In the article “Effective Writing Instructions for All Students”, written by Steve Graham, the

author argues that teachers should give writing the importance it deserves. For this reason, it
is described a list of seven advices which are supposed to solve the lack of writing preparation
among all-aged students. All these recommendations require teachers’ constant effort and
focus on a methodological change which is likely to affect all subjects.

The article reports on the fact that most today’s schools are not providing students a good
writing instruction, which inevitably results in a problem not just in the years of schooling, but
also in our professional and social life. The root cause of this problem is the poor preparation
that most teachers have received, as well as the way writing is used in classrooms. In order to
solve this situation, the article presents some general advices, such as encouraging students to
practise a lot, regardless of how long the task takes, or promoting teacher collaboration in
order to include writing in different subjects.

To be more precise, the author identify twenty-seven successful practises related to writing,
such as working in a calm class environment or taking care of individual needs, and he includes
these writing practises in the seven recommendations for teaching writing. So, the more
schools consider these recommendations and adapt them to each situation, the more
successful students’ writing will be.

The first recommendation is about the time dedicated to writing and the need for pupils to
know how to write depending on the intention. As for time, students should spend time
writing in class. If children have the opportunity to write a lot, they will probably improve their
writing skills. Either way, Graham & Perin (2007) propose that the time used for writing should
include writing for different purposes: interacting with others, informing, expressing your
opinion in order to change others mind, learning, entertaining, writing about ourselves, writing
about literature and expressing what we know about a topic. In spite of the fact that all these
purposes have to be practised at all levels, teachers should increase the level of complexity
over time. In order to include all these types of writing in each level, it is important to ensure
close coordination between teachers so that each of them would address different purposes.

The second recommendation highlights the importance of knowing some theoretical aspects
about writing, such as the structure of a good composition. In order to let students discover
this, it is recommended to make them read literary texts, which can be used as models.
However, it is not enough because they also need to put into practise what they learn, so
teachers should put their best foot forward in order to propose writing activities based on the
models. As well as knowing how to write, it is necessary to know what we are writing about.
For this reason, it is essential to show pupils how to look for accurate information of a topic.

It is known that students work longer, harder and with more enthusiasm and intensity when
they are motivated than when they are not. For these reason, the third recommendation is
about motivation and presents some ways to motivate their students: proposing activities
which are related to their immediate environment and real life; creating a clam and friendly
environment in class; rewarding children’s effort; proposing students to work together in order
to let them help each other; showing that teacher loves writing because this is the only way to
make children feel highly enthusiastic about it; and believing in our children’s skills so that we
let them work themselves.

According to the article, writing is considered a process which includes four steps: “planning,
drafting, revising and editing”. It is important to turn this process into a routine and show
pupils how to develop each step in a correct way. For this reason, teachers should teach the
strategies which are supposed to help pupils apply each step effectively. This is the fourth
recommendation and states that these strategies, such as brainstorming, should be taught
using a method which includes different steps: a description of the strategy, an explanation to
know when and where it is useful and the best way to use it, the opportunity to put the
strategy into practise, the offer of experienced help and a final evaluation in order to
determinate if the strategy is actually helpful.

The fifth recommendation claims that teachers should take into account the fact that little
children have to learn some basic skills to be able to write a good composition. This includes
handwriting or construction of sentences. Once children become more skilful, they will be able
to learn the process to construct a writing.

Nowadays, the technologies gives us the opportunity to make our life easier. As for writing,
computers represent a step forward for most people, especially for those who suffer motor
skills disorders. Moreover, it is known that word processing has a lot of advantages for all the
people. Word processing revises our writing, gives us the opportunity of choosing a great
format and simplifies the typing process. Therefore, the sixth recommendation is to reap the
benefits that technology offers us in writing.

The final recommendation is about evaluation. It is important to evaluate student's

achievement not just to know if the methodology are good or improvable but to detect
students who are weaker and think about how to help them.