[Simtrainer-l] [EXTERNAL] Scope & Sequence of Writing Strategies for K - 12
Meeks, Christina
Meeks.Christina at yakimaschools.org
Thu Oct 10 13:51:25 CDT 2019
I taught FSW to a low class of 2nd graders about 5 years ago. The first attempt at getting a writing sample resulted in 20 out of 24 blank pages. The second attempt, I had them draw pictures and write about their pictures. Results ranged from two students unable to write even one word up to two students writing three grammatically incorrect "sentences."
I started with Barbara Glaeser's sentence writing preskills packet (just the identification part). On the pretest for identifying subjects and verbs in 10 sentences, most students scored 0; the highest score was a 2. I dedicated 30 minutes 2-3 days a week, and it took us about a month and a half to go through it one page at a time as a class.
About mid-November, I started FSW. We were able to get into Learning Sheet 5 (writing sentences with linking verbs) by the end of the year. I was frustrated we didn't get farther, but the results were dramatic: all of the students could independently write at least 3 grammatically correct SV sentences on a given topic (including two Level 1 ELL students), with some students able to write 3/4 of a page of complete sentences in about 20 minutes. The next year, a 3rd grade teacher was complaining the students didn't understand verbs. As we talked, it turns out the students understood action and linking verbs; they didn't understand helping verbs, meaning they had retained the content I had taught in FSW.
Here's how I set up the lessons:
Day 1: Review previous concepts, teach new concept (sometimes this took more than one day, particularly the first lesson where I would spend a day on subjects and a day on verbs)
Day 2: Review new concept, do Learning Sheet A together, students do Learning Sheet B (I did need to read and/or define some words for students)
Day 3: The 2-3 students who mastered the concept would do an alternate task at the back table while I retaught the concept and had students analyze their papers to determine the pattern of their errors, students do Learning Sheet C
The process for Day 3 would be repeated another 4-6 times until at least 75% of the students had mastered the concept. At that point, I would teach the next Learning Sheet or lesson to the entire class. For the 4-5 students who had not mastered the previous concept, I would find a time to meet with them for a quick reteach/review of their previous work and have them continue on their Learning Sheet series until they had mastery before moving them to the next. It meant I had some students 1-2 sheets behind the rest of the class, but with the way the instruction reviews and builds, they started to grasp each new concept a little faster than the previous one.
One other piece I did was use FRAME to teach the writing process, which gave students a reference whenever we were writing in our curriculum. If I said, today you are revising, we would pull out their completed FRAME for a 30 second review of how to revise, and then students would start revising. It took a week to teach--one day for each step--because we discussed the step, I modeled following the step, and students practiced doing the step. However, it saved so much time later because I didn't have to keep reteaching the steps, and students' assessments showed evidence of them independently prewriting, revising, and editing.
Hope this helps,
Christi Meeks
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From: Simtrainer-l <simtrainer-l-bounces at lists.ku.edu> on behalf of Woodruff Susan via Simtrainer-l <simtrainer-l at lists.ku.edu>
Sent: Wednesday, October 2, 2019 3:49 PM
To: Woodruff Susan via Simtrainer-l
Subject: [EXTERNAL] [Simtrainer-l] Scope & Sequence of Writing Strategies for K - 12
CAUTION: This is an EXTERNAL email. Proceed with CAUTION should this email contain a link or attachment!
Hi Everyone…
I am sure that many of you have dealt with spreading the writing strategies across a district. I am in a district this year where the configuration of the schools have changed, and 5th & 6th grade teachers have brought into our SIM work. They are especially interested in pushing Sentence Writing down into elementary.
Instead of reinventing something that I am sure several of you have already done, would anyone be willing to share? At what grades have you started Fundamentals of Sentence Writing? I’m curious what you have found when you work with younger children on FSW.
Thank you so much for your help.
Sue
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