Writing Process

What is the writing process?

The writing process consists of the metacognitive and physical steps a writer takes to create a piece of writing. The cognitive skills of creating and negotiating ideas, the drafting of those ideas onto paper, the fine-tuning of the ideas through editing and revision, and the final publication of the ideas make up the process. All parts of the process are both intertwined and independent, both linear and recursive. Focusing on improving the various parts of the process will improve the overall written product.

The writing process is typically described as having the following stages: prewriting, rough draft, revision and editing, presentation and publication. The samples below provide examples of ways to present stages of the writing process.

• Prewriting Activities (application/pdf)
• "Before" Rough Draft (application/pdf)
• Scaffolding Additive Feedback during the Writing Conference (application/pdf)
• Scaffolding Questions for Beginning English Learners (application/pdf)
• "After" Final Draft  (application/pdf)    

What to consider when differentiating instruction

Most California classrooms include English learners. When differentiating the writing process for English learners, it is critical to consider the following:

• Determine essential understanding and key skills of the writing task
• Know the language proficiency of each individual student
• Use the English Language Development Standards (and primary language standards, as appropriate) to determine the developmentally appropriate writing expectations for each student’s language proficiency
• Integrate writing tasks for each step of the process that incorporates each of the language domains (reading, writing, listening, speaking)
• Explicitly teach the components of the writing discourse style
• Analyze the language components of the genre in order to scaffold each task within the writing process
• Capitalize on student’s prior knowledge and experience (i.e., primary language, socio-cultural background, etc.) to make writing tasks relevant and meaningful for students

When differentiating the writing process for students other than English learners, additional considerations might include:

• Grade-level ability
• Using the English Language Arts Standards to determine grade-level appropriate expectations
• Special Education IEP expectations

Resources

Cleveland State University, The Writing Center
http://www.csuohio.edu/writingcenter/writproc.html (outside link)
The Writing Center offers extensive support for the writing process and writing across the curriculum.

Teaching English as a Second or Foreign Language (TESL-EJ)
http://www.kyoto-su.ac.jp/information/tesl-ej/ej08/a2.html (outside link)
The article, "Teaching Writing as a Process and Teaching Sentence-level Syntax: Reformulation as ESL Composition Feedback," focuses on the needs of students whose primary language is not English in producing writing that effectively communicates their thoughts. They emphasize the need for error correction and sentence level grammar instruction.

WRITE Institute
http://www.writeinstitute.org (outside link)
WRITE is a staff development program that trains teachers in standards-based instruction and assessment primarily for English learners. Students, teachers, and schools benefit from WRITE's program because it addresses developmentally-specific strategies, curriculum, and assessment for improving the instruction of academic English.

References

Herell, A. L., & Jordan, M. (2007). Fifty strategies for teaching English language learners. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Merrill.