Kid Writing

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Kid Writing
By Jackie

The Wright Group publishes a wonderful book called "Kid Writing" that offers lots of suggestions for journaling with young children. The book does not recommend giving children a topic to write about, but to help the children
learn to choose their own topics, through a teacher think-aloud process. In the beginning of the year, the teacher demonstrates how to select something to write about(something good that happened, somthing bad that happened, a book you really liked, something you wish you were doing, etc.) and then models drawing a picture illustrating that idea. After the picture, the teacher models

writing a sentence/story, with input from the class. ( Sentence: I wish I was at the beach. "What letter/sound do you hear in the word I? I! You're absolutely right. Now, leave a space after that because we always leave a space between words. What sounds/letters do you hear in the word wish? W. Great, let's write that.", etc.) The book recommends the use of "magic lines" for those words in which the children cannot identify any letter sounds.

Kid Writing recommends underwriting the children's stories and using that as an opportunity for one-on-one minilessons. Obviously, you will not be able to work with all children each day, four or so seems reasonable.

This is the first year I've used it, but so far, it's working wonderfully. The book also offers lots of suggestions for using writing in other classroom areas.

Jackie