Managing writing activities explained

Effective management techniques for presenting writing assignments ensure that students learn from models and are at ease checking their own work. Such techniques reduce the time teachers spend marking writing assignments.

Oral reading accounts for up to half of what students learn about writing. Students learn from good models they read, and from the mistakes in the poor models. Reading passages aloud is crucial to shaping students’ understanding of how to apply what they have learned to specific writing assignments.

RMSE LA 3

Each writing passage activity has two parts and requires two lessons.

The first lesson requires students to write a passage about a picture and check it for specific details. The second lesson requires them to edit and revise their passage.

RMSE LA 4-5

In each lesson, the writing activities work on specific skills. Most writing activities involve the following:

• an introduction.
• student writing.
• teacher reading of model passage.
• student oral reading of some passages.
• editing and revising passages.

Basic rules

Teachers follow two basic rules.

1. Structure the teaching so students achieve success at a high rate and are praised for their success.
2. Do not overlook obvious usage mistakes or errors in following directions when students read aloud what they have written. Do not accept unacceptable writing. Point out mistakes and direct students to correct them.

Turn to page 22 in RMSE-LA 3 Teacher’s Guide, page 28 in RMSE-LA 4 Teacher’s Guide and page 16 in RMS-LA 5 Teaching Guide to review passage writing activities and managing writing actitivities.