“Needs more elaboration. Add details.” How many times have you written those words when grading student papers? Teaching students how to elaborate on their thoughts and in writing can be a challenge, but there are a few simple strategies I’ve used that can make your job easier.
Elaboration in writing means to choose and add details that describe, explain, support, and develop ideas to enhance one’s thinking. The type of elaboration used depends on the purpose for writing, but the main goal should be to develop thoughts and ideas so the reader understands the author’s message or the main ideas presented.
Needs more elaboration. Add details.
Many times when our students write, they will compose broad, general statements and add facts without really expanding and elaborating. If you ask them to give you more details, they will usually throw in an adjective or two and call it good.
We have to be intentional when teaching students to elaborate. I start by modeling one elaboration strategy at a time and providing my students some type of framework or model. It’s not enough to ask them to elaborate when they only have a general idea of what it means. When I take the time to teach elaboration, I’m less likely to get papers with a grocery lists of ideas or paragraphs with too few sentences.
Color Code Mentor Texts
Students better understand elaboration when they see it used in mentor texts. One strategy I’ve incorporated is color coding the different parts of writing samples (including elaboration) with my students. Display writing samples using a document camera and then mark up the sentences in different colors. Choose a color code that you’ll use all year so students learn the system. One benefit of color coding is that it helps students visually identify the essential elements of good writing and gives them examples for reference. I pull writing from our literature and nonfiction texts to help students connect to reading they are already familiar with. Once students have drafted their own writing, teach them to use color coding in the same way in their own work. This strategy makes it easy for them to see their elaboration or notice if it is missing.
Provide Sentence Frames
Most all students struggle with elaboration, but your reluctant writers can find it overwhelming and become discouraged easily. Sentence frames make it easier for students to express their ideas and elaborate their thoughts in writing when they have trouble getting started. Frames also help students of all abilities organize their writing in a clear format. To get started, I find or create sentence frames for my students to use. The frames vary depending on the type of writing we are working on. After I model how to use the frame, my students apply them in their own sentences. You can also assign students to work in groups and talk about their sentences and get peer feedback. A few frames I have used include:
- The evidence suggests…
- This quote shows…
- Considering the evidence, it can be concluded…
- This is demonstrated by…
- According to the text…
Use Elaboration Activities
Another strategy I use with my writers to work on elaboration is a fill-in-the blank activity. It’s a lot like Cloze reading in that students are given parts of a paragraph and asked to add elaboration. By doing this, they are able to focus on smaller parts of the writing process. This makes the task seem less daunting, provides a basis from which to begin, and allows students to experience success more easily.
Using the existing text, your students will write at least one or two elaboration sentences that add to the meaning of the paragraph. You’ll want to practice this with them before assigning it for independent work. I also use this activity as a group assignment, which gives students even more opportunity to experiment with wording and elaboration techniques.
Elaboration is a skill your students will master with time and practice. What are your favorite ways to teach elaboration? Let us know in the comments or join the conversation on Instagram or Facebook!
