READ 180 program by Scholastic
Students who have trouble with their reading will have trouble with their writing. According to Scholastic's READ 180 program these students need explicit and scaffolded support to become successful writers.
To begin with, students need to recognize the various types of writing. In READ 180, the focus is on narrative writing, desciptive writing, expository writing, and persuasive writing. Examples of each type of writing are included in the READ 180 program and students are given plenty of opportunities to analyze these models to identify features such as topic sentence, details, linking words, conclusions, or logical organization.
In order to prepare for a writing project, the program is based on the writing process with systematic, scaffolded, explicit instruction at every step that is designed to help students avoid obstacles.
The first step of the READ 180 prewriting approach involves unlocking the writing prompt. Teachers need to help students understand the writing prompt so that they can decide what type of writing they will be doing. Then they need to determine who the audience will be and what is the purpose for the writing. The next step involves having students brainstorm for ideas. They are encouraged to think of many posssibilities before deciding on one single idea. Then, students use their brainstorm ideas to decide and plan for the writing. Finally, students organize their ideas using a prewriting organizer that often includes some optional sentence starters. This becomes, essentially, an outline from which they will create a first draft.
Armed with their outline, students organize ideas into a first draft. The program provides sentence starters and other visual support for preparing the draft from the prewriting organizer. Students can map out the arrangement of their sentences and are encouraged to incorporate the vocabulary words that they have also been learning from the reading component of the program. When the first draft is completed, students work with revision rubrics to do a self-assessment of their writing and then later, they share the writing with a partner and use the same rubric to evaluate each other.
When the appropriate revisions are made, based on the self-assessment and the partner assessment, the students prepare final drafts for publication. Students need to adapt their writing so that it follows the format for the school or department.
Source
"Writing Instruction for Struggling Readers." Resources for Differentiated Instruction. 2nd ed. Scholastic, 2005. Print.
To begin with, students need to recognize the various types of writing. In READ 180, the focus is on narrative writing, desciptive writing, expository writing, and persuasive writing. Examples of each type of writing are included in the READ 180 program and students are given plenty of opportunities to analyze these models to identify features such as topic sentence, details, linking words, conclusions, or logical organization.
In order to prepare for a writing project, the program is based on the writing process with systematic, scaffolded, explicit instruction at every step that is designed to help students avoid obstacles.
The first step of the READ 180 prewriting approach involves unlocking the writing prompt. Teachers need to help students understand the writing prompt so that they can decide what type of writing they will be doing. Then they need to determine who the audience will be and what is the purpose for the writing. The next step involves having students brainstorm for ideas. They are encouraged to think of many posssibilities before deciding on one single idea. Then, students use their brainstorm ideas to decide and plan for the writing. Finally, students organize their ideas using a prewriting organizer that often includes some optional sentence starters. This becomes, essentially, an outline from which they will create a first draft.
Armed with their outline, students organize ideas into a first draft. The program provides sentence starters and other visual support for preparing the draft from the prewriting organizer. Students can map out the arrangement of their sentences and are encouraged to incorporate the vocabulary words that they have also been learning from the reading component of the program. When the first draft is completed, students work with revision rubrics to do a self-assessment of their writing and then later, they share the writing with a partner and use the same rubric to evaluate each other.
When the appropriate revisions are made, based on the self-assessment and the partner assessment, the students prepare final drafts for publication. Students need to adapt their writing so that it follows the format for the school or department.
Source
"Writing Instruction for Struggling Readers." Resources for Differentiated Instruction. 2nd ed. Scholastic, 2005. Print.
