Why Use Transactional Lessons

Even in the age of technology with chats, texts, emails, and social media posts, students must learn the essential skills and formats particular to transactional writing. Attention to language and structure helps students communicate clearly and effectively with friends, family, colleagues, employers, and others in school, at work, and socially.

How to Use Transactional Lessons

Each six-part process writing lesson takes approximately two weeks to complete. Begin each writing lesson with whole-class instruction for teaching and modeling the writing process.

At the end of each lesson part, students independently apply what they have learned. By the end of the lesson, they create their own transactional writing composition.

Each lesson contains tips in the sidebars that outline the expectations for each developmental stage of a writer (beginning, early developing, developing, and fluent). These, along with samples and graphic organizers, help you decide how best to adapt the lesson to support the range of student needs in your classroom.