Writing the First Draft : A Step-by-step Process for Elementary Students

This book is designed to provide teachers with an easy-to-follow guide for teaching elementary students how to write paragraphs. The step-by-step approach presented in this book enables students to find immediate success in composing both narrative and expository paragraphs.

Writing the First Draft is divided into four steps. Each step contains examples that illustrate the application of this process across the curriculum.

Step 1: Understanding the Quick Picture

The Quick Picture is the initial step in the process. Students learn to think about the purpose for each paragraph in their writing. The students become proficient in translating each coherent idea into an image. These images are the Quick Pictures.

Step 2: Using the Area of Focus

The “area of focus” becomes the main idea behind each paragraph. Students realize that each paragraph centers on one area of focus. This focus is based on their Quick Picture. The area of focus keeps student writing centered; as a result, each paragraph is clearly defined. Students learn to tell a coherent story and deliver a coherent message, as opposed to rambling or listing actions or events.

Step 3: Answering Guide Questions to Write the First Draft

The Guide Questions make it easy for students to organize what they want to say. Students learn to use the Guide Questions as a springboard that maximizes language expression. The Guide Questions make it very easy for students create meaningful paragraphs that engage the reader and get the key message across.

Step 4: Maximizing Elaboration

Students become comfortable evaluating their initial draft and determining where to include valuable elaboration. This elaboration takes place as part of revision. Students learn to enjoy thinking about different ways to elaborate.

The annotated examples in this book demonstrate how to apply each of these four steps of the process. Teachers can incorporate this process into any part of the curriculum.

Bonus: Developing a Literature Response Journal

At the end of this book, I have included a section entitled “Developing A Literature Response Journal.” Literature Response Journals are the perfect instructional tool for teaching students how to think about literature.

These journals are appropriate for both elementary and middle school students. The Literary Response Journal complements the step-by-step process for writing the first draft by helping students learn to analyze literature in an organized manner. If teachers incorporate the structure outlined in this section into their literacy program, student comprehension should increase markedly.

For over thirty years, Robert A. Pauker has been an educational consultant to scores of public school districts. Dr. Pauker is the founder of the Structured Writing and Thinking Program. He has designed multiple critical thinking strategies that have been implemented in hundreds of classrooms across all academic disciplines. Each of these thinking strategies is designed to enhance literacy and content skills, as well as student comprehension, organization, and comprehension. Implementation of Dr. Pauker’s Structured Writing and Thinking strategies accelerates learning and student performance.

Dr. Pauker is the co-founder of Logos Instructional Solutions that presents scores of lessons to maximize learning in multiple content areas. He works with administrators and teachers to match specific critical thinking and literacy strategies to the individual needs in the classroom that increase student learning proficiency.

Dr. Pauker’s implementation model is to train classroom teachers and administrators in one or more specific thinking strategies. Then, he works directly with each teacher in the classroom to demonstrate the practical application to literacy and to the content curriculum.

Dr. K. Michael Hibbard, nationally known educator and current Assistant Superintendent of the North Salem, New York schools states:

“Dr. Robert Pauker’s strategies for reading and writing work with all students K-12! Dr. Pauker’s strategies are exactly what we need to implement high-level instructional standards for ELA/literacy. Performance of students from the lowest performer to the highest improves. Teachers describe Dr. Pauker’s strategies as some of the very best they have learned!”

Dr. Pauker is the author of several articles and books, including Teaching Thinking and Reasoning Skills: Problems and Solutions published by The American Association of School Administrators.