So… how did my great writers get so good at writing?

As a teacher, I always had a group of incredible writers. Students who could write circles around me. They didn’t just write correctly; they were creative, stylish, and their work was simply fun to read. But how did they get so good?

I had no idea. So I asked around. None of these students’ previous teachers took credit. Everyone shrugged and said, “They just came in writing like that!”

It became a real puzzle to me. I knew that understanding my advanced writers was key to helping my on-level writers (technically-correct, but also kinda dull) become great themselves.

After much pondering, I identified a handful of specific ways my advanced writers were different from on-level writers. I turned those traits into a series of lessons and tools for your use:

• Advanced writers naturally add variety to their writing. But we can’t just tell students to “add variety.” They won’t know what to do! We have to be specific. Here are nine very specific techniques to add variety. Ways kids can practice over and over and over. My class loved these lessons and I’m sure yours will too.
• Advanced writers use interesting figurative language. On-level writers tend to use clichés: correct, but bland. So here are videos for specifically improving figurative language by starting with clichés and then getting more specific.
• Advanced writers mimic great writing. Great writers read a lot. But you just don’t have time to find and read tons of high-level literature with your entire class. But! You can quickly expose students to great writing through small selections. I’ve gathered bits of classic literature that you can study with your students.
• Advanced writers are confident. They aren’t afraid to take risks or try ideas out. On-level kids need smaller and more frequent practice to build that same confidence. They need interesting places to start. That’s what these randomized story starters are for. Given a set of weird constraints, students can cook up a paragraph to explain the strange situation.
• Advanced writers use structure well. So much about a well-crafted paragraph, essay, chapter, or even book is how the individual pieces fit together. Advanced writers create sentences that flow into paragraphs, paragraphs that flow into essays, and so on. In this lesson, students get lots of practice at exploring how authentic paragraphs are put together.

I want to give you lots of specific ways to help your students practice the traits that make your great writers so darn great. The goal is to move those on-level writers up to become advanced and, yes, actually help advanced writers get even better.

Hello! I'm Ian Byrd, and I create the resources here at Byrdseed.TV. Tens of thousands of teachers read my site Byrdseed.com every month, I've spoken at dozens of state conferences, and I taught 6th grade at an elementary school in California.

Have questions? Send an email to: [email protected]