I've been at an international school in Mexico for the past two years now and one thing I noticed at the beginning of this school year was that my students weren't getting as much practice free writing as they needed to. Sure, they were all getting writing instruction during our mini lesson and they were completeing the required writing assignments, but many of them weren't regularly choosing Work on Writing during Daily 5 and I could see some of their basic writing skills slipping because of lack of use.
I really wanted them engaged and excited by writing!
My Work on Writing table has gone through a few different iterations through the years, but it always has a bunch of interesting materials, like special monthly pencils, fact cards, prompts, writing templates, and list papers. Most of this stuff was suggested by this amazing Second Story Window blog post. Check it out here! Second Story Window Monthly Writing
I also always make space for my Write It Out! writing template pages. These are fun pages that encourage even reluctant writers to think of ideas and get started! They are especially good for students who become overwhelmed looking at a page of blank lines.
Throughout the years, all my second and third graders have loved these templates!
Writing Templates
But, like I said earlier, all this wasn't enough!
About halfway through the year, I made some changes. I created a set of journal prompts and and put one, or two, up each week in the Work on Writing center. It become one of our weekly nonegotiables that the prompt had to be answered in paragraph form, worked on during Daily 5, and be ready to be checked by Friday.
To my surprise, my students LOVED it and we never had a single complaint!
The 80 total prompt cards are a mix of recount, reflection, description, appreciation, and persuasive writing. They are varied enough that the students don't get bored with the questions. Click here or the picture to see this product in my TPT store!
Another change I made, was that each of these weekly prompts had to be rainbow edited. I know there are many different rainbow editing versions out there, but I created one for my classroom that fits with what I am looking for in my students' writing. Click here or the picture to get my version for free!
I find that using the Rainbow Editing helps my little friends who make careless mistakes to catch themselves, and it provides a clear way for me to diagnose those students who aren't remebering concepts taught earlier in the year.
**cough, cough, capitalizing proper nouns, cough, cough**
Another strategy I added is the our You Try, I Check chart. This is basically just a T-chart where students write a word they are struggling to spell on thier side of the chart, and any time I have a free second during the day, I wander over to check it. If their word is spelled correctly, I just put a check mark next to it. If the word is spelled incorrectly, I circle it and rewrite it on my side of the chart. Any time the chart become full, usually after a week or so, we just put up another sheet of chart paper ontop of the old one.
It's quite interesting to see the progression of words that they want assistance spelling through the year!
As a part of the rainbow editing process, students have to circle words they may have spelled wrong. I find that this makes them more aware of their spelling and helps them to focus on using the spelling patterns that we learn. The You Try, I Check chart gives them another avenue to correct their spelling and outside of the dictionary and keeps them from breaking into my reading conferences.
As a side note, my students took offense to the teacher centric language of the chart title and we've been trying to think of a new catchy name for it. Please feel free to let know if you guys can come up with anything better!
So, in summation, here are all the different cogs and wheels that I keep spinning during independant writing to keep my kids interested and motivated to practice their writing skills during Daily 5.
