Literacy Speaks Volumes

Using Transitions When You Write: Lesson Objectives *         To understand the purpose of transitions *         To use different types of transitions *         To revise writing to include transitions What are Transitions? *         If you have ever tried to find your way around a new place, you know how helpful street signs can be. They tell you where to go, how to find places, and what to do next. *         Transitions are the street signs of writing—they help your readers get from one place to another as they read. What are Transitions? *         When you don’t use transitions, readers get lost. *         They have no signs to show them the route. *         Transitions guid...

Teachers set specific product goals by giving students specific writing goals. The goals include the format, the purpose, and any other specifics that the teacher deems necessary. An example of a product goal is to write an argument supporting an opinion. First students must write with a purpose. Students will pick any story that they have read. You will need to put some restrictions or qualifiers on this. You might want to give them a choice of three stories from their anthology. The student task is to write an argument essay that persuades readers that one particular story is better than the other two. Students choose one narrative element into which to go into detail: character, setting, or plot. What is the purpose of this piece of writing? One purpose might be to have readers agree with the argued choice. Another purpose might be to understand your (the writer's) reactions to this group of stories. Who is the audience for this essay? Your audience might be your...

Collaborative writing involves developing instructional arrangements whereby adolescent writers work together to plan, draft, revise, and edit their compositions. Collaborative writing refers to projects where written work is created by multiple people together rather than individually. Sometimes, an editor or the teacher oversees the work, or it can grow organically. Collaborative writing is an excellent way to teach teen writers. Sometimes it is called shared writing or interactive writing. Lesson Plan Ideas for Collaborative Writing: Give a group of students a topic. Each student writes a question about the topic. The students then share their questions with the members of the group. This activity strengthens the students' abilities to use inquiry during prewriting. Give a group of pupils a topic. The students write the theme in the middle of a piece of butcher paper. The students then work together creating a mind map of the subject. I move my students to the cafet...

Writing instruction often involves explicitly and systematically how to summarize texts . Researchers determined that summarization techniques ranged from explicit teaching of strategies to enhancing the strategies that the students already knew. Overall, teaching teen writers to summarize text has a consistent, strong, positive effect on their ability to comprehend a variety of texts. Here are some quick summarizing strategies that you can implement immediately into your classroom: List three main points of today's lesson and one question that you have. Answer the following questions: So what? What did you learn today? List three important points from today's lesson and the most important point from today's lesson. List four points that you learned; list three points that you are unsure of; list one question that you still have. RAFT: Role, audience, format, task Word Splash: Students are given keywords from the lesson, and they have to use those words in mean...