I know... I know... I'm not posting every week like I had originally planned. That is definitely going to be a New Year’s Resolution of mine ('cause it's much more plausible that I will post more regularly, than go on a diet to lose weight!). With that said....
This week in writing, we will look at Subject Describers. Subject Describers do just what the title says; they describe the subject in the sentence. Our focus will be on what the subject "looks like", such as color, texture, smell, size, shape, and taste, in order to add more depth and detail to our stories.
For example:
The tan wired haired terrier barked because the small child screamed.
In this sentence, the subject of the sentence is "terrier". We described the terrier as being tan in color and having a wired hair texture. Thus, tan and wired haired are both Subject Describers.
So, in a sense, Subject Describers work like Adjectives, the only difference being that Adjectives describe any noun in a sentence. Like in the example sentence above, the word "child" is a noun, and "small" describes the child, but "small" is not a subject describer because "child" is not the subject of the sentence, it is only an Adjective. Confused? I was too at first, but when you look at the big picture of how the Written Expression program works you realize that "because the small child screamed" is a Why Expander and is labeled as such. BUT, don't let this blow your mind... for the older generation, like myself, if it's easier to think of "tan" and "wired haired" as an adjective... do just that, it's all the same but with a different name. :)
Because Subject Describers work along the same lines as Adjectives, this is the perfect time to examine how adjectives should be used in a sentence. Specifically, adjectives that compare, as with the words: more and most, good, better, and best, bad, worse, and worst, and words that end in -er and -est. These are skills that will more than likely be tested on the grammar portion of the STAAR test. I will be adding a new page under "Parent Resources" over the rules for using the comparison adjectives listed above, in case it's been awhile and a brief refresher is needed.
Remember... everything that is taught in Grammar, is expected to be used in Writing. Thus, as we begin to explore narrative writing in more detail over the next three weeks, the skills obtained in Grammar should transcend over into the students writing. We will look at writing with detail, not only by adding Expanders to our sentences, but also with Subject Describers (Adjectives) in an attempt to provide a more vivid picture in the minds of our readers.
Looking Ahead:
As all of my parents are aware, recently our students took a Writing Benchmark just before the Christmas break. This benchmark was designed by school district personnel (not classroom teachers), and was to be used as a tool for classroom teachers to see where our students area of weaknesses lie in Grammar and Writing. I'd say the kids did... okay, I had more failures than I would have liked, but there were many factors that played into why the kids performed at the level they did. To say the least, the test was written poorly, and I have no problems shouting that from the roof tops for the entire district to hear!! And, we need to take into account some skills that had not necessarily been taught or reviewed by the testing date. Simply put, I gave the benchmark because I was told to by the district. These grades were NOT recorded in the grade book and will NOT affect your child’s average in Writing.
I will be looking at giving another "benchmark" of my own, written by an independent publishing company, after I have finished teaching all of the skills and objectives required by the state, which should be by the last week in February. Comparing the two test scores will give me a much better picture of what the kids are learning and what I still need to focus on before dooms day... I mean, the day of the STAAR test (March 27th and 28th). This last "benchmark" will also be the deciding factor for who will be attending the WRITTING ACADEMY! There will be more details to come on the Writing Academy, so stay posted.
I kinda got on my soap box over the benchmark, it's a sore spot for me, as I am NOT a believer in "setting the kids up for failure" as I believe our district did in this case. But, please keep in mind, (as I too have to remind myself from time to time) that no one knows what the new STAAR test will look like, so preparing for it can be a bit difficult, just know that we are working very hard in class every day to achieve success and we'll get there together!
Monday, January 16, 2012
Saturday, November 12, 2011
Capitalization, and Homophones, and Expository Writing.... Oh My!
