As part of our Grade 2 TLCP (Teaching Learning Critical Pathways), my students are learning about procedural writing. Our big idea for this cycle is, “How might routines and procedures be important for everyday life?” I’ve really been trying to use this big idea to guide our writing activities.
This TLCP is all about learning a specific writing form. Weeks ago, we generated the Success Criteria for this writing form, and since then, the students have used the success criteria well to become successful at writing procedures. The big problems seem to be that they forget to include an introduction or conclusion and that they do not expand enough on each of the steps.
I can have the students write procedures again and again and again for me, but eventually it gets boring. I want the students to see the value in this type of writing. It’s important that they know there’s a reason for procedural writing. This was the reason behind yesterday’s writing activity. (You can see the finished procedures on the individual student blogs.)
As a class, we generated this list of different procedural writing topics:
When one student mentioned writing how to use the Livescribe Pen, I got excited! I told the class that many teachers and students at the school are using the Livescribe Pen, but this tool is new to them. I explained that if some people wanted to write how to use this tool, I would share their post in Memos to All Staff. Then maybe their procedure could be used to teach others how to use the Livescribe Pen. At this point, the students were sold! 🙂
Then a student spoke to me about writing a procedure for how to use Gamestar Mechanic. When I showed the class this website earlier in the new year, I mentioned that I learned about it on Twitter. This student remembered what I said. He asked me if I would tweet out his post on how to use Gamestar Mechanic, and then maybe he could teach other people on Twitter how to use this website. Wow! Awesome!
This started the conversation. Students were talking about the best audience to share their work with and the best way to share their procedures too. This was no longer just a writing activity for me. The engagement factor increased when the students had a real audience for their work, and they had control over the topic and the tool that they used. Students really got excited today though when I showed the class the comment on the Livescribe Pen post that two of my students published yesterday. Everyone was so happy to see that Miss Barton, one of our wonderful Grade 3 teachers, left a comment.
My students couldn’t believe that a teacher wanted their help. Just to make things even more exciting, Ms. Stretton, one of the amazing Grade 2 teachers, came by today and asked if these students would help her out as well. With these two requests, the students finally saw the value in procedural writing: others were reading what they wrote, trying out new ideas, and asking for help to clarify their thinking.
Other students wanted to get this same response to their writing too. They were really looking at what they wrote and how they explained their thinking. The students were trying to be more specific as they elaborated on the main idea in each step. Yes, many of the students can still continue to work on adding more details to their introduction and conclusion, but they are getting better.
In a tweet this afternoon, Jean-Louis Bontront, a high school chemistry teacher in Windsor, Ontario, made this suggestion:
Thanks Jean-Louis! This is exactly what I did here, and I’m so glad that you suggested that I do so too. Watching the students writing yesterday and today showed me the value in giving students choice in their writing and giving them a real audience for their work. Our big idea for this TLCP is not just writing on paper — it’s really happening, and this week proved that to me!
How do you get students to see the purpose in writing? What difference does this make to their writing skills? I would love to hear about your experiences!