What should be my end-of-year writing focus?

As teachers are preparing to wrap up a school year disrupted by the pandemic, many are wondering what to prioritize in their writing instruction.

Regardless of whether students are in first grade or high school, a focus on informative writing, and skills that are specifically tied to the traits of ideas and organization, will be essential to accelerating learning and addressing learning loss.

Our first goal is to have students writing as much as possible in these remaining weeks. So, identify concepts that your students have learned in various subject areas—topics they already have background knowledge on. Using these, students can immediately start writing using information, details, and vocabulary that they are familiar with. (We don’t want them to have to read, research, or learn something new in order to start writing.)

And don’t plan for big products with lots of revision. Use these last weeks to execute a lot of first-drafts only.

Duration: 2:34 | Grades K-12