1.\u00a0 Prewriting:<\/span> Prewriting<\/em> is any time a writer is getting or organizing ideas that he or she will use in writing. This includes reading, researching, note-taking, planning, brainstorming, mind mapping, organizing, and choosing a topic. Furthermore, various types of low-stakes writing (journals, learning logs, freewriting, etc.) can be prewriting.<\/p>\n 2.\u00a0 Writing:<\/span> Writing<\/em> is any time a writer writes new content for the first time. This includes adding substantial new chunks of text when revising. We often move from rewriting back into writing; hence, the term recursive.<\/p>\n 3.\u00a0 Rewriting:<\/span> Rewriting<\/em> is any time a writer attempts to improve something he or she has already written. This includes fixing errors, editing, proofreading, reading one\u2019s writing back to oneself, receiving teacher or peer feedback, using rubrics and checklists, and of course\u2014revision.<\/p>\n 4.\u00a0 Publishing:<\/span> Publishing<\/em> is any time a writer shares his or her writing with another person. This includes reading a piece of writing to another person, turning it in for a grade, pinning it to the bulletin board, sending it home to be read by and signed by a parent, placing it in a portfolio to be shared with others, and discussing it as a class.<\/p>\n Most of what follows is from an appendix in Pattern Based Writing: Quick & Easy Essay<\/a><\/span><\/span>. There is no hype in this section because everyone who reads this in the program already has the program. If you look around my website, you will see that I provide many free resources that help teachers do what the research says works and take charge of teaching writing.<\/p>\n Pattern Based Writing: Quick & Easy Essay<\/span><\/a><\/span> is a supplementary curriculum, just like a grammar book is a supplementary curriculum. Although this program and a grammar book are both a piece of the puzzle, only this program is a system, a methodology, a foundation, and a framework for teaching writing. It\u2019s the missing piece of the puzzle that makes everything else teachers do work. The goal is to create the kind of foundation that leaves everyone in a much better place.<\/p>\n Over the course of this section, you will gleam various aspects of Pattern Based Writing: Quick & Easy Essay<\/a><\/span><\/span>. To be clear, you probably won\u2019t understand those references. However, all of these writing-process activities focus on helping teachers to take action. In fact, it\u2019s non-stop action. As you will see, you can apply most of the action across the curriculum.<\/p>\n Let\u2019s get started!<\/p>\n We have already discussed how to choose topics to write about, so I won\u2019t cover that here. Also, Prewriting<\/em> (Brainstorming and MIL) is built into the Section 2 system and methodology, so I\u2019m not going to repeat that system and methodology here.<\/p>\n Creating prewriting is half the battle. With this program, when you teach your students how to break down topics, multi-paragraph success is sure to follow. Here are three more prewriting ideas for teachers:<\/p>\n a.\u00a0 Scaffolding: Guided Prewriting or Whole-Class Prewriting:<\/span> Teachers may want to generate some Main Idea Lists (MILs) (Pattern 15<\/em>) and\/or Main Question Lists (MQLs) on the front board with their students to get them started. This is easy to do across the curriculum.<\/p>\n b.\u00a0 Two Birds with One Stone: Prewriting for Writing Assessments:<\/span> Teachers may want to target writing assessments. Teachers can bring Pattern 13 and Pattern 14 into the mix, and they can use Released Writing Assessment Prompts<\/a><\/span>. Breaking down released writing prompts and creating prewriting is invaluable. Students don\u2019t need to write every time they break down a prompt and create prewriting.<\/p>\n c.\u00a0 Two Birds with One Stone: Prewriting Across the Curriculum:<\/span> Eventually, teachers will want to make use of students\u2019 writing across the curriculum. If you are not sure how to do this, have your students help you create a MIL on the front board. You can even use your end-of-chapter comprehension questions directly or as inspiration. It\u2019s not that difficult to use Pattern Based Writing: Quick & Easy Essay<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/span> across the curriculum.<\/p><\/div><\/div>\n As with Prewriting<\/em>, Writing<\/em> is built into the Section 2 system and methodology, so I won\u2019t repeat all that here. My goal here is to reinforce what I said about using repetition and variety. Teachers may want to use the program to have students write in many different ways. Here are a few ideas:<\/p>\n 1.