Wow... time flies when you get busy! I apologize for not posting over the last few weeks. This year is well underway and things are heating up in writing class. Our 4th graders have been working away on capitalization of historical documents and events, book/movie/essay/song titles, religions, nationalities, races, and languages. As well, we have focused on the use of capitalization within a friendly letter. A fun and easy way to have the students learn the rules of capitalization is to make a "flip book". I use the flip book as a teaching tool and when it is complete, the final product then becomes a study guide for the quiz. On each "flip" of the book, students write the rule that is being taught and are given an example of how it is used. After introduction of the rule(s) the students are paired up and asked to create two or more examples similar to the one provided. When finished, we come back together as a group to share our ideas, and correct mistakes. To check for understanding of each rule, students are told to use the flip book as a resource, to create a short 5-6 sentence essays showing examples of the rule(s) they have learned. This allows the students to scaffold their learning, and provides an opportunity for them to seek out information, before coming to the teacher for help, giving the student a sense of ownership over their learning.
After our school wide field trip to the pumpkin patch, the kids were asked to use their narrative writing skills to succinctly tell about their experiences. I use the word "succinct" due to the design of our new STAAR test. The word succinct is defined as the mark of compact, precise expression without wasted words. To test our students writing skills, it is now our states belief that a 1 page, 26 line piece of paper is enough space to express their ideas to a given prompt. (We won't go into personal beliefs regarding the implementation of this new process of writing luckily, I decided to leave my soap box in the closet.) As I have stated before, in previous posts, we will adapt to the expectations, so that students can show mastery and "everyone" will be happy. Most of the kids are doing well expressing their ideas and staying organized. They are finding it difficult to stay within the 26 line limits, but that's what the revising process is all about - adding and deleting information. Our final products should be ready for sharing soon!
Looking Ahead:
We have so much coming up in the next few week before the end of the holiday season. We are revisiting expository texts and looking at how authors use factual information to teach/explain something. We have read books like, "Animals That Build Their Homes" by McClung, and "The Popcorn Book" by DePaola, both of which are fun books to share with kids. Our focus, when reading these books, are in the details. We examine the differences between narrative and expository details, by looking at words choice and voice to identify the differences.
As well, we will begin our study on Homophones, specifically taking a detailed look at the most commonly misused homophones like; there, their, and they're, its and it's, your and you're, to, too, and two, and although they are not technically homophones, we will address the difference between "our" and "are". For those of you who live in the south, you already know why this is necessary. Our southern accents, make it difficult to hear the difference between these two words, as we tend to "drawl" or lengthen many of the words that we speak, and place stress on the wrong syllables. Other words (not exactly homophones) that give 4th graders trouble are where, we're, and were, so we will address those as well.
Check back with us after the Thanksgiving break, Wed. Nov. 23 - Sun. Nov. 27, to see what we're up to. I hope fellowship with your family is delicious!!
After our school wide field trip to the pumpkin patch, the kids were asked to use their narrative writing skills to succinctly tell about their experiences. I use the word "succinct" due to the design of our new STAAR test. The word succinct is defined as the mark of compact, precise expression without wasted words. To test our students writing skills, it is now our states belief that a 1 page, 26 line piece of paper is enough space to express their ideas to a given prompt. (We won't go into personal beliefs regarding the implementation of this new process of writing luckily, I decided to leave my soap box in the closet.) As I have stated before, in previous posts, we will adapt to the expectations, so that students can show mastery and "everyone" will be happy. Most of the kids are doing well expressing their ideas and staying organized. They are finding it difficult to stay within the 26 line limits, but that's what the revising process is all about - adding and deleting information. Our final products should be ready for sharing soon!
Looking Ahead:
We have so much coming up in the next few week before the end of the holiday season. We are revisiting expository texts and looking at how authors use factual information to teach/explain something. We have read books like, "Animals That Build Their Homes" by McClung, and "The Popcorn Book" by DePaola, both of which are fun books to share with kids. Our focus, when reading these books, are in the details. We examine the differences between narrative and expository details, by looking at words choice and voice to identify the differences.
As well, we will begin our study on Homophones, specifically taking a detailed look at the most commonly misused homophones like; there, their, and they're, its and it's, your and you're, to, too, and two, and although they are not technically homophones, we will address the difference between "our" and "are". For those of you who live in the south, you already know why this is necessary. Our southern accents, make it difficult to hear the difference between these two words, as we tend to "drawl" or lengthen many of the words that we speak, and place stress on the wrong syllables. Other words (not exactly homophones) that give 4th graders trouble are where, we're, and were, so we will address those as well.
