Inside Your READ 180 Classroom: Writing in READ 180

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Dear READ 180 Educators

Got a question about writing in READ 180? You're not alone. I get asked writing questions all the time. The question themselves tell me a whole lot about how wide the writing skill level is in our READ 180 classrooms, and how much pressure you are feeling to deliver powerful and differentiated writing instruction to your students.

The first two questions always reinforce our classes are filled with students who have diverse needs:

1. How can I help my students who can't write at all?
2. How can I help my students who are ready for more rigorous assignments?

The third question is an example of our reality:
3. How can I ensure that my students will do better on the state writing tests?

So let me attempt to answer those questions—and more—as we explore writing in READ 180.

• rBook Writing - The centerpiece for writing in READ 180 lives in the rBook. This is where in each workshop we focus on the well-written paragraph. Taking students through a five-step writing process, this is where the reciprocal relationship between reading and writing is highlighted. For example, if the comprehension strategy in a workshop is summarization, then the writing focus of that workshop will be on writing a good summary. So whether your students are nonwriters or just poor writers, the scaffolds help them to create a well-organized paragraph and in turn feel success with their writing.
• rBook Extension Projects - rBook Projects are additional motivating projects designed to provide opportunities for students to react to and extend rBook instruction, and these are available free on the READ 180 Community Web site. The rBook Projects include writing, art, and presentations of topics that relate to the rBook workshops. These are great for students who are in need of less structured writing, or who need their workshop extended while you differentiate writing with other students.
• Grammar and Mechanics - Dr. Kate Kinsella says that with struggling writers needing so much writing support, it makes instructional sense to focus on the "felonies" commonly committed by writers rather than the "misdemeanors." The Grammar, Usage, and Mechanics pages of the rBook do just that. They address the most frequently committed writing felonies and then have students incorporate their new skills into their writing assignment.
• Differentiating Instruction - Check out Resources for Differentiating Instruction 2 for reteaching and additional writing practice. Here you'll get more assignments in all forms of writing, including: Persuasive, Expository, Narrative, and Descriptive. You'll get help here for taking students from a one—to a three—and five—paragraph essay, not to mention support differentiating all writing skills.
• Writing Fluency & Endurance - So many of our students have written so little over the years that their writing endurance is quite weak. In READ 180, we give students daily opportunities for writing. In the rBook, students will be marking text, taking notes, and reacting to prompts. In your Teaching Resources books you'll find graphic organizers and QuickWrites for students to use in response to the Paperbacks and Audiobooks they are reading, as well as the READ 180 Software segments in which they are working. This helps all your students, whether they respond with a sentence or a paragraph. The more students write, the more fluent writers they become. This will help to build their writing endurance.
• Constructed Responses - If students are going to be held accountable for the writing portions of state tests, then we need to promote practice in writing constructed responses to test-like questions. In Test-Taking Strategies you'll be able to equip students with strategies that help them gain the confidence necessary to succeed on standardized tests, including writing the dreaded three—and—five—paragraph essay! And the rSkills Tests provide students with the most widely assessed types of writing and formats such as short response, extended response, and multiple choice.
• Assessment in the rBook - Students are provided with a simple rubric to evaluate their own work as well as their peers' work. You'll want to model how to effectively use the rubric so that students understand that corrective feedback is good feedback! And in Response for Differentiated Instruction 2 you'll find additional rubrics and guidelines, you'll also find rubrics to support you on SAM!

Differentiated writing instruction may seem like a difficult task, but I am confident that with READ 180, you will find that with the resources at hand, teaching writing in the service of reading is not only doable, but easy.

 

A Conversation with Dr. Marilyn Jager Adams and Dr. Ted Hasselbring, Principal Scientists for System 44
A Conversation with Dr. Marilyn Jager Adams and Dr. Ted Hasselbring, Principal Scientists for System 44, appearing in the READ 180 Community Newsletter, Fall 2008.

READ 180 Community Newsletter - Winter 2008
READ 180 Community Newsletter, Winter 2008

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