<\/span>\u00a0 Timed Writing: The Real System<\/p>\n 2.<\/span>\u00a0 Timed Writing: Practice and Time Management<\/p>\n 3.<\/span>\u00a0 Untimed Writing<\/p>\n 4.<\/span>\u00a0 Homework<\/p>\n 5.<\/span>\u00a0 Writing Across the Curriculum<\/p>\n 6.<\/span>\u00a0 Writing Assessment Practice<\/p>\n 7.<\/span>\u00a0 Apply to Various Patterns of Organization: See the \u201cPurpose in Writing\u201d section and The Definitive List of Writing and Grammar Skills<\/a><\/span> for ideas.<\/p><\/div><\/div>\n One of the more mentally taxing (and amazing) books I can recall reading was on self-editing. Point being: Editing and revision require a special kind of mental acuity. Just reading about self-editing at a serious level is challenging. And have you ever heard this popular coffee-mug quote? \u201cI do my best proofreading after I hit send.\u201d It points out what we all know: There is a psychological component to editing and revision.<\/p>\n I use four categories in teaching rewriting:<\/span><\/p>\n 1.\u00a0 Editing:<\/span> Errors and Problems<\/p>\n 2.\u00a0 Editing:<\/span> Improvements and Alternatives<\/p>\n 3.\u00a0 Revision:<\/span> Errors and Problems<\/p>\n 4.\u00a0 Revision:<\/span> Improvements and Alternatives<\/p>\n Please consider these four categories as you think about what you want to accomplish in rewriting. For the most part, editing and revision are beyond the scope of this program. But I will answer this one question: How and when should teachers integrate rewriting with Section 2?<\/p>\n As I discuss in Nine Strategies for Teaching Writing Across the Curriculum<\/a><\/span>, I work hard to hold students accountable for using proper writing skills across the curriculum. Although this does require basic editing skills, it is just the tip of the iceberg when one thinks deeply about rewriting<\/em>.<\/p>\n As I explain elsewhere, the beginning of Section 2 can be an awkward stage. Is this the place you want to address rewriting? I know that some teachers do because I have had teachers ask me about things like adding strong verbs, improving sentence structure, word choice, grammar, mechanics, and more.<\/p>\n Let\u2019s look at two ways to think about rewriting. Of course, you may end up somewhere in the middle.<\/p><\/div><\/div>\n Some teachers (often experienced teachers or small-group teachers) have the time, the skills, and the tenacity to successfully address quality, editing, and revision issues right from the start in Section 2. Furthermore, with more advanced or older students, it may make sense. Also, if teachers spent a substantial amount of time on quality, editing, and revision in the Perfect Paragraph section, they may want to continue in the same vein here. I\u2019ve heard from some teachers who do exactly this and get great results. However, keep in mind that everything is a trade-off in time. Combining things can create synergy, or it can confuse students and bring the program to a standstill. Whatever you do, don\u2019t confuse your students or overwhelm them.<\/p><\/div><\/div>\n Since time immemorial, teachers have had two methods of teaching rewriting without actually teaching rewriting:<\/p>\n 1.\u00a0 Read Aloud to Self or Another Person<\/span><\/p>\n 2.\u00a0 Edit\/Proofread Backwards Sentence-by-Sentence or Paragraph-by-Paragraph (Not Word-by-Word)<\/span><\/p>\n Although I have always taught both techniques, I wasn\u2019t a huge fan of either until I created Pattern Based Writing: Quick & Easy Essay<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/span>. The latter of the two has become a core technique I use at the beginning of Section 2 and after.<\/p>\n I write more about \u201cReading Aloud\u201d in \u201cPublishing\u201d because I consider it a publishing technique. But since I require that students bring a pencil and erasure with them, it soon becomes a student-generated rewriting activity.<\/p>\n I don\u2019t find that the beginning of Section 2 is the time or the place for a rigid focus on quality, editing, and revision. Although I never encourage or accept gross negligence in writing, I don\u2019t want to overwhelm or discourage my students at the beginning of Section 2. More important, I don\u2019t want to invest a great deal of time on these issues in this \u201cawkward stage,\u201d as I don\u2019t think it pays off. Although I hold students accountable for using well-known and explicitly taught skills, I don\u2019t invest a great deal of time on quality, editing, and revision just yet.