Correct Writing Sequences:
I woud drink water from the ocean
and I woud eat the fruit off of the
trees. Then I woud bilit a house
out of trees, and I woud gather
firewood to stay warm. I woud try
and fix my boat in my spare time.
Correct Writing Sequences = 37
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CBM Writing Assessment: Scoring
Correct Writing Sequences: Most
global CBM measure. Looks at
quality of writing in context.
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CBM Writing Activity:
At your table:
•
•
score your writing probe for Correct Writing
Sequences
discuss with your group discrepancies in scoring
criteria or ambiguous scoring examples
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Trainer Question: What objections or concerns might teachers
have about using CBM writing probes? How would you
address these concerns?
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Elbow Group Activity:
How do you answer
teacher concerns
about CBM Writing?
•In your group, discuss this issue:
•What objections or concerns might teachers have about
using CBM writing probes? How would you address these
concerns?
• Appoint a spokesperson.
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CBM Writing Probes: Norms
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CBM Norms: Correct Word Sequences: AimsWeb
Source: http://www.aimsweb.com/measures/written/norms.php
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CBM Norms: Total Words: Mirkin, et al. 1981
CBM Research Norms for Written Expression
Grade
1
Words
written
in 3
mins
15
2
28
3
37
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4
41
5
49
6
53
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Local (Classroom or Grade) Norms
• Administer and score writing probes to all students in a
classroom or grade level
• Compare performance of students with writing concerns
to those data
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Baylor Elementary School : Grade Norms: Correctly Read Words Per Min : Sample Size: 23 Students
Group Norms: Correctly Read Words Per Min: Book 4-1: Raw Data
31 34 34 39 41 43 52 55 59 61 68 71 74 75 85 89 102 108 112
115 118 118 131
LOCAL NORMS EXAMPLE: Twenty-three 4th-grade students
were administered oral reading fluency Curriculum-Based
Measurement passages at the 4th-grade level in their school.
In their current number form, these data are not easy to
interpret.
So the school converts them into a visual display—a boxplot —to show the distribution of scores and to convert the
scores to percentile form.
When Billy, a struggling reader, is screened in CBM reading
fluency, he shows a SIGNIFICANT skill gap when compare to
his grade peers.
Jim Wright
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Baylor Elementary School : Grade Norms: Correctly Read Words Per Min : Sample Size: 23 Students
Group Norms: Correctly Read Words Per Min: Book 4-1: Raw Data
31 34 34 39 41 43 52 55 59 61 68 71 74 75 85 89 102 108 112
115 118 118 131
Group Norms: Converted
to Box-Plot
Median (2nd Quartile)=71
1st Quartile=43
3rd Quartile=108
Billy=19
Hi Value=131
Low Value=31
0
20
40
60
80
100
120
Correctly Read Words-Book 4-1
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140
160
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Informal Estimate of ‘Normative’
Performance
• Administer and score writing probes to all students in a
classroom or grade level
• Have teacher select 3 writing samples that they would
call ‘typical’ for class
• Score these 3 probes: take median score as
intervention goal
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Writing Samples: Medical Charts
• The patient refused autopsy.
• The patient has no previous history of suicides.
• Patient has chest pain if she lies on her left side for
over a year.
• On the second day the knee was better, and on the
third day it disappeared.
• The patient is tearful and crying constantly. She also
appears to be depressed.
• Discharge status: Alive but without my permission.
Source: Bioethics Discussion Blog
http://bioethicsdiscussion.blogspot.com/2005/06/unintended-humor-bad-chart-writing.html
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Sample Writing Interventions
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"Success comes before work
only in the dictionary."
– Anonymous
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Reading & Writing: Performance Time-Line
Before
Reading:
Previewing
text,
developing a
‘reading plan’
Planning:
?
When Reading:
Taking notes,
‘interacting’
with author’s
ideas, content
Reading
WRITING
Writing:
?
After Reading:
Reviews notes,
continues to
think about
material read,
reskims text
Revision:
?
