Strategies for Improving Writing Fluency

1. Journal Writing: Provides students with extended practice committing ideas to paper. Teachers may ask students to write a daily minimum of 15 minutes, which includes a minimum of one written page on a subject of their choice. Requirements can be adjusted downward for extremely non- fluent writers. *Taken from: Rhodes, L.K., Dudley-Marling, C. C., & Mowder, B. A. (1986). Intervention strategies for developing student reading and writing fluency. Techniques, 2(3), 256-262.

2. Written Conversation: Involves two people “talking” with each other about topics of interest (for example, a vacation)-on paper. As they write, the student and teacher (or another student) sit next to each other, exchanging the paper when ready for the next person’s response. This activity encourages the student to focus on ides and to write rapidly so he/she can respond quickly to his/her partner’s conversation. *Taken from: Rhodes, L.K., Dudley-Marling, C. C., & Mowder, B. A. (1986). Intervention strategies for developing student reading and writing fluency. Techniques, 2(3), 256-262.

3. Mind Mapping/Planning Strategy: A) Mind mapping or spider diagrams are a very useful way of recording information. It is a useful revision technique as well as being an excellent way of encouraging processing of information into chunks. Children “map” out (on paper) what they are going to write. (http://www.educational-psychologist.co.uk/mindmap.htm) Example of Mind Map: Journal Planning Writing

Improving Written Writing Conversatio Word Fluency n Processor

B) The planning strategy: It is introduced as part of a fiction unit using a basic story grammar structure. A mnemonic helps students to recall the basic parts of a story. The steps in the strategy are as follows:

1. Think Who,What?

Students think for whom they are writing and what kind of story they want to write (e.g., classmates, humorous story)

2. Use C-SPACE to take notes.

Students use the mnemonic C-SPACE (C = characters; S = setting; P = problem or purpose; A = action; C = conclusion; E = emotion) to generate content and make notes.

3. Write and say more.

Based on the notes they have made, students write their story. This step reminds students to add detail as they write, not just to write the bare bones of the outline.

* Taken From:

MacArthur, C. & Graham, S. (1993). Integrating strategy instruction and word processing into a process approach to writing instruction. School Psychology Review, 22, 671-681.

4. Writing Conferencing: The goal of conferencing is to support and extend what students are able to do on their own and to help them reflect on and become more aware of their own writing processes. Teachers listen responsively as students read and talk about their writing, encourage them to think about and articulate their goals and problems, and coach them on applying skills and strategies they are learning. Periodically, teachers schedule longer conferences with students to evaluate their recent compositions and learning and to set goals for the next few weeks.

*Taken From: MacArthur, C. & Graham, S. (1993). Integrating strategy instruction and word processing into a process approach to writing instruction. School Psychology Review, 22, 671-681. Rhodes, L.K., Dudley-Marling, C. C., & Mowder, B. A. (1986). Intervention strategies for developing student reading and writing fluency. Techniques, 2(3), 256-262.

5. Word Processing

Computers are powerful and flexible tools for writing that have the potential to help students write more effectively and fluently. Computers are especially helpful when handwriting impedes fluency.

*Taken From:

MacArthur, C. & Graham, S. (1993). Integrating strategy instruction and word processing into a process approach to writing instruction. School Psychology Review, 22, 671-681. Rhodes, L.K., Dudley-Marling, C. C., & Mowder, B. A. (1986). Intervention strategies for developing student reading and writing fluency. Techniques, 2(3), 256-262.

6. Written Conversation: Involves two people “talking” with each other about topics of interest (for example, a vacation)-on paper. As they write, the student and teacher (or another student) sit next to each other, exchanging the paper when ready for the next person’s response. This activity encourages the student to focus on ides and to write rapidly so he/she can respond quickly to his/her partner’s conversation. *Taken from: Rhodes, L.K., Dudley-Marling, C. C., & Mowder, B. A. (1986). Intervention strategies for developing student reading and writing fluency. Techniques, 2(3), 256-262.

Intervention: Writing is used to teach and extend word identification skills.

It has long been recognized that asking students to write words (not copy them) is a very effective approach to developing word recognition and reading skills (Adams, 1990; Clay, 1985). For example, in the Early Intervention in Reading Program the students select a sentence to write. The teacher then encourages each student to think about the spelling of each word and to write as much of the word as he or she can. Teacher support is offered only as needed in order to ensure that the students write the word accurately. For example, for children who are having difficulty with phonemic awareness (the conscious awareness that spoken words are composed of units called sounds and the ability to manipulate those sounds), the teacher draws a box for each of the sounds in the word. The children are guided to think about the number of sounds in a word and the letters that represent those sounds. For example, the teacher would draw three boxes for the word teach, grouping the ea and ch in separate boxes since in that word ea and ch represent single sounds.

The writing used in the early intervention programs is somewhat different in nature than writing instruction in a regular language arts program. In a regular language arts program, the primary emphasis is upon communication, expression, and organization of ideas. In first drafts, children are encouraged to use "temporary" (also called "invented") spellings in order to move on with their ideas, and then, as they move through process writing, to revise and edit their writing. In the early intervention program, communication remains a purpose, and the writing is always meaningful, often based, for example, on something of interest to children or on a book just read; however, the writing is also more specifically used to draw students' attention to the details of printed words in order to reinforce and extend a student's growing word identification skills. As Clay, who developed Reading Recovery procedures, puts it, "A case can be made for the theory that learning to write letters, words, and sentences actually helps the child to make the visual discriminations of detailed print that he will use in his reading" (Clay, 1985, p. 28).

Given the brief amount of daily instructional time available in each of these early intervention programs, teachers must make choices about where to focus their instruction. As noted earlier, these programs are not comprehensive language arts programs. The area of writing is a good example. The child who participates in an early intervention program still needs classroom writing instruction that focuses more pointedly on organizing and clearly communicating ideas through writing and in engaging in the full process of writing, including revising and editing.

Resources: Adams, M. J. (1990). Beginning to read: Thinking and learning about print. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

Clay, M. M. (1985). The early detection of reading difficulties. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

From: Pikulski, J.J. (1997) Preventing Reading Problems: Factors Common to Successful Early Intervention Programs. Retrieved April 27, 2006 from http://www.eduplace.com/rdg/res/prevent.html