The best time to reinforce essential writing concepts and set expectations is right before students pick up their pencils to write. In short, I train my students to begin a piece of writing with the end in mind. Clearly, I do this review and reinforcement before large...
Dale Carnegie, the famous personal development writer and speaker, once said, “People convinced against their will are of the same opinion still.” Well, the easiest way to convince students about everything in writing is to let them convince themselves. In fact,...
How do you bring objectivity to teaching writing? Authentic student writing samples from state writing assessments are an excellent tool that helps teachers bring objectivity to teaching writing. Of course, it sure helps if the writing samples are accompanied by...
The Research Shows Series: How to Assess Writing Authentically I teach writing as a “how-to” activity. Everyone enjoys learning how to do something! So often, the skill of writing is taught as information. Students have little interest in the information surrounding...
The Research Shows Series: Responding to and Evaluating Student Writing How do you respond to and evaluate student writing? Rubrics? Checklists? Peer review and evaluation? A straight 6-traits rubric? A holistic 6-traits rubric? Do you focus on mechanics or content?...
