Writing in the Intermediate Grades, 3–5

What We Know About Writing, Grades 3–5
Research on literacy learning during the last several decades has revealed a good deal about how students learn language, knowledge that, in turn, can support educators in making sound curricular decisions. Much of this research is characterized by observation of students in the actual processes of writing and reading, giving educators a fuller picture of these language processes and the supportive roles that we, and our students’ families and communities, play in their development.

Human beings constantly interact with the world, and that includes the world of print. In the world at large, written language always occurs “in context” and includes the additional symbol systems of numbers, colors, movement and shape, as well as cultural markers. Technology and what some call “visual literacy” also play a key role in learners’ lives. Students expect the print in the world to make sense and their efforts to read and write, even among those least experienced and “struggling” as readers and writers, reflect the meaning they bring to their efforts. Knowing this about learners means that school-based teaching should never ask students to check their interests and experiences at the door or teachers assume to be teaching a “blank slate.” Rather, supportive teaching begins as educators tap into the diverse and rich experiences these language users have been building over their 8-11 years of life.

Another major finding documents how students learn written language. An earlier conception of linear, discrete stages of learning is flawed. Rather, students are actively building a “repertoire of understanding” rich in print and cultural knowledge. This repertoire supports their writing development from invented spelling and partial grasp of particular genre, to more conventional written language and form. Their ideas and intentions take multiple forms, including notes, lists, letters, journal writing, stories, web postings, and instant messaging. Writing within the social setting school provides offers the opportunity to further support their efforts as students talk, dramatize and draw their way into more sophisticated written language.

The development of student writing from approximate forms to conventional forms is best achieved through substantial time devoted to writing, multiple opportunities to write across the school day and focused instruction that builds from the writers’ efforts. Writing development is also inextricably tied to reading development; writers grow in their ability to craft a particular genre, say poetry, through being immersed in opportunities to read, write, and to look closely at the poetry of others. Over time, and with these kinds of experiences, writing develops a voice and quality that can earn the writer membership in a particular discourse community, or as one language educator has noted, “If you want a student to sound like a lawyer, have her hang out with lawyers.” Likewise, taking on the challenges of a new topic or type of writing entails learning new or different vocabulary, syntactical patterns, patterns of errors, and organizing structures. An accomplished writer of one form may seem to regress in his or her abilities when taking on a new form.

“Writing to think” is an under-utilized role of writing. Writers very rarely transfer their thoughts directly from their minds to the paper. Rather, in the very act of writing, writers can form and develop ideas, make a different sense of their experiences, change their ideas, and find suitable ways to present their new understanding. Finding ways for learners to write informally and throughout their learning experiences, writing that is not formally developed or graded, can help learners understand and value the important role writing can play in support of learning.

The best assessment of a writer’s use of and control over the strategic processes of writing is the quality of the writing produced. Although there has been a general move to test writing through writing tests initiated by prompts, few tests also offer writers choice of topic or opportunities to return to their initial drafts, factors that influence the quality of the writing. Yet even with these limitations, the findings of the NAEP 1998 Writing Report Card were clear: students experienced with writing more than one draft of a paper, and students whose writing was saved in folders or portfolios, achieved higher average scores than their peers who did not write multiple drafts or save their writing. An increasing number of the teachers of these students acknowledged involving students in the “writing process,” or the strategic processes of drafting, prewriting, revising, and editing.

Actively involving students in the writing process, mentored by teachers who write, as well as favorite authors, helps teachers more clearly see which writers need what instruction. When that instruction is targeted and applied within the context of meaningful writing, these skills more readily become the students’ own. Collecting a range of examples of written work over time allows for a valid assessment of a writer’s abilities and needs.

Technology provides writers a tool in the composing process, the flexible use of texts, and in presenting new knowledge in combination with other media. Equitable access to technology is a key variable in student experience with and use of this tool.

Finally, more recent research into writing and language use clearly shows that students’ knowledge reflects the communities in which they participate. The differences in students’ ways of using language are directly related to the differentiation of their place in the social world. They are both positioned by their use of language, as well as able to use language in response. For all language users, the mastering of multiple social discourses allows for increased power and access to opportunity—one of the major intents of literacy education.

Writing Concepts

1. Students possess knowledge about written language and a variety of forms of writing; quality instruction reflects students’ experience and knowledge.
2. All families and communities engage with literacy and literacy-related activity. Creating ways to bridge these activities and school writing experiences insures greater participation and success with school tasks.
3. The “language arts” develop in concert. Drawing supports writing, writing supports reading; opportunity to use multiple expressions of language increases language learning and ability.
4. Writing is a social activity; writing instruction should be embedded in social contexts. Students can take responsibility in shaping the classroom structures that facilitate their work.
5. Language learning proceeds most successfully when students use language for meaningful purposes.
6. Experience with a particular kind of writing is the best indicator of performance; extensive reading and writing within a particular genre or domain increases successful performance.
7. Writing is effectively used as a tool for thinking and learning throughout the curriculum.
8. Students’ writing and language use reflects the communities in which they participate.  The differences in students’ ways of using language are directly related to the differentiation of their place in the social world. Language is a form of cultural capital and some forms of language have more power in society than other forms.
9. Assessment that both benefits individual writers and their teachers’ instructional planning is embedded within curricular experiences and represented by collections of key pieces of writing created over time.
10. Language skills conventions [grammar, punctuation, spelling] are most successfully learned with a combination of carefully targeted lessons applied within the context of meaningful writing.
11. Authors and teachers who write can offer valuable insights to students by mentoring them into process and making their own writing processes more visible.
12. Technology provides writers the opportunity to create and present writing in new and increasingly flexible ways, particularly in combination with other media.

