Overview:
Writing is challenging for young learners and offers practical, research-based strategies—such as handwriting instruction, think-alouds, and the POWER writing process—to help teachers build student confidence and make writing time more accessible and engaging for all learners.
Have you ever found yourself in the hallway discussing curriculum with your colleagues? All of a sudden, a casual stroll turns into a 20-minute conversation. As you finally make it back to your classroom, your to-do list grows as you think about all the changes you want to make. Many teachers want to ensure that they are doing right by their students, their children. It’s funny because, as a kid, I always loved writing, and I never realized how much I would love teaching writing when I became a teacher.
But there are many teachers who dread writing time each day simply because it can be hard to navigate, given the range of abilities you might have in your classroom. At one table alone, you may have one child who is still learning their letters, another who is focusing on tapping out letters to form words, and a third student who can write multiple sentences independently. This right there is where it gets hard to navigate.
“I don’t know what to write.”
“I don’t remember what I wrote.”
These are common phrases that teachers hear all the time. This is disheartening. As a teacher, I want all my students to see that they are more capable than they think. I want them to believe in themselves as much as I believe in them. I don’t want writing time to be a time they dread; instead, I want it to be a time they look forward to. We as educators want to help those who need help while still pushing each kid to reach their full potential. It is a very delicate juggling act. But if anyone can do it, it’s us teachers.
Why is it hard? According to Troia and Graham (2003), when a child is writing, they have “…to coordinate multiple cognitive, linguistic, and physical operations along with needing to consider genre-specific conventions while keeping the intended audience in mind when writing” (as cited in Grunke & Leonard-Zabel, 2015). For our youngest learners, there are multiple processes going on at once, which can make writing anything an extremely daunting task. They need to first think about what they want to say. Then they have to figure out how to get that thought onto paper. It is not surprising that in 2011, research found that out of 52,000 8th and 12th graders, written language skills remained the single most challenging task to teach and fix effectively (Grunke & Leonard-Zabel 2015). This is a huge problem, as writing is something that all people need to be able to do to be successful in our evolving society.
But have no fear, we as educators have the power to make a change and rewrite this narrative.
Handwriting
The first thing we as teachers need to focus on is handwriting. We need to model for students how to correctly write/ spell words. If students improve on their handwriting, they will have more mental energy to focus on the other conventions needed to be successful writers. When introducing a new word, teachers can start by verbalizing each letter in the word. Then, have students skywrite the word before even picking up a pencil. When students are ready ,have them write the word and then check their spelling. As students become more successful with forming words, their brains will focus less on letter formation and more on conveying ideas.
Demonstrate Thinking
When modeling for students how to write, it is imperative that you explain your thinking out loud so that students can hear the metacognitive process. Before writing, explain how you first need to think about what you want to say. Then, you must try to formulate that thought into a complete sentence. Once you know what you want to say, you must count how many words will be in your sentence. From there, vocalize that you need a capital letter, you must have spaces between your words, and you must have punctuation. Allowing students to hear the process has many benefits. It allows students to see that writing is a process. It also allows them to see that everyone (no matter what age) goes through a process when trying to write. They are not alone. Emphasize for students that the beauty of writing is that everyone’s paper will sound different. Celebrate any writing that students accomplish. Two words on a page for one child might feel like they just ran a marathon.
Use the POWER Method
We all want our kids to feel like they have the “power” to do anything they put their minds to. So why not try to implement the POWER technique?
P: Plan
O: Organize
W: Write
E: Edit
R: Revise
(Grunke & Leonard-Zabel, 2015)
To begin, provide students with a graphic organizer so they can plan their thoughts out. An organizer can be super simple. If a student is writing a nonfiction piece, you can list their topic at the top and then have them write down a fact. This is a great way to meet the needs of all students. Some students will have one fact while others may have three. All kids can use the same organizer.
During a writing block, I had a child who had been struggling look at me and say, “Look what fact I found. I really tried my best.” This line is like music to a teacher’s ear. This allows you to know that your students are gaining confidence in their abilities.
Next up is the organizational stage. After students plan, allow them to star or highlight the fact that they really want to talk about. Having them highlight or star it reduces the mental load of rewriting anything.
Now, once they have their thoughts down, they can begin the writing stage. This is where they put their thoughts together to form sentences. When they are done, make sure students have time to revise. In my classroom, this has actually become a time students enjoy.
I start by asking my students, “Do your sentences have SWAG?”
S: start with a capital letter
W: written neatly
A: a space between words
G: give it punctuation at the end
Students know that they can’t answer this question until they go back and reread everything they wrote. I always tell them to whisper-read to themselves. When they are done, we come back together to see if our sentences have SWAG. This may be simple, but I feel like it is very important. It helps to make writing fun for kids while also teaching them a valuable skill.
At the end of the day, I want to help all students, no matter what level they are at, look forward to writing time. I want them to feel like they can write anything they want. Everyone is a writer; they might just need a little help along the way.
For teachers, I know this may not solve all your problems, but I hope these ideas inspire you to not give up and keep going.
Let’s rewrite this narrative together one letter at a time!
Work Cited
Grünke, Mattias, and Ann Marie Leonard-Zabel . “HOW TO SUPPORT STRUGGLING WRITERS: WHAT THE RESEARCH STIPULATES .” International Journal of Special Education, vol. 30, no. 3, 2015, pp. 137–149, https://doi.org/https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1095015.pdf.