<\/p>\n In a sense, I want writing to take on a life of its own; I want students to show me that they care about their writing as much as I do; I want them to show me that they want to edit their writing. Having said that, please don\u2019t read this and think that I sit around waiting for this to happen. I\u2019m always moving forward in teaching writing. Be sure to read Nine Strategies for Teaching Writing Across the Curriculum<\/a><\/span>.<\/p><\/div><\/div>\n Publishing is any time a piece of writing is shared. Although publishing is always an extremely important and motivating activity for writers, I find that it far more effective inside of the Pattern Based Writing: Quick & Easy Essay<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/span>. I use five different methods of publishing in the program:<\/p>\n 1.<\/span>\u00a0 Reading to At Least One Other Person<\/p>\n 2.<\/span>\u00a0 The Student Mentor System<\/p>\n 3.<\/span>\u00a0 Timed Writing System: The Real System<\/p>\n 4.<\/span>\u00a0 Teacher-Led Class Discussions and Comparisons<\/p>\n 5.<\/span>\u00a0 Grading<\/p><\/div><\/div>\n I wish I could make this sound like it was some sort of complicated, profound exercise. But it\u2019s not. What do I do? After students finish a timed writing, I have them read it to one other person? And then they switch readers? After that, I may have them read it to another person.<\/p>\n Although I did this activity before Pattern Based Writing: Quick & Easy Essay<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/span>, it is far more effective with the program. The concreteness of A, B, C makes a difference. Students don\u2019t just read and listen; they analyze and think about what\u2019s going on in the piece of writing. Because students are truly focused on their writing, they start to catch many of their grammar and mechanics errors.<\/p>\n As I have discussed elsewhere, the beginning of Section 2 can be an awkward stage, so I don\u2019t attach the early timed writings to the Timed Writing System. So what should I do with these early pieces of writing? Do I want to tell students what I think? No. I want them to tell me what they think. I want them to reflect:<\/p>\n 1.<\/span>\u00a0 I want them to reflect on their writing.<\/p>\n 2.<\/span>\u00a0 I want them to reflect on others\u2019 writing.<\/p>\n 3.<\/span>\u00a0 In the process of reflecting, I want them to analyze and make comparisons.<\/p>\n Pencil and Erasure Required:<\/span> Reading ones writing aloud is an extremely effective rewriting technique. In fact, it\u2019s so effective that it\u2019s a wonder that everyone doesn\u2019t read everything that they write aloud at least once.<\/p>\n It\u2019s difficult to read a piece of writing aloud and not make changes. For this reason, when my students read their writing to other students, they must have a pencil and eraser in hand. After a while, students are doing lots of editing. What begins as a fast process soon begins to take lots of time because students are editing so much. Some students want to make their papers perfect. When that happens, I must limit the amount of editing.<\/p>\n In this early stage of Section 2, I believe it is more important that students write more and read more papers to more people than it is to fix every single error. Although I do want them to want to fix their mistakes, it\u2019s okay to leave them wanting to fix more. They will get to fix more mistakes the next time they write. Furthermore, the next time they write, they will try to make it perfect right from the beginning.<\/p>\n When I first created Pattern Based Writing: Quick & Easy Essay<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/span>, I liked what I saw so much in these read alouds<\/em> that I adapted the activity and created \u201cThe Student Mentor System.\u201d<\/p><\/div><\/div>\n Once again, this is a system that I like inside of Pattern Based Writing: Quick & Easy Essay<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/span>.<\/p>\n Because the program and the A, B, and C are concrete, the students who get it<\/strong><\/em> can truly and effectively teach the students who don\u2019t get it<\/strong><\/em>. I organize the stations like the diagram below. Student teachers<\/strong><\/em> use their papers to teach students who don\u2019t get it<\/strong><\/em>. Then I have the student teachers<\/strong><\/em> rotate. Students who don\u2019t get it<\/strong><\/em> see three (or more) different papers that are all unique and that are all written using the structure they have learned. They get to see both uniqueness and structure, and they become convinced.