Strategies and Structures for Teaching Writing

Written by Calli Robertson, Instructional Coach

This post is based on the book, The Writing Strategies Book by Jennifer Serravallo and the workshop Strategies and Structures for Teaching Reading and Writing with Jennifer Serravallo on May 23, 2019 in Calgary, Alberta.

“Strategies make the often invisible work of reading actionable and visible. Teachers can offer strategies to students to put the work in doable terms for those who are still practicing, so that they may become more comfortable and competent with the new skill.”

- Jennifer Serravallo

Jennifer Serravallo, the author of several practical books for teaching reading and writing, uses “goals” as the steering wheel to teach writing. It is through her experience that she chose goals over other commonly recommended approaches for teaching writing. For example, focusing on the writing process is important, however there are many strategies throughout that don’t just happen at one point or another in the writing process. Serravallo says writers don’t just focus on spelling when editing, or think about their lead or hook when drafting; they also revisit these things throughout the process. To isolate a writing strategy to one step in an iterative, complex, ongoing process, doesn’t have as much impact. In her experience, and with this I can relate, she used to teach writing strategies within the context of genres. She would focus on fiction, personal narrative, poetry, etc. As a writer herself though, she quickly realized that these lines can be blurred. A poem can be written to tell a story, or to teach about a topic. A nonfiction piece can take a narrative form (biography) or expository or be a hybrid of the two (historical accounts). After taking stock and reflecting on these practices, Serravallo was confronted by Hattie’s (2009) research into effective classroom practices. Her reality, supported by this research, was that helping kids articulate clear goals for their writing, and supporting them with strategies and feedback to accomplish those goals made a huge impact on their success.

While you may have heard of some of these “strategies” as qualities of good writing, craft, writing traits, habits of good writers or other terms, Serravallo is intentional about the language she uses in setting goals, teaching strategies and providing feedback in order to support learners.

Where to Start: Setting Goals

In her book, The Writing Strategies Book, Serravallo outlines some steps you can take for helping identify student writing goals:

1. Observe students write; spy on them as writers
2. Meet with students to confer; ask them not just about what they wrote and how, but their disposition towards writing too; ask them about their interests and hopes for writing
3. Use formal assessments; ask them to write “on demand” (completing a piece of writing in one sitting)

Looking closely and thoughtfully at the evidence collected will allow teachers to have a deep knowledge of their students and their writing journey.

Serravallo recommends using formative assessments that suit your learners and context and suggests Anderson’s Assessing Writers (2005), Calkins’ Writing Pathways (2014) and her Literacy Teacher’s Playbook series (2013-2014).

Once the teacher and the students have collaboratively determined their goals for writing, Serravallo suggests making these goals visible. Once the students can clearly articulate their goal(s), determining strategies is easy and teacher feedback can be specific and actionable.

Examples of making goals visible (above, left); forms of feedback (above, right)

Student reflection checklist: What can I work on as a writer? (below); link to checklist

Serravallo’s strategies can be used alongside a variety of literacy frameworks including Lucy Calkin's Units of Study, Daily 5, Traits Writing, etc. In addition to making goals visible, setting up your classroom to support independence in the writing process is important. This can be done by using writing centers, charts and tools and mentor texts.

Strategies

The Writing Strategies are organized based on these 10 goals:

Goal #1: Composing with Pictures

Goal #2: Engagement: Independence, Increasing Volume & Developing a Writing Identity

Goal #3: Generating & Collecting Ideas

Goal #4: Focus/Meaning

Goal #5: Organization & Structure

Goal #6: Elaboration

Goal #7: Word Choice

Goal #8: Conventions: Spelling & Letter Formation

Goal #9: Conventions: Grammar & Punctuation

Goal #10: Collaborating with Writing Partners & Clubs

Break down the skill related to the goals the students are working towards into clear, actionable steps. Notice the verbs.

Here are some sample strategies from her book. If you are interested in learning more about Serravallo’s, The Reading Strategies Book, ask your instructional coach to borrow the resource or support in implementing some strategies.

Engagement Strategy: The Pen is Mightier Than the Sword
Try out a variety of pen and pencil types. Notice how they glide on the page. Notice how the marks look on the paper. Make a choice about which tool will help you get your best writing done.

Prompts:

• Is the pen/pencil you’ve chosen helping you write?
• Are you comfortable when you write?
• What kind of writing tool might help you feel more comfortable?
• Check out the writing center to see if there’s something else you’d rather work with.

