Teaching Writing Through Differentiated Learning

Language arts is generally a subject area that students learn at completely different rates and consequently students' writing skills can vary greatly within a classroom. There is an abundance of research, articles, resources, blog posts, vlogs, pinterest posts, and more, that provide a variety of tips, tricks, discussions, theories, and facts, about why learning in writing is differentiated, how to differentiate instruction, and what strategies and activities you can implement to do so. I want to break down this blog post into explaining three key aspects of differentiated instruction and provide you with three examples that I have found useful in implementing said instruction. 

CONTENT & MINI WRITING WORKSHOPS

With differentiated learning it is crucial to differentiate the content. Essentially, instructors need to figure out what the students need to learn. This could range from simply needing more opportunities to practice writing, clarifying their thinking, better expressing their thoughts and feelings, revising, editing, etc. These are all skills that the curriculum requires students to learn. It would be impossible to individually teach each student a lesson specifically crafted to their needs, but through developing a consensus of the overall needs within a classroom, teachers can collectively address those needs on a class wide basis (e.g. if a majority of the class needed to improve on expressing thoughts and feelings, a lesson could be focused on that content). Figuring out how exactly to determine class needs is exemplified in the video “Differentiating Instruction Through Writer's Workshops” created by SanBdoCitySchools. The video outlines the importance of using writing workshops three times a week, that begin with a mini-lesson about writing (minds on), independently working on an original story written by the students (action), and conference with the teacher one-on-one about current strengths and future steps for improvement regarding writing (consolidation). This allows teachers to collect class data on strengths and areas for improvement to include in the next writer workshop mini-lesson. The structure of the one-on-one conferencing is a great tactic in differentiating learning for students by helping them determine their learning goals.

PROCESS & ALTERNATIVES TO GRAMMAR WORKSHEETS

Language Arts Classroom
http://languageartsclassroom.com/2016/09/10
-alternatives-grammar-worksheet.html

In the above instance, the writing workshop process is the same for the students, but the focus of the content is differentiated to their needs. In this next example, the process of learning is differentiated for the students, but the content is the same. Teaching the students to work on proper use of pronouns, adjectives, verbs, choosing the right past-tense, proper punctuation, or correctly using narration, are all necessary learning elements as per the curriculum. Students need to learn to use standard written forms and language conventions. The article “10 Alternatives to the Grammar Worksheet” written by Laura Lee Moss, describes how the traditional grammar worksheet lacks interaction, engagement, and interest. The article provides ten alternatives to the grammar worksheet, that ultimately provide differentiated learning styles for students to learn language conventions. The list includes using videos to find songs helping to teach prepositions, scrambles to test correctly putting active and passive voices into correct categories, using flip books to take notes, stations to involve group work, colouring sheets to colour code various parts of a sentence, online tools to involve gamification, and more. These options appease visual learners, oral learners, learners who need tech, and learners who thrive off collaboration. Thus the students are all acquiring the same mandatory content, but are provided with a variety of ways to learn said content.  

LEARNING ENVIRONMENT & SNOWBALL WRITING

Teachers Pay Teachers - Presto Plans -
http://www.prestoplans.com/snowball-writing-
collaborative-writing-activi

Finally, even if the content is differentiated to student needs and the process is differentiated to student learning styles, it is crucial to also provide a differentiated learning environment. In today’s day and age students tend to struggle with attention span, are easily distracted, and prefer to not be seated at their desk for too long. The curriculum requires students to use editing, proofreading, and publishing skills and strategies, but those activities often involve staying focused and sitting for longer periods of time. A great activity that appeases kinetic learners, spatial learners, or classrooms that work well using structured chaos, is the snowball writing activity I found in the article “Snowball Writing: Collaborative Writing Activity,” written by Presto Plans. The resource is focused on teaching editing, proofreading, and publishing through active collaboration. The idea is to have a work sheet with a picture on it, and three sections of writing. Each student has a story-starting prompt picture where they begin the story. They have 10 minutes to introduce the setting, at least one character, and the starting plot line. The student puts their name on their prompt, and then crumples it up (into a snowball) and throws it to the front of the room. Students grab a new snowball, open it up, smooth it out, and then have 10 minutes to continue the plot, develop characters, and develop a conflict. They then write their name beside their work and throw back to the front of the room. The third writer is responsible for resolving the conflict and concluding the story. The story then returns to their original author. This is the rough draft of the story, and the author is then responsible for writing a final copy, editing, changing, and revising. This allows students to improve on their editing, proofreading, and publishing skills in an active, collaborative, and spatial learning environment, rather than sitting in one spot and working independently on a story from start to finish. With a differentiated learning environment, students tend to be more engaged and thus are more likely to effectively learn the content and produce quality work. 

CONCLUSION

Now you can understand why differentiated learning can help teach writing, and you also now know some examples of how to implement differentiated content, process, and learning environments. An additional part of the curriculum is providing students with opportunities to produce writing that is interesting, original, and meaningful. When students are able to tailor the learning to their personal interests, a life long interest in writing is fostered and authentic writing is produced. The power behind the written word is communicated beautifully when learning is differentiated to student needs.