{"id":150223,"date":"2023-04-12T12:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-04-12T17:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/truthforteachers.com\/?p=150223"},"modified":"2023-04-12T11:47:31","modified_gmt":"2023-04-12T16:47:31","slug":"6-practices-that-ended-late-work-in-my-ela-classroom-and-finally-got-students-writing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/truthforteachers.com\/6-practices-that-ended-late-work-in-my-ela-classroom-and-finally-got-students-writing\/","title":{"rendered":"6 practices that ended late work in my ELA classroom and finally got students writing"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cThat\u2019s it, Ms. Brinkmeyer? This is all we have to do?\u201d<\/h2>\n

One of my proudest teaching moments happened the day I helped three students simultaneously write their own short stories. They\u2019d been referred to me for academic support. The rest of their class was done writing, but these three still had blank pages.<\/p>\n

This is a common issue, but it is not one I saw much of when I taught general education \u2014 I was really good at stacking layers of swiss cheese, as Angela says<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

If you\u2019ve had it with late papers, I hope you can walk away from this post with some simple practices that will bring more ease to you and your students.<\/p>\n

1. Build background knowledge<\/h3>\n

The old adage is \u201cwrite what you know,\u201d but so often, we expect students to write without the background knowledge to succeed. They might be asked to write about something they read and feel insecure that they are enough of an expert to do so successfully. I think this is why students so often shy away from analysis in favor of saying, \u201cIt was a really good book.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ensuring that they students had tons of time to talk with peers and even plan essays together can help with this. While they might write the final essay independently, good writers incubate their ideas with others.<\/a> This process builds background knowledge around an unfamiliar topic.<\/p>\n

\"\"Sometimes students are asked to write about self-selected topics and stories, and they still struggle. This comes from a different type of background knowledge gap. It could be missing the academic language to write about any topic. For example, teaching the words people use when writing with analysis, research, or argument.<\/p>\n

In other cases, when you want students to write how they would speak to a friend or family member, they may need explicit acknowledgment that their language is supposed to take center stage. Without this, they may get confused, thinking they have to write about something they love but in a \u201cteacher\u2019s way.\u201d<\/p>\n

It could also be a gap in structural background knowledge. I often hear students say they don\u2019t know where to start, and that\u2019s because they can\u2019t envision how the piece could unfold. Providing some simple options for approaches can help, as the next practice suggests.<\/p>\n

2. Make sure everyone has a roadmap<\/h3>\n

For the runners in the classroom, they can relate to the idea of visualizing a course before you run it. A roadmap in writing is the same thing. This metaphor applies across a variety of contexts for different students since humans are wired to think about something and how it might go before it happens.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

To this end, we make roadmaps. They are very simple, not at all like elaborate graphic organizers which can become another hurdle for some students. In the case of my three students who needed to write three different short stories, I asked them the following questions.<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Who is your story about? What does that person want? What\u2019s going to get in the way of that in the story? These questions established the general overview of the story.<\/li>\n
  2. What\u2019s the character doing? A lot of times people like to give details about the setting at the beginning, so where is it? What time of day is it?<\/li>\n
  3. What could happen next to move the character closer to the problem?<\/li>\n
  4. How does the problem happen?<\/li>\n
  5. How does the character solve the problem?<\/li>\n
  6. What does the character realize at the end?<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    For each question, the students jotted down notes on a blank Google doc. It didn\u2019t have to be in complete sentences, just whatever they thought of for the answers. Since I was helping the three of them simultaneously, I would ask a question and then circulate to see their answers before asking the next one.<\/p>\n

    In a whole-class environment, asking a set of guided questions is a little trickier. Instead, I have students make a little drawing of their papers, so they can see the sections along with the topics.<\/p>\n

    \"\"<\/p>\n

    This was an example I did for a piece on where to eat in New York City. After this process, students who are still stuck can get pulled together for direct questions.<\/p>\n

    For an argument piece, I could ask:<\/p>\n