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SBI 4. Provide evidence-based writing instruction.

In this lesson, you and your team will learn about evidence-based writing instruction as part of a complete literacy program. This is a very comprehensive lesson with three parts.

Part 1 of this lesson describes the basic elements of a strong program of instruction for writing at the secondary school level.

In Part 2, you will learn about the state standards and effective instruction for writing in language arts and reading.

In Part 3, you will learn about writing instruction in other content areas: writing to show learning and writing to learn.

To get started, download the Implementation Guide for this component and refer to the Action Step for this lesson. Examine the Implementation Indicators for each level of implementation and note the Sample Evidence listed at the bottom of the chart.

Action Step SBI 4 reminds educators that literacy includes writing as well as reading. The efforts you and your team make in improving literacy instruction at your school will need to include attention to writing instruction and achievement. In Part 1, you will read recommendations for important components of a solid writing program. Here the word program refers generally to the way writing instruction is organized and delivered at your campus, not to any specific set of materials or approaches.

First, let’s explore what is involved in the activity of writing. Writing is more than just forming letters and words on a page or screen, just as reading is more than simply decoding or passing one’s eyes over a text. Writing is a complex process—a way of exploring, discovering, organizing, and expressing thoughts, ideas, and knowledge. Students must understand written conventions and apply their knowledge of language structure to communicate ideas effectively. They must also think critically, take positions, evaluate, persuade, and describe events, all while keeping in mind their audience and their purpose for writing.

Writing is inextricably linked to reading, forged in the metal of language and used in the exchange of ideas and information. As students advance through school, they are expected to demonstrate what they know through writing, and often this means synthesizing information from what they have read by writing about it. The skills of writing—from using the writing process to applying written conventions—serve the higher purpose of the writer: to communicate.

An effective literacy program is structured to incorporate the full complexity of writing, from the thinking skills to the mechanical skills that accomplished writers employ. Students must learn and apply these skills as they engage in the writing process.

The writing process includes these stages: planning, drafting, revising, editing, and publishing. Educators must explicitly teach students this process, and students need consistent practice in each stage of the process to become confident, independent writers.

The following Indicators from Action Step SBI 4 may provide a useful guide in reviewing the writing instruction at your school:

• Provide writing instruction that integrates all strands of the ELAR standards.
• Provide daily time for students to write.
• Provide direct and explicit instruction using mentor texts as models.
• Provide instruction on the use of the writing process for a variety of purposes and genres.
• Provide an engaging and motivating environment for writing instruction.
• Incorporate meaningful opportunities for students to write in each content area.

This lesson includes discussion of each of these Indicators.

Your writing program and the statewide assessment program

A strong writing program will include all six elements outlined above. Writing programs that concentrate on preparing students for statewide assessment narrow the focus of instruction to only those skills that can be assessed on a state test, but students need the full range of standards-based writing instruction to become college- and career-ready writers.

Integration of all the strands of ELAR

As mentioned in the lessons on reading in this module, the state standards for English and Spanish language arts and reading call for teachers to teach writing in conjunction with reading, speaking, listening, research, and conventions of language. Effective writing instruction allows students to write about what they read, talk about what they plan to write and have written, and practice research and mechanics skills to gather and communicate information and ideas for real purposes.

Provide daily time for students to write.

Given the competing demands for instructional time in schools today, some teachers may find it challenging to provide students with time to write every day in class. A consistent time commitment is needed, however, to provide students with sufficient practice to become fluent and skilled writers. In the subsequent sections of this lesson, you will learn about the variety of ways students are expected to write in language arts and in content area classes.

After considering these expectations and the Indicators of SBI 4, you and your team may shift the common question of “How do teachers make time for writing every day?” to “How can we help teachers develop meaningful writing opportunities for students and coordinate writing demands across the content areas?” As leaders, you will need to provide teachers with time and support so they can integrate writing into their curricula in meaningful ways.

As you and your team review your school’s writing program, consider how writing instruction is provided and supported during language arts and during instruction in other content areas. Both are needed, but the focus in science, for example, is not the same as it is in language arts. Part 2 and Part 3 will outline what evidence-based writing instruction looks like in these two realms.

Instruction in language arts is governed by the English and Spanish Language Arts and Reading (ELAR/SLAR) Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS). As mentioned in Part 1, these standards call for integration of writing instruction with reading and listening and speaking, as well as research and language conventions. These standards are aligned across grade levels, outlining a progression of skills that are developmentally appropriate for students at each grade.

Let’s consider each of the other indicators for an effective writing program mentioned in Part 1 as they relate to writing in the language arts class.

Provide instruction on the use of the writing process for a variety of purposes and genres.

