Transitional Words: The Missing Link

Transitional words and phrases help a story to flow smoothly from one idea to the next. Sometimes students need a visual aid to check whether or not their ideas are flowing effectively.
Read the students' papers to them while using a game like Jenga as you read. The generic version is ideal because the blocks come in three colors, which can represent the introduction, body and conclusion of the papers.
Stack the blocks by color and each time a student has a weak or ineffective transition, remove one of the blocks. For example, if you have the red blocks on top, and there is a weak transition in the introduction, you would remove a block from that section. If a student moved from one idea to the next with no transitional words or phrases at all this would leave gaps or holes in the writing. In this situation, you would remove two blocks from the game instead of one.
The weakly organized papers will be recognizable by the way the tower of blocks looks after the entire composition is read. It will usually fall apart, much like the story written by a student whose writing is filled with weak or nonexistent transitions.
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THINKING CAPS - The Reading Writing Connection

During class time, a good teacher will want to pause when he or she finds higher level vocabulary words in the story. This creates a teachable moment. After that, however, where does the word go?
Unfortunately, most of the time it becomes like a mere acquaintance: out of sight, out of mind.... never to be thought of or used again. After noticing this fact, I began using an idea that has proven very effective in my classroom.
Recognize your Reading time as an excellent opportunity to make a stronger connection to Writing and allow the students to bring their own caps or hats from home to wear. From Dr. Suess to Davy Crockett and Nemo to the simple but fun "beanie" hat; you name it; at some point over my teaching career I have probably seen it! Encourage the children to express themselves creatively - some may even want to make their own.
As oral reading takes place, they can take out their hats and wear them as a reminder to make the Writing connection. Each student will need a multi-subject notebook with a separate section for each of these items: difficult or new vocabulary, sentences written in very unique ways, similes, metaphor, idiom, onomatopoeia, personification, hyperbole, etc. For greater impact, a teacher in the lower grade levels may prefer to decide which examples are to be included, while in upper level classes, students can take ownership in ;this activity by making these decisions on their own. In this way, each notebook becomes a reflection of the individual's ability and his or her life perspective.
Later, during Writing assignments, the students will use their notebooks as a tool to improve the overall quality of their papers. Your more capable writers will often drive a greater sense of pride from working with examples they've produced themselves than those they can get from professionally designed posters or other materials made by someone other than themselves.

Better Vocabulary Exercise

Even though you have told your students time after time not to use certain worn-out words, bad habits are hard to break. This activity can be utilized when you are reading compositions orally to the students and giving feedback.
Before you begin reading, write each student's name on tag board paper with a permanent marker. Each time you come across an illegal, overused or "watered down" word as you read a student's composition, squirt the tag board with his or her name one time. This makes a very strong visual, displaying which students are still using too many baby words and which are improving. The winner is the student with the driest tag board after all compositions have been read.
To convince the losers of the importance of using higher vocabulary, have them go back and change all their ineffective word choices to better ones. This will take the thrill out of those who simply use baby words because they want to see their papers get wet. Just don't spray the students!

Varied sentence structure: Sometimes shorter is better.

Say it in a Word

A common mistake we make as teachers is telling students that every sentence has to be complex or compound... the longer the better. Varied sentence structure will guard against monotony and open the door for greater creativity in writing. Sometimes the most effective sentences are those which got the idea across with only one of two words.
If you were to write the word TROUBLE, what message might you be trying to portray to the reader? Perhaps that something is definitely wrong, and that the characters will be in jeopardy or danger if something doesn't change soon.
Other effective word choices might be Help! Run! or No! You class can brainstorm possibilities in teams, following up by drawing a colored picture of what the one-word sentences might represent. Run could be a person being chased by a villain or animal. Help might be a drawing of someone who is tuck and needs to be rescued.
Allow for some flexibility and creativity from your students, even if some of their one-word sentences seem a little 'out of the box'.
If there is a shriek that begins to rise up within you at the idea of actually accepting or approving a fragment or incomplete thought, you are not alone! A few strategically placed one or two-word sentences here and there, however, add spice and flavor to a composition.
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More Original and Interesting Stories

And they lived happily ever after.........Prove It!

Being in the classroom twelve years, I noticed that most children had a habit of ending their stories with their characters happy but tired. After hundreds of papers like that, I could see how unoriginal and predictable the papers were getting. If that's happening in one classroom, imagine what is happening in classrooms across the state and around the country!
To have some variety, think of some other more unique ways that characters can feel at the end of the story.
For example, the character could be angry at the end, and instead of only telling the emotion, students can show the emotion by explaining the complete facial expressions, body language, hand gestures, etc. of the character(s) when an event causes that particular reaction, in this case, anger.
This could also make a great classroom game. Your students will show different emotions using the physical aspects above, and the other students can guess what emotion is being expressed. Allow the opportunity to fine-tune the emotions expressed to make them more believable and something the reader can relate to as things happen.

Pairing off your students for MUTUAL improvement

When I first started teaching, I would group a high level student with a lower one when it was time to revise and edit their stories. This made it easier for me because I could just walk around the room, monitor the students' progress, and address specific concerns or problems.
After a while I recognized a problem with that approach. The only one who was really benefiting from this, besides the teacher, was the low student. He would get quite a few suggestions from his "higher" more knowledgeable partner and, working together, they could usually move the lower student's paper to at least the next score point. When it was time to look at the higher student's paper, however, the weak writer would think it was perfect and offer very few suggestions, if any at all. The strong student would think his paper was fine after comparing himself to the weaker writer, and would turn it in the way it was.

When I realized this was happening, I began pairing my students together , two "highs", two middles, etc. on down to the lower ones. While the strong students polish each other's papers by revising and editing, I would work with the lower ones doing what I call surgery.
If the group is still too large, I would group the students who could pass the writing at minimum success level to work together while I worked with the lowest students. When I felt they had enough to work on, I switched back to the other group, offering them suggestions and critiques.
I have seen incredible improvement in the stronger students as they push and challenge each other to higher and higher levels of achievement in Writing. One partner is able to find things that the other didn't catch or might have overlooked when revising and editing on his own.
This way of grouping is more challenging for the teacher, but allows all the students to improve at a steady rate, not just the weaker ones.

Slow Motion/Emotion - Developing "Voice" in Story Writing

One of the main reasons our students are not writing with as much voice as we may like is the amount of television they watch. In the olden days (as my kids like to say) we would read much more than kids do now. We were required to use our imagination. Today, T.V. nearly does away with the need for imagination; but wait - don't throw it out yet!
May I introduce an activity I call "Slow Motion/Emotion" that brings voice back into writing. Look for a DVD movie that includes events which cause at least one character to have an emotional reaction. Watch it the first time at normal speed, and then stop the movie to analyze with your students what just took place. After you feel they have the gist of what happened, watch it again, but this time slow it down to still step mode which allows you to see the movements frame by frame. Your students will take turns expressing what the character is doing with every movement of his body.
How did his face change? (eyes, mouth, eye brows...) What did the character do with his arms, legs, hips, fingers, etc.? Guess what he might have been thinking... what was going on in his mind and heart? What did he say and why did he say it that way? After seeing it again in slow motion, each will try to write out the scene, being as accurate in detail as possible using the same descriptive words as the class did. So much takes place over a few seconds in a movie that there is no way the viewer can catch it all at full speed.
What child won't jump at the opportunity to watch a movie? Now you can use this as an ally and a tool for improving voice when it comes to the emotions.