Effective Writing Strategies

Teaching writing seams to be one of the hardest subjects to teach in my school day.  In the article To Teach Effective Writing, Model Effective Writing (2014) it states that teachers can be an effective writing teacher if they model their writing.  Teachers need to model writing of their own and model writing that goes with the lesson that is being taught.

When I teach first grade writing the class and I write a story together.  It is our class writing piece.  I also use a story of my own to model.  I make the story fun and interesting with a lot of details and fancy words.   Additionally I show a writing piece from another first grade student that is exceeding first grade standards so that the students can see that another first grader can write amazing stories.  This helps the students see what is expected and they are challenged.

Furthermore, the writing workshop model lends to the students writing to their own interests.  I think students are more engaged in their writing when they can write about their own small moments they have had or write about something they know a lot about.

All in all it is important that teachers model the writing that they are expecting from their students.  Teachers also need to be a writer themselves and share their own writing with their students.  Students should be able to critique the teachers writing.  Just like most other things in life students learn how to write by learning from an effective writer.

Cutler, D (2014, June)  To Teach Effective Writing, Model Effective Writing.  Edutopia  Retrieved June 23, 2014 from http://www.edutopia.org/blog/teach-and-model-effective-writing-david-cutler