Guide to Writing Instruction in the Resource Room

I teach in the Resource Room at a K-5 school. So here is my disclaimer: If you are looking for Letter Formation and Life Skills writing tips, this is not the post for you. But please DO read on and see if you find anything that will be useful for you!

My first year teaching, I found writing to be one of the hardest things to teach. If you are in the same boat, I strongly suggest you buy or borrow 6+1 Traits of Writing by Ruth Culham. The Complete Guide for Primary Grades is a must have if you are teaching in students between Kindergarten and 3rd grade. I also own the complete guide for grades 3 and up and I have used it regularly.

These are great resources, because Culham helps you look at your student's current level of performance and determine next steps. If I am stumped or want another tool, I regularly grab one of these books off the shelf and look at the trait I am working on.

My second year teaching, I led a grant project with a team of other Special Education teachers and an ELL teacher to build up our tools around writing instruction. We observed a lot of General Education classrooms and saw how they formatted their instruction using Writers' Workshop; a 10 to 15 minute mini-lesson, followed by writing time in which the teacher conferences with students either in small group or one-on-one for the remaining 30 minutes. This is a format that most writing curriculums encourage.

I don't know about you, but in my setting I do not generally have my students for 45 minutes at a time, so I can't recreate this. Nor am I able to allow my students to continue writing without instruction and still consider it "Specially Designed Instruction." You may have a fantastic scripted writing program in your building. If you do, great! Use it! Just make sure that it is teaching grammar and sentence structure and not just focussing on spelling. If the writing curriculum does not teach how to structure a paragraph or create an outline for longer pieces of writing, I strongly suggest you decide how you want to supplement that.
If you have younger students or lower level writers, a sentence may be their Everest and that's okay. You climb that mountain! I have found that a combination of Direct Instruction and Writers Workshop creates well balanced and successful writing instruction.

In my own classroom, writing instruction looks something like this on a daily basis:

1. Mini-lesson on Graphic Organizer or Writing Trait

2. Individual Task with feedback and teacher input.

3. Word Sorts working on Spelling and Phonics skills when students finish their writing task for the day.

AND NOW, HERE ARE MY 4 WRITING MUST DOS! 

1. Graphic Organizers!

Whether your students are trying to write a sentence, a short story or a 5 paragraph essay, these will come in handy! For your students working on writing at the sentence or paragraph level, consider this free graphic organizer. Some kids don't have the language they need to explain their ideas, either because of learning difficulties or because they are English Language Learners. Don't forget the impact of language on writing!! Have your students talk about their ideas before they write them down. Give them the words when they don't have them. 

If your students are writing more complex pieces, start by planning backwards and creating your own graphic organizer. Or borrow one from a primary grade teacher. My school uses Lucy Caulkins, which is a very demanding curriculum. My students often need a ton of scaffolding and support just to get started. So before their class is teaching a new unit, I pull out the go to graphic organizer I want those students to use. I help them complete it during our group time and I send them back to class ready to begin a rough draft. Whenever possible, I give them source material for research that is at their independent level or lower, so they can do research with confidence. 

2. Word Lists and Word Banks

Some schools and students have access to amazing assistive technology that allows the teacher to create a word bank their students use regularly or will need to use for a writing unit. I have been fortunate enough to be in a school with this kind of access for the last two years. 

Another low tech option that I have found is also quite effective is to have a word list at a student's desk: preferably one page with all their words in alphabetical order. I have used this word list and had students be very successful. If a student needs a word that's not on there, just write it on. The goal in using a word list is production. We want students to get their ideas out on paper independently. Once they are able to do that, the rest of their writing will improve as well. 

Also: A list of words on the wall is NOT the same thing as a personal word list at a student's desk. Struggling writers are usually struggling readers as well. Sit in the student's desk and look around the classroom. Imagine that everything on your posters is in a foreign language. Can you pick out the high frequency words in French? Neither can the student. A list at their desk is manageable and easy for them to access. Words on the wall are overwhelming and hard for them to pick out. 

3. Writing Trait Mini-Lessons

I analyze my students writing during our group times and take notes in my planner. That way, I know what to plan for the next day and what our focus should be. At this point, I have a TON of writing books and go to lessons for different skills. When I was first getting started, these Evan Moor Writing Books really helped me to target writing skills with confidence. I also love how easy they are to hand over to a teaching assistant. My teaching assistants have often told me they feel uncomfortable teaching writing without a scripted curriculum or very structured lessons. It's nice to hear it from them, so I don't feel quite so OCD when I give them such detailed lesson plans! These books have structured lessons that target the skills you need, while also giving students an opportunity to plan their writing using a Graphic Organizer (YAY!) and then actually create a piece of written work. 

