Teaching Oral Language
The Power of Oral Language
First graders are so capable. They are at an age where their little brains are sponges – soaking up everything and anything they can learn. Writing instruction has always been a favorite of mine. Â It’s incredibly challenging. Â I’ve never taught it the same way from year to year. I add elements, throw out lessons, change techniques, change routines…it’s a never-ending cycle of figuring out what works best for my kids. Â Throughout all of the change, there is one standard I’ve held onto in my classroom every year:
We write a lot in my classroom.
Using Oral Writing in the Classroom
It started with Whole Brain Teaching.  I “met” Farrah Shipley through the blogging world. She introduced me to a concept called oral writing. Lucy Calkins has called this style, “writing in the air”. Oral writing completely transformed the way I have approached writing instruction with my students.  It not only transformed my thinking, my teaching, and my enthusiasm, but it transformed 21 little first graders as well.  (Farrah, although I have told you this before, I cannot thank you enough, my friend!)
We started with a sentence. Â Well, rewind. We started with an oral sentence. Â Close your eyes and think of your classroom at the carpet during a discussion. How many times do you allow a student to answer you without using a complete sentence? Chances are, if you are like most, a million times a day. Â This is the secret to oral writing: When our students do not consistently speak in complete sentences, it becomes immensely difficult for them to not only form their thoughts into a complete sentence but then transfer that complete thought onto paper – with correct conventions and spelling!
Speaking in complete sentences, answering a question in a complete sentence, and explaining an idea or thought in a complete sentence is a rule in our room. Â We call it “college talk.”
It has worked miracles for my kids.
While I don’t have a video of oral writing to share with you, due to privacy, you can google Whole Brain Teaching Oral Writing videos on YouTube and find a plethora of videos to watch. When you watch them, you’ll see that the students are acting out their capital letters by raising their arms vertically. They are ending each sentence with a period by saying -Errrr!!! and pushing their hand out in front of them. These gestures are working in a powerful way to help students remember these important conventions:
Writing a Paragraph
We went on after Thanksgiving to write paragraphs, or what we call “a micro essay.” A micro essay is a 5 sentence paragraph that has a topic sentence, three detail sentences, and a conclusion sentence. Â I created this color-coded chart for my students:
Ready to Get Started With Oral Writing?
If you’re looking for a resource that will transform how your students think and speak in complete sentences, check out my Think, Talk, Teach resource in my TpT shop. It has three levels of difficulty and your students will be practicing essential oral language skills EVERYDAY in just a few minutes time! I promise that when your students can think and speak in complete sentences, it makes WRITING in complete sentences so much easier! Click HERE for my Think, Talk, Teach pack or click on the image below:
Absolutely LOVED this post. I just went to a conference that stressed the importance of students talking in complete sentences to lay a foundation for writing in complete sentences. Last year implementing Read 3D which requires a written response I got SO frustrated trying to teach my kids the importance of complete sentences. This year was such an eye opener as I realized I had been missing the most important part.. oral complete sentences! Also, I am attending a conference on whole brain teaching in 2 weeks and couldn't be more excited! I think this post was just the push I needed to take my writing instruction to a new level. Thanks!
Thank you so much! 🙂 I felt the same way – I couldn't believe I had missed such an important basic part of writing. Once I targeted this fundamental understanding of a sentence, everything else started to click much faster for my students. 🙂 Let me know how it goes! 🙂
LOVE this! Awesome! Thank you! ~kathy
Wow – this so resonates with me and my second graders. So many of them don't apply the conventions. I can't wait to look at the video again and think about this. You are awesome! ~Barb
🙂 Thanks, Barb! It was the "missing link" to my writing instruction that has made a huge difference. Let me know how it goes! 🙂
This is an awesome post! I am ready to try some oral writing tomorrow!! First step teach the kids that a complete sentence=a complete message. WBT ON, friend:) Farrah is the best.
This is great!! I too am doing WBT but the "writing thing" has been hard for me to wrap my brain around… I have watched the videos, we talk in complete sentences, we do the gestures, we work on the genius ladder, but to get to the essay part I could not wrap my head around… Your post just clicked with me!! Thank you
Chelsea
Kickin It Whole Brain In Texas
Hey girl!! You ROCK! Look at my little "firstie celebrities"!!! Christina, I am bout to BLOW your socks off and we are gonna take your little kiddos RIGHT ON IN TO A 5 PARAGRAPH ESSAY! Girl you are gonna be a ROCK STAR!!!
Farrah Shipley
Mrs. Shipley's Classroom
Awesome – love it!!! Thank you for sharing 🙂
Melissa
First Grade Smiles
3 paragraph essays?? WOW! I am beyond impressed! I will definitely have to try some of these ideas! I can't wait to see what your students will write next!
Sarah Beth
Miss White's Classroom
I loved reading your post! I am a huge fan of Whole Brain teaching. For now I just use the gestures and sayings, but after reading your post I really want to dive into the writing! I love how you have such high expectations for your students! Sometimes I'm "afraid" that it's going to be too tough for them, but I like how you believe they can do it!!
Thanks!
Sam
Thank you so much for this post! Can't wait to give some of this a try. First graders are amazing and they are capable of so much more than we give them credit for. Maria
I loved this post!!! My EL students have to take the Las Links test so part of that is speaking. Since I usually have the EL students in my grade level, I have tried to make sure that everyone answers in complete sentences, but I sometimes get so rushed with things that I forget to slow down. I so want to learn the WBT ideas with writing!! I'm going to try to start doing more oral writing next week!! Thank you!!! 🙂
Nicole
All Things Apple in 2nd
I love your post! I am just delving into whole brain teaching and loving it. The writing TOTALLY amazes me though. It is frustrating to teach capitals and punctuation to firsties when only a handful truly get it! The oral language component totally makes sense! Thanks for sharing:) I can't wait to read more.
Tammy
The Resourceful Apple
This post has gotten me pumped! I read the Whole Brain Teaching book this past summer and have incorporated several of the techniques. I thought the writing sounded great and planned to do it at some point, but haven't followed through. Your post has me so excited to get started seeing how successful it's been for your class! Wow, I'm just so impressed! I would love to see a breakdown of how you started it all to get to the point you're at now.
Christina, thank you so very much for taking the time to blog about your micro essays. This is the perfect "next step" for our students and your explanation has helped me visualize how to begin. You are not only teaching your first graders but helping my first graders as well. Thank you!!!
Love love love love love. WBT is the best and I use it throughout the day, but haven't done much with my actual writing block. This inspired me to take the leap and get my second graders writing in this manner. They're gonna love it and they need the help!