Authors Richard and Joanne Vacca (2005) recommend chunking writing in manageable pieces to help students grasp the concept of writing in a particular genre. Writing a nonfiction essay for instance, where students must gather factual information to drive content and then put together an organized body of ideas to support the facts, might be tricky business if they've never attempted it before. Teaching them each piece of the writing process, from writing that first introductory paragraph to every last detail that supports their ideas, can be achieved through a series of short mini-lessons or in "chunks" that give them plenty of time to practice and integrate the new concepts. After first teaching how to write an introduction, for example, have students write their introductions. Supporting their ideas with detail would be the focus of the next lesson, and students will practice writing supporting information for their essays.
Whether rubrics are created generically, pulled off the Internet or created using prepared curriculum, rubrics must be specific to each task or each writing genre and must clearly communicate the expectations for the writing task. Reviewing the rubrics with students will be crucial to their integrating the ideas and understanding the expectations --- and then rising to them. Review can occupy a mini-lesson at the beginning of class, with students then using the rubrics to evaluate their own writing pieces. This hands-on practice with them will assure they understand how the rubrics work, what the expectations are and what to do to rise to them.
Student peer review is another opportunity to teach students how to be independent writers. Rubrics are also helpful, because they give students something to focus on when evaluating each other's work. When students engage in peer review, they are looking critically at their own work and the work of their peers. Author Laura Robb in the book "Nonfiction Writing From the Inside Out," promotes student goal setting because kids often have such good ideas of their own. In addition, identifying trouble spots and giving and receiving peer feedback allows students to learn to write and repair their own writing independently.
Engaging in student-teacher conferences provides students with opportunities for regular feedback. It is this feedback that helps them make their writing better. Focusing on more than just grammar and punctuation, students and teachers have discussions about ideas, content, organization, spelling, grammar and punctuation as it all works to a final objective: polished, finished writing projects. Using a checklist is good practice when conferring, checking off each area of writing as it is discussed with written comments that students can take back to their desks and reflect on later to make their writing better. Rubrics may also be used to guide their writing in conferences, with the teacher circling areas on the rubric that need attention as well as areas that were well done.
If some students are not writing on grade level, or are not motivated, it will be important that they experience some success in order to complete projects. Often when students don't finish, it is because they don't feel successful. Students must feel good about their writing to keep writing, and providing them with regular feedback on what they did right, as well as what they might improve upon, will work into their own success as independent writers and thinkers. Feedback can be provided through conferences, use of rubrics, or online in their message forum if engaging in online instruction. Whatever the venue, it is important that students receive opportunities to write at a level they can be successful with, and then move on to challenges once they feel comfortable. For example, if a student struggles with writing introductions, have her write her body paragraphs first and then return to write the introduction later when she is more confident about the content.