Sources: Pressley, M., & Wharton-McDonald, R. (1997). Skilled comprehension and its development through
instruction. School Psychology Review, 26(3), 448-467.
Gersten, R., Baker, S., & Edwards, L. (1999). Teaching expressive writing to students with learning disabilities: A
meta-analysis. New York: National Center for Learning Disabilities.
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Elbow Group Activity:
Brainstorm interventions to
support struggling writers in
one of the writing phases:
Planning, Writing, Revision
•Your group will be assigned to think about one of the
three phases of the writing process
•In five minutes, brainstorm as many ideas as you can
for interventions to support students in this phase of
writing
•Be prepared to share your ideas!
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Cover-Copy-Compare (Murphy, Hern, Williams, & McLaughlin, 1990)
Students increase their spelling knowledge by copying
a spelling word from a correct model and then
recopying the same word from memory. Give students
a list of 10-20 spelling words, an index card, and a
blank sheet of paper. For each word on the spelling list,
the student:
1. copies the spelling list item onto a sheet of paper,
2. covers the newly copied word with the index card,
3. writes the spelling word again on the sheet
(spelling it from memory), and
4. uncovers the copied word and checks to ensure
that the word copied from memory is spelled
correctly. Repeat as necessary.
Jim Wright
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"People say I don't take criticism
well, but I say, what the hell do
they know?"
– Groucho Marx
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Monitoring to Increase Writing Fluency
(Rathvon, 1999)
Students gain motivation to write through daily monitoring and charting
of their own and classwide rates of writing fluency.
– Assign timed freewriting several times per week.
– After each freewriting period, direct each student to count up the
number of words he or she has written in their daily journal entry
(whether spelled correctly or not).
– Have students to record their personal writing-fluency score in their
journal and also chart the score on their own time-series graph for
visual feedback.
– Collect the day’s writing-fluency scores of all students in the class,
sum those scores, and chart the results on a large time-series
graph posted at the front of the room.
– Raise the class goal by five percent per week.
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Student Monitoring Chart
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A Memory Device for Proofreading (Bos & Vaughn, 2002)
When students regularly use a simple, portable, easily memorized plan
for proofreading, the quality of their writing improves significantly.
– Create and have students refer to a classroom with the SCOPE
proofreading elements:
Spelling: Are my words spelled correctly;
Capitalization: Have I capitalized all appropriate words, including
first words of sentences, proper nouns, and proper names?;
Order of words: Is my word order (syntax) correct?;
Punctuation: Did I use end punctuation and other punctuation
marks appropriately?
Expression of complete thoughts: Do all of my sentences
contain a noun and verb to convey a complete thought?
Jim Wright
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Stimulate Writing Interest With
an Autobiography Assignment (Bos & Vaughn, 2002)
Assigning the class to write their own autobiographies
can motivate hard-to-reach students who seem
uninterested in most writing assignments. Have
students read a series of autobiographies of people
who interest them. Discuss these biographies with the
class. Then assign students to write their own
autobiographies. (With the class, create a short
questionnaire that students can use to interview their
parents and other family members to collect
information about their past.) Allow students to read
their autobiographies for the class.
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"The worst thing you write is
better than the best thing you
didn't write."
– Anonymous
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Use Selective Proofreading
With Highlighting of Errors
To prevent struggling writers from becoming overwhelmed by
teacher proofreading corrections, select only 1 or 2
proofreading areas when correcting a writing assignment.
1. Create a student ‘writing skills checklist’ that inventories
key writing competencies (e.g., grammar/syntax, spelling,
vocabulary, etc.).
2. For each writing assignment, announce to students that
you will grade the assignment for overall content but will
make proofreading corrections on only 1-2 areas chosen
from the writing skills checklist. (Select different
proofreading targets for each assignment matched to
common writing weaknesses in your classroom.)
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Use Selective Proofreading
With Highlighting of Errors: Cont.
