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Embedded Writing
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22 thoughts on “Embedded Writing”
We use “embedded writing” to teach writing. We put the first, middle and last statements of a story on the SmartBoard and then fill in as a class, adding full sentences, words, details etc. It allows them to have a starting point, realize that writing is a process, and re-read/edit. It’s a solid part of the program. I’ll play with your version too Ben..thanks!
with love,
Laurie
I think this answers the question I have, which is where does the original writing piece come from? And by putting up the superstar writing to use, do you mean with no editing? So the superstar is writing everything correctly? I am a little shaky on the very first step of getting the original piece to work from. Or do you take the superstar piece and do class editing first? Does this matter? I know in the PROCESS of writing I am not concerned so much with “correctness” bc you fix that in the step of rereading and editing. But it seems that you would start with a correct piece? Sorry to be so dense.
But in Laurie’s example I think it means take a class story, write up the first, middle, last sentences…like a skeletal version. Then have the class fill in details. What gets written up on the board is written by the teacher based on the kids’ responses.
Then the repeated reading / writing / editing all reinforce each other.
I’m glad this came up jen. Mine is just a way to get the kids to do some writing. Laurie’s way is based on a honed text and is therefore best. I just toss up a good, unedited piece of writing. I like that it came from a kid.
I would recommend Laurie’s way if you want to be thorough. I don’t/can’t use a smartboard bc in my right brained world everything gets confusing. So try them both, I just like the simplicity of this idea. There are as many ways to do this as there are teachers, and we have lots of other writing ideas here under the writing category.
In the DPS exit they have to write a story, so this is good that way. I believe that what Krashen says in the Power of Reading that all we have to do do be better readers is read more is also true of writing. These are level 2 kids.
I would wait until level 3 to do writing but I notice that in the second semester of level 2 the kids get antsy this time of year and when their little pencils get moving they think they are learning.
Remember, this site is designed for mental health, not just acquistion. I am adding this to the new bi-weekly schudule as an option. I find that series of activities over a two week period to be really easy for me. That is why I do it.
We can go nuts if we focus on best practices at the expense of our mental health and that bi-weekly schedule calms the horses down and allows me to flow through the day since everything for two weeks is laid out in a time-flexible template.
All I have to do is show up and see where I am in the sequence of suggested activities. Like today all I have to do is show up, which is 90% of it, right? (who said that – Woody?). I’ll pick another student writing sample, put it up on the document camera, and kick back.
When they pay me ten times the salary, I’ll think about working harder at this. But I don’t think that’s gonna happen anytime soon.
Plus, writing is part of the WL exit process. Diana allowed it, even at level 1, but grudgingly.
But yes, the text I choose comes from a writing sample from a prompt, not an image but the same structures we used in the last story, and I have the kids write while pulling information from the Word Wall, the Connecting Words poster, the list or prepositions on the wall, and the Little Words poster.
I like to give them a big batch of words from the wall, plus what there is left over banging around inside their heads from the story, and see what they can do with it.
Then, I just pull the best of them for this exercise. If it ain’t simple, I ain’t doing it, and when you say smartboard my teeth start to itch and my socks start rolling up and down.
Haha, that last comment is funny. I don’t have a smart board. I still have ….(drum roll…) chalk! Big giant green chalk board. And a small white board tacked up quite perilously to a bulletin board. I kinda McGyver my way along. And honestly, as much as I would love to use a doc camera, I am really looking for an old school opaque projector to do this stuff bc my classroom is so small that it is hard to configure w/ a projector.
I know. I am a relic. For now I am using a flat screen monitor hooked up to my laptop. Good enuf for now.
Thanks for clarifying 🙂
Laurie – can you teach it when you come to Maine? 🙂
I’m not sure yet how we’ll be dividing up topics, but if I can, I sure will!!!!!!
with love,
Laurie
I really like this idea! I can see that it would help with their writing assignment in April. And although it does not add to the acquisition piece b/c it s output, it gets them prepared and gives them empowerment. As Susie says nothing motivates like success.
I have some very slow processors in my 7th grade class-students that just joined me this year from reading- and I’m realizing I have to retell the story several times in various ways. So today I tried part of Ben’s idea. I had them write in Spanish what they remembered from the previous day’s story (the slow processors could write in English). Then they shared with a partner what they wrote. Then as a class we looked at the artist’s drawing and retold the story together. Finally we acted out the story again and had the quiz. It feels a bit like overkill, but it’s supremely helpful for my new students. I’ve tried to keep my faster processors engaged by throwing in details like instead of just “fell in love” use “fell in love at first sight.” I’m finding that I’m only getting to one location in a story and I circle the heck out of it-hope this works.
