Category Archives: prewriting organizer

Create a mind web organizer

Posted on December 1, 2020 | Leave a comment

Organizing their thoughts before writing their first drafts is a step many children skip.  “Takes too much time” they claim.  Or “Too difficult.”

If students write an organizer the way I was taught in school, they are right.  A formal organizer can be time-consuming and frustrating.

But a mind web organizer can be quick and easy.  It does what an organizer is supposed to do–organize thoughts coherently and concisely–but without the pain of a formal outline.  Plus kids of almost any age can design one.

Here is an example of a mind web from a seventh grader I taught this past week.  He divided his topic, video games, into three parts:  Minecraft, time limits his parents impose, and why he likes video games.  He had never created an organizer before, so I wrote down the words he said at my end of the zoom meeting, held up my diagram, and he redrew it at his end.  It looked something like this:

For homework he will add details on this mind web for Minecraft and time limits. After that we will discuss why each of these subtopics is too large for a good essay, and instead of writing the essay, we will  turn one of those three subtopics into the new topic of another essay and create another mind web.  This is a new skill for this student, and he needs practice.

Creating this organizer took only a few minutes–far less time than revising a poorly organized essay.  You can find more information about how to create mind webs on pages 8 to 11 of  my book, How to Write a 5th Grade (or any other grade) Essay, available from Amazon.  There you will see another example of an organizer, this time created by a third grader.

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Posted in How to Write a 5th Grade (or any other grade) Essay, mind maps, prewriting organizer

The only three organizers elementary and middle school students need

Posted on January 14, 2020 | Leave a comment

To write well, students need to plan their writing before they write.  They need to organize their ideas on paper, tablet or computer before they write sentences.

Some workbook publishers suggest students need a different type organizer for almost every essay or narrative they write.  Other publishers suggest as few as six.

This is a graphic representation of a third grade student's handwritten mind web.

This is an example of a mind web.

I suggest three.

A mind web (sometimes called a spider web or mind map) suffices for most expository and persuasive essays. The topic goes in the center, and then, like spokes of a wheel, three or four subtopics connect to the center.  The student augments each of these subtopics with details.  Then using colored pencils or markers, the student loops the information for each subtopic using a different color.  Lastly, the student numbers the subtopics in the order in which they will be written about.

Use a chart for comparison and contrast essays.

This is an example of a chart.

A chart suffices for comparison/contrast essays. The student draws a horizontal line across the top of the paper (or online page) and then draws three equally-spaced vertical lines.  At the top of the middle and right columns the student writes the two topics to be compared or contrasted.  Down the sides of the left column the student writes the ideas to be compared or contrasted.

An example of a modified timeline organizer on Babe Ruth's life--childhood, school years, and baseball career.

This is an example of a modified timeline.

A modified timeline works great for narratives. At the top of the page on the left write “beginning.”  Next to it stack the words “setting,” “POV,” “characters,” and “inciting action.”  Below the word “beginning” write “middle,” and near the bottom of the page on the left write “end.”  Next to “end” write “climax” and “resolution.”

These three organizers cover the situations elementary and middle grade students need to write about.  I particularly like the mind web because it is so flexible.  The more “sloppy” a student is allowed to be in creating an organizer, the more apt a student is to create one.

I also recommend creating these organizers on notebook paper which can be placed next to an electronic surface if the student is writing online.  That way the student can easily glance back and forth to use the organizer.

For more on organizers, click on the cover of my book How to Write a 5th Grade (or any other grade) Essay in the  left side of this blog.

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Posted in charts, mind maps, mind webs, organizing information, prewriting organizer, spider webs

13 writing tips

Posted on June 30, 2019 | Leave a comment

The father of one of my students asked me if I could provide his son with a short guide his son could keep near his computer and use while writing.  Here it my suggestion.

Create a detailed prewriting organizer before you write.  Use it.

Make sure you follow directions if you are writing a response.  Cite?  Paraphrase?  Summarize?  Analyze?  Two instances?  Three?

Write the thesis sentence first before you write any other sentence if you are writing an essay.

Decide who your main character is and the problem he or she will face before you write your first sentence if you are writing a narrative.

Read your first draft aloud.  Does every sentence make sense?  Do you follow your organizer?  If something is missing, include it.  If something is irrelevant, delete it.

