The 2020 school year is a different year for teachers and students. Therefore, teaching expository writing virtually is a new concept for most fourth grade teachers in Texas.
Whether you are teaching in a distance learning or in a social distancing classroom (or BOTH), preparing your 4th graders for the Writing STAAR test is going to be more challenging than usual.
The test was cancelled last year (a miracle), but I think it will be on for sure this year.
Lately, I’ve heard many teachers ask, “How will I teach expository writing virtually?”
This got me thinking about the best strategies for teaching expository writing virtually.
I was able to try out some of these strategies this past week and found that teaching expository writing in a distance learning classroom is not as hard as I expected.
Digital Expository Writing Strategies:
Usually, teachers teach a mini lesson on an expository writing strategy and create an anchor chart to hang up in the room. This will not work if you are teaching virtually, but it also may not work if you are in person.
For example, at my school we are departmentalized, but students are not allowed to switch classes this year. The teachers have to switch. That creates an issue with hanging anchor charts around my classroom.
The solution: DIGITAL expository writing lessons.
Instead of creating anchor charts to hang in the classroom, you can use a digital version of expository writing anchor charts.
Place the anchor charts in an easily accessible place. I created an expository folder in Schoology and placed all expository resources in it. Then students can access the anchor charts to reference throughout the year.
Writing Process in Slides
Writing notebooks will not work for your virtual students. It’s impossible to monitor their writing if the students are putting everything in their writing notebooks at home.
Create a slideshow in PowerPoint or Google Slides for your students to work through the steps of the writing process.
This week I found that I could monitor students’ writing so much easier on the slideshows than I even could when I would walk around the classroom trying to see everyone’s writing notebook.
Students work on one step of the writing process each day. I would not let them leave the Zoom meeting until I read over their slide and gave them immediate feedback.
Using the highlight tool or typing suggestions directly into their slides where an easy way to give immediate feedback to students.
Model, Model, Model
After presenting the strategies in a mini lesson, the teacher must model the strategy in his/her own writing.
For example, the teacher should brainstorm, then prewrite, and then create a rough draft in front of the students.
After the rough draft is written, a mini lesson on transition words, million dollar words, adding details, revise/edit, etc. should be given. Additionally, the teacher and student can apply the strategy to their own rough drafts.
Students will watch and model their own paper after the teacher’s paper. It’s true, they might copy some parts of the teacher’s composition word for word.
But, I find that to be OK because it helps the students understand what they should be writing in their own expository compositions.
Virtual Writing Conferences
Pulling students into individual or small groups for writing conferences is the KEY to improving students’ expository writing.
It gives the teacher the chance to work on a particular skill that each student needs to improve on. And we all know that every student needs help in a different area of their writing.
Be sure to pick ONE skill to work on in the conference. For instance, if you notice the student is struggling with transition words, help them add transition words to the correct places in their essay. In addition, referencing the transition word anchor chart will be extremely helpful.
On the other hand, sharing every mistake in the student’s paper will be overwhelming. There will be other opportunities to address the mistakes in the compositions.
Also, if you see a common mistake among many students in your class, that indicates a mini lesson that needs to be retaught.
You may find that you have to go back and review a particular grammar skill as well if many students are having trouble with it.
My blog post on How to Teach a Grammar Lesson Virtually will be helpful in this area.
Share the Final Copy
Finally, plan a day where students can read the final copy of their expository essay to their classmates.
They can either present their writing to the whole group or you can put them in small groups in Zoom breakout rooms.
After spending so much time on their expository compositions, students will enjoy celebrating each other’s writing.
An additional benefit is they can learn from each other’s writing.
Clearly teaching expository writing virtually will be different than normal and may even seem impossible at first. I have found that it is not too bad after all.
In fact, I even like teaching writing virtually!