<\/p><\/div><\/div>\n Before we begin Section 2, I remind students of our Timed Writing System. I show them the stack of papers that we wrote way back when and explain to them we will soon be adding papers to them once again. I explain to them that we will probably do a few practice attempts before we make it real.<\/p>\n Popsicle Sticks and The Timed Writing System:<\/span> To illustrate how I use the Timed Writing System, let me tell you about Popsicle sticks. I\u2019ve always kept a container of Popsicle sticks on my desk. Every student has his or her name written on three Popsicle sticks, and I use these sticks to call on students. Popsicle sticks create a system of intermittent rewards, anticipation, uncertainty, and motivation. Like all of my systems, I use it strategically and try not to wear out its novelty. That\u2019s how I use the Timed Writing System.<\/p>\n To be clear, I look forward to adding a new timed writing to our Timed Writing System<\/a><\/span>, but I\u2019m not going to do it until it shows that students are starting to internalize beginning, middle, ending\u2014indent. As I have mentioned before, the beginning of Section 2 is an awkward stage, and those first timed writings are not a fair representation of what is just around the corner.<\/p>\n Once I have started adding timed writings to the system, I add them strategically and to make points clear. When I use 25-minutes of valuable class time, I have a goal in mind. I add a timed writing to the Timed Writing System<\/a><\/span> for at least one of these reasons and probably several of them at the same time:<\/p>\n 1.<\/span>\u00a0 To mark a certain amount of time or instruction.<\/p>\n 2.<\/span>\u00a0 To remind students that we are still focused on improving our writing.<\/p>\n 3.<\/span>\u00a0 To show students how their writing is improving.<\/p>\n 4.<\/span>\u00a0 To show students that we are not progressing as needed.<\/p><\/div><\/div>\n For me, teacher-led class discussions and comparisons are a gradual thing. In the beginning, it\u2019s really just a matter of \u201cyes\u201d or \u201cno.\u201d Did you follow the program, or did you not follow the program? Either way, we will try again shortly.<\/p>\n At the beginning of Section 2, I try to save most of my teacher talk for reviewing everything right before my students write. After my students write, I want them to spend time reflecting on their writing and others\u2019 writing in relation to the program.<\/p>\n As we move forward, two things will start to become very noticeable: 1) excellence, and 2) problem areas. I will feel a strong need to discuss these things with the class. When I do start doing discussions and comparisons, I\u2019m usually speaking with an enthusiastic class of writing students.<\/p>\n As I pass through this stage, I start to bring in topics related to these PDFs:<\/p>\n 1.\u00a0 PDF: The Definitive List of Writing and Grammar Skills<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n 2.\u00a0 PDF: How to Use Rubrics, Checklists, and Assessment Sheets to Teach Writing Across the Curriculum<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n 3.\u00a0 PDF: Teach Writing with Six Traits and Common Core<\/a><\/span><\/p><\/div><\/div>\nWriting Process Activities: 1) Prewriting, 2) Writing, 3) Rewriting, and 4) Publishing<\/h3>\n
1. Prewriting in \u201cSection 2: Writing a Complete Essay\u201d<\/span><\/h3>\n
2. Writing in \u201cSection 2: Writing a Complete Essay\u201d<\/span><\/h3>\n
3. Rewriting in \u201cSection 2: Writing a Complete Essay\u201d<\/span><\/h3>\n
Rewriting Method 1: Focus on Quality, Editing, and Revision Right From the Start in Section 2<\/span><\/h3>\n
Rewriting Method 2: The Read-Aloud-to-One-Other-Person Method<\/span><\/h3>\n
4. Publishing in \u201cSection 2: Writing a Complete Essay\u201d: Five Ways to Publish Student Writing<\/span><\/h3>\n
Publish 1: Reading to At Least One Other Person with Pencil and Erasure in Hand<\/span><\/h3>\n
Publish 2: The Student Mentor System<\/span><\/h3>\n
![\"How](\"https:\/\/patternbasedwriting.com\/elementary_writing_success\/wp-content\/uploads\/student-peer-teaching-writing.gif\")
<\/p>\nPublish 3: The Timed Writing System: The Real System<\/span><\/h3>\n
Publish 4: Teacher-Led Class Discussions and Comparisons<\/span><\/h3>\n