Writing Ladder

Another strategy for giving students greater accountability and ownership over their work!

As my students were working on writing their information reports, I found that many students were struggling to move on in their writing. Students spent more than usual on certain paragraphs and I couldn't understand why. Now, not that this tool explains it, but it was an excellent way of helping students finish their work. 

We started with every student having a little laminated name tag. I created a writing ladder that had a new coloured paper for each part of the information report. All students put their name tag on the top of the ladder (the classification). When they finished writing this part and it was checked by the teacher, they moved their name down to the next part of the ladder/their information report. 

This strategy relates to the e5 Instructional Model components of engage and evaluate.  

- Engage: Teachers provide support for students to create and achieve their learning goals. 

- Evaluate: Students are able to evaluate their progress and achievements. 

Students absolutely loved this writing ladder and could not wait to see their name move to the next part. It worked extremely well as I would tell students the expectation was that their name moved to the next part during a writing session. Instead of just having the expectation verbally stated to the students, the visual of seeing their name moving and them making progress helped students to write wonderful reports!