Literacy-Related Event

Celebrate the National Day on Writing®!

Date

October 20

Calendar Activity Type

Literacy-Related Event

Event Description

To draw attention to the remarkable variety of writing Americans engage in and to help make writers from all walks of life aware of their craft, the National Council of Teachers of English has established October 20 as the National Day on Writing®. It's important for everyone to share their knowledge about writing, organize participating groups in our schools and/or communities, and transform the public's understanding of writing and the role it plays in society today.

Classroom Activity

Encourage your students to uncover all of the different kinds of writing they do on a daily basis by asking them to keep a list of everything they write, from text messages to school assignments, e-mails to diary entries, in a single day.

After students make a list of everything they wrote in a day, help them see the variety in their writing, both individually and as a class. Post colorful chart paper with age-appropriate questions about purpose, audience, genre or type, and technology around the room. Ask students to brainstorm different categories for each poster based on the writing they did. Write these categories on the posters and then have students contribute examples from their personal lists. Facilitate a gallery walk of the posters once students have contributed to all of them.

Encourage students to view and reflect on all kinds of writing - no matter the purpose, audience, type, or technology.

Websites

National Day on Writing®

Here you will find information about the National Day on Writing® initiative, as well as links to a variety of NCTE writing resources and tips for writing.

Tips for Writers

Keep these tips from NCTE in mind as you think about your writing.

NCTE Position Statements on Writing

This collection of position statements includes the "NCTE Beliefs about the Teaching of Writing" and "Writing Now: A Policy Research Brief."

National Writing Project

This is the online home of the NWP, a professional development network with the mission of improving student achievement by improving the teaching of writing and improving learning in the nation's schools.

The New York Times Learning Network

The Learning Network provides teaching and learning materials and ideas based on New York Times content.

Related Resources

Lesson Plans

Strategy Guides

Professional Library

Note Writing in the Primary Classroom

This lesson provides a wealth of ideas for using notes in the classroom to promote authentic writing among children.

Who's Got Mail? Using Literature to Promote Authentic Letter Writing

Students discuss and chart letter elements and write their own letters to adults at school, reinforcing letter-writing skills beyond the classroom lesson.

Audience, Purpose, and Language Use in Electronic Messages

Students explore using electronic messaging and Internet abbreviations for specific purposes and examine the importance of using a more formal style of writing based on their audience.

Help Wanted: Writing Professional Resumes

Students will create a beginning resume that represents their current work experience and demonstrates their knowledge of rhetorical situations for professional writing.

How-To Writing: Motivating Students to Write for a Real Purpose

It's not easy surviving fourth grade (or third or fifth)! In this lesson, students brainstorm survival tips for future fourth graders and incorporate those tips into an essay.

Cultural Connections and Writing for Change

A little understanding can go a long way. After learning about difficulties that Palestinian youths face, students will write a letter to an official discussing these issues.

Get Cooking With Words! Creating a Recipe Using Procedural Writing

Students participate in read-alouds of books that exemplify effective word choice, explore how to choose words to best communicate an idea, and then write explicit instructions for a recipe.

Family Message Journals Teach Many Purposes for Writing

This lesson encourages children to explore authentic reasons for writing by writing messages to their family in a family message journal.

Write-Talks: Students Discovering Real Writers, Real Audiences, Real Purposes

There's a world of writers out there, and in this lesson students discover them as they listen to presentations from local writers and learn about what, why, and how they write in their day-to-day lives.

Persuasive Writing

This strategy guide focuses on persuasive writing and offers specific methods on how you can help your students use it to improve their critical writing and thinking skills.

Implementing the Writing Process

This strategy guide explains the writing process and offers practical methods for applying it in your classroom to help students become proficient writers.

Developing Persuasive Writing Strategies

This strategy guide describes the techniques used in effective persuasive writing and shares activities you can use to help students understand and use persuasion in their writing and critical thinking.

Guided Writing

This strategy guide explains how to use small-group, guided writing instruction to teach students effective strategies and improve their ability to produce text independently.

Shared Writing

This strategy guide explains how to use shared writing to teach students effective strategies that will improve their own independent writing ability.

Write Alouds

This strategy guide explains how to use write-aloud (also known as modeled writing) to teach effective writing strategies and improve students' independent writing ability.

Tim O'Brien in the Classroom: "This too is true: Stories can save us"

As part of the NCTE High School Literature Series, Tim O'Brien in the Classroom focuses on opportunities for classroom discussion and writing assignments, including lessons, open-ended prompts, and student writing samples.

What Is "College-Level" Writing? Volume 2: Assignments, Readings, and Student Writing Samples

Edited by Patrick Sullivan, Howard Tinberg, and Sheridan Blau, this sequel to What Is "College-Level" Writing? (2006) highlights the practical aspects of teaching writing.

What Works in Writing Instruction: Research and Practices

Through teacher-friendly language and classroom examples, Deborah Dean takes a close look at effective, research-based practices for writing instruction.

Writing about Literature, 2nd ed., Revised and Updated

This book is intended to help middle and secondary school English language arts teachers integrate literature study and composition instruction.

Wondrous Words: Writers and Writing in the Elementary Classroom

Katie Wood Ray explains in practical terms the theoretical underpinnings of how elementary and middle school students learn to write from their reading.

Celebrate the National Day on Writing®!

Event Description

Classroom Activity

Websites

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