Generating & Collecting Ideas Strategies: Important People, Moments with Strong Feelings, Observe Closely
Make a list of important people in your life that matter most to you. Starting with one person, list memories you have with that person. Choose one and write the memory bit by bit.

Prompts:

• Name some people in your life who matter to you.
• List some memories of these people.
• Which memory is clearest in your mind? Turn to a new page and start writing it.

Choose a strong feeling (worry, dear, embarrassment, excitement, joy, etc.). Think about memories you have that connect to that feeling. Try to use details that show the feeling of that moment.

Prompts:

• What strong feelings might spark good ideas for writing?

Find an object that matters to you. Examine it closely, looking at it part by part. Describe what you see literally, using all of your senses. Describe what you see by comparing it to other things. Describe how it makes you feel.

Prompts:

• Go part by part.
• Describe it, don’t just tell what the part is called.
• Linger on the part a bit longer, using more words to say what you see.
• Think about using other senses. What more can you add?
• What does it remind you of?

Organization & Structure Strategy: Say Say Say, Sketch Sketch Sketch, Write Write Write
Lay the pages of your book in front of you. Say one part of your story for each page. Next, sketch the pictures that will help you to remember what you said on each page. Then, go back to page 1, write the words for that page, then the next and the next. You can use the picture you sketched as a reminder of what you wanted to write.

Prompts:

• Start with telling your story.
• Touch the page as you tell that part.
• You told all the parts of your story. Let’s go back and start sketching.
• Remember, a sketch is a quick drawing, just to get your idea down. You can go back and work on the illustration later.
• Let’s see, you’ve said your story. You’ve sketched your story. What next?
• I see you’re touching each page as you say your story - that will help you remember the order!

*This strategy is similar to Read, Sketch, Stretch for older students. Students can read to learn more about a topic they’ll be writing about. Stopping to make sense of what they read, students will sketch a picture to show what they learned. Adding label or captions to their notes in their own words can help stretch the information to add more detail.

Elaboration Strategy: Crack Open Nouns
Return to your draft looking for places that may need more description or detail. Underline single nouns or noun phrases that seem to summarize rather than describe. On a sticky note or in your notebook, try to take the single word or phrase and turn it it into a long descriptive phrase.

Prompts:

• Underline your nouns.
• Which of those nouns seems to give a quick summary, rather than describe?
• Take that one word and turn it into a descriptive phrase.
• By making that revision, you’ve added in much more detail!

Word Choice Strategy: Alphabox
As you think about your topic and/or read to learn about your topic, add words to an alphabox page. When you draft, reread the words to jog your memory about facts you know about the topic Use the specific words an expert would use to sound knowledgeable about the topic.

Prompts:

• What words do you know that fit with this topic?
• Add some words to the alphabox that go with your topic. Which words will you use in your writing?

Conventions: Spelling: Circle & Spell
As you’re writing, if you realize you don’t know how to spell a word, just write it as best you can and circle to return to it later. Use your tools (ask a friend, dictionary, online tool) to find the spelling later.

Prompts:

• Just circle it if you don’t think it’s spelled correctly and go back later.
• Let’s look back at your draft…
• What strategy will you try for finding the correct spelling?
• That’s it - just circle and keep going. You can come back to it later.

Conventions: Grammar & Punctuation: Does it Sound like a Book?
As you reread your draft, be on the lookout for words, phrases, or ways of saying things that you hear in everyday speech but you don’t often read in a book. In most cases, you’ll want your published writing to sound like a published book.

Prompts:

• Let’s think about how it would sound if we saw it in a book.
• Is that book language?
• Let’s try to write it another way. Can you explain why you wrote it that way?

Training Wheels or Balance Bike?

In exploring new writing strategies to support students in working towards their goals, consider the analogy of learning to ride a bike. Training wheels don’t allow kids to actually experience the feel of balancing on a bike. It is just a band-aid solution to get them pedaling, without learning any strategies to help them ride independently. We need to provide students opportunities to “balance” on their own and get rid of the training wheels. Riding on a balance bike is riding a bike, allowing kids to use strategies to develop their skills and work towards their next goal: making quick turns, riding down a hill, using a pedal bike, going off jumps and beyond. Can you shift your practice to remove the "training wheels" of writing and move towards getting your students “balancing” on their own, as they work towards their goals?