The state standards for English and Spanish language arts and reading include the writing process in each grade from kindergarten through grade 12. To develop into competent writers, students need to engage in the writing process—planning, drafting, revising, editing, and publishing—on a regular basis. To have many opportunities to engage in each of the writing process stages, students will need to do a lot of meaningful writing. The call for daily writing mentioned in Part 1 supports the goal of students’ practicing the writing process often.

“Students should also learn that writing is used for a variety of purposes, such as conveying information, making an argument, providing a means for self-reflection, sharing an experience, enhancing understanding of a reading, or providing entertainment” (Graham et al., 2012, p. 12).

The purposes Graham and his colleagues refer to in this quotation are aligned to the text types that students are required to write according to the ELAR/SLAR standards:

• Literary texts (kindergarten–grade 12)
• Personal texts (grades 3–8)
• Expository and procedural texts (kindergarten–grade 12)
• Persuasive texts (grades 2–12)

As you and your team review the writing instruction program on your campus, you will want to pay attention to the level of variety in students’ writing. While certain purposes and genres of writing may be emphasized in state assessments at particular grade levels, students need the full range of writing instruction and practice that is outlined in the standards and supported by research.

In addition to helping students understand the different purposes for writing, writing instruction should expand students’ concept of audience by including writing tasks addressed to someone other than the teacher. Educators should explicitly teach, model, and discuss how students can adjust their tone and word choice for different audiences.

Provide direct and explicit instruction using mentor texts as models.

A key element of your writing program should be the use of mentor texts and sentences. Mentor texts provide students with a model of what a skilled piece of writing in a certain genre looks and sounds like. When students have the opportunity to practice identifying the characteristics of these genres—and good writing in general—they are then better prepared to produce those characteristics in their own writing. See the scenario below for a classroom example.

Scenario: A 7th-grade teacher first taught a lesson on the characteristics of a good persuasive paper. Students generated a list of the characteristics while the teacher provided the correct terminology, such as “claim” and “evidence.” Then the teacher guided the class in reading a mentor text, an essay that was particularly effective in its use of persuasive techniques. Small groups discussed what made the essay so convincing. They conducted a “persuasive element hunt” as they read another persuasive essay and used the list they had created as a class, adding new items as well.

The teacher then modeled for students how to use the first essay they read as a model for writing their own persuasive essay. She gave students a choice of three topics. The students worked with different partners for each stage of the writing process to get a spectrum of input on their claims, elaboration, argumentation, and other elements of persuasion that they had identified. They used peer feedback to make their essays stronger and then referred to their class list of persuasive elements to self-assess before turning in their papers to the teacher.

Adapted from Graham & Harris, p. 19 (figure 1.6)

Mentor sentences can be used in a similar way to teach students how to write effective sentences. When students learn to analyze and emulate mentor sentences, they are learning grammar and mechanics in an important, meaning-based way. Mentor sentences also provide a way to stretch students beyond their current level of academic language use, incorporating complex sentences to express ideas and relationships in a sophisticated way. Mentor sentence activities offer a good alternative to traditional mechanics instruction that asks students to correct ungrammatical sentences, thus providing a model of incorrect usage. While these kinds of editing tasks are used to assess knowledge of language on large-scale tests, many researchers discourage their use as instructional activities, recommending students model correct sentences instead. (Graham, 2015).

See the To Learn More section for information about using mentor texts and mentor sentences to teach writing.

Provide an engaging and motivating environment for writing instruction.

Engaging and motivating adolescents to write—as frequently and to the level that the secondary standards demand—can be a challenging task. One way to encourage students to write is to create a community of writers. The ideal community would be a classroom where all members feel safe to share their ideas and writing.

First, teachers themselves must be a part of the writing community, participating as writers and sharing their writing. Teacher participation should include modeling, thinking aloud, and producing and presenting one’s own work, as well as acting as a guide and collaborator on class writing projects. By engaging in each writing task in the classroom, the teacher becomes a fellow writer in the community, providing a model at all stages of the writing process and showing how writing skills are used to express stories, ideas, and information that the writer wants the audience to understand.

To further build community and motivation, your school’s writing program should include opportunities for students to make choices about what they write and to collaborate with peers. Student choice can be selecting the topic broadly, choosing from a list of topics within a particular genre being taught, or deciding which side of an issue to write about for a persuasive text. What is important is that students have something authentic to communicate, a goal that is difficult to achieve when the writing task is narrowly mandated.

Student collaboration can take place at all stages of the writing process. Students can assist one another on their individual pieces or work together on one writing product.