Check back with us after the Thanksgiving break, Wed. Nov. 23 - Sun. Nov. 27, to see what we're up to. I hope fellowship with your family is delicious!!
Sunday, October 23, 2011
"Quick Writes" give way to quick learning!
Well.... my plan was to write this post tomorrow, but since my home team, the Texas Rangers, are 6 runs behind in the 3rd game of the World Series, I've started to lose interest. However, never one to give up... I've at least got the game on in the background while I write.
After many weeks of exploring expanders, our fourth graders are now masters at writing detailed sentences! Okay, mastery is a strong word, but they're doing a great job of taking what they have learned and applying it to their writing! Now the tough part begins.... excepting nothing less than the use of these expanders in everything they write. To practice, we have been doing several "quick writes" in class. A "quick write" is simply a way to get the kids thinking about different topics and choosing a variety of ways in which to respond. For instance, I put one word on the board, any word, and tell the kids to write for a given length of time, approximately 8-10 minutes. In this time, students write until they are told to stop, and can choose to write in any mode: descriptive, imaginative, narrative, persuasive, or expository. When given the chance to choose a mode, their writing becomes much more personalized. They draw upon prior experiences with that word and can express their thoughts more clearly. So as not to stifle the creative process, I put little restriction on what is expected from the end result, thus inventive spelling is acceptable here. I only request the use of expanders in order to create detailed pieces, however short the writing may be. Yet, the most critical part to a "quick write" is the sharing process. The kids can't wait to read their writing to the class, and when we allow them to share, we encourage listening! Listening helps to build word choice and sentence fluency, two of our 6-traits. After a student shares, as a class, we react to their writing verbally by expressing at least two good points. When the kids can point out good ideas from each other’s papers, we begin to see them adopting these ideas in their own writing. Peer Listening = Peer Learning, and can be fostered in any classroom, so let the sharing begin!
Looking Ahead:
On Monday, we will be taking our annual school wide field trip. This year our principal, Mrs. Alexander, has chosen to take us to Yesterland Farm, a pumpkin patch in Canton, Texas. The kids will be able to explore the grounds and attractions throughout the day, and as we leave each student will take home their very own mini pumpkin!
In the coming weeks, we will focus on capitalization of historical events and documents, religions, nationalities, races, and languages, as well as titles of books, stories and essays. I am almost certain that the state of Texas will embed a question or two over this objective, on the new STAAR writing test, as capitalization is a big part of the editing process. As the district writing benchmark gets closer, we will begin looking at sample STAAR writing passages, and familiarize ourselves with how to go about finding answers to questions that cover editing and revising, within a composition. Please don’t confuse the idea of preparation, for “teaching to the test”. It is my belief that students perform more successfully, when they are in a comfort zone. Preparing the kids for HOW to take the state assessment is just as important as teaching WHAT will be on the test. Thus, taking time to understand the format will help to lessen the stress of test taking.
And in case you’re wondering, as I close this blog, my home team has lost to St. Louis, 16-7. Wow, what a beating. :( Even so, I’ll root, root, root for my home team… if they don’t win it’s a shame, but I’d LOVE… TO… see my team win in the World Series!!!!! Go Rangers!
After many weeks of exploring expanders, our fourth graders are now masters at writing detailed sentences! Okay, mastery is a strong word, but they're doing a great job of taking what they have learned and applying it to their writing! Now the tough part begins.... excepting nothing less than the use of these expanders in everything they write. To practice, we have been doing several "quick writes" in class. A "quick write" is simply a way to get the kids thinking about different topics and choosing a variety of ways in which to respond. For instance, I put one word on the board, any word, and tell the kids to write for a given length of time, approximately 8-10 minutes. In this time, students write until they are told to stop, and can choose to write in any mode: descriptive, imaginative, narrative, persuasive, or expository. When given the chance to choose a mode, their writing becomes much more personalized. They draw upon prior experiences with that word and can express their thoughts more clearly. So as not to stifle the creative process, I put little restriction on what is expected from the end result, thus inventive spelling is acceptable here. I only request the use of expanders in order to create detailed pieces, however short the writing may be. Yet, the most critical part to a "quick write" is the sharing process. The kids can't wait to read their writing to the class, and when we allow them to share, we encourage listening! Listening helps to build word choice and sentence fluency, two of our 6-traits. After a student shares, as a class, we react to their writing verbally by expressing at least two good points. When the kids can point out good ideas from each other’s papers, we begin to see them adopting these ideas in their own writing. Peer Listening = Peer Learning, and can be fostered in any classroom, so let the sharing begin!
