Teaching Writing: Grades 4-6

About This Course

In this teacher-training course, you'll learn from an experienced educator how to motivate and assist developing writers. We'll begin with an overview of the writing basics, focusing on the importance of the task, audience, and purpose. Then we'll delve into how to organize your materials to create an inviting writing environment.

We'll discuss each step of teaching writing and the strategies you can use with your students. You'll also work on strengthening your students' writing using technology. Along the way, you'll develop engaging lessons for literary response, narrative writing, expository writing, and persuasive writing. We'll look at the characteristics of each type of writing, and you'll get practical suggestions for teaching them to your class.

Two writing approaches we'll cover, 6+1 Trait Writing and Writer's Workshop, will enable you to put everything you learn in this course into a workable format. You'll also discover the secrets of effective writing assessment as you learn about evaluation tools like portfolios and rubrics.

About The Instructor

This course includes a knowledgeable and caring instructor who will guide you through your lessons, facilitate discussions, and answer your questions. The instructor for this course will be Melanie Park.

For the last 15 years, Melanie Park has shared her passion for writing with students in preschool through middle school. Her classroom teaching experience includes serving as the language arts teacher for her school district's gifted program. Melanie graduated with Highest Distinction from Indiana University where she earned a bachelor's degree in education and a master's degree in language education. This prepared her to work with fellow teachers as a reading and writing consultant. Melanie is excited to share her love of literacy with more educators through online courses.

Syllabus

A new section of each course starts monthly. If enrolling in a series of two or more courses, please be sure to space the start date for each course at least two months apart.

Week 1

Wednesday - Lesson 01

Begin a journey through the writing process with a look at your fellow travelers: your students! We'll discuss the types of writers that emerge in grades 4-6 and find ways to encourage and motivate them. You'll also explore the basics of teaching writing by learning how to create an engaging writing task with a specific audience and purpose. At the end of this lesson, you'll pack a writing suitcase to organize your materials and learn how to create a writer-friendly classroom.

Friday - Lesson 02

Learn the importance of modeling your writing skills as you teach your students about the writing process. We'll start with an overview of the process and then focus on the first two steps in our writing journey: prewriting and drafting. Some intriguing superheroes will help your students learn effective prewriting techniques like brainstorming, freewriting, and mapping. And we'll wrap up our lesson with a friendly monster who will help you teach essay structure.

Week 2

Wednesday - Lesson 03

Today we'll continue our travels through the writing process with a study of the last three steps: revising, editing, and publishing. You'll learn how to help students become confident peer revisers as they check papers for content and clarity while still respecting the author's sense of ownership. Next, we'll discuss how you can help students focus on writing mechanics during the editing step. In both revising and editing, you'll encourage your students to collaborate, coach, and correct. Finally, you'll find ways to let your students share their writing as their voices are fully realized in the publishing step.

Friday - Lesson 04

It's time to get out your barbells because this lesson is about strengthening your students' writing. We'll focus on specific strategies for constructing intriguing sentences that vary in length and style. To be strong writers, your students will need some nourishment, so we'll learn how to use a submarine sandwich to teach paragraph structure. Using this formula, your students will become proficient at writing topic sentences, supporting sentences with transitions, and concluding sentences. Finally, we'll see how to use technology as a tool for strengthening writing.

Week 3

Wednesday - Lesson 05

Reading and writing have a natural relationship. When students connect these skills, they strengthen both abilities and enhance their learning. In this lesson, we're going to explore how to foster an eagerness for writing and teach writing skills using children's trade books. Then you'll discover and develop writing prompts that allow your students to effectively communicate their understanding of literature.

Friday - Lesson 06

"Once upon a time . . ." Remember the wonderful books you read as a child? Today we'll bring that "once upon a time" magic into our students' lives as we help them see that good stories aren't just found in books—they're in each of us as well. Our topic is narrative writing, and we'll explore the skills students need to tell stories. You'll learn how to help students create memorable characters, vivid settings, and descriptive plots. Finally, we'll consider ways to expand your students' writing repertoire using different writing genres.

Week 4

Wednesday - Lesson 07

Can you count how many research papers you've been asked to write? At some point, your students will certainly be given this assignment, so now's the time to teach them about expository writing. Expository writing is simply writing that explains or informs. In this lesson, we'll start by looking at three expository elements: focus, support, and structure. Next, you'll find ways to teach your students how to conduct research and take notes. Finally, you'll learn how to help them organize all of the information into an exceptional report.

Friday - Lesson 08

Our young students often feel unheard in an adult-dominated society. But with persuasive writing, they come to know that what they think matters and what they have to say can make a difference. That's a powerful motivation to write! Today you'll learn how to walk your students through the prewriting step, where they'll choose a topic, decide on a position statement, and research evidence that supports their view. Next, we'll help them learn to hook their readers in their introduction, use different persuasive appeals in the body of their essay, and leave a memorable impact with their conclusion. Finally, we'll help them avoid the pitfalls of certain fallacies that can undermine their efforts.

Week 5

Wednesday - Lesson 09

Writing isn't just for English class! It's a valuable tool to help your students learn other topics more deeply. In this lesson, as we explore writing across the curriculum, you'll learn how to provide plenty of writing opportunities in every subject area. We'll explore summary writing and journal writing as ways to write about a subject. And then we'll move on to writing projects that are unique for each content area. Finally, we'll finish with some engaging ideas for writing about famous people in any content area.

Friday - Lesson 10

Good, effective writing lets readers enjoy the journey with the writer, moving them toward a clear destination while blending the author's voice with the reader's emotions. The 6 + 1 Trait Writing method helps our students create a reciprocal relationship with their readers. Today you'll learn practical strategies for teaching the six writing traits: ideas, organization, voice, word choice, sentence fluency, and conventions. Then you'll discover the "plus 1" and ways to make your students' writing presentations appealing. When students can pull all these traits together, they'll have writing that makes a memorable impression on their readers!

Week 6

Wednesday - Lesson 11

In this lesson, we'll combine all the writing strategies we've learned and see how they fit into a Writer's Workshop. You'll be excited to discover how students can use the writing process, learn writing skills, practice different applications, and work collaboratively using the Writer's Workshop model. We'll divide our study of this teaching approach into three components: the mini-lesson, the small group and independent work time, and the sharing session. And an example of Writer's Workshop in action will help you visualize its use in your own classroom.

Friday - Lesson 12

Assessment is the final topic for our course. However, it isn't the "end of the road" for your students' writing experiences. In this lesson, you'll learn that assessment is an ongoing process that you can use as a tool for improving both learning and teaching. We'll start with a comparison of traditional and alternative assessment options. Next, we'll focus on how to use authentic writing tasks and portfolios to assess writing. Finally, you'll learn how to develop and use rubrics so you'll be well-equipped to evaluate your students' writing.

Requirements

Internet access, e-mail, the Microsoft Internet Explorer or Mozilla Firefox Web browser, and the Adobe Flash and PDF plug-ins (two free and simple downloads you obtain at http://www.adobe.com/downloads by clicking Get Adobe Flash Player and Get Adobe Reader).