The Writing Rope Quotes

“types of writing) that students must learn to write: informational, opinion (kindergarten through Grade 5) or argument (Grades 6–12), and narrative. Figure 8.1 lists the anchor standards for”
― Joan Sedita, The Writing Rope: A Framework for Explicit Writing Instruction in All Subjects

“Of the many difficulties writers encounter when engaged in the complex act of writing, crafting sentences that accurately convey the intended meaning is particularly challenging”
― Joan Sedita, The Writing Rope: A Framework for Explicit Writing Instruction in All Subjects

“A substantial body of research over decades demonstrates that directly teaching handwriting in the primary grades enhances legibility and fluency”
― Joan Sedita, The Writing Rope: A Framework for Explicit Writing Instruction in All Subjects

“Frequent informational and opinion/argument writing in response to teacher-generated writing prompts helps students interact more deeply with content and provides the significant writing practice that is essential to improving writing ability. A collective responsibility for developing students’ writing skills is met when teachers of all subjects incorporate source-writing based on prompts on a regular basis.”
― Joan Sedita, The Writing Rope: A Framework for Explicit Writing Instruction in All Subjects

“Literacy skills are critical to building knowledge in science. Reading in science requires an appreciation of the norms and conventions of the discipline of science, including understanding the nature of evidence used, an attention to precision and detail, and the capacity to make and assess intricate arguments, synthesize complex information, and follow detailed procedures and accounts of events and concepts. Likewise, writing and presenting information orally are key means for students to assert and defend claims in science, demonstrate what they know about a concept, and convey what they have experienced, imagined, thought, and learned.”
― Joan Sedita, The Writing Rope: A Framework for Explicit Writing Instruction in All Subjects

“CCSS Anchor Standard for Reading 1 asks students to read texts closely to both determine explicit information lodged within the body of the text as well as draw logical inferences based on the text. Students are also expected to cite specific textual evidence when writing or speaking to support conclusions drawn from the text. . . . Additionally, CCSS Anchor Standard for Writing 7 is broadly relevant for inquiry in social studies. Writing Standard 7 calls on students to conduct short as well as more sustained research projects based on focused questions, demonstrating understanding of the subject under investigation.”
― Joan Sedita, The Writing Rope: A Framework for Explicit Writing Instruction in All Subjects

“Literacy and writing skills such as close reading of text, working with textual evidence, and conducting research are also relevant to social studies,”
― Joan Sedita, The Writing Rope: A Framework for Explicit Writing Instruction in All Subjects

“The Common Core State Standards (CCSS) for English Language Arts and Literacy in History/Social Studies, Science, and the Technical Subjects called on social studies teachers to share in the responsibilities for literacy instruction in K–12. The expectations for literacy learning in grades K–5 are established through the four strands of Reading, Writing, Speaking and Listening, and Language. For grades 6–12, the ELA/Literacy Common Core Standards provide specific literacy standards for Reading and Writing in History/Social Studies.”
― Joan Sedita, The Writing Rope: A Framework for Explicit Writing Instruction in All Subjects

“students’ comprehension of science, social studies, and language arts texts improved when they wrote about what they read, including writing personal reactions, analyzing and interpreting the text, writing summaries and notes, and answering and creating questions about text in writing.”
― Joan Sedita, The Writing Rope: A Framework for Explicit Writing Instruction in All Subjects

“collaborative writing has also been found to motivate and engage students more than when they write alone”
― Joan Sedita, The Writing Rope: A Framework for Explicit Writing Instruction in All Subjects

“students collaborate at all stages of the writing have a strong, positive impact on writing quality”
― Joan Sedita, The Writing Rope: A Framework for Explicit Writing Instruction in All Subjects

“Studies suggest that summarization should be taught over a long period of time to students from kindergarten to 12th grade; teachers should model this strategy, and students should practice it using a variety of text from different content areas”
― Joan Sedita, The Writing Rope: A Framework for Explicit Writing Instruction in All Subjects

“the Common Core writing standards (NGA/CCSSO, 2010) have requirements for introductions: Informational writing: Introduce the topic for informational writing. Opinion/argument writing: Introduce and state a position or claim. Narrative writing: Orient the reader.”
― Joan Sedita, The Writing Rope: A Framework for Explicit Writing Instruction in All Subjects

“Students’ narrative skills continue to grow in these grades. The Standards require that students be able to incorporate narrative elements effectively into arguments and informative/explanatory texts. In history/social studies, students must be able to incorporate narrative accounts into their analyses of individuals or events of historical import. In science and technical subjects, students must be able to write precise enough descriptions of the step-by-step procedures they use in their investigations or technical work that others can replicate them and (possibly) reach the same results.”
― Joan Sedita, The Writing Rope: A Framework for Explicit Writing Instruction in All Subjects