Looking Ahead:
On Monday, we will be taking our annual school wide field trip. This year our principal, Mrs. Alexander, has chosen to take us to Yesterland Farm, a pumpkin patch in Canton, Texas. The kids will be able to explore the grounds and attractions throughout the day, and as we leave each student will take home their very own mini pumpkin!
In the coming weeks, we will focus on capitalization of historical events and documents, religions, nationalities, races, and languages, as well as titles of books, stories and essays. I am almost certain that the state of Texas will embed a question or two over this objective, on the new STAAR writing test, as capitalization is a big part of the editing process. As the district writing benchmark gets closer, we will begin looking at sample STAAR writing passages, and familiarize ourselves with how to go about finding answers to questions that cover editing and revising, within a composition. Please don’t confuse the idea of preparation, for “teaching to the test”. It is my belief that students perform more successfully, when they are in a comfort zone. Preparing the kids for HOW to take the state assessment is just as important as teaching WHAT will be on the test. Thus, taking time to understand the format will help to lessen the stress of test taking.
And in case you’re wondering, as I close this blog, my home team has lost to St. Louis, 16-7. Wow, what a beating. :( Even so, I’ll root, root, root for my home team… if they don’t win it’s a shame, but I’d LOVE… TO… see my team win in the World Series!!!!! Go Rangers!
Monday, October 10, 2011
"When is the Expander quiz Mrs. Bailey?" Taylor inquired. "Thursday, 10/20." Mrs. Bailey replied.
This week will find us studying the Why Expander, and diagramming the different parts of speech with manipulatives. The kids LOVE working with the square 'foamies' and diagramming sentences hands on with the Project Read (Written Expression) series. I hope to get some pictures of the kids working with these manipulatives posted before my next blog, but don't hold me to it... I'm barely techno savvy enough to post this blog from week to week. Ha! :)
In Spelling we started Unit 7, looking at the Long /o/ and its different spelling patterns: -o, -oa, -ow. Also, in grammar this week we will be exploring the rules of quotation marks, and how they are used in good writing. If you visit our classroom this week, you'll be surprised to see us actually quiet. We will dialogue with each other on paper only. The kids will 'speak' to each other, without verbally saying anything. They will be asked to use dialogue tags to help express what they are trying to say and HOW they are trying to say it without speech. Tricky enough for grownups, I know, but this activity will raise the level of thinking for my students. I can't wait to see what they come up with!
Looking Ahead:
Next week we will be taking a quiz over the four (4) expanders. Your student will need to know the names of the four expanders: Where, How, When, and Why. As well, they will need to have all 'starter words' for each expander memorized. There will be NO word bank available on the quiz, so studying is a must if your child expects to pass. We will be making a study review to help with memorization next Monday, 10/ 17 please be on the lookout for this review which will be glued into the Writing Composition book on page 32. Review a little bit each night!!
**We have resumed our nightly journaling, after taking last week off. Please remind your child to date each entry in their journal. Grading becomes a nightmare when one entry runs right into the next entry. As I explained to the kids, if I can't tell where one entry ends and the other begins, points will be taken off for that week, so stay organized!
In Spelling we started Unit 7, looking at the Long /o/ and its different spelling patterns: -o, -oa, -ow. Also, in grammar this week we will be exploring the rules of quotation marks, and how they are used in good writing. If you visit our classroom this week, you'll be surprised to see us actually quiet. We will dialogue with each other on paper only. The kids will 'speak' to each other, without verbally saying anything. They will be asked to use dialogue tags to help express what they are trying to say and HOW they are trying to say it without speech. Tricky enough for grownups, I know, but this activity will raise the level of thinking for my students. I can't wait to see what they come up with!
