"Journal Writing" Jonathan, 3rd Grade Teacher: Morristown, NJ

"I assign 10 journal topics every 2 weeks. Topics often require a written response with at least 3 paragraphs. In an attempt to address each form of intellect, I vary the assignments to always include a variety of 3-4 free choice topics. They include a sampling of artistic as well as linguistic, musical and academic activities that hopefully allow those students who are talented in the arts the opportunity to improve, excel, and shine!"

"Rainbow Words" Terry L., Primary Teacher

"Each child chooses one color crayon. Each student has a worksheet. The student writes the first word down on the paper. Each student does this at the same time. Only one color crayon per student. Pass the paper to the right (not the crayon) and trace the word. Pass one more time and do the same thing. When each student receives his or her paper back, write the second word down and repeat the process. Each child will receive his/her paper back with spelling words traced 3 times.....Rainbow words."

"Kid Writing" Isabell Cardonick, Kindergarten Teacher

"To get kindergarten and first grade kids started writing, use the techniques described in the book "Kid Writing". Writing is an important component of balanced literacy. Start by building the children's confidence. Create physical, pedagogical and emotional environments to support their development as writers. In the beginning stages, try to get the kids to write something for every spoken word. The magic line functions as a place holder when the child can't identify any of the letters in the word. One way to support writing is to create crowns for some of the basic, high frequency words that do not have regular phonetic spellings. For example, the star of are, wiz of is, and fuzz of was. For more information, please visit the website. Happy Teaching!"

"Cursive" Chris Byron, Teacher

"When reinforcing cursive, I now worry less about quantity and more on quality. I incorporate music by teaching them capoeira songs. They write the chorus and we sing it at the end of the mini lesson. Writing in a language that is unfamiliar means they concentrate on the letter shapes a bit more. The singing at the end is a plus. We've also built up a list of songs we could do if there is a need to refocus the class during transitions or if we're asked for quick assembly performance."

Crayola Sentence Kathy Rodgers, 2nd Grade Teacher

"This technique is used for the student who can say a great sentence, but have trouble writing the sentence on paper. Have the student tell you the sentence that he/she wants to write. As the student says the sentence, place a crayon in front of the student for each word. For example, the student says, "The brown dog barked." You would place a red crayon for "the", brown crayon for "brown, yellow for "dog" and purple for "barked". Then you and the student repeat the sentence pointing to the crayons for each word. Next, the student repeats the sentence but as he/she says it, they will push the crayon up as they say the words. The last step is to put the crayons back in order, and as the student writes the sentence, they repeat the pushing technique. This sounds like a lot of trouble, but it cuts down on frustration and encourages students to try harder to write simple sentences. It only takes a couple of practices before the student uses the technique independently. Students even write more complex sentences using this technique."

Role Play Writing Cheryl LaRue, Teacher

"In our state, students are assessed in fourth grade for their writing skills. To get them over the fears of writing, we always write a class model composition. To engage various learning styles, I often have other students role play the action we are writing about. If it's a how-to, then a few students demonstrate while the others describe what they saw. In a narrative, we often write our stories using the names of students in our room as characters and they again act out the scenes. For shorter skills practice in elaboration techniques, I have found most students were willing to share their work if it meant using the microphone on my class karaoke machine."