Extended Writing Opportunities

Overview

Increasing how much students write improves both their writing and their reading. As students repeatedly practice independently, they can build and deepen their Foundational Writing Skills, Vocabulary, Syntax, and Verbal Reasoning.

Use It in the Classroom

Watch how this upper elementary teacher gives her students a particular skill to focus on during their daily writing practice. For this particular practice session, students focus on improving their sentence fluency.

Using daily prompts, daily journal writing, or regular blogging opportunities to provide students with relevant writing practice in multiple contexts and genres can help students gain confidence in their writing. These multiple rounds of successful practice can strengthen student writing by allowing writing to become more fluent and automatic.

Design It into Your Product

Developers can include a chat feature that allows students to communicate in writing, either in real time or asynchronously, with authentic audiences. These chats can be informal or focused on specific skills, increasing students' Speed of Processing and Genre Knowledge, as well as offering Primary Language supports.

View References

Resources

Below are additional examples, research, and professional development. These resources are possible representations of this strategy, not endorsements.

Cognition & Memory

Topic that includes cognitive science theories about how the brain processes information on Digital Promise's Research Map

Practice for Knowledge

How to make repeated practice relevant and fruitful

Principles of Instruction

What research says about independent practice

Quick Write

How to use quick writes in the classroom

Writing Instruction

Subtopic that includes descriptions and evaluations of instructional approaches to improve students' writing on Digital Promise's Research Map