“a shift occurs between the middle school grades and high school. NGA/CCSSO suggested that student writing be 40% informational, 40% argument, and 20% narrative”
― Joan Sedita, The Writing Rope: A Framework for Explicit Writing Instruction in All Subjects

“Furthermore, the standards emphasized that this be achieved by incorporating more informational and argument writing during science, social studies, and other content areas to balance out the common emphasis on narrative writing during English language arts.”
― Joan Sedita, The Writing Rope: A Framework for Explicit Writing Instruction in All Subjects

“A topic sentence, which states the paragraph’s main idea or gist. Although topic sentences often appear at the start, to let readers know the main idea up front, they may also appear in the middle of the paragraph or at the end. Furthermore, some paragraphs do not include a topic sentence at all. In these paragraphs, the main idea is implied, rather than being stated directly. The reader must infer it from the supporting sentences.”
― Joan Sedita, The Writing Rope: A Framework for Explicit Writing Instruction in All Subjects

“Students develop syntactic awareness over time. Exposure to oral language builds this awareness in young children—in particular, exposure to written text that they hear through read-alouds.”
― Joan Sedita, The Writing Rope: A Framework for Explicit Writing Instruction in All Subjects

“Two-Column Notes or Topic Web?  Depending on how much scaffolding and support students need, two-column notes alone may be sufficient to plan before writing. They can use the items in the left column to structure the writing piece and begin writing a draft directly from the notes. However, some students benefit from also developing a topic web because it provides a better “big picture” for the structure of a writing piece. They use the topic web to guide the organization of the writing pieces, and details from the two-column notes to develop the information into sentences and paragraphs.”
― Joan Sedita, The Writing Rope: A Framework for Explicit Writing Instruction in All Subjects

“two strategies that support the Think and Plan stages: two-column notes and a top-down topic web graphic organizer.”
― Joan Sedita, The Writing Rope: A Framework for Explicit Writing Instruction in All Subjects

“When teachers ask students to analyze text they are reading with the explained purpose of imitating something about writer’s craft, students start to read like a writer (i.e., reading to learn about writing). When students read text for this purpose, they are not reading for comprehension primarily, but rather they are focusing on how the author made choices so they can better understand how to make similar choices in their own writing.”
― Joan Sedita, The Writing Rope: A Framework for Explicit Writing Instruction in All Subjects

“teachers can provide lists of word banks from which students can choose words.”
― Joan Sedita, The Writing Rope: A Framework for Explicit Writing Instruction in All Subjects

“One activity that helps students improve word choice is to provide general nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs. Then, ask students to work collaboratively with peers to come up with more specific words.”
― Joan Sedita, The Writing Rope: A Framework for Explicit Writing Instruction in All Subjects

“by Grade 3, students should “with guidance and support from adults, produce writing in which the development and organization are appropriate to task and purpose,” and by Grade 4, students should “produce clear and coherent writing in which the development and organization are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience”
― Joan Sedita, The Writing Rope: A Framework for Explicit Writing Instruction in All Subjects

“The writing craft strand of The Writing Rope includes teaching students that awareness of the task, audience, and purpose (TAP) for a writing piece should affect a writer’s choices about the language used and word choice, the type of information and level of detail to include, and how to arrange and present information.”
― Joan Sedita, The Writing Rope: A Framework for Explicit Writing Instruction in All Subjects

“elements of legibility: letter formation, letter spacing, letter alignment, letter size, and word spacing.”
― Joan Sedita, The Writing Rope: A Framework for Explicit Writing Instruction in All Subjects

“Students also benefit from lots of practice writing letters, ideally in brief, frequent sessions,”
― Joan Sedita, The Writing Rope: A Framework for Explicit Writing Instruction in All Subjects

“Berninger (2012) also noted an advantage for handwriting using pen and paper over keyboarding for students in Grades 2–6 based on amount written, rate of word writing, and number of ideas expressed. The advantage of keyboarding emerged for writers in Grades 7 and 8. Berninger suggested that one reason may be that keyboarding requires parts of the brain that are not fully mature until adolescence.”
― Joan Sedita, The Writing Rope: A Framework for Explicit Writing Instruction in All Subjects

“print, which is similar to the text in books, might show the most transfer to reading, but students need to be able to read others’ writing, which might be in print or cursive.”
― Joan Sedita, The Writing Rope: A Framework for Explicit Writing Instruction in All Subjects

“If children cannot form letters—or cannot form them with reasonable legibility and speed—they cannot translate the language in their minds into written text. Struggling with handwriting can lead to a self-fulfilling prophecy in which students avoid writing, come to think of themselves as not being able to write, and fall further and further behind their peers.”
― Joan Sedita, The Writing Rope: A Framework for Explicit Writing Instruction in All Subjects