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Beginning Writing: Transcription vs. Composing Skills

Transcription skills include spelling and handwriting, basic skills that are needed to transcribe the words a writer wants to put into writing. For students in upper grades, keyboarding in place of handwriting is also a transcription skill. Once students become automatic and fluent with spelling and handwriting, they can focus their attention on higher level composing. If students do not develop fluency with these skills by grade 3, this will put a constraint on writing development as they move into the later grades. One of the four main recommendations in the Institute of Sciences research guide Teaching Elementary Students to be Effective Writers (Graham et al., 2012) is to teach students to become fluent with transcriptions skills, including teaching young writers how to hold a pencil correctly and form letters fluently and efficiently, and to spell words correctly.

Joan Sedita | March 7, 2023 | 4 Comments

Teaching Text Structure to Support Writing & Comprehension

What is text structure, and why should teachers teach it? Text structure is unique to written language, and awareness of text structure supports both writing and reading comprehension. This post explores the different types of text structure that can be taught explicitly to support writing and reading.

Joan Sedita | February 7, 2023 | 3 Comments

Vocabulary Strategy: Use of Context

An important strategy to help students build their vocabulary is use of context – i.e., using the clues or hints provided in the text that surround an unfamiliar word to help guess the meaning without depending on a dictionary. This can include words, phrases, or sentences that appear before, after, or close to the word. It can also include visuals or headings embedded in the text – basically anything that helps a reader understand the meaning of an unfamiliar word. Expository, non-fiction text tends to offer more context clues than narrative text.

Joan Sedita | January 5, 2023 | 12 Comments

What is DIRECT, SYSTEMATIC and EXPLICIT Instruction?

Direct, explicit, and systematic instruction has been recognized as an essential strategy for teaching reading and writing.

Joan Sedita | December 1, 2022 | 1 Comment

States Revamp Reading Policies and Teacher Training

Sarah Schwartz has written a series of articles for Education Week about reading and writing instruction and the science of reading. Her July, 2022 piece is titled Which States Have Passed 'Science of Reading' Laws? What's in Them? Education Week tracked the 29 states plus Washington, D.C., that have state legislation or policy related to evidence-based reading instruction requirements.

Joan Sedita | November 7, 2022 | 2 Comments

Anxiety, Executive Functions, and Writing

This is a guest post written by Noel Foy, a Keys to Literacy trainer/consultant who specializes in how anxiety and executive functions affect learning. In this post, she addresses how this is related to student writing. Do your students find it challenging to get started on a writing task? Do they have difficulty with stamina, effort and self-regulation or find it hard to remember the directions/steps of an assignment? If so, anxiety and underdeveloped executive function may be interfering with their productivity and motivation.

Joan Sedita | September 22, 2022 | 2 Comments

New Book: The Writing Rope

I am pleased to announce that Brookes Publishing in August published my new book titled The Writing Rope: A Framework for Explicit Writing Instruction in All Subjects. I am also delighted that my friend and colleague, Jan Hasbrouck, wrote the foreword. The book can be ordered at the Brookes website. I wrote about The Writing Rope framework in a 2019 article, and again in a Literacy Lines January 2020 blog post.

Joan Sedita | August 26, 2022 | 4 Comments

Reading Assessment Basics

Reading assessment is essential for supporting effective reading instruction. Reading assessment data provides teachers important information to guide instructional decisions. It also helps guide school leadership as they make reading curriculum decisions. This goal of this blog post is to share basic explanations of key terms related to reading assessments.

Joan Sedita | July 24, 2022 | 7 Comments

Spelling Rules and Generalizations

The focus of this post is on explicit instruction, with examples, of spelling rules and generalizations

Joan Sedita | June 6, 2022 | 0 Comments

Providing Reading Interventions Grades 4-9

A new research guide titled Providing Reading Interventions for Students in Grades 4-9 was released recently from the Institute of Education Sciences that summarizes research-based instructional interventions for older students who struggle with reading. The report was written by a panel of reading researchers and practitioners, chaired by Dr. Sharon Vaughn after reviewing the research related to intervention instruction for older students.

Joan Sedita | May 5, 2022 | 0 Comments

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