To grow as writers in this community, students need to give and receive feedback on their writing. Teacher feedback, in writing or in one-on-one conferences, helps students know if their writing is on track and how to adjust if it is not. Peer feedback is also essential to the writing community. Students can learn from both giving and receiving peer feedback. Your school’s writing program should include explicit instruction for students on how to provide feedback on peers’ writing in various stages of the writing process, not just in editing.

To create an inclusive community of writers, teachers need to ensure that writing instruction is relevant and accessible to all students. This means teachers may need support in identifying and acquiring texts and creating lessons that are culturally and linguistically diverse. The writing community should be accepting of multiple perspectives on controversial issues and focus on the quality of writing and expression versus whether the peer reviewer (or teacher) agrees with the thesis. You and your team may also look at how to support teachers in differentiating writing instruction for struggling writers and students learning to read and write in their second language.

To help students see themselves as writers, your writing program should provide opportunities for students to publish their writing and address audiences beyond the classroom. This might include creating library copies of student texts, submitting student writing to school or outside publications, or forming partnerships with organizations in the community that can share student writing in meaningful ways. Students who excel in and enjoy writing can often find extracurricular outlets for their interest, but making a connection with a real audience can provide the motivation and validation for developing writers to persevere in expanding their skills.

TO LEARN MORE: To learn more about professional development on writing instruction, including using mentor texts and sentences, you may want to visit the following website:

The Write for Texas collection of resources is available to all secondary English language arts and reading and content-area teachers to support effective writing instruction. The resources include critical background knowledge, activities, and videos that relate to the guiding principles of effective writing instruction. Participants learn and apply teaching techniques to support all students in writing.

The Online Materials tab shows how the extensive resources relate to language arts teachers, content teachers, or both.

For example, in the orange section of the circle, the TSS (Teaching Sentence Skills) resources focus on teaching students how to write effective sentences. These resources are designed to enhance the teaching of grammar in the context of reading and writing using mentor sentences.

In addition to links from this page to other resources for teaching conventions in context, there are resources on teaching personal narratives, expository and persuasive texts, and revising and editing skills.

The concept of writing across the curriculum has been in the education vernacular for decades. It is important to clear up misconceptions that have arisen over the years about what writing and content instruction have to do with each other.

What content-area writing is not

The TSLP does not call for language arts or literacy instruction to replace or interfere with instruction in any of the other subject areas. The time allotment needed for writing instruction should not replace students’ opportunities to learn about science, social studies, math, or any other subjects. Content-area teachers should not be asked to teach language arts lessons or divert time normally spent teaching to content standards. The information in this lesson is designed to support content-area writing with the primary goal of enhancing content learning and overall literacy improvement as a side benefit.

That said, there is indeed the expectation that students be able to use literacy skills to learn and demonstrate understanding in content-area instruction.

There are good reasons to teach and provide students opportunities to practice writing during content-area instruction. In addition to providing students with extra time engaged in writing, studies have shown that “writing about content material enhanced students’ learning in social studies, science, mathematics, and language arts” (Graham & Harris, 2013, p. 5).

Two main types of writing in content-area classes are writing to show learning and writing to learn.

Writing to show learning

This form of writing is likely the most familiar to teachers. Students are asked to formally articulate the knowledge they have acquired in a written product, which is often turned in for a grade. Well-constructed writing tasks can help students synthesize and apply the science, math, or social studies concepts and skills they are learning. The written product provides an artifact of learning and a concrete way to measure students’ understanding of what they have been taught and what they have read in texts.

When working with your staff to design and implement effective writing instruction, remember that this kind of writing—whether formative or summative in nature—requires instruction in not only the content but also the writing task itself. Just as students need content-area concepts and skills to be demonstrated and modeled in order to learn them, they need instruction on the skills required to express content knowledge according to the expectations of the subject area and task.

For example, a science teacher needs to instruct students about the concepts and procedures involved in a laboratory experiment, as well as how to write a lab report. Similarly, social studies teachers need to teach students how to read and understand source documents in their historical context, as well as how to write a report based on those documents.

Content curriculum materials may not include guidance on writing instruction, so teachers would benefit from time and input on developing lessons that model and teach the expectations for a writing task. As students move up in grade levels, they are expected to communicate their understanding in ways that mirror the experts in each field. Students benefit when content instruction includes explicit instruction in using language that matches the context or subject area.

To provide this content-specific writing instruction, teachers need to know how texts are structured in the disciplines they are teaching. While this may seem obvious, most content-area experts are not overtly aware of the conventions of writing in their field; they are immersed in it, thriving in it unaware like a fish in water. Teachers may not have had the preparation to identify the ways in which texts differ or what norms and conventions are in different fields of study. There is further discussion of discipline-specific writing instruction below.

