Middle School Literacy SuccessIncreasing Achievement Through Writing, Part 2

Using Writing Strategies Is a Shared Responsibility

As I shared the reading and writing strategies discussed in Part 1 of this blog series, word spread about the success middle school students were having with them. Over time, I met with teachers from various subject areas and grade levels. They then used the strategies to help their students learn, remember, and apply content.

One team of intermediate-level teachers attended my workshops, learned the strategies, and used them with their third, fourth, and fifth grade students. They posted charts in their classrooms that listed the strategies that would be taught and used during the school year. After only a few months, these teachers changed the title of their charts from “Strategies You Will Learn” to “Strategies You Are Expected to Use.”

These teachers realized that using the strategies had to be a shared responsibility. Students understood that they needed to not only know the list, but also to speak up if they needed help learning or applying any of the strategies. This meant that everyone was accountable.

The teachers liked the strategies because they made planning lessons faster and easier. Because students had mastered strategies for skills like note taking, learning new vocabulary, and reading textbooks, the quality and the quantity of their work improved. Students could and would show off with pride examples of notes, reports, topic sentences, short answers, and more that they kept in binders. They used strategies independently and in groups as they collaborated on projects.

This team of teachers was also the first to point out the improvement in reading comprehension that came as their students used and mastered more writing skills.

One of these teachers eventually became an elementary school principal. When his intermediate-level teachers expressed frustration about the writing they saw in their students’ work, he (with the teachers’ permission) modeled the strategies in several classes. Everyone liked the results. Teachers found several ways to use the strategies in all subjects. This included writing for the regional science fair competition. People attending the fair commented on the quality of the student writing.

The success I had using writing strategies and the success these elementary students displayed can be replicated anywhere with students of all ages and ability levels—and, yes, motivational levels.

Where to Start

If we want to turn the tide and improve literacy skills, we need to identify and define those skills. We also need strategies for teaching the skills.

I remember the major turning point in my life as a teacher. It was the day I realized that, if I really wanted to improve the literacy skills of all of my students, I needed to ask myself some serious questions. This meant setting clear goals and assessing my own skills.

For setting goals, I used the skills my district assessed and the skills I knew all students needed to complete daily assignments—skills like sentence writing, short answers, reading response, note taking, summarizing, and expository writing.

For each skill I needed to teach, I asked myself four questions:

1. Can I?
This question is simple but pushed me to really identify my own skills—strengths and weaknesses. I could, of course, answer yes to almost all of these, but in some areas I wanted help.
 
2. Do I have strategies, methods, and processes for teaching these skills to all of my students?
For this question I often had to say no. Just having the skill did not mean I had a reliable method for teaching the skill to all students regardless of their ability levels. It was this question that pushed me to develop strategies that did work. I am practical by nature and like to think I am creative. With the good-natured support of my middle school students, I turned reading and writing lessons into hands-on, multisensory activities. The quality of work for my honors students as well as my students identified as “at risk” improved. I could see that the strategies were working.
 
3. How often?
Practice, practice, practice! This is the message coaches give to their tennis or baseball players, voice students, and debate or track teams. It’s what artists, chefs, scientists, and mathematicians do. My goal was to have students writing all of the time. Students wrote independently, as a whole class, and in small groups. Sometimes this meant just sentences; at other times it meant paragraph or essay writing. Most of the time what we wrote was short. This made it possible for me to score the work and get it back to students right away—with clear marks about how to improve and revise their work. Later, teachers in all subject areas and elective classes learned the strategies I used. Their support and efforts made all the difference. In these classes students could practice their skills. They were no longer learning to write; they were actually writing to learn content.
 
4. What are my expectations?
I took three steps to help everyone see my expectations. First, I used the “below basic, basic, proficient, and advanced” labels for writing that I had seen on NAEP writing documents to score student work. Next, I created scoring guides that used these labels. I listed my expectations on the grid for each level, making every effort to be as specific as I could. I wanted students to use the scoring guide as a tool for revision. I wanted to give students opportunities and motivation for revising. I used a scale of 1 to 16 to assess writing. The math was easy to do, and the 16-point scale helped us move away from the traditional A, B, C approach. Students knew that using the strategies and skills they learned in class would almost always guarantee a high number. Then, as often as I could, I wrote samples for students to show them what I looked for when I reviewed their work. In addition, I frequently shared published writing from newspapers, magazines, business publications, and textbooks that validated the work I asked them to do.
 

Students with strong reading and writing skills generally succeed in school. Students with limited skills often struggle. Naming each skill—for instance, “note taking,” “answering questions,” or “writing topic sentences”—and then teaching strategies to help students learn that specific skill is a practice that empowered me and my students. I used instructional time more effectively; my students tackled reading and writing assignments with confidence.

Step Up to Writing provides the practical help and grade-level lessons teachers need to introduce, practice, review, and assess academic literacy skills and strategies. This K–12 program includes a standards-aligned scope and sequence, but also encourages teachers to customize lessons as needed.

With these strategies students can learn to assess their own strengths and weakness, ask for help, and set goals. And isn’t that what they really need to be successful in school and in life?

 

Download sample strategies from Step Up to Writing by clicking the button below. To learn more about how to teach and use simple writing strategies across grade levels and content areas, visit www.voyagersopris.com/stepuptowriting.

Download Writing Strategies

 

Do you have questions about teaching writing or want to share your own tips with your colleagues? Please share your thoughts in the Comment field below.