Middle School English Language Arts Instructional Guide

1. Create and Maintain a Supportive Writing Environment

Foster a dynamic writing environment that sustains a positive writing culture and empowers students as writers. Students need a supportive writing environment in order to take risks and improve as writers.

Description:

Rationale:

Link to High School ELA Sandbox Course Link to Middle School ELA Sandbox Course

Resources:

Best Practices

Critical Components

● Focus on amplifying the effective moves. ● Re-establish student writing identity and momentum. Begin to see themselves as writers again. (Gallagher) ● Honor student voice in writing. ● Accentuate the positive. Eliminate the negative. ● Collaborate in writing with students ● Allow students to see your writing process in all variations versus only the best draft ● Use think-alouds with students while writing so they can your decision-making process ● Stop frequently and make explicit the choices writers make to create an effect for an intended audience. ● Focus on how diction, tone, and punctuation can change meaning. ● Ask the following: What am I trying to say? Have I said it?

Create and maintain an asset-based approach to student writing.

Write alongside students and allow yourself to be vulnerable in modeling the writing process and decisions writers make.

Approach writing as problem-solving.

Notes/Ideas:

Last Updated June, 2023 Middle School ELA, Page 62