We begin our next monthly writing project with a few pre writing tasks involving art and G.O. charts for planning. We will be working on character, plot and using interesting adjectives and verbs inner writing. Naturally, in honor of our Benjamin Franklinstein read aloud and in the spirit of Halloween our setting will be a haunted house with Frank as the main character. Today as mad scientist with fun halloween music playing Frankenstein came alive in room 15. Once Frank was created the children wrote a descriptive paragraph describing their main character. They turned out cute.. uh scary? You decide... |
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While the 5th graders were away at camp, we slowly walked through the writing process steps tithe 3-4th graders. Two books were read aloud, response journals were completed & AR quizzes were taken. After modeling how to fill out the GO chart, the children followed their own GO and wrote a short how to be a pirate with a personal talent they could use to save the day. A 'talent' was a trait or action they could do to help solve a pirate's problem . This was the basic story line of the read aloud How I became a Pirate. Once they completed their GO, they wrote a rough draft and went through the edit step. Finally they completed their final draft & made cute pirate to go along with their mini story.
What is the Writing Process? Learning to write is a bit like learning to read. Both follow a sequential process. However, writing requires and combines more basic skills than any other subject area. It is a challenging area for our kids. A big chucnk of our Language Arts time is spent writing using a sequence of steps to support the students. I also read out loud to them daily to expose them to different types of writing styles and genres. The steps are: 1) Pre Write- A writing prompt is given & discussed first. I may model write with their ideas an example. The children then make a visual or Graphic Organizer to start the process & get their ideas started. 2) Rough Draft- The children put their ideas on paper. At this time they write with little attention to spelling, grammar etc. The purpose of a rough draft is to write without the distraction or fear of making a mistake. This is just to get the ideas down , follow a GO chart if needed. If children worry about grammar, spelling etc they tend to write less and more formulaic. 3) Self- Edit- This is where the writer's office and their knowledge of grammar, spelling , punctuation comes in. They read it out loud checking for organization, does it make sense, and revise or add as they edit. 4) Teacher Edit- They come to a teacher who sits with them and helps them with the grammar, spelling, and any organizational issues that need to be addressed. 5) Final Draft - Students produce a final draft to present. This is where neatness really counts! 6) Publishing- SHARE & celebrate! |
Language Arts
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