Looking Ahead:
Next week we will be taking a quiz over the four (4) expanders. Your student will need to know the names of the four expanders: Where, How, When, and Why. As well, they will need to have all 'starter words' for each expander memorized. There will be NO word bank available on the quiz, so studying is a must if your child expects to pass. We will be making a study review to help with memorization next Monday, 10/ 17 please be on the lookout for this review which will be glued into the Writing Composition book on page 32. Review a little bit each night!!
**We have resumed our nightly journaling, after taking last week off. Please remind your child to date each entry in their journal. Grading becomes a nightmare when one entry runs right into the next entry. As I explained to the kids, if I can't tell where one entry ends and the other begins, points will be taken off for that week, so stay organized!
Monday, October 3, 2011
Words... Words... and more Words!
OMG... as my kids would say, what an objective filled first six weeks we've had! We took time to understand the writing process, and introduce the 6-traits. In the second six weeks, we will continue to work more closely with the 6-traits, by looking at each trait individually and completing activities to develop a deeper understanding. As well, we will forge ahead with our study on Expanders, and write... write... write!
Looking Ahead:
With a short week ahead of us, we will put spelling on hold, and take class time to explore one of the 6-traits, word choice. This coming week will find us putting to rest, old, tired out words, and replacing them with vivid, colorful, and emotional words that help to paint a picture in the minds of our readers.
The link below will help parents understand word choice, and offers a great writing activity that you can try with your child. Let me know what you think!
http://wiredinstructor.net/Showme.html
I hope everyone is enjoying their four day week-end, and fair day! We'll see you bright and early on Wednesday!
Looking Ahead:
With a short week ahead of us, we will put spelling on hold, and take class time to explore one of the 6-traits, word choice. This coming week will find us putting to rest, old, tired out words, and replacing them with vivid, colorful, and emotional words that help to paint a picture in the minds of our readers.
The link below will help parents understand word choice, and offers a great writing activity that you can try with your child. Let me know what you think!
http://wiredinstructor.net/Showme.html
I hope everyone is enjoying their four day week-end, and fair day! We'll see you bright and early on Wednesday!
Saturday, September 24, 2011
Writing with Expanders... it's that easy!
If you've ever looked at a 4th graders sentence construction, at the beginning of the year, you'd notice they are pretty basic. Subject, predicate, an adjective or two, and maybe a prepositional phrase... but don't hold your breath. As a fourth grade writing teacher, I'd love to have all of my students coming to me with a better vocabulary, and more detailed sentence structure.... alas, this is not reality. Reality is that it falls to the fourth grade teacher to teach the writing skills needed to pass the ever so controversial Writing STAAR (State of Texas Assessment of Academic Readiness) test.
For those of you who haven't heard, the TAKS test is being replaced with the STAAR test this spring 2012. The STAAR test, we are being told, (though we know little about it just yet, as TEA has not released any sample test questions) is being designed to become more rigorous and promote higher level thinking skills. "Rigor".... is the new "it" word being thrown around in educational circles these days. What is "rigor"? Here is the definition I found in Webster’s Dictionary, "a condition that makes life difficult, challenging, or uncomfortable". Seems a little extreme to me, but I don't see TEA coming to my classroom to ask my opinion anytime soon. Thus... my challenge begins! AND... like every year before, I will take this challenge and tweak my lesson plans to include higher level thinking. But, one thing I won't change is the concept of teaching Expanders, which is a program written and designed by Victoria Green of the Written Expression series in Project Read.
Take a minute to reflect upon your own experiences as a young writer. If I had to guess, at one time or another, we've all heard these words, "Your sentences are weak, and you need to add more details." Did you know what to do when you went back to your desk to revise your paper? I didn't, and unfortunately, in the early years of my career, I was just as guilty of giving my students the same response to kids who didn't write with details. Luckily, I was introduced to Expanders! I love using expanders with my kids because as I conference with my students, I can promote higher level thinking by asking specific questions. For example, if my student wrote a story about cats, and had a sentence that read: The tabby cat ran. I can stop right at that sentence and say, "Good basic sentence, but I'd love to know more details like, 'Where' the cat ran, or 'How' the cat ran, let's see if we can expand this sentence." After brainstorming with the student, we might come up with a more detail sentence like this: The tabby cat ran quickly down the alley. Subsequently, I would ask the student to go back to their desk, and make sure each sentence had at least one expander in it, if not more in order to promote a variety of sentence lengths. It's that simple! When they know what to add, it becomes much easier to provide more details. (See: 'What is an Expander?' under the Parent Resources, to the right of this blog for more information on the use of Expanders)
Looking Ahead:
The coming week will find us diving into 'How' and 'When' Expanders, and attempting to write short paragraphs using a variety of sentence lengths, to express a thought. Through these exercises, we will also be looking at the basic structure, or "lay out" of a composition: Introduction, Body, and Conclusion, concentrating on Introductions and the various ways in which we can 'lead' into a story.
