Strategies, Practices and Tools
Decades of research provides a clear understanding of how skilled reading develops and how to most effectively support children in learning to read proficiently. Evidence-based, structured literacy instruction develops all the foundational language and literacy skills that must be woven together so that children can make meaning from the words they read.
The information presented here is intended to complement evidence-based core reading curricula and intervention programs already in place and help educators fill in gaps or modify their approaches with effective strategies, instructional practices, and tools and activities to implement them.
Early childhood educators can focus their practices to help children build language and emergent literacy skills. Pre-K and K-3 educators can find evidence-based ways to provide explicit, implicit, and incidental instruction across the essential components of literacy. And English Language Arts teachers across grades 4-12 will find effective practices to help students meet the increasing need for skilled reading.
- Strategy 1
- Strategy 2
- Strategy 3
- Strategy 4
- Strategy 5
Instructional Strategy
Provide daily time for students to write.
Teachers should provide a dedicated writing instructional time where they teach students’ the skills and strategies necessary to become effective writers, as well as time to practice what they learn.
Source: Graham et al., 2018
Effective Practices
- Provide a minimum of one hour a day on writing.
- The hour should include 30 minutes dedicated to teaching writing strategies, techniques, and skills appropriate to students’ level. The remaining 30 minutes should be time dedicated for student practice, where students apply the skills they learned from the writing instructional time.
- Time for writing practice can occur in the context of other content-area instruction. Integrating writing and content-area instruction where possible provides students with writing practice and requires students to think more critically about the content-area material.
Source: Graham et al., 2018
Tools and Activities
Ideas for Writing Opportunities Throughout the Day
Time for writing practice can occur in the context of other content area instruction (e.g., science, social studies, math).
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Instructional Strategy
Teach students the writing process.
Teachers can help students become effective writers by explicitly teaching students a variety of writing strategies for carrying out each component of the writing process and providing support to students as they apply these strategies until the students are able to effectively apply the writing strategies independently.
Source: Graham et al., 2018
Effective Practices
- Explicitly teach student strategies for each of the various components of the writing process: planning, drafting, sharing, evaluating, revising, editing, and publishing.
- Explicitly and directly teach writing through the gradual release of responsibility model: I Do, We Do, You Do. It is important that teachers ensure students have background knowledge and the skills needed to understand and use a writing strategy.
- When students demonstrate an understanding of a writing strategy, students should practice applying the writing strategy as they write independently. However, teachers should make sure they do not release the responsibility too early.
- It is not enough to simply describe the writing strategy and show how to use it. Teachers must explicitly model an entire strategy or part of a strategy before students can work independently.
- Some students may need additional time, practice, and teacher assistance to master a strategy.
- Teach students to select and use appropriate writing strategies.
- Teachers should frequently discuss when and how to utilize writing strategies throughout the writing process, as well as why the strategies are helpful. Once teachers have taught students through the gradual release of responsibility to effectively and independently use a variety of writing strategies, teachers should help students understand how to select appropriate strategies for different writing tasks.
- Ensure students actually use the writing strategies as they write. Teachers can facilitate this by helping students set a goal to use the writing strategy, followed by a discussion on their use of the strategy and if modifications need to be made. Students should learn to evaluate their success in applying a writing strategy and should consider how they can improve their strategy work.
- Teach students to apply writing strategies in a flexible manner, moving back and forth between different components of the writing process as they develop and revise their writing. Engage students in writing activities that require students to move back and forth between the components of writing of the writing process as they develop and revise their text.
Source: Graham et al., 2018
Tools and Activities
I Do, We, Do, You Do (Explicit Instruction)
This instructional routine can be used to teach any skill or concept by gradually shifting responsibility from the teacher to the student:
- I Do: The teacher explains and models the skill or concept.
- We Do: The teacher provides guided practice with scaffolding (feedback to support learning).
- You Do: Students engage in independent practice and cumulative review.
Writing Strategies Wall Chart
Teachers should consider posting writing strategies on a wall chart in the classroom. The wall chart should include two columns: one will list all the strategies, and the other will provide a list of possible writing situations in which each strategy could be utilized.
Examples of Writing Strategies
Students need to learn specific strategies for each component of the writing process.
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Gradual Release of Responsibility to Students
Writing strategies should be taught explicitly and directly through a gradual release of responsibility from teacher to student.
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Applying the Writing Process With Flexibility (Example)
Teachers should design activities in which students are encouraged to move back and forth between the components of the writing process.
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Instructional Strategy
Teach students to use the writing process for a variety of purposes.
Students should learn that writing is used for a variety of purposes such as providing information, making an argument, providing entertainment, self-reflection, sharing experiences, and enhancing their understanding of a text.
Source: Graham et al., 2018
Effective Practices
- Help students understand the different purposes of writing.
- It’s important for students to understand the purpose of each genre, so they can select the genre best suited for their writing task.
- When teaching a particular genre, teachers should explain the purpose of the genre and how the genre’s features are related to the purpose, noting that many genres can be utilized for many different writing purposes.
- Help students to understand the role of audience in writing.
- To develop this skill, teachers can provide explicit instruction focused on writing purposes.
- Teachers and students can generate a list of potential audiences for assigned writing assignments and choose the best audience for their writing topic.
