Knowing how to support struggling writers is one of the most important jobs of a teacher. Let’s face it, when you have a classroom full of diverse learners, learning styles, and levels of comfort, it can be a challenge to successfully support students who struggle. Here are 5 easy ways you can support struggling writers that will benefit all students without overwhelming the teacher. Read more specific details below the list:
- Use examples of completed pieces to support struggling writers.
- Provide writing frames for students.
- Provide pre-filled sentence stems to support struggling writers.
- Set a clear goal for each writing period.
- Use mini-lessons at the beginning of each writing period to show the target skill.
Read below for more details on each of the 5 ideas to help struggling writers.
1. Examples of completed work can support struggling writers
This is probably the most effective strategy. Using an example of the end goal will help students understand what is expected. For example, if I’m teaching literary analysis essay writing, I will read 2-3 examples of completed analysis essays in the days before we start writing. Then, I’ll choose one example and as a class we will analyze the essay, looking at its components.
Students can annotate the example essay with the teacher. Have a class discussion about different parts of the essay, and label each part so students can see what the end goal looks like. This will help them learn how to write in the target genre.
I know that anthologies are out of style (at least this year), but there’s no reason you can’t use the old literature anthology as a source of example writing. The great thing about anthologies is that there are pieces of different lengths. Choose a shorter piece to use as an example because it needs to be accessible and not overwhelming to students.
Another great tip: write your own example as an exemplar essay. One of the most useful things I’ve done is to write a literary analysis of a book we read together as a class (this could even be a real aloud). Since we all have an understanding of the novel, it allows greater access to the material. It’s this essay that we analyze together before we tackle writing our own literary analysis. Students keep a copy of the example essay and refer to it when needed. Initially, it took time to write the example essay, but I’ve been using it for years. I include it in all student support packets. See the essay below, which is included in my Literary Analysis Writing Unit found here. This step-by-step and filled with supports for all students.
2. Provide writing frames for students
Writing can be intimidating for students. Providing a writing frame for each paragraph is one simple way to make writing more manageable. If you’re teaching essay writing, draw out shapes for each type of sentence in a paragraph (because an essay follows a formula, that’s an easy task). In fact, if you teach the types of sentences in a paragraph (you might want to do a mini-lesson on this before writing an essay) then that language is a part of your students’ background knowledge.
A writing frame is much less intimidating than a blank sheet of paper. Since each shape on the writing frame means something, it’s easier for students to visualize that if there are 5 or 6 shapes on the page, that means they’ll be writing 5 or 6 sentences in the paragraph. My Literary Analysis Writing Unit is filled with paragraph frames and step-by-step pages that help students succeed.
You can also show students that certain types of paragraphs look different because they have different purposes. The shapes show this. A concluding paragraph will be shorter with fewer details than a detail paragraph. There will be a concluding sentence (CS) to sum up the entire essay.
You can even label each type of sentence so students know what’s expected. A topic sentence (TS) is generally the first sentence in each paragraph. The detail sentences and examples (D) are in the middle, and the concluding sentence (CS) is always the last sentence. Using shapes and letters to cue students is one of the easiest ways to support struggling writers. Read this blog post for even more information on using writing frames in the classroom.
3. Providing pre-filled sentence stems supports struggling writers
One way to reduce the struggle for students is to have sentence starters either on the board, on a sticky note you put on desks for specific students, or on the paper itself. Sometimes it’s simply just getting started that’s the obstacle. Remember that starting a sentence is not the point of the writing, so don’t feel like it’s cheating to give students sentence starters.
You can provide sentence starters on 1 or 2 of the paragraph frames and then tell the student they’ll do the third paragraph on their own, using sentences similar to the ones on the previous paragraph frames. Find a variety of text evidence proof frames and writing frames in this unit.
Using a “fill in the blanks” paragraph provides even more support for students who need it. Leaving key phrases out for the student to fill in (but giving most of the working words and phrases) still asks students to do the work of stating the opinion, claim, evidence, etc.
4. Set a goal for the writing period
Prior to student work time, discuss the goal to be accomplished. Write it on the board and clearly list (numbering the items on the list) what it will take in order to achieve that goal. For example, if our goal is to complete one body paragraph of an essay, students first need to
- Write the topic sentence.
- Make sure the topic sentence is focused and clear so the rest of the paragraph supports or explains the topic.
- Include at least 3 detail sentences supporting the topic.
- Using examples to support each detail is a bonus.
- Add a concluding sentence that summarize the main point of the paragraph.
- Don’t forget to use appropriate transition words and phrase to make your writing flow.
Don’t hesitate to give an end-time for the writing period
I’ve found that it works well when I give a specific time for the task to be completed. There are arguments against setting timers for a work period because you want to avoid adding stress to the work period. However, in my experience, setting that timeframe helps most students focus. In fact, I’ve even had work periods where I stop every 5 or 10 minutes (depending on the length of the work time) to let students know how much time has passed and the minimum of what should have been completed. This is especially useful with long-term projects like reports that require research or collaboration.
Setting a clear time helps keep students on task and making progress. If there are students who react negatively to tracking time, work with them first to help them realize that the goal can be accomplished. For specific students, you can set personal goals that are different from the time and goals written on the board.
5. Mini-lessons help to support struggling writers
At the beginning of the period, give a quick mini-lesson on the skill you’d like students to show during the work time. Mini-lessons are the perfect way to start all work periods because you give clear examples of the goal, showing in details what students are trying to achieve.
Once students have achieved the mini-lesson goal, they can mentor other students, proofread their own work or the work of others, or move on to the next step if they’ve shown the skills that are needed to continue. Additionally, you can use an exit ticket task as a quick check for understanding.
Remember to check that students show evidence of using the skill you’ve taught
My favorite way to check skills is to use a clipboard or a spreadsheet with the mini-lesson skills noted at the top. I can do a quick walk around to see who is demonstrating the skill and who isn’t. This also helps you know where you need to start the next day. Do you need another short lesson on the same topic? Are students ready to move on? Do you need to meet with a smaller group of students to re-teach the lesson again?
There are many ways to support struggling writers. I’ve given you 5 of the most effective ways to meet the needs of the various learners in your classroom. Look for more blog posts on this subject.
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Gini Musmanno says
Great ideas! I especially like mini-lessons—they are so helpful to many struggling learners who cannot sustain focus for too long.