Writing to learn

Writing to learn is when teachers assign writing tasks to help students learn about a subject—to understand the concepts better, remember key information, or develop reasoning skills. This writing can take many different forms, from journals and logs to lab reports and essays. Students might be asked to write about their background knowledge at the beginning of a lesson and later write about what they learn from classroom activities, videos, simulations, exercises, and of course, texts that they read.

“Writing about material read provides students with a tool for visibly and permanently recording, analyzing, connecting, personalizing, and manipulating key ideas from the text. This has a strong impact on making text more memorable and understandable. (Graham & Hebert, 2010, 2011) This is the case for students in general, and for those who are weaker readers and/or writers in particular” (Graham & Harris, 2013, p. 5).

A review of research on writing to learn reveals three main forms of this kind of writing in school: reflective writing to learn, writing to learn in informational genres, and writing to learn in the disciplines (Klein & Yu, 2013). Below is a summary of each type of writing and how it can be used most effectively to support content-area learning.

Reflective writing to learn

This type of writing involves short writing activities in which students reflect on their thinking and learning. A common example is the learning log, in which students record what they learn and what they think about what they learned and/or how they learned it.

Research on reflective writing to learn shows that incorporating the following characteristics contributes most to student learning:

Metacognitive prompts: Require students to reflect on how well they are understanding the content, how well they are meeting learning goals, how to improve their learning, and how to organize and elaborate ideas.

Examples: What did you learn in this (lesson, unit, lab)? How did you learn what you learned? Something I would like to learn more about is . . . I still have questions about . . . I missed the question about ____________, but now I understand that ___________.

Explicit instruction: Provide models to illustrate each type of reflective writing (such as monitoring understanding or organizing ideas) and teach students how these kinds of prompts can help them learn.

Ten minutes or less: In studies on reflective writing to learn, writing tasks were less effective the more they exceeded ten minutes, perhaps because they were less motivating or took time from other content-learning tasks.

Ongoing: When writing was integrated into instruction over a semester or longer, students learned more than in writing-focused instruction that was short term.

Having frequent writing opportunities (three to four times per week) and feedback from teachers also contributed to successful learning.

(Klein & Yu, 2013, pp. 168–171)

Reflective writing to learn takes little time, making it easy to integrate into content area instruction. This type of writing can be done from early grades through secondary level.

Writing to learn in informational genres

This type of writing asks students to explain or make a case for something to the reader. Engaging students in argumentative and explanatory writing can help them think critically about the topic, explore concepts from different angles (such as social impact or ethics), analyze the topic more deeply, uncover and understand the relationships between concepts, and remember the content information more readily. This type of writing works well in science and social studies classes.

“A consideration of best practices is particularly important because writing does not lead automatically to learning” (Klein & Yu, 2013, p. 167).

Researchers have identified a few ways to make argumentative and explanatory writing more effective in learning content information. In each case, a key factor is crafting the writing task so that it asks students to examine multiple sources and incorporate what they learn into their writing. In social studies, this might entail using multiple primary sources. Students in science classes might write based on observations from a laboratory activity and a textbook chapter or a related video. Of course, teachers will have to instruct students in how to make meaning of these texts and other sources in order for students to successfully complete and benefit from the writing exercise.

Having students talk about the issues and concepts, especially for an argumentative writing task, also can contribute to higher learning outcomes. Teachers might organize small-group discussions or debates in which all students can talk through their arguments, hear counterarguments, and attempt to refute them. Students also benefit from the opportunity to practice identifying and making sound arguments, explaining why an argument is (or is not) strong, and knowing how to explain and refute counterarguments. Teaching these skills and providing students with opportunities to practice them will improve their critical thinking and writing skills and may enhance their learning of the content as well.

Here is a framework from a study in which students used explanatory writing to increase their content-learning outcomes.

Content-area literacy with a writing focus. Incorporate reading and speaking, as well as frequent writing (three or four times a week), and complete a written piece once a week.

Writing as learning. Tell students directly about the idea of writing as a tool for thinking and learning. Students write arguments to think critically about issues and write explanations to better understand processes.

Inquiry writing. Build lessons on writing around hands-on content instruction. Students use writing to process and understand those experiences.

Strategy instruction. Directly teach students strategies for writing argumentative and explanatory texts.

Self-assessment. Give students tools to monitor their writing based on elements of good argumentative or explanatory writing. Students revise based on self-assessment.

Motivation. Include engaging topics, active experiences, and peer collaboration.

(Klein & Yu, 2013, p. 179)

The elements here easily apply to both argumentative and explanatory writing. The studies and examples mentioned involve science and social studies, but this approach can also be used in language arts when teaching expository, procedural, and persuasive text.