Make sure every body paragraph supports the thesis of your essay.

Make sure every action moves the main character closer to solving his or her problem in your narrative.

Identify weak or overused verbs and replace them with specific verbs.

Identify and vary sentence structures.  Especially include complicated simple sentences and complex sentences.

Show, don’t tell.  If you are concluding, you are telling.

Search for your typical grammar mistakes and fix them.

Add more precise details such as names, numbers, dates, locations, direct quotes, dialog, examples, thoughts, precise descriptions and sensory information.

Do revise.  First drafts are seldom good enough.

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Posted in adding details, coherence, complex sentence, details in writing, dialog in writing, direct quotes, English Writing Instruction, essay thesis, essay writing, first drafts, narrative writing, organizing information, prewriting organizer, revising first drafts, sentence structure, show don't tell, simple sentence, verb choice, writing tips

How to better use prewriting organizers

Posted on April 14, 2019 | Leave a comment

Organizing writing before the first sentence is written is a sure way for students to improve their writing.  Yet many students (most students?) don’t do it.  Why?  Some kids are in a hurry and don’t want to take the time to create an organizer.  Some kids don’t know how to create useful organizers.  Some kids think skipping an organizer won’t harm their writing.

What can teachers do to encourage students to create organizers and to use them?

Teachers could insist students use a prewriting organizer before writing a single sentence, and grade it or include it as part of the writing assignment grade.  For a given assignment, the teacher could reproduce several student prewriting organizers (and the teacher’s own prewriting organizer) for the class to analyze.  What ones are effective?  Why?  The teacher could ask students to compare those to their own organizers.  Then the teacher could ask students to improve their organizers before they write their essays.

Teachers could insist that students follow their organizers, and grade the essay, in part, on whether the organizer was followed.  Teachers could ask students to exchange organizers and essays before they are turned in for grades.  Classmates could alert students who have not followed the organizer.  Teachers could give those students more time to align their essays with their organizers.

Teachers could limit the kinds of organizers students use to

  • Either mindwebs or semiformal organizers for most informational and persuasive essays,
  • Either Venn diagrams or charts for comparison or contrasting information, or
  • Modified time lines for narratives.

Teachers could spend more time teaching how to use organizers without requiring the resulting essays.  Not every organizer needs to lead to an essay.

Teachers could provide exercises using poor organizers for students to analyze.  Students would need to identify why those organizers are poor and how they could be improved.

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Posted in analysis, comparison essay, essay writing, how to teach writing, narratives, persuasive essay, prewriting organizer

What does teaching revising mean?

Posted on March 17, 2019 | Leave a comment

What could teachers do to help students revise?

When the essays are complete, teachers could reproduce a few sample student essays (with the students’ permission) and ask the class to analyze them. Teachers could ask:  Is there a thesis?  Do the topic sentences in the body support that thesis?  Is the thesis repeated in the topic sentences?  Is the thesis well supported in the body or is more information needed?  Does the information in each paragraph support the topic sentence of that paragraph?  If not, what should the writer do with that off-topic information?  Is the information presented logically?  Does the information in the introduction lead into the thesis?  Does the conclusion return to the ideas presented in the introduction?

Teachers could write and show their own response to the  prompt to offer an example of a well written response for the students to model.

Teachers could give students more time to improve their essays after they have analyzed other essays.

Teachers could have students read their essays to a partner for feedback before turning in their essays.

Before grading the essays, narratives, summaries, etc., teachers could return the writing marked with one idea for improvement.   Yes, the teacher would need to read each essay more than once.  But for the initial read, the teacher would need only to identify one glaring error which the student could then fix before receiving a grade.  Or if there is no glaring error, the teacher could suggest one idea for improvement (“How about turning this section into dialog?” Or “How about turning some compound sentences into complicated simple sentences?”)

The time to teach writing is not after the writing is graded but before and during the writing process while there is still time for the student to learn.  This is the time when students are most receptive to ideas which will help them become better writers.

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Posted in conclusions, cumulative sentences, dialog in writing, essay conclusions, essay introduction, essay thesis, essay writing, first drafts, full circle conclusions, how to teach writing, Introductions, prewriting organizer, revising first drafts, teaching writing, writing tips