WHAT WE KNOW ABOUT WRITING/concepts illustrated

Think about this …

1.  Students possess knowledge about written language and a variety of forms of writing; quality instruction reflects students’ experience and knowledge.

Read this
Writing educator Donald Graves has come to realize that offering students writing choices is meaningless unless we help them connect choice with honest struggle and real life issues that will take them beyond replicating television-inspired cartoon characters or shallow personal narratives. Teacher instruction plays a key role.
Source: Primary Voices K-6, Vol. 1 No. 1, August 1993
http://www.ncte.org/library/files/Programs/Writing_Initiative/Graves2.pdf    (PDF)

Try this
Tamra Filbrandt considers fifth-grade students' transformations through expressing themselves with poetry and claims the content of children's writing calls for a complete revision of standard educational ideas about who the children are, what they know, how they think, and how much they can learn if teachers only know how to tap into their experiences.
Source: Primary Voices K-6, Vol. 8 No. 2, October 1999
http://www.ncte.org/library/files/Publications/Journals/pv/0082-oct99/PV0082Poetry.PDF    (PDF)

Think about this …

2.  All families and communities engage with literacy and literacy-related activity. Creating ways to bridge these activities and school writing experiences insures greater participation and success with school tasks.

Read this
Eileen Craviotto and her colleagues collaborated in a bilingual classroom to create culturally relevant opportunities for learning. They examine the work of four fourth-grade students of different backgrounds to show what this culturally relevant learning looked like. Ideas were generated by the families, multicultural literature, and the students themselves.
Source: Primary Voices K-6, Vol. 7 No. 3, January 1999
http://www.ncte.org/library/files/Publications/Journals/pv/0073-jan99/PV0073Cultures.pdf    (PDF)

Sandra Mercuri, a bilingual 4/5/6 Spanish/English teacher, taught children from migrant families with little or no formal schooling. She describes an agricultural theme unit that drew on students' prior knowledge and that presented concepts they may have missed in previous years of limited schooling. She found that clear classroom routines were particularly helpful for the students.
Source: Talking Points, Vol. 12 No. 1, October/November 2000
http://www.ncte.org/pubs/journals/tp/articles/108710.htm

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Engaging student interests promotes reading and writing development
Building curriculum from young learners’ own questions created a context for increased engagement and risk-taking by a struggling, young writer. Esther Gray captures the process of Tommy’s literacy learning during six weeks of inquiry study that transformed his attitude toward reading and writing as well as his confidence in his own capabilities.
Source: Language Arts, Vol. 78 No. 4, March 2001
http://www.ncte.org/pubs/journals/la/articles/108097.htm

Think about this …

3.  The “language arts” develop in concert. Drawing supports writing, writing supports reading; opportunity to use multiple expressions of language increases language learning and ability.

Read this
Artist and educator Peggy Albers discusses five guiding principles for helping teachers explore the arts and literacy instruction, intended as a framework for understanding representation of meaning, in whatever sign system or art form. She discusses why understanding semiotic systems is important to language arts instruction that represents meaning visually, musically, and/or dramatically, along with written texts.
Source: Primary Voices K-6, Vol. 9 No. 4, April 2001
http://www.ncte.org/library/files/Publications/Journals/pv/0094-april01/PV0094Literacy.pdf    (PDF)

Noted writer Donald Murray points out that there is an enormous amount of material from the world of art that can help people see and, therefore, help them write. The connections between writing and visual art as expressed in the work of many writers, including he himself suggest ways to explore the connections between writing and art.
Source: Voices from the Middle, Vol. 4 No. 3, September 1997
http://www.ncte.org/pubs/journals/vm/articles/108901.htm

Try this
Teacher Allen Koshewa posed a question: What constitutes literacy in a school comprised of families from many cultures? In his fifth-grade classroom alone, 13 students were born in another country and 16 spoke English and another language. Including music among the other language “arts," encouraged the students to transcend language and allowed multiculturalism to flourish.
Source: Primary Voices K-6, Vol. 9 No. 4, April 2001
http://www.ncte.org/library/files/Publications/Journals/pv/0094-april01/PV0094Multiple.pdf    (PDF)

Think about this …

4.  Writing is a social activity; writing instruction should be embedded in social contexts. Students can take responsibility in shaping the classroom structures that facilitate their work.

