3 Writing Revolution Activities to Apply Immediately

We hear a whole lot about our nation’s reading scores, and there is definitely a discussion to be had there. But what we never seem to hear about are the nations’ writing scores. As a country, our students’ writing is at an even lower performance level than reading. There is much research to support the fact that writing supports reading comprehension. It just makes a whole lot of sense to focus more heavily on teaching writing than we have been. In short, writing needs to become a much bigger focus.  And for that, we can look to Judith Hochman’s The Writing Revolution for activities to embed into our everyday instruction.

But how do you do that with no extra time in the day?

Integrate 

When we embed writing into our instructional day, not only do we get more writing instruction in, we also solidify the writing skills we’re teaching much more soundly. The whole premise of Judith Hochman’s Writing Revolution work is to embed writing instruction into content studies. Don’t have time to read the whole book? Learn on the go! Hochman gives an overview of her approach on the Measured Mom and Science of Reading podcasts.

There are a lot of good practices with this approach to lean on. Because it’s not a curriculum or a program, it fits perfectly with any writing structure you have, including a workshop structure.  In fact, there’s a tremendous amount of commonality between the two.  

Here are three ideas from The Writing Revolution to apply immediately. 

They are easy to do, take very  little time, and will make a big impact on kids’ writing skills. 

One. Teach conjunctions that expand sentences. 

Of all the ideas The Writing Revolution shares, this one is probably the easiest of activities.

Teach students how to expand sentences to tell more information, starting with very simple words that connect ideas.  Begin with the words and, so, and because–the easiest entry point.  Teaching kids to expand sentences using these connector words also does double duty as a comprehension check for understanding in the content under study. I LOVE a double-whammy!

Here’s an example:

Say you were a fourth grade teacher doing a unit in social studies about colonization. You might then give kids three sentence starters. Students would  finish each sentence based on their conceptual understanding of that topic. For example, you might write the following sentence stems: 

The Europeans decided to colonize in a new land so…

The Europeans decided to colonize in a new land because…

The Europeans decided to colonize in a new land and… 

Each version is a way to expand sentences. But each version also requires a different and more nuanced response that reflects a different aspect of the concept of colonization. This is something that can be brought into science, social studies, and even math.  Pretty brilliant, no?

Two. Paragraph outlining.

I honestly prefer the Think SRSD version of this better, but The Writing Revolution’s “single paragraph outline” is very similar.  It’s all about helping kids begin with a topic sentence, jot notes about a few key details that support that topic sentence, and then include a conclusion statement.  

There are two parts to this idea that work really well for kids. 

One, that there are spaces provided for kids to write. This scaffold points them in the right direction.  Until kids solidify the idea that paragraphs begin with a topic sentence,  include details that are relevant to that topic, and are followed by a concluding statement, the literal lines for planning these parts is a fantastic beginning step.  (I don’t have permission to post a photo of this from the book, but you can grab the outline for free from the Writing Revolution website here).  

The other part I love about this is that the outline, just like the TIDE planner in ThinkSRSD, is a place for kids to jot notes about the details they’ll include. Notes, not full sentences. This holds the student’s thinking, ready for when it’s time to construct the actual paragraph.  It relieves the pressure of having to construct sentences immediately.  As Hochman says, it’s helpful to “break the writing process into manageable parts so that students don’t need to focus on so many things at the same time.” I agree.  I’ve seen for myself how helpful this is for students.  

The note-jotting as part of the paragraph outline also subtly forces kids to rehearse how their sentences will go before they put pencil to paper.  Rehearsal before writing is huge, no matter what  framework for writing instruction you’re using.  And it’s an often-missed step.

Here’s an example, going back to that colonization idea:

Topic sentence:  Europeans wanted to create their own colonies for different reasons.

Detail:  no king’s rule

Detail:  religion

Detail:  more goods, money

Detail: curious

Conclusion: The desire for freedom, fortune, and adventure led the Europeans to colonize in a new land.

*I purposely didn’t just include 3 details.  This rigid approach doesn’t always set kids up well for writing. 

When first teaching the outline idea, the teacher would likely have to guide kids toward a strong (and matching) topic and concluding sentences.  This would be a fabulous way to do some shared writing!  As they learn how to do this planning on their own over time, the teacher would hand more and more of the thinking work to students.

From there, students would craft the details into full sentences, again by first rehearsing until it sounded just right. That rehearsal piece, by the way, will prevent a lot of the common grammar and convention mistakes we so often see.  Because the topic and concluding statements are already in place, kids just have to spend time (and mental energy) on the detail sentences.  And because they only jotted notes about what to include, it’s easy for the teacher to catch any off-the-mark details that would lead to an unfocused paragraph before the child got too far down that wrong path.  

Three.  Reading-writing connection.

This is perhaps my favorite part of the entire book.  Whenever we can connect reading and writing, learning sticks better. The two go hand in hand. It’s not often that anything is mentioned in professional books about the importance of connecting reading and writing, but Hochman very much supports this idea.  By and large, what’s taught in reading can be reinforced it in writing.  That’s one way to make the reading-writing connection. 

But it doesn’t have to stop at the ELA block!  Literacy and content can be integrated across the day.

Here’s an example.

Working on compare/contrast as a text structure for reading comprehension? Bring that text structure work into social studies–so many opportunities to write about comparisons!  Science works, too.  Comparing results of an experiment when different variables are changed immediately comes to mind.  Even math works–think about having kids compare and contrast addition and multiplication or addition and subtraction.  In all of these examples, the reading and writing work kids are doing around text structure is easily brought forth across the day.  

There you have it. Three of the simplest ways that any teacher can apply The Writing Revolution activities to the classroom without much time or effort.  Considering how powerful they are, this is a true win-win–your teaching is strengthened, and students learn both writing and content more solidly.

Could you use some help thinking through ways to apply ideas from the Writing Revolution across your day?  Reach out!  Because no one can do this work alone, I’m here to support you through  virtual coaching calls.  Simply email me at michelle@coachfromthecouch.com!

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Who is Coach from the Couch??  I’m Michelle, a 25 year veteran educator, currently a K-5 literacy coach.  I continue to learn alongside teachers in classrooms each and every day, and it’s my mission to support as many teachers as I can in cutting through the noise and confusion around literacy instruction.  

Also,  join my private FB group!  It’s a safe, supportive environment (really–zero blaming or shaming allowed!)  where you can ask questions, learn ideas, and share your thoughts among other literacy-loving educators!