Teaching Writing

Everything in writing begins with language.

Language begins with listening.
--Jeanette Winterson

By the end of this Writing Workshop,

you will be able to:
define what writing is and identify the three
stages of the writing process.
explain and illustrate examples of controlled
writing tasks and how to use them.

assess the advantages and disadvantages of

using dictation to teach writing.
illustrate ways to use photos and pictures to
teach writing.

What is Writing?
Writing is a recursive* process;
writers first prepare, then write,
then revise and correct their work.
At any stage in the process, writers
may need to return to an earlier
stage to re-prepare, re-read or
re-write their work.
* Recursive means returning again and again to something already written

What are the three stages of writing?

1. Pre-writing: teachers prepare students by
providing the necessary language, discussing ideas,
identifying the format or audience, and presenting
composition skills.
2. Writing
3. Post-writing: the teacher, the writer, and or peers
read the writing and identify problems in content,
composition, and mechanics.

How does the pre-writing stage

prepare students for writing?
Collecting information: Writers may use information
they already know or research for information. Writers
can use a variety of graphic organizers and other
techniques to collect information.
Selecting information: Writers should choose the ideas
that most closely connect to their topic and which best
support the main idea.
Organizing information: How will information be
grouped? In what order will ideas be presented?
Graphic organizers are helpful.

In the writing stage* students write,

re-read, and re-write their works as necessary.

In the post-writing stage, students revise their work.

The post-writing stage is important for longer or more
structured writing like essays or research papers. In this
stage, we check that:
the content and information are correct.
the writing is appropriately structured and considers
the audience.
the spelling, grammar, punctuation. and
capitalization are correct.
*Research shows that good writers read and change their work constantly while working.

In the post-writing stage, peers and

teachers can also revise students work.
Teachers and peers may revise the writing and provide
feedback.
The teacher can use a code to indicate mistakes and
problems.
Peers can read and edit the writing. Peer editing
requires practice, and teachers can provide peers
with an editing checklist or rating scale to focus on
important issues.
Writers should correct errors and problems
themselves.

Sample Correction Code

1. R-O- Run -On Sentence

9. Prep- Preposition

2. Frag- Fragment

10. Art- Article

11. Sing or Pl- Singular or Plural

3. S/V Agr or Pro/N Agr-subject/verb
or pronoun/noun agreement
12. Wd F- Word Form
4. Vb.T-Verb tense
5. Vb. ch- Verb choice

13. Punc- Punctuation

14. Sp- Spelling

6. Pro- Pronoun

15. Cap or No Cap- Capital letter or

no capital letter

7. Poss- Possessive noun

16. V- Missing Word

8. Poss adj- Possessive adjective

17. Indent- Indentation

Sample Essay Peer Editing Form

Essay Question Evaluation Form
Student Name _______________ Your name ___________________
.................................................................................................
Grading criteria:
Each paragraph begins with appropriate topic sentence
Minimum of three sentences per paragraph
Correct use of capital letters and punctuation
Proper spelling and grammar
Essay is typed and double spaced
Clear sentences
All requirements of the question are met
Information is accurate
Essay ends with satisfactory conclusion
Essay demonstrates thought and good understanding

Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes

No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No

Creative Writing Tasks

With a partner, brainstorm ways to introduce
writing (see suggestions below).
essay, composition

advertisement

email

letter

autobiography or
biography
recipe

poem

paragraph

menu

sentences

advice

report

sign

newspaper
article
notes

rsum

instructions

play, skit, or
short drama

personal ads:
Male, 23, loves
music and dancing,
seeks female 21-25,
with same interests

diary or journal entry

Twitter feed, text
messages

poster

Think-Pair-Share: What is the value of teaching

writing at lower levels?
Examples of Controlled Writing:
1. Cloze: Listen to your facilitator and then
complete the sentences.
Paper ____________________ wood. It ____________________
by the Chinese in _______________________

2. Re-ordering words: Write the sentences in the correct order.

get up/We/before/weekends./9:00/on/never
we/to play/the park/After/soccer./go to/breakfast
a big/soccer/and eat/come/After/home/lunch./we

3. Substitution: Write a sentence like this about

yourself:
Jos likes football and chocolate ice cream.

4. Correct the Facts: Rewrite the sentences

below so that they match the picture.
The man is walking
down the street. She
is carrying flowers
on her head. She is
carrying an
umbrella. She is
holding her shirt.

Dictation
Think-Pair-Share- Discuss the advantages
and disadvantages of using dictation to
teach writing.

An alternative to dictation that focuses on meaning:

Students listen to a text and try to reconstruct it from prompts.

George---fishing

friends house---bus---river
tree---fishing
a few minutes---George---small fish

Matching Sentence Halves

This is a great way to get students to think
about sentence construction and meaning.

Every Picture Tells A Story

Photographs can be used for creative writing
exercises. For younger children, choose
photographs with images they can relate to.
Teens and adults can relate to almost any photo.
Quote Exercise:
1) Pick one photo.
2) Write a quote about the person in the photo.
3) Pass the photo to your left.
4) Write a quote about the photo that was just passed
to you.
5) Pass the photo to your left.
6) Write a paragraph about the photo that you have
in front of you. Include both quotes in your narrative.

What will you take

away from this workshop?