Every Child Can Write, Grades 2-5

Entry Points, Bridges, and Pathways for Striving Writers

Melanie Meehan

• Publisher: Corwin
• Year: 2019
• Print ISBN:
  9781544355078
• eBook ISBN:
  9781544384092
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Education General

Empowering striving writers to thrive as writers!

Somehow, in every classroom during every year, there are students who keep us up at night because of the instructional challenges they face as writers. These students—our striving writers—may find success exploring different entry points and pathways than those their classmates travel. 

Every Child Can Write will help you lead striving writers along their journey toward growth, confidence, and success.  Filled with practical strategies, classroom-management ideas,and reproducible tools, this book also offers low- and high-tech solutions for increasing writing volume and boosting self-esteem. 

Plus, with suggestions for differentiating instruction based on standards and student needs, it will help you:

• Implement principles of UDL to optimize your classroom environment and student learning;
• Identify and honor students' strengths throughout your writing instruction;
• Maximize the power of formative assessment to set goals with students; and
• Integrate the most appropriate technology that empowers students and leads them to independence.

As essential as writing is in elementary school, it will be even more important when your students reach middle school. Now is the time to give them the skills, practice, and confidence they need to succeed.

As we know, in distance learning caregivers and teachers partner more than ever to help students with writing. The Distance Learning companion to Every Child Can Write is for teachers to share with caregivers to help children develop their writing lives—even while learning at home. Each of the eight modules contains video clips that talk caregivers through tools for supporting their student writers, along with downloadable tools that can be used by teachers or caregivers.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Acknowledgements
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Foreword
• Acknowledgments
• About the Author
• Introduction
• Part 1 Creating a Productive Environment
• Chapter One Come In and Look Around!: How does the classroom environment support our writers who face instructional obstacles?
• Chapter Two Listen, Learn, and Then Go Write!: How can we set up classroom management and routines to support learning and independent writing?
• Part 2 Finding Entry Points and Building Bridges
• Chapter Three Find the Place Where Writers Can Join the Work: How can we provide entry points so all writers get to experience success within the writing process?
• Chapter Four Construct Bridges for Writers to Join the Journey: How can we change the steps and the process so that all writers can participate and produce?
• Part 3 Providing Pathways
• Chapter Five The Power of Paper—Don’t Underestimate It!: How can we leverage paper choice to inspire our writers who face instructional obstacles?
• Chapter six Co-Create Classroom Charts as Pathways Toward Independence: How can we use charts to develop students’ independence within our writing classrooms?
• Chapter Seven Venture Forth on Higher-Tech Pathways … With Intention and Forethought: How can we leverage technology to find entry points and build bridges or pathways for our writers who face instructional obstacles?
• Chapter Eight Spelling and Conventions—The Pitfalls and Potholes Along the Trail: How can we address the skills involved with spelling and conventions while not losing momentum with the overall writing process?
• Chapter Nine Every Child Can Write—A Case Study: What does it look like in a real classroom when we merge entry points, bridges, and pathways?
• Appendix A: Favorite Mentor Texts for Writing Instruction
• Appendix B: Mentor Text Charts With Craft Moves
• Appendix C: Sample of Progressions
• Appendix D: Samples of Task Analyses
• Appendix E: Anchor Charts
• Appendix F: Writing Standards
• Appendix G: Convention Station Samples
• References
• Index
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