Writing to learn in the disciplines

Learning to write from a discipline-specific perspective can also help students learn content and become more skilled, mature writers. Both of these learning goals—deep content understanding and sound writing and thinking skills—are crucial for students to be prepared for writing in college and in the workforce.

One study referenced by Klein and Yu (2013) outlines an instructional approach for science that features these elements:

• Looking at prior understanding before the lesson using concept maps
• Informal writing, observations, brainstorming, and posing questions before laboratory experience
• Laboratory activities
• Writing personal meanings from lab (journals or logs)
• Small-group sharing and comparing of data and interpretations
• Writing to compare ideas from text and other printed source (group)
• Individual reflection and writing
• Concept mapping to explore new levels of understanding after instruction

In this study, students were most successful in learning the science content when the teachers followed this approach comprehensively and provided multiple opportunities to write, including writing for a real, younger audience such as the students in an earlier grade (p. 180).

Another study cited in Klein and Yu’s work outlines a protocol that helped students write using historical inquiry methods in order to better learn the history content. This protocol also includes the elements mentioned earlier of looking at multiple sources and combining reading and writing strategy instruction. This protocol includes four main steps, explained below.

Writing to learn from primary sources in social studies

1. Consider the author. Students are asked to consider what they know about the author and the time when each text was written. This analysis helps them answer the question “How does the author’s viewpoint affect his or her argument?”
2. Understand the source. Students identify the values and assumptions underlying each text to answer the question “What kind of worldview does this source show?”
3. Critique the source. Students look at each source to identify the evidence, gaps, and inaccuracies. Students look across the sources to find repeated ideas, major differences, and inconsistencies. They then answer the question “Does the evidence prove what it claims to prove?”
4. Create a more focused understanding. Students consider their findings to decide what they think is credible and what might be open to interpretation. They answer the question “How does each source deepen your understanding of the historical event?”

(Klein & Yu, 2013, p. 183)

The two examples of how to use disciplinary approaches for writing to learn are just that—examples. These studies do not identify any one definitive way students should be taught to engage in writing about content. These examples can be useful as a way to start or enhance conversations with your staff about meaningful writing in content areas. You and your team might ask teachers to pilot, adapt, and tailor these approaches to your school’s population and to their grade levels, using the findings about effective writing-to-learn instruction outlined throughout Part 3.

TO LEARN MORE: To learn more about professional development on writing in content-area instruction, you may want to visit the following website:

The Write for Texas website is for content-area teachers as well as language arts teachers. The Online Materials tab shows how the extensive resources relate to language arts teachers, content teachers, or both.

The Using Reading and Writing to Support Learning page may be especially useful for content teachers. The workbook available for download there includes resources such as informal writing activities for content areas, suggestions for teaching writing to adolescent English learners, and graphic organizers and templates for writing activities and note taking.

NEXT STEPS: Depending on your progress in implementing an evidence-based writing program at your school, you may want to consider the following next steps:

• Review the resources provided by Write for Texas (see the To Learn More section in Part 2 and Part 3).
• Work with staff to analyze the program of writing instruction, including language arts and content areas, based on the guidance in this lesson.
• Establish grade-level or vertical teams to collaborate on developing or enhancing evidence-based writing lessons (in language arts and/or content areas).
• Provide professional development on topics such as the use of mentor texts; integrating reading, writing, and speaking instruction; and writing approaches in different disciplines.

SBI 4. Provide evidence-based reading instruction.

With your site/campus-based leadership team, review your team’s self-assessed rating for Action Step SBI 4 in the TSLP Implementation Status Ratings document and then respond to the four questions in the assignment.

TSLP Implementation Status Ratings 6-12

In completing your assignment with your team, the following resources and information from this lesson’s content may be useful to you:

• Part 1 describes the key elements of an evidence-based program of writing instruction.
• Part 2 discusses writing instruction in language arts.
• Part 3 addresses writing approaches that enhance content learning.

Next Steps also contains suggestions that your campus may want to consider when you focus your efforts on this Action Step.

To record your responses, go to the Assignment template for this lesson and follow the instructions.

Follow instructions provided by your school or district.

Graham, S., Bollinger, A., Booth Olson, C., D’Aoust, C., MacArthur, C., McCutchen, D., & Olinghouse, N. (2012). Teaching elementary school students to be effective writers: A practice guide (NCEE 2012-4058). Washington, DC: National Center for Education Evaluation and Regional Assistance, Institute of Education Sciences, U.S. Department of Education. Retrieved from http://ies.ed.gov/ncee/wwc/practiceguide.aspx?sid=17