3. To prevent cluttering the student’s paper with potentially
discouraging teacher comments and editing marks:
a. underline problems in the student’ text with a
highlighter and
b. number the highlighted errors sequentially at the left
margin of the student paper.
c. write teacher comments on a separate feedback sheet
to explain the writing errors. Identify each comment
with the matching error-number from the left margin of
the student’s worksheet.
TIP: Have students use this method when proofreading
their own text.
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Selective Proofreading With
Highlighting of Errors
Tommy Ridgeway
Dec 1, 2006
Mrs. Richman
Spelling; Run-on and incomplete
sentences
1
2
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1
Rewrite this run-on sentence as two separate
sentences.
2
Not clear. Rewrite. Consider starting the sentence
with ‘The concept of …’
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"A ratio of failures is built into
the process of writing. The
wastebasket has evolved for a
reason."
– Margaret Atwood
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Integrated Writing Instruction (MacArthur, Graham, & Schwarz,
1993 )
The instructor follows a uniform daily instructional framework for writing
instruction.
1. Status-checking. At the start of the writing session, the instructor
quickly goes around the room, asking each student what writing
goal(s) he or she plans to accomplish that day. The instructor
records these responses for all to see.
2. Mini-Lesson. The instructor teaches a mini-lesson relevant to the
writing process. Mini-lessons are a useful means to present explicit
writing strategies (e.g., an outline for drafting an opinion essay) as
well as a forum for reviewing the conventions of writing. Minilessons should be kept short (e.g.,5-10 minutes) to hold the
attention of the class.
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Integrated Writing Instruction Cont. (MacArthur, Graham, &
Schwarz, 1993 )
3.
4.
Student Writing. During the session, substantial time is set aside
for students to write. Their writing assignment might be one
handed out that day or part of a longer composition (e.g., story,
extended essay) that the student is writing and editing across
multiple days. When possible, student writers are encouraged to
use computers as aids in composing and editing their work.
Peer & Teacher Conferences. At the end of the daily writing
block, the student may sit with a classmate to review each other's
work, using a structured peer editing strategy. During this
discussion time, the teacher also holds brief individual conferences
with students to review their work, have students evaluate how
successfully they completed their writing goals for the day, and
hear writers' thoughts about how they might plan to further develop
a writing assignment.
Jim Wright
www.interventioncentral.org
Integrated Writing Instruction Cont. (MacArthur, Graham, &
Schwarz, 1993 )
5.
Group Sharing or Publishing. At the end of each session, writing
produced that day is shared with the whole class. Students might
volunteer to read passages aloud from their compositions.
Students are encouraged to choose more polished work and post
it on the classroom wall or bulletin board, have their work
displayed in a public area of the school, publish the work in an
anthology of school writings, read it aloud at school assemblies, or
publish it on a school Internet site.
Jim Wright
www.interventioncentral.org
Elbow Group Activity:
Proofreading Practice
•In your group, read through the student composition on
your handout.
•Select two proofreading targets from the Writing Skills
Checklist
•Edit the student writing sample using the Selective
Proofreading strategy
Jim Wright
www.interventioncentral.org
The amount of grammer and usage error’s today is
astounding. Not to mention spelling. If I was a teacher, I’d
feel badly that less and less students seem to understand
the basic principals of good writing. Neither the oldest
high school students nor the youngest kindergartner know
proper usage. A student often thinks they can depend on
word processing programs to correct they’re errors. Know
way!
Watching TV all the time, its easy to see why their having
trouble. TV interferes with them studying and it’s strong
affect on children has alot to due with their grades.
There’s other factors, too, including the indifference of
parents. A Mom or Dad often doesn’t know grammer
themselves. They should tell there children to study hard
and to watch less TV then their classmates.
Source: Sandy LaFave, West Valley College, Saratoga, CA http://instruct.westvalley.edu/lafave/writsamp0.htm
Jim Wright
www.interventioncentral.org
Interventionist TIP: Don’t Forget That…
Writing Interventions Are Embedded in a
Larger Web of Potential Academic
Intervention Strategies
Homework
Note-Taking
Time
Management
Reading
Fluency
Writing
Test Taking
Jim Wright
Reading
Comprehension