Read this
Regie Routman proposes that high academic engagement cannot exist until students understand, support, and self-monitor classroom procedures, routines, and behaviors. Strategies and rubrics from teacher Darla Wagner's class illustrate her contention.
Source: English Journal, May 2001
http://www.ncte.org/library/files/Publications/Journals/ej/0905-may01/EJ0905Middle.pdf    (PDF)

Reading and writing are social process and inextricably linked. Donald Graves and Jane Hansen knew this when they set out to study the role of the Author’s Chair in a primary classroom and a year of observation taught them a lot about the concept of author and the role of the group.
Source: Language Arts, Vol. 60 No. 2, February 1983
http://www.ncte.org/library/files/Programs/Writing_Initiative/Graves.PDF    (PDF)

Try this
NCTE writing leaders Hindley Salch, Marino and Fletcher have years of experience using writer's notebooks as tools for thinking. Here they share key strategies and teaching ideas to make the most of their use.
Source: School Talk, Vol. 6 No. 4, July 2001
http://www.ncte.org/pubs/journals/st/articles/108985.htm

Read this
Researchers share what they learned from six exemplary teachers of writing who teach within high-stakes accountability systems while remaining true to sound theory and practice in teaching their children to write.
Source: Language Arts, Vol. 79 No. 3, January 2002
http://www.ncte.org/pubs/journals/la/articles/108799.htm

Try this
Fifth-grade teacher, Hope Jenkins, had been sharing evaluation with her students for some time, and decided to make the change to writing report card comments together, thus sharing evaluation in one more way.
Source: Primary Voices K-6, Vol. 5 No. 4, November 1997
http://www.ncte.org/library/files/Publications/Journals/pv/0054-nov97/PV0054Report.pdf    (PDF)

Planned responses to the writers in your classroom can prove to be invaluable and enable students to stretch their ability as writers. In “Conferring in the writing workshop,” four experienced teachers of writing—Ralph Fletcher, Carl Anderson, Joanne Hindley Salch, Marianne Marino and Yvonne Siu Runyan—offer their best advice.
Source: School Talk, Vol. 6 No. 2, January 2001
http://www.ncte.org/pubs/journals/st/contents/106699.htm

Think about this …

10.  Language skills and conventions [grammar, punctuation, spelling] are most successfully learned and later used with a combination of carefully targeted lessons applied within the context of meaningful writing.

Read this
Teacher beliefs determine the kind of writing experiences they create and how they blend craft, conventions and procedures. This School Talk issue revisits the teaching of writing and provides a "refresher" course on writing workshop components and strategies 10 years after the teaching of writing became more common in elementary classrooms.
Source: School Talk, Vol. 4 No. 4, July 1999
http://www.ncte.org/pubs/journals/st/contents/106693.htm

Try this
Author Ralph Fletcher describes how writing with specifics can transform poetry, helping to create vivid pictures in the reader's mind. He uses three of his own poems to illustrate the judicious use of detail.
Source: Voices from the Middle, Vol. 4 No. 1, February 1997
http://www.ncte.org/pubs/journals/vm/articles/108878.htm

Think about this …

11.  Authors and teachers who write can offer valuable insights to students by mentoring them into process and making their own writing processes more visible.

Read this
Award-winning author Karen Hesse discusses her writing for children and young adults and how ideas for particular books arose, as well as the research and writing processes that went into them. Includes reviews of nine of her books.
Source: Voices from the Middle, Vol. 4 No. 2, April 1997
http://www.ncte.org/pubs/journals/vm/articles/108899.htm

Try this
Aimee Buckner, a fourth-grade teacher, uses Julius Lester's "John Henry" to lead students into reading like writers, thus giving them the opportunity to make the connection between published writing and their own. She shows how working with a brief passage from the book can help her accomplish this work, as well as offers a brief list of books she has found to be equally useful.
Source: Primary Voices K-6, Vol. 7 No. 4, April 1999
http://www.ncte.org/library/files/Publications/Journals/pv/0074-april99/PV0074Using.pdf    (PDF)

Think about this …

12.  Technology provides writers the opportunity to create and present writing in new and increasingly flexible ways, particularly in combination with other media.

Read this
Middle level educator Gretchen Lee suggests the authentic audience found on the Internet has a profound effect on the quality of student writing in all grades, and that the key to successful technology projects is integrating them into the curriculum so that computers are a means, not an end. She offers ideas for classroom activities and projects using stand-alone computers, and using computers with Internet access.
Source: Voices from the Middle, Vol. 7 No. 3, March 2000
http://www.ncte.org/pubs/journals/vm/articles/109044.htm

Try this
Classroom teachers Cora Lee Five and Marie Dionisio share opportunities to use the World Wide Web to support reading and writing workshop.
Source: School Talk, Vol. 4 No. 3, April 1999
http://www.ncte.org/pubs/journals/st/articles/108956.htm

by Kathy Egawa, Associate Executive Director