Take a moment to sit with your child and their Writing Composition book. Ask them to show you what we are working on. Giving them an opportunity to verbally express what we have been doing in class, will help to reinforce their prior learning. Just a short 5 minute talk can really make a difference!
**Side Note** There will be no Spelling the week of 9/26, AND 10/3. Hmmmm... What was that? A sigh of relief from my parents? Well, that would go along with the cheers that I received in class once the kids found out. :) Instead, we will be working more heavily on our writing skills, and moving into using better Word Choice throughout our stories. Have a great week-end!
For those of you who haven't heard, the TAKS test is being replaced with the STAAR test this spring 2012. The STAAR test, we are being told, (though we know little about it just yet, as TEA has not released any sample test questions) is being designed to become more rigorous and promote higher level thinking skills. "Rigor".... is the new "it" word being thrown around in educational circles these days. What is "rigor"? Here is the definition I found in Webster’s Dictionary, "a condition that makes life difficult, challenging, or uncomfortable". Seems a little extreme to me, but I don't see TEA coming to my classroom to ask my opinion anytime soon. Thus... my challenge begins! AND... like every year before, I will take this challenge and tweak my lesson plans to include higher level thinking. But, one thing I won't change is the concept of teaching Expanders, which is a program written and designed by Victoria Green of the Written Expression series in Project Read.
Take a minute to reflect upon your own experiences as a young writer. If I had to guess, at one time or another, we've all heard these words, "Your sentences are weak, and you need to add more details." Did you know what to do when you went back to your desk to revise your paper? I didn't, and unfortunately, in the early years of my career, I was just as guilty of giving my students the same response to kids who didn't write with details. Luckily, I was introduced to Expanders! I love using expanders with my kids because as I conference with my students, I can promote higher level thinking by asking specific questions. For example, if my student wrote a story about cats, and had a sentence that read: The tabby cat ran. I can stop right at that sentence and say, "Good basic sentence, but I'd love to know more details like, 'Where' the cat ran, or 'How' the cat ran, let's see if we can expand this sentence." After brainstorming with the student, we might come up with a more detail sentence like this: The tabby cat ran quickly down the alley. Subsequently, I would ask the student to go back to their desk, and make sure each sentence had at least one expander in it, if not more in order to promote a variety of sentence lengths. It's that simple! When they know what to add, it becomes much easier to provide more details. (See: 'What is an Expander?' under the Parent Resources, to the right of this blog for more information on the use of Expanders)
Looking Ahead:
The coming week will find us diving into 'How' and 'When' Expanders, and attempting to write short paragraphs using a variety of sentence lengths, to express a thought. Through these exercises, we will also be looking at the basic structure, or "lay out" of a composition: Introduction, Body, and Conclusion, concentrating on Introductions and the various ways in which we can 'lead' into a story.
Take a moment to sit with your child and their Writing Composition book. Ask them to show you what we are working on. Giving them an opportunity to verbally express what we have been doing in class, will help to reinforce their prior learning. Just a short 5 minute talk can really make a difference!
**Side Note** There will be no Spelling the week of 9/26, AND 10/3. Hmmmm... What was that? A sigh of relief from my parents? Well, that would go along with the cheers that I received in class once the kids found out. :) Instead, we will be working more heavily on our writing skills, and moving into using better Word Choice throughout our stories. Have a great week-end!
Sunday, September 18, 2011
Understanding the Traits
In class we're beginning to put the pieces together, and understand how the Writing Process and the 6-Traits fit together, as we compose our stories.
