writing

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Home : 2002 : January : 21

writing
By tom

Writing is awesome. I start off by teaching them organizational skills. Using the correct side of paper, proper print, margins, all that other baloney.
With expansion I teach them the WH questions. To expand use, who,
what, where, when, how...take a simple sentence and teach them this method and they'll be able to turn it into a full paragraph.
Their word bank needs to increase so you have to go over how to generate words (adjectives) and encourgae them to vary their writing.
For fiction writing they need a story planning outline which I keep in my class and they can get when they need it.
I assing

one writing assignment a month. They have that one month to bring it to final draft. I work with them every step of the way...bring parents in to help conference. We brainstorm together on an outline I completed, we then fill in a rough draft story frame that I generate. The rough draft story frame sets up their paragraphs, introductions and conclusions. It leaves room for them to fill in what they thought up. It's very stuctured because you'll find, third graders cannot compose yet. They just can't. If you try to make them you're in for much frustration. Hold their hand all year, gradually letting go more responsibility to them. By the end of the year your story frames will be far less detailed. You'll see improvement. But one story a month means ten big assignments a year, with much free writing in between (while they wait for conference, or while they wait for a partner edit). It's huge, hard, ongoing task but when you get it right it's fun as can be.