- When teaching persuasive writing, students could write persuasive letters to parents, friends, principal, or companies, depending on their writing topic .
- When teaching narratives, students can write a fable with a clear beginning, middle, and end.
- Teach students to emulate the features of good writing.
- Expose students to exemplary texts from a variety of sources. Exemplary texts can provide a number of features, including text structure; use of graphs, charts, and pictures; effective word choice; and varied sentence structure.
- Select exemplary texts that: support the instructional goals of the lesson; are appropriate for the students’ reading levels and abilities; and provide exemplary models of what students will write (Graham et al., 2018).
- Read aloud exemplary texts or guide students to read and reread selected exemplary text.
- Teachers should explain, and students should discuss, how each text demonstrates effective writing in order to prepare students to emulate the characteristics of good writing.
- Teach students techniques for writing effectively for different purposes.
- Explicitly and directly, through the gradual release of responsibility, teach students how to apply and use writing techniques for a variety of purposes.
Source: Graham et al., 2018
Tools and Activities
Purposes for Writing
There are several specific genres of writing within each of the four main purposes: Describe, Narrate, Inform, and Persuade/Analyze.
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Using Text as a Model
Students may use concepts in exemplary texts as a springboard for developing their own writing.
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Techniques Within the Four Purposes of Writing
Students must learn to use specific techniques for specific purposes of writing.
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Instructional Strategy
Teach students to become fluent with handwriting, spelling, sentence construction, typing, and word processing.
Handwriting, spelling, and sentence construction are basic writing skills students use when composing a text. Before students can become proficient writers, they must devote time to acquiring and becoming fluent with basic writing skills. Difficulties with basic writing skills can impact the quality of students’ writing. When students have poor handwriting and spelling difficulties, it can be difficult for the reader to understand the students’ text. Also, teaching students to compose texts on a computer can help students move through the writing process more easily and helps assist students with spelling and handwriting difficulties to write more fluently. And teaching students to type and how to use word processing programs are necessary skills that students will likely use throughout their lives.
Source: Graham et al., 2018
Effective Practices
- Teach students how to hold a pencil correctly and form letters fluently and efficiently.
- By fourth grade, the majority of students can correctly hold a pencil and form letters effortlessly. However, students with poor handwriting skills may need additional instruction and practice.
- Teach students to spell words correctly.
- Teachers should connect spelling instruction with writing instruction as much as possible. Research has found that explicit spelling instruction is more effective than informal instruction.
- Providing explicit spelling instruction is important because students with spelling difficulties may restrict what they write by only using words they can spell. Students that have spelling difficulties will need intervention instruction to develop their spelling abilities, so that it does not interfere with their writing.
- By the end of fourth grade, most students have developed enough spelling skills in order to focus their attention on composing while writing.
- Students in grades 4 and beyond still need spelling instruction that focuses on morphological spelling and how to read and spell multi-syllable words.
- Teach students proofreading strategies to check their spelling and encourage students to identify areas in which they often make mistakes.
- Teachers should connect spelling instruction with writing instruction as much as possible. Research has found that explicit spelling instruction is more effective than informal instruction.
- Teach students to construct sentences for fluency, meaning, and style.
- Teachers should provide instruction focused on sentence structure development.
- Teachers should explicitly teach how sentence construction and sentence mechanics, such as capitalization and punctuation, interact to form strong sentences.
- Teach students to type fluently and to use a word processor to compose text.
- Teachers should provide instruction in typing. Typing-instruction software is one way to provide instruction in typing. Typing lessons should be short and focused. Teachers should teach students to use correct fingering and monitor their speed and accuracy.
- Teachers should provide instruction focused on using a word processor, including skills such as launching programs, opening and saving files, and adding, moving, and deleting text.
- Teachers should teach students how word processing programs can be part of the writing process. For example, teachers can demonstrate how to use the spelling and grammar checker and encourage students to use these features during the editing stage of the writing process.
Source: Graham et al., 2018; Sedita, 2023
Tools and Activities
Activities for Sentence Structure Development
Students need instruction on how to use a variety of sentence structures in their writing. Sentence instruction moves students from writing with a series of simple sentences to including more complex and interesting sentences in their compositions.
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Instructional Strategy
Create an engaged community of writers.
Teachers should create a supportive classroom environment that fosters a community of writers who are motivated to write well. The writing instruction and activities teachers utilized should convey the message writing is important, valued, and rewording. To help create motivated writers, teachers should include opportunities for students to choose their own writing topics. Also, it’s important for students and teachers to have opportunities to collaborate on writing activities as well as having regular and structured opportunities to interact throughout the writing process.
Source: Graham et al., 2018
Effective Practices
- Teachers should participate as members of the community by writing and sharing their writing.
- Teachers should provide opportunities for student choice in writing.
- Encourage students to collaborate as writers throughout the writing process.
- Provide students with opportunities to give and receive feedback throughout the writing process.
- Publish students’ writing and extend the community beyond.
Source: Graham et al., 2018
Related
Developmental benchmarks and literacy behaviors that most children display at a particular age/grade.
Evidence-based reading interventions support students who are identified as struggling with specific foundational literacy skills.
Evidence-based core curricula, interventions, and supplemental programs play a critical role in supporting students’ reading success.
While seemingly effortless, good reading is made up of a set of complex skills and strategies.