in Grade 3 continue to write for a variety of purposes: to express opinions, share information, or provide explanations, and to tell real or imagined stories. More attention is given to organization and detail than in previous grade levels. Teachers provide models in the form of mentor and original texts and thoughtful instruction and guidance.
Just as students in this grade span are expected to have more frequent and sophisticated academic conversations, so are they expected to practice their writing with ample time allotted across content areas. ELLs in particular need scaffolded writing experiences whereby they are explicitly taught the purpose, organizational structure, and linguistic features associated with the genres of writing expected. One way to do this is by modeling the writing process through joint construction, which includes writing with students (see Vignette 5.1). Teachers explicitly teach this by using model texts, which mirror the genre or text type that students will be expected to write. Students can highlight the linguistic features (e.g., transitional words) associated with that genre of writing. Additionally, before independent writing, teachers can begin a discussion regarding how to best begin a writing piece and chart student responses. Then, as a class they can revise the writing piece together.
Tips for Differentiation by Proficiency Level
Emerging—Students at this proficiency level will need multiple scaffolds for the writing process, including collaborative and joint writing. Teachers can use picture prompts with word banks and chart student responses to model the writing process.
Expanding—Cloze passages can be used, alongside of word banks, that teachers can use to chart student responses on.
Bridging—Students can work collaboratively with each other, using cloze passage templates (or teacher charting), in order to compose joint writing selections. The teacher can ask students to discuss and then outline their thinking together, before completing assigned to certain sections.
Source: 2014 ELA/ELD Framework, p. 354.
Notes
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Grades 3–5 Interacting in Meaningful Ways Collaborative Standard 2
Academic Vocabulary—Key Words and Phrases Related to Standard 2: Interacting via written English
Cloze passages: the strategy of deleting key words from within a written sentence or passage in order for the reader to determine the words from context and/or word banks
Collaboration in writing: when students work together to generate ideas, conduct writing projects together, and respond to each other’s writing projects (e.g., peer review and editing). Such feedback comes throughout the entire composing process. Students receive from various sources ideas about how they can improve some aspect of whatever they are writing.
Publishing: students using computers and printers to publish and distribute their writing projects for classroom, school, and/or wider use online
Sentence frames: If students are struggling to find the right words to explain, describe, and clarify what they are thinking, a sentence starter or sentence frame helps them to get the idea started. For example, “I think the statement is true because ______”, or “This makes me wonder ______.”
Technology: using computers and tablets to compose, revise, and edit writing. It may also include using applications for finding information and creating graphics. Using technology also means writing with and for a range of forms, formats, and features: essays, blogs, wikis, websites, multimedia presentations, or digital essays.
Writing mechanics: These are the conventions of print that do not exist in oral language, such as spelling, punctuation, capitalization, and paragraphs.
Writing projects: These may include traditional informational and literary pieces, but may also include technological writing forms (e.g., blogs, wikis, websites, and multi-media presentations).
Source: ELA Companion 3–5.
Notes
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Grades 3–5 Interacting in Meaningful Ways Collaborative Standard 2
Example of Practice in Vignette Related to Standard 2: Interacting via written English
Vignette 5.1. Writing Biographies Integrated ELA and Social Studies Instruction in Grade 4
Mrs. Patel deconstructs biographies with her students so that they can examine the text structure and organization; they discuss how writers use grammatical structures to create relationships between or expand ideas, and attend to vocabulary that precisely conveys information about the person and events. The mentor texts she reads aloud to the class or that students read in small groups provide models of writing that students may want to incorporate into their own biographies. This week, Mrs. Patel is reading aloud and guiding her students to read several short biographies on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Yesterday, the class analyzed, or deconstructed, one of these biographies.
In today’s lesson, Mrs. Patel is guiding her students to jointly construct a short biography on Dr. King using three sources of information: the notes the class generated in the Biography Deconstruction Template, their knowledge from reading or listening to texts and viewing short videos, and any other relevant background knowledge they bring to the task from previous experiences inside and outside of school.
CCSS for ELA/Literacy: W.4.3—Write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events using effective technique, descriptive details, and clear event sequences; W.4.4—Produce clear and coherent writing (including multiple-paragraph texts) in which the development and organization are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience; W.4.7—Conduct short research projects that build knowledge through investigation of different aspects of a topic; RI.4.3—Explain events, procedures, ideas, or concepts in a historical, scientific, or technical text, including what happened and why, based on specific information in the text.
CA ELD Standards (Expanding): ELD.PI.4.1—Contribute to class, group, and partner discussions, including sustained dialogue, by following turn-taking rules, asking relevant questions,
