Texas College and Career Readiness Program
Teacher Resources

Teacher Writing Resources

writ∙ing \ ‘rit-iŋ \ n  : letters or characters that serve as visible signs of ideas, words or symbols

The CCRS project has developed instructional resources to support all five steps of the writing process:  Planning, Drafting, Revising, Editing, and Publishing.  Particular attention has been paid to the Planning, Drafting and Editing steps, where students often report experiencing the most difficulty.  Many of the writing resources provided on this page dovetail with those provided to students on the Student Writing Resources page.

 

The table below identifies web-based resources that are useful for teaching various aspects of writing.  A sample instructional strategy for each web resource is also included.  This sample strategy can be a helpful guide for how to incorporate the web resource into classroom instruction.

Resource Resource Description Writing Skills Supported Sample Instructional Strategy CCRS Addressed TEKS Addressed
Grammar Girl Organized in episodes and contains tips, readings, explanations, models, and interactive comments regarding grammar and usage. Rhetorical technique and editing. None Writing
A.1, A.5		  
Purdue Univ. Online Writing Lab (OWL) Staring the Writing Process page Online assistance for all elements of the writing process and genres of writing, including K-12, academic, professional and technical.   All writing skills. Model use of rhetorical elements as a guide to thinking through the writing process. [download] Writing
A.1		  
Gallaudet Univ. English Works page Offers online writing examples and explanations for academic and general writing; also provides reading, vocabulary, and grammar explanations and practice. All writing skills. Model lesson in the process of writing a research paper.  [download] Writing
A.2 – A.5		  
CollegeBoard SAT Skills Insight Writing page Addresses writing  skills such as grammar, punctuation, syntax, and editing Editing, grammar, syntax. Use editing questions as warm-up activity or suggest that students go through activity individually.  [download] Writing
A.5		  
Strunk’s Elements of Style Outlines principal requirements of plain English style, focuses on the rules of usage in literature, composition, and grammar.  All writing skills. None Writing
A.1 – A.5		  

The CCRS project has teamed with university and high school teachers to develop a series of videos that model effective instructional techniques in various key writing skills.  Each video is also accompanied by a full lesson plan.

In Their Own Words:  Students on Writing

This video features students sharing their thoughts and motivations about writing.  Often, they are discussing why they find writing difficult as well as reasons why they might like to be a writer.

Freewrite/Quickwrite Instructional Strategy

This video offers a detailed demonstration of a high school class using “quick write” strategies.  The Quick Write is a version of free writing developed by Donald Graves and Penny Kittle and shared in their book, Inside Writing:  How to Teach the Details of the Craft.  In the demonstration, the teacher utilizes a video clip of American Poet Laureate Billy Collins reading his poem “The Lanyard” to stimulate student thinking prior to the writing activity.

Acrobat PDF Lesson Plan

Acrobat PDF Student Materials

Mapping/Webbing Instructional Strategy

This video explores mapping, sometimes called webbing, as a prewriting technique that can be used for all types of subjects.  In this demonstration, students are engaged in small groups generating keywords and phrases associated with a specific topic to create a prewriting graphic organizer.  Students demonstrate how like concepts can be grouped to form paragraphs and topic sentences.  These can possibly be used to determine a thesis statement for a piece of writing.

Acrobat PDFLesson Plan

Acrobat PDFStudent Materials

Brainstorming Instructional Strategy

This video demonstrates the use of brainstorming is a prewriting technique to help writers get started.  This activity shows how using the whole class first to brainstorm or generate lots of ideas either about an assigned topic or one of choice helps writers “get their creative juices” flowing.  Students then choose one of the subtopics and work in small groups to further refine their ideas.  Each group then is instructed to take a “gallery walk” to view each group’s brainstorming noticing what is same, different or what powerful words are used.  This can then be used to begin the rough draft of their assigned writing piece.

Acrobat PDFLesson Plan

Acrobat PDFStudent Materials

Storyboarding Instructional Strategy

The storyboarding lesson plan is a text explanation of the purpose and uses of the storyboard graphic organizer.  The storyboard strategy can be used for many tasks, from pre-writing to drafting to editing and publishing. This strategy engages students making the process more inviting.

Acrobat PDFLesson Plan

Peer Editing/Clocking Instructional Strategy

This video highlights a peer editing strategy called clocking.  Peer editing is a powerful strategy used by many teachers in the writing process.  Clocking is an engaging technique that can be done at any point during the writing process which involves students analyzing the writings of fellow classmates looking for specific writing errors.  This video and lesson plan was adapted to fit the time constraints of the video for an interpretive essay of a literary text for peer editing focusing on subject/verb agreement.

Acrobat PDFLesson Plan

Website Resources Search Strategy

This video shows students in a lab setting accessing active links to appropriate writing websites.  Students react to the contents of three different websites along with their peers the teacher.  Many of these resources are available on the [Student Writing Resources] page and under the “Web Resources” tab of this page.

A significant number of web-based resources exist to help teachers navigate instruction on the various steps in the writing process.  The resources below have been selected by educators from the CCRS ELA vertical team and partner universities for their scope and depth.  More resources will be added over time, and educator suggestions are welcomed by the CCRS team.

General Writing Resources

Steps in the Writing Process

Writing for Specific Situations

Student Practice Tools

These tools were developed by the International Reading Association (IRA), the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE), and the Verizon Foundation.  More resources are located at www.readwritethink.org.

Student Writing Websites

Video:  Famous Writers on Writing

 

The College and Career Readiness Standards have been developed by educators from both K-12 and higher education.  The standards cover the four core content areas of English language arts, mathematics, science and social studies.  A fifth set of standards called cross-disciplinary standards has also been developed since many core student skills must be successfully applied across disciplines as well as within them.

Writing Readiness Standards

  1. Compose a variety of texts that demonstrate clear focus, the logical development of ideas in well-organized paragraphs, and the use of appropriate language that advances the author’s purpose.
    1. Determine effective approaches, forms, and rhetorical techniques that demonstrate understanding of the writer’s purpose and audience.
    2. Generate ideas and gather information relevant to the topic and purpose, keeping careful records of outside sources.
    3. Evaluate relevance, quality, sufficiency, and depth of preliminary ideas and information, organize material generated, and formulate a thesis.
    4. Recognize the importance of revision as the key to effective writing. Each draft should refine key ideas and organize them more logically and fluidly, use language more precisely and effectively, and draw the reader to the author’s purpose.
    5. Edit writing for proper voice, tense, and syntax, assuring that it conforms to standard English, when appropriate.

Download

Acrobat PDF ELA Standards

Acrobat PDFCross-Disciplinary Standards

Acrobat PDFAll Standards