Language Arts Teacher Development: Helping students develop story ideas

Completely Developed Ideas

I came up with a little saying to remind students of the importance of developing their ideas sufficiently. It goes like this:  My age or more to get a good score.”   

Too many kids do what I call developing their ideas horizontally.  For example, they may go to the beach, which is fine, but have 5 to 10 different events instead of just one or two.  The problem with that is that most writing assignments have limited quantity of pages and lines, usually one or two at the most.   If they have too many events, odds are they will only be able to spend two or three sentences on each idea/event.  

 Try this visual idea on your students.  Go to an office supply store and purchase either a 12 fine point set of markers or a box of 16 crayons.  Start with any color by underlining an event that is written about…..usually a topic sentence.  Keep using the same color until the student switches to a new event.  Sometimes you will have used the entire box of crayons or markers by the time you finish the paper! 

I use colored trains as graphic organizers for my students, with yellow being assigned to the introduction, blue for the 1^st event or idea, green for the 2^nd event or idea, and red for the conclusion.  If the beginning middle and end are developed enough, all the space available would only have 3 or 4 colors.  I also use colored blocks, monkeys, plastic balls and anything else I can find at Walmart to show the students visually how much they are developing or NOT developing their essays.  That way, it’s not just theory but practical strategies happening right in front of you with your very own students!   

Allow me the opportunity to model development of ideas with YOUR school soon and see your scores skyrocket!  Contact "The Write Prescription" to request a teaching training seminar at your school. 

Low Composition Scores: Not enough writing training

The real reason our students are getting low composition scores each year....not enough writing training in the lower grades!!!

Trying to get our students to get higher than a zero, one, or two on their Writing compositions without the pre-requisites needed in the lower grades would be similar to flipping a pyramid up-side down and trying to make it balance on its point. It is nearly impossible! If we want our students to succeed, we must give Writing training to all grade levels, not just the testing grades. 

The training I offer models visual and auditory strategies at the bottom of the pyramid, then oral skills, next the reading, and finally the writing skills.  I can show teachers in all grade levels how to analyze the pyramid level of their students.  They can then give instruction at that level and move up when the students are ready.

Please allow me the honor of coming to your school and showing your teachers how to make the writing connection.

Earn $100 per day for booking Language Arts teacher training seminars

How would you like a little cash incentive?  Simply arrange for Bill MacDonald, 'The Writing Doctor', to come to your school for a language arts teacher training seminar and you'll receive $100 finders' fee for each day of training! 




Contact us to find out more information about what you can expect from The Writing Doctor's seminars and to obtain a custom quote based on your school's needs.

Look at our products at www.thewriteprescription.com or on TpT under The Write Prescription/Bill MacDonald!

Keys to preparing students for the new Texas standardized S.T.A.A.R. Test

Well Chosen Ideas

The first key to getting a four on the new S.T.A.A.R. Test is development.....the D in D.O.C.  (Development, Organization, and Conventions)  

 The scoring guide is written and designed for teachers, because of its difficulty level.  Think about these points as you train your students this coming year in writing.  The ideas they choose must be very well chosen.  Since the graders have to score anywhere from 100 to 200 papers per day per person, it is crucial the students put some thought into their main points and ideas.   

Let me prove my point by sharing an experience I had once as a consultant.  I was asked to analytically score a hundred compositions for a campus and the prompt was, Write about a time you were proud.  Over 75 students chose to respond with the same idea!  They had just taken the benchmark in Reading and Math on the two previous days.  The majority of them wrote about being proud because they passed their benchmark tests!  If that is happening that often in ONE school, imagine what is happening at the state level with over 300,000 students!   

Allow me the opportunity to work with your campus/district in providing high quality research based staff development on writing original well thought compositions! Contact "The Write Prescription" for more information about in-school trainings.
Look at our products at www.thewriteprescription.com or on TpT under The Write Prescription/Bill MacDonald!

Teacher Training for the new Texas S.T.A.A.R. Test

There are three keys to getting a four on the new S.T.A.A.R. test.  One way to remember them is the acronym D.O.C. (Development, Organization, and Conventions).
Bugs Bunny used to exclaim all the time, "What's up, Doc!"  Imagine you the teacher being a doctor for your patients, the students.  Each week you write a set of prescriptions, better known as lesson plans, to help your students improve their writing skills.

Be sure to call us contact us and ask for information on how to teach students the process of writing to perform well on the S.T.A.A.R. test.  You may also find out more information about our on-campus writing staff development seminars.  We can work with teachers or with students while the teachers observe.

Look at our products at www.thewriteprescription.com or on TpT under The Write Prescription/Bill MacDonald!

 

LET'S ROLL Sentence Structure Learning Game

Let's Roll is a Sentence Structure Learning Game for your students to play in the classroom.

In this fun activity, the students will have the challenge of coming up with sentences that match the total of the die that are thrown.  For example, if a six is thrown, the student would need to come up with a six word sentence using a pre-determined topic.  If the topic was fear, then this might be the sentence: I flew out of that room!
The more difficult the sentences are those that need to be just one or two words.  They can be fragments in this case.  This game can also be played by having students pull out colored plastic numbers, usually magnetic, that can be bought for under a dollar.

Teaching Volume Classroom Poster

Teaching Volume Classroom Poster, a photo by The Writing Doctor on Flickr.

Just one example of The Writing Doctor's new mathematics posters for elementary classroom.
The entire set is now available in "The Write Prescription" online.  
See this poster and all our other products at www.thewriteprescription.com or
on www.teacherspayteachers.com  under The Write Prescription/Bill MacDonald