Why Supplemental Writing Is So Important
Do you remember the first time you were taught to write? Think of your teacher’s instructions when you learned to create a paragraph by writing a topic sentence, three supporting sentences, and a concluding sentence. Now, after you wrote your first paragraph or even essay, were you completely fluent in writing or did you still struggle to exemplify unified thoughts across different types of writing?
The truth is that most students, just like you when you learned to write, need help developing their writing skills and writing fluency. Writing is not an innate skill for humans. Writing needs to be explicitly taught using a developmentally appropriate approach with scaffolded learning and supplemental practice across cross-curricular themes.
As students write while completing language arts, math, and science lessons, the case for supplemental writing to develop their writing skills across specific types of writing such as narrative, information, and opinion becomes imperative.
Supplemental writing practice offers additional opportunities for students to build writing and literacy skills beyond the restrictions of traditional lessons. It allows each student to creatively explore writing as an outlet to strengthen their literacy, communication, critical thinking, and verbal skills.
It engages students beyond rigid learning objectives, can be customized per teacher instruction, and can be specifically tailored for personalized learning. Supplemental writing is easily incorporated into a writing block as independent writing or as whole group practice to meet students’ varying needs. Plus, the more students write—the more they build fluency, becoming stronger writers and more confident communicators.
To explore more about the importance of supplemental writing, check out Building Writers!
