Planning in Writing: Why it is Important in Any Grade!
9:53 AM
Hi, I’m Julie from the Best Days! I’ve been teaching for a l-o-n-g time and
have seen a lot of changes in my many years of teaching-some good, some
bad! I’ve also taught everything from 1st-5th
grades and a specials area subject!
Through all these experiences, I’ve discovered some passions along the
way. One of these is writing! Yep, that subject that all the kids hate and
the teachers are right there with them!
So, today we are going to take a look at one of the key areas that
teachers usually get wrong-prewriting and planning! Take a look at the shot below.
That’s a long list of prewriting questions. Now imagine you are 6, 7, or 8 years
old. You would be, in essence,
clueless! Which ones do I answer? Do I have to do all of them? What do they even mean!!!
This is what I ran into when I first started teaching to
“THE WRITING TEST”! Where I come from,
they practically invented this test and all the rest of this present torture! We
were one of the first states to adopt this and, then, to teach it. During this time “the planner” came into
being-and many teachers balked at it! It
was a waste of time many said. Yet,
suddenly, it was before us, just like those Bloom Taxonomy levels I was using
in Literature Circles. And, the truth
about “the planner” was there too! Right
there-at the highest levels-analyze!
When students enter into the prewriting stage, they are
asked to analyze what they know about themselves, the world, an idea,
whatever-and then told to write about it!
Half the time as adults we can’t do that! We need help!
We jot ideas down and go from there.
This equals “the planner”! Yep,
real writers too! Yet we expect kids as
young as 5 or 6 just to wing it! Not a
good plan! “The planner” closes the gap
and brings the information down to the very lowest rung of the taxonomy-to the
knowledge level! By simply “jotting
down” their ideas, students now have a road map for where they want to go and
how they plan on getting there!
How Does This Look?
This is always the next statement from teachers I work
with. It can look like many things. In the primary grades, drawing is a HUGE part
of preplanning. It is simply drawing the picture of what they would like to
write about BEFORE writing instead of after.
Students can then guide their thinking by what they see in a picture
before them. For us, it may be a bunch
of squiggles and shapes, but to them it is a story! It has extreme value to them!
By late first and second grades, students can begin to use
real planners to jot ideas. Notice I
keep saying jot. When planning, students
should NOT be writing sentences. They
should literally be jotting words to guide them. Planning should take no more than 5 to 10
minutes. I have always LOVED the
hamburger planner for both types of writing.
For narrative, students put the character in the top bun with the problem. Then they use the middle (tomato, lettuce,
and burger) for planning out how the story and problem will progress. The bun is for the conclusion. In informative, they use the buns for the
topic and the middle items for their reasons!
As this progresses into 4th grade and beyond, the
state writing test and curriculum involved with it will often help develop the
type of planner your school will use.
There are so many out there that a quick search can help support you in
this area.
Times Have Changed!
Yes, we are in a new realm of writing test-and so much more
comes with it! However, planning has not changed! This read and write format of testing demands
even more the use of planning. Students
are now analyzing pieces of writing from another author to then determine how
and what they are going to share. Planning is so much more important now than
ever before! And, educators are rising
to meet this new demand! Here’s an
awesome piece on our very topic today-planning in the interactive writing age! Jump on over and watch the video
piece to see just how important planning is in our new writing era!
So, if you have gone without planning, go no more! I offer the challenge of taking the time to really teach kids how to do this as part of prewriting! Let me know how you do by commenting below or coming over to my blog and sharing there! And, if you are looking to support high stakes testing in
intermediate or primary, check out these great products I have posted in my
store that include specific planning materials!
Hope you have THE BEST DAYS!
by Julie from The Best Days Classroom
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