SOLSC Classroom Challenge

Classroom Slice of Life Story Challenge: Day 7 of 31

Anna Gratz Cockerille

It’s Day 7 Classroom Slicers! 

What are some of the ways that your students are getting better at writing as they write daily? Hopefully you see evidence that they are aiming to write well, as they try craft moves and take more risks with their writing.

It might help to study not just their products but their process, as well. One wonderful thing about writing daily is that doing so can help the writer to practice moving efficiently through the writing process rather than getting hung up on one part or another.

writing process chart 1

As your students continue to Slice, consider strategies you have taught them for each part of the writing process, and consider whether they might benefit from some reteaching of particular strategies or an increased emphasis on a particular part of the writing process.

You might begin by listing strategies they know, such as:

Generating Ideas

  • Keeps a list of potential ideas to write about
  • Has “territories” or “topics” in mind that make for particularly fruitful writing
  • Generates ideas that feel weighty and significant

Drafting

  • Writes with stamina and focus
  • Tries multiple ways the piece could go, perhaps by writing more than one beginning

Revision

  • Makes changes based on the heart of the story or in order to bring out deeper meaning
  • Deletes parts that don’t fit as well as adds where needed for clarity and meaning
  • Asks a writing partner, friend, teacher, or parent to read and offer feedback

What other writing moves have you noticed your students practicing as they Slice? And what moves might you reteach?

Finally, check out Stacey’s lovely post about her own writing process. If you have students who are feeling less than confident in their process or their products, they might really benefit from reading about Stacey’s experience.

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Published by Anna Gratz Cockerille

Anna is a staff developer, literacy coach, and writer, based in New York City. She taught internationally in places such as Sydney, Australia; San Pedro Sula, Honduras, and Auckland, New Zealand in addition to New York before becoming a staff developer for the Teachers College Reading and Writing Project at Columbia University (TCRWP). She has been an adjunct instructor in the Literacy Specialist Program at Teachers College, and teaches at TCRWP where she helps participants bring strong literacy instruction into their classrooms. Anna recently co-wrote Bringing History to Life with Lucy Calkins, part of the 2013 series Units of Study in Opinion, Information, and Narrative Writing (Heinemann). She has been a researcher for Lucy Calkins, contributing especially to Pathways to the Common Core (Heinemann, 2012) and Navigating Nonfiction (Heinemann, 2010).

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