4. Writing Binders/Folders

Each student in every writing group has a writing folder or binder (depending on the group and availability of binders, lol). In their binder they have two tabs: Writing and Spelling. Writing contains their graphic organizers, rough drafts and most current piece of writing. Spelling contains spelling practice for if they finish the days lesson ahead of their peers. Students will always finish writing at different paces. So I have additional work for them to do that targets their IEP goals and is built into our classroom procedures. It's a win-win! Their spelling and sentence structure get better. I have a classroom that runs smoothly so I can meet with each student during group and conference on what I am seeing. 

I hope this post was helpful. Feel free to comment if you have questions about resources or ideas for Writing Instruction!

Clipart in this post came from: 

2 Super Teachers

4 Ways to Reinforce Reading Interventions in the Classroom

Many students attend Reading Interventions in a small group setting: whether it's a Title 1 Reading Intervention or Special Education Intervention. I cannot stress how important it is that what's being taught in a reading intervention group be reviewed and reinforced in the general education classroom. 

I know that classroom teachers have so much on their plates and the list of things they have to do seems to get longer everyday. BUT there are a few ways to make reviewing intervention materials quick and (relatively) painless!

1. Folders that go back and forth between the General Education Classroom and Intervention Groups. 

In my school, the Reading Specialist and I send blue folders back and forth between outr group and the classroom teacher. There is a pocket in the front. When students have had a chance to review materials in the classroom, the teacher changes the card from red to green. After group, we change it back to red. 

Since I teach a lot of groups using Reading Mastery and Corrective Reading, I am able to put the finished workbook page in the folder. Each page has the words or stories we've read. As students get higher in Reading Mastery K, I make copies of the Decodable Books and put those in each folder. I also use put Reading Mastery Seatwork sheets in the folder for EVEN MORE practice when students have a hard time participating in Core Reading. 

2. Review Templates

A one-page, or half-page review sheet of words, sounds and phonics skills is a great way for classroom teachers to reinforce skills taught in intervention groups, easily and efficiently. I use these Reading Mastery K: Review Templates for my Reading Mastery groups. It is a lot of work to create on the front end, but then you have those templates for years to come. There will be another group next year that is in that same Reading Curriculum. So having a Review Template ready to go will make re-teaching intervention group material that much easier!

3. Buddy Reading

During CAFE Daily 5, students can read intervention materials with a buddy. It works even better if you have more than one student in the same intervention group in a classroom. Students in the same intervention group can "read to a partner," with their review materials. I know a great teacher that even pulls those kids together and reinforces Intervention skills during their small group time. She even goes so far as to pull spelling exercises and word sorts of her own, working on the same sounds as a part of their writing group. 

4. Word Sorts and Games

If you already have Review Templates, this is really easy to do. You can make a memory game, with 2 copies of a template. You can have students sort words from their word lists by phonics skills or letter sounds. (You could also use the Words Their Way sort that corresponds to that sound or pattern). 

A few years ago a Reading Specialist introduced me to the game OOPS! And now it's my favorite word review game. To make OOPS! follow these steps: 

•Cut up template and make into a card deck. (Or use popsicle sticks in a cup. I use that most often.) Put in several cards that say OOPS!

•Students pull words and sounds out of the deck. They have to read the word correctly to keep the card.

•If someone gets OOPS! They have to put all their cards back in the deck.

•Students can play until someone gets a certain number of cards, or for a set number of turns. Whoever has the most cards wins.

Games and sorts may sound like a ton of work, but keep in mind that if you make them one year, you can always use them the next year. Chances are that you will have students in that same intervention curriculum next year. 

The Number One Rule of Review Is: Keep it Short!

When we review/re-teach a skill, we are looking at 10 minutes of good quality review. This is a second dose, not the initial introduction to the skill. The reason for this is simple: many students struggle with memory issues. Particularly if they have a Learning Disability. In order to move a new skill over into Long-term Memory, we need to make sure that students see it more than once in a day. A solid dose during intervention, plus additional exposure in the classroom. It's even more fantastic if skills taught during intervention are imbedded in other skills taught in the General Education classroom: Like spelling sorts and small group reading focus. That way students see the same skill repeatedly through out the day, but not in isolation or just in reading group. That helps students to generalize what they are learning in group to what is happening in the classroom.