Using and Benefiting From Prewriting: Elementary and Middle School Students
The benefits of mastering prewriting skills for elementary and middle school students are really quite profound. By learning effective prewriting techniques students can develop the skill of being able to see the big picture before they start an assignment or project of any kind.
When students have truly mastered prewriting they will have developed the habits and the skills of being able to think ahead, as well as being able to find the beginning, middle and ending of all their assignments. This greatly improves their writing and their class work across all subjects. That is powerful!
Prewriting Is a Map for Students: It is a Map that They Create
Prewriting is an excellent map! It helps keep students from getting lost. It also helps students to easily get back on track if they do get lost. It is a map that will greatly improve your students’ writing.
However, looking at a map it is not the same thing as being there. Your students’ writing may turn out to be somewhat different than what their prewriting shows.
Once students begin the actual writing they:
• May not use their prewriting as much as you thought they would
• May use their prewriting in a way that is different than you thought they would
Students may use their prewriting to:
• Check in with and monitor their ideas. They may do this in order to verify and validate that they like the direction they are headed.
• Check and see which important ideas they have not used. Their prewriting is like their personal bank account of good ideas.
• Monitor the direction they are headed and to monitor how their entire essay will connect together.
“Pattern Based Writing: Quick and Easy Essay” contains a unique and powerful prewriting system that teaches students how to improve their writing before they even start writing…
What this means for students is:
• Less editing… and students like that idea!
• Finishing work faster… and students like that idea!
• Creating first drafts that are so good that not even their teacher can believe it is a first draft… and everyone likes that idea!
