Gradually Releasing Responsibility
To Students Writing Persuasive Text
Christa Elliott - Section B - February 20, 2019
Summary:
This authors of the article follow a fourth grade classroom and their unit on writing persuasive texts. According to the Common Core State Standards, fourth grade students are supposed to be able to write opinion pieces on topics or texts, supporting a point of view with reasons and information.The authors collaborated with fourth grade teachers to create a cross-cirricluar science/writing lesson plan using a writing strategy called the IMSCI model. The IMSCI writing model is used to help successfully teach students how to write persuasive texts. This writing instruction is used to provide support to students by gradually releasing responsibility and scaffolding students' writing abilities of the genre. The main purpose of the model is to teach students how to write independently in that same genre. IMSCI is an acronym for Inquiry, Modeling, Shared writing, Collaborative writing and Independent writing. Through the IMSCI writing model, with scaffolding, modeling, collaboration and conferencing, the fourth grade students successfully created a persuasive writing piece.
Opinion Statement
Discussion Questions
2) Were you previously familiar with the IMSCI writing model? It not, how has learning about the model changed your perspective on teaching persuasive writing? Do you feel more confident in teaching it?
3) Why do you believe that teaching persuasive writing has been lacking in elementary school classrooms?