BTW Laurie-After attending your workshop at the iFLT conference in Colorado this past summer I’ve had a blast doing embedded readings with my students-thank you for introducing me to this. I haven’t tried this idea you just posted, but I will soon! I look forward to seeing you again this October here in maine…
Yay!!!!!!!!!!! If you have any stories to share that others could use, send them to me and I’ll share them on http://www.embeddedreading.com
Also, if anything really clicked or you had an “ah hah” let me know. Those moments are so helpful for people!!
Hugs,
with love,
Laurie
ok let me think about that…I’ll let you know!
Thanks for posting. I love the French stories!
–Leigh Anne in Ca
Ben — This was just what I needed to read today! Thank you! Embedded writing evolved into something simple enough for me to try this year. A month ago, it seemed that I would not be able to apply this new knowledge until next year because I was having a hard time realizing the steps.
Now I think I can do it this year — I am so happy and proud to be a member of this group of intelligent and ingenious teachers.
Ummm…. plus my students are getting antsy. I need something to calm them down. Phew!
re: timed writes — Last year, my student in special education wrote, ‘very’ 50 times just so he could say that he wrote for 10 minutes, bless his heart. With this embedded process, students of every variety will feel more supported and able to apply their new knowledge. Genius!
Hi Leigh Anne – well it’s not really embedded writing – that is what Laurie does amidst her embedded reading program and it is a much more polished technique. My term embedded – I don’t know what else to call it – means that they have to go through a series of having the text removed and replaced while they write and then get to see it while they frantically compare with the original student-produced text and make changes and so there isn’t really anything embedded about it except that they keep writing better each time. They can only write to the level of the original text and that is why I use the best and cleanest text I can find. So whatever it is, embedded or goofyness or whatever we want to call it, it does get them writing. And yes Feb. is antsy month in TPRS and many teachers bail for the year on stories at this point but that is why I have my bi-weekly schedule with all those options available in there over the two week period.
Ben, you said:
“I would wait until level 3 to do writing but I notice that in the second semester of level 2 the kids get antsy this time of year and when their little pencils get moving they think they are learning.”
I started to panic a bit when I first read your embedded writing ‘exercise’ because it seemed to me that you were practicing writing for ‘writing’s sake’ and that is not proficiency or fluency. When I got to the response which included the quote above, I breathed a little easier. I would prefer that teachers assign free-writes for two reasons only: 1. it informs the teacher as to what the students really know and where the ‘holes’ are in terms of what the teachers thinks the students know. 2. it gives the students a feeling of accomplishment in terms of acquisition.
I DON’T believe in practicing or memorizing (yikes!) to get ready for the district assessment. In my opinion, that is just falling into the assessment game and nightmare.
Perhaps I’ve missed something here… Let’s just ask the question…”Why is it that we want our students to write? What is the purpose? When asking students why they want to learn another language, they NEVER say: “Because I want to be able to write in that language.”
I learn a TON about what’s happening in their brains and in their ears when I see their freewrites.
Ben, I don’t have them write in lvl 1 until at least November. And it blows me away how beautifully many of them can write already by this time of year.
But there are struggles all over the place. I love to see a paper that has the letter ‘e’ written instead of the word ‘y’ (and) that, halfway through the writing transitions to the correct spelling and they never look back. never EVER make the same mistake again. And it’s a completely autonomous event.
It’s like you can hear the click in the kid’s head!
Diana I can’t get anything by you. You know my kids at Lincoln. We just needed a break. We’re just at that point where we needed a break from stories.I also did it because I genuinely wanted to see if they had made any progress and because at Lincoln we have to do periodic data gathering in terms of the DPS Writing Rubric AND because of the district post test in April. I did all that knowing that my kids can’t really write for effect yet. You always catch me. Remember that time, your last visit to Lincoln, and I got into a little Grammar Man thing? Man, I can’t get anything by you. Now that I have been field testing that writing idea I have decided it is good for the trash can. It’s getting deleted. That’s where it’s going. There are other much better writing ideas offered by group members under the Writing categories here. I did tell the principal today about how Annick’s writing scores went down the year the schoolwide focus at Lincoln was writing. She was surprised so it gave me an opportunity to make the point you are making with me here.
What? What trashcan? No comprendo, chico.
That idea just didn’t pan out. It isn’t as effective as the other writing stuff we have here, so I’m throwing it in the trash. It’s so weird teaching writing. I don’t like it.
Hahaha, that just made me laugh. Since I take everything that you, Ben, say for gospel, I tried out that writing exercise the very next day with a group story that some of my kids had made up. While we were doing it, I was thinking, what’s the point of this really? I did not feel deep-down that it was as productive as I wanted it to be. But hey, Ben does it so it must be the secret to producing effective writers, right? I’m so glad that you showed me you are human! Thanks for that!!!
Umm…. me too. I did the same thing, and feel the same way. 😉