Have no fear, paper writing just became easy

Let me start by saying, if you dread teaching paper writing because you don't know where to start or an easy way to implement it, I totally felt your pain. It's such a daunting task because you know you want the final product to be organized and cohesive, well written and revised and this and that with the list going on an on. Those qualities should be expected in a paper and finally there is a way that won't stress you out to the max. After going to professional development at the beginning of the year I signed up for a writing session because I was feeling very uneasy about my writing implementation and this was probably one of the best decisions I have ever made in regards to PD. Here we go:

1. Expectations, guidelines, and organization of papers need to be clearly and explicitly stated.

2. Make it simple! Chunk the paper into manageable writing sections

3. Give students all the tools they need to succeed. This may include packets, anchor charts, videos, etc. at the very beginning before they begin writing.

This is now what paper or essay writing implementation looks like in my room:

 1. First, I present students with a packet full of everything they need to know about their paper. The packet includes:
      - An essay schedule of lessons and all due dates for their paper
      - Essay topic/ guidelines
      - Essay rubric (so they know expectations and what they will be evaluated on)
      - Essay outline guidelines
      - Thesis statement writing help
      - Hook/ lead writing help
      - Conclusion writing help 

We go over this whole packet and any other helpful anchor charts I have during the first class period. I don't do anything else because this can be overwhelming. I let them soak in what we talked about, what their paper will be on, and begin thinking about what they are going to write about. Day 1 is just to present the information very clearly and let it sink in.

2. I then spend one whole class period going over how to write a thesis and how to create a paper outline. We write a few sample thesis, watch a video on writing them, and look at the sheet I attached below and discuss as a class.  I make sure all students are clear on how to write a paper outline and I show them how I expect it to be set up. If their outline isn't set up correctly or doesn't have all the necessary information, there is no way they can succeed in their paper. It is really important they are responsible for drawing and filling in their own essay outline. Don't just give them a blank template and have them fill in the necessary information. I give them a reference sheet but they create their own to turn in. They will be expected to do this in high school and on standardized tests- so start now by making them responsible thinkers and planners. The day following this lesson is spent working on their outlines in class so if they have questions I am here to help (This is the basis of their whole paper so I want to make sure it is solid). That is the only in class work day they will get for the paper. 

* Outline layout example* Student written outline

3. I use brightly colored sentence strips to help write the paper drafts. THIS. IS. LIFE CHANGING. I always go over this in class and use a different paper as an example that we can mark up together to show what their paper should look like. These sentence strips stay up during the whole paper writing process but are interchanged based on the section we are at. I also upload this to their homework website so they can see it at home. Before each part of a paper is due, they are to highlight the corresponding section of their paper to the sentence strips so we can clearly and quickly see all parts of that particular section of the paper are present (that's why you need colored sentence strips). In the body paragraphs, I also make sure they included one quote from the text. This will lead into the last part of the implementation.

4. The whole paper needs to be split up into manageable sections. Only when the final paper is due, do I want it turned in as a whole. For example, the introduction is one part, body paragraph 1 is another part, and so on (You can see this in the above paper schedule). Each part is due on a given day and the next day it is returned to students with meaningful comments the next day so it is almost immediate. This part is crucial so students can self revise and edit.Then, the next section is due. 

Although it will day 2-3 class days to set students up, after these days they can do their paper independently. It is amazing to see how well they can take information from a book or whatever their essay source is and put it to paper when the directions are so clear and simple. I hope this can help you in your room! Let me know your thoughts. Until next time, keep it real.