A new school year is upon us, and it’s the perfect time to lean into these guiding questions: “What have we garnered from our summer discussions to lead us toward new initiatives and areas of focus? How can we improve our writing instruction?”
The spring results from a writing assessment can be the catalyst for driving instructional decisions related to scope and sequence, initiating grade- and school-level focal points, and planning for specific student needs. As these targeted areas begin to take shape, developing a process for progress can be achieved by following essential questions crucial to success.
Questions to Ask Yourself When Preparing Next Year’s Writing Instruction
- Data First: A common question schools often ask is, “We have data, now what?” The discussion that follows can lead to specific, targeted questions central to data-driven decisions: What trends are we noticing each year? What areas of continued growth are evident? Which areas have lacked growth?
- Setting Goals: Once data has been thoroughly reviewed, schools can begin to hone in on specific goals while considering these guiding principles: What goals should we focus on for the next school year? How can we ensure those goals are “SMART”? (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-Bound)
- Actionable/Achievable Plans: Setting goals is the next step in the planning process, but your course of action has to be attainable and manageable. Heads of School, school/curriculum leaders, and supervisors can establish a baseline plan and then seek further collaboration from school constituents. When moving forward, consider using these guiding questions: What plan of action can we develop to address our goals? How can we attain this plan of action? How will we monitor success?
- Common Vision and Focus: It is also critical to lean on core team members of the school community (instructional coaches, teachers, interventionists) before enacting any plans. In doing so, input and shared ownership become essential to the conversation. These conversations solidify next steps, including: Which core members of our team will be included in these goals? How will they assist in supporting and communicating the mission and vision for this school year? How can we support one another?
- Time Investment: Time is always of the essence, and educators often grapple with how to make time in this process. Successful teams often note that time is an investment never to be taken lightly. By scheduling regular intervals of alignment regarding mission, vision, and goals, you can clearly attend to addressing and monitoring those goals, lifting each other up through accountability, and creating embedded opportunities for celebrating achievements.
As your path toward writing growth and improvement is established, E3n offers vital tools for collecting writing achievement data to help achieve instructional goals. WrAP (Writing Assessment Program) provides necessary baseline data to target specific writing “traits.”
Writing Practice is the perfect tool to individualize instruction in a meaningful and manageable way by targeting students’ specific writing needs. WRIIT (Writing Resources for Insight, Interpretation, and Teaching) Library provides resources to be infused into daily instruction.
How does WrAP help schools understand student writing?
WrAP’s comprehensive, hand-scored writing program targets writing progress through a six-trait, six-point rubric. The rubric is carefully designed to analyze critical components of the writing process, including an essay’s overall development, organization, support, sentence structure, word choice, and mechanics. As schools consider achievement on this assessment, they are able to easily identify where goals were accomplished and where future shifts in curriculum and instruction should occur. WrAP’s rubric also allows schools to identify each individual student’s knowledge and mastery of skills to individualize instruction throughout the school year.
How can Writing Practice further tailor instruction to meet students’ needs?
Writing Practice is an online platform where students build writing proficiency through guided practice and feedback, powered by PEG, the industry’s most accurate automated scoring algorithm. Providing individualized, targeted instruction for each student can be a monumental task, albeit an imperative one to foster writing development and strengthen students’ mastery of writing concepts. Through Writing Practice, teachers can assign writing prompts across three main genres (narrative, opinion, and explanatory) while focusing on the writing process. As students complete writing drafts, Writing Practice will intuitively assign practice lessons based on identified skill gaps, promoting students’ growth. Teachers are also able to identify specific lessons to be assigned to students as they learn aspects of the writing process. Writing Practice yields actionable, sustainable results through feedback, development, and opportunities for improvement.
Where can we locate teaching resources to guide our instruction throughout the school year?
Included with E3n membership, the WRIIT companion library contains a host of instructional tools and resources to deepen classroom engagement and support writing development, at no additional cost to schools. With multiple tools accessible to initiate writing experiences, teachers can begin their planning process with confidence using WRIIT to access practice writing prompts, trait-based writing lessons, and learning progressions to guide writing conferences and encourage students’ writing development through goal-setting experiences.
Schools deeply understand that the ability to read and write at a high level has a significant impact on a student’s future. Students are increasingly being asked to respond critically to thought-provoking questions, solve problems, provide supportive evidence for claims, arguments, and opinions, and convey their ideas and perspectives in college applications and workplace responses. Creating attainable writing goals to develop these skills is achievable with reliable, actionable data alongside sustainable instructional practices and resources. During a time when critical literacy skills are paramount, E3n’s Writing Suite can help you prepare for engaging and rewarding writing experiences in your school.
