5 Tips For Setting Up The Writing Environment In Your Classroom

There’s one vital step they tend to gloss over though- the need to establish a ‘writerly’ classroom environment. One that will support their apprentice writers by creating the best conditions for them to learn.

In this blog I’m sharing 5 tips you can use to help create a supportive ‘writerly’ environment in your classroom.

1. Read aloud to your students every single day

I’ve written an entire blog post on the importance of reading to your students every day, but I’ll reinforce the key points again here.

In terms of improving your students’ writing, reading aloud every day helps to tune their ears into the rhythms and patterns of good writing. It bathes them in the acceptable syntax of written English and allows them to experience the flow and pleasure of varied sentence lengths, good word choice and strong voice.

In addition, the class read-aloud automatically becomes a shared mentor text you can refer back to in all future minilessons and conferences: “Remember when we read the novel The Secrets of Magnolia Moon and the author said the moon painted her walls with its silvery brush? That’s an example of a metaphor that’s been used to show rather than tell in a story. We know it has shifted into night-time in the story because the moon has now come out.’

Teaching tip for using class novels

Use the class novel as an opportunity to simply enjoy reading and listening to reading with your students. Avoid bogging it down with novel-related activities or tasks. (There are plenty of opportunities for that with other books).

Be creative when it comes to finding time for the daily read-aloud- I used to use the 10 minutes of lunch eating time as my standard reading time each day.

2. Create predictability in your writing lesson

Setting up a predictable routine and structure for your writing lessons is critical.

Predictability and repetition of the lesson structure helps students develop an understanding of what is required of them during the lesson and saves their precious brain space and focus for their actual writing (rather than worrying about what’s coming up next or wondering if they’ll get a chance to share their writing, etc.).

Teaching tips for structuring your lessons

Introduce your students to your chosen lesson structure so they know from the start how their daily writing lessons will run:

‘We’ll start with an explicit teaching session where I'll teach you something about writing. After that, you’ll get a chance to have a go at using the new strategy that I’ve just modelled for you. Sometimes you will do this on the floor, sometimes you will do it at your table. Finally, we’ll always come back together at the end of the lesson to think and talk about what we’ve learned in the lesson.’

Spending time early on practising transitions (e.g. from sitting on the floor to moving back to the tables) may seem like a waste of time initially, but it will pay enormous dividends in the long run.

To keep transitions smooth, you’ll also need to teach your students where all the writing supplies in the classroom are. Where do they go to get more paper? What happens if their pencil becomes too small to use? 

3. Be explicit about your expectations

When it comes to expectations, I live by Rick Stiggins' advice: "Expectations should be high, but ladders should be provided." 

There are a few key components to this:

1. You need to know what your expectations are.
2. You need to make sure you aim high with your expectations
3. You need to support your students to achieve these high expectations. 

Teaching tips 

Expectations in the writing classroom should start with bookwork.

1. Which book do you want students to use?
2. How do you want them to set out their page?
3. Where should they start writing on the page?
4. What colour(s) can they write with?
5. How do you want students to deal with errors and changes of mind? Scribble it out? Cross it out? Put one line through it?
6. How should they tackle the spelling of tricky words? Write them in the margin? Underline them? 

Model these expectations until they become automatic for your students. Bring them back when you see them dropping off. Just remember to be clear, be consistent and communicate regularly.

4. Write yourself!

Modelling is the most powerful form of writing instruction.

There’s no two ways about it. Teachers who write themselves have more credibility and confidence when teaching writing.

As my work with schools has shown, teachers who write themselves have a much more intimate understanding of, and respect for, the challenges of becoming a writer. They can pass on effective tips and suggestions in conferences and minilessons and are better able to support their students through their challenges because they’ve done it themselves.

Students who are ‘lucky’ enough to be in a class with a teacher who writes are more inspired to do the hard work involved in learning to write themselves. They know that their teacher ‘gets it’ and, importantly, they don’t come to view writing as something that teachers ask students to do in school but don’t do themselves.

Teaching tip for writing yourself

You don’t have to write every day or attempt to become a published novelist- you just need to make sure you've written at least one piece of writing in the genre you're about to teach. One piece! I promise you- it will completely change how you teach that genre (and writing in general).

Read my blog post on planning for effective genre instruction here.

5. Build your classroom library

Time and time again, when published authors are asked what advice they have for aspiring writers, their answer is the same: Read!

Why?

Because good writers are avid readers.

When you feed your brain a wide and varied diet of other people’s writing, you can’t help but take on lessons about how good writing is constructed. As your read, you build mental models of how other writers have developed their characters, constructed their arguments, played with words and made their readers sit up and pay attention.

Every book in your classroom library is a mentor text for the writers in your classroom. A library with 200+ books on the shelf is a stadium full of authors waiting to impart their wisdom on your students. Compare this to the classroom with only a small number of books or *gasp* no books at all…

If I want my students to learn how to write well, I want them accessing a huge stadium of mentors every day.

Teaching tip for creating a classroom library

Create a classroom library with a wide variety of reading options for your students. Ensure there’s a good mix of fiction and non-fiction, genres, picture books, novels and graphic based books.

Also, don’t forget to use your class library to feature your own students’ published works.

Click here to read my blog on setting up an effective classroom library.

There you have it- 5 steps you can take to build a ‘writerly’ environment in your classroom. Which one will you focus on this term? Share your thoughts on the Oz Lit Teacher Facebook Group.

Want to build your confidence in knowing how to construct good writing yourself? Check out my Writing Traits Masterclass (enrolments are open twice a year- in January and July).

Related Blog Posts

• How To Plan For Effective Genre Instruction
• A Crucial First Step In Improving Writing Instruction
• 5 Tips For Effective Writing Conferences