Prewriting
Ideas/Focus
Drafting
Organization
Revising
Word Choice
Sentence Fluency
Voice
Editing
Conventions
Publishing
This past week we looked at the definitions of each trait. I asked the kids to take a few minutes each night to learn these definitions, in preparation for the 6-Traits quiz next week (Thur. 9/22). Have your students study pages 13, 14, and 15 in their writing composition book, these activities will help to put the definitions to memory. It is important that the kids be able to apply each of these traits to various scenarios. For example, I might give a scenario similar to the one below, and the student will need to be able to apply their prior knowledge by telling me which trait is being corrected.
Sample Quiz Question:
Toby had Lisa read his draft to help him with the Revising section of the Writing Process. When Lisa was finished reading, she gave Toby some suggestions. She told him that his paper had a lot of "babyish" words. She thought he should go back, with a thesaurus, to come up with words that are more appropriate for a 4th grader. Which trait will Toby be working in to correct his paper?
Answer:
Word Choice, we know this because Lisa referred to his story as having "babyish" words. Words that are not clear, precise, and colorful.
Looking Ahead:
The coming week will find us diving into EXPANDERS! This is one of my favorite concepts to teach, because I get to witness a lot of "Ah ha" moments. "So... THAT's what you meant when you said to add details... OHHH, I get it!" It’s so much fun to see them "figure it out"! We will begin with the WHERE expander, and practice composing longer more detailed sentences that tell "where" something is taking place. For a more detailed description of expanders, please go to the Parent Resource section to the right of this post, and click on the link that says, "What are Expanders?".
Just a reminder... we have now finished our 2nd week of nightly journaling, however there are still some students who think that this exercise is an option. Please remember that your child should be writing in their nightly journal (or notebook paper, if they do not have a journal) four nights a week: Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. They can write about ANYTHING that is on their mind at the time. The content of the journal entry will not be graded. I will only be looking to see that each student has met the minimum requirements, of 5 - 10 complete sentences written in PARAGRAPH form. Each week of journaling will be worth 20 pts. and 5 weeks of journaling, will give the student an easy 100 in the grade book, under the composition section. I hope to see all students journaling this week, and I will be checking for completion this Friday, Sept. 23. Thank you parents, for all of your support in this matter.
Prewriting
Ideas/Focus
Drafting
Organization
Revising
Word Choice
Sentence Fluency
Voice
Editing
Conventions
Publishing
This past week we looked at the definitions of each trait. I asked the kids to take a few minutes each night to learn these definitions, in preparation for the 6-Traits quiz next week (Thur. 9/22). Have your students study pages 13, 14, and 15 in their writing composition book, these activities will help to put the definitions to memory. It is important that the kids be able to apply each of these traits to various scenarios. For example, I might give a scenario similar to the one below, and the student will need to be able to apply their prior knowledge by telling me which trait is being corrected.
Sample Quiz Question:
Toby had Lisa read his draft to help him with the Revising section of the Writing Process. When Lisa was finished reading, she gave Toby some suggestions. She told him that his paper had a lot of "babyish" words. She thought he should go back, with a thesaurus, to come up with words that are more appropriate for a 4th grader. Which trait will Toby be working in to correct his paper?
Answer:
Word Choice, we know this because Lisa referred to his story as having "babyish" words. Words that are not clear, precise, and colorful.
Looking Ahead:
The coming week will find us diving into EXPANDERS! This is one of my favorite concepts to teach, because I get to witness a lot of "Ah ha" moments. "So... THAT's what you meant when you said to add details... OHHH, I get it!" It’s so much fun to see them "figure it out"! We will begin with the WHERE expander, and practice composing longer more detailed sentences that tell "where" something is taking place. For a more detailed description of expanders, please go to the Parent Resource section to the right of this post, and click on the link that says, "What are Expanders?".
Just a reminder... we have now finished our 2nd week of nightly journaling, however there are still some students who think that this exercise is an option. Please remember that your child should be writing in their nightly journal (or notebook paper, if they do not have a journal) four nights a week: Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. They can write about ANYTHING that is on their mind at the time. The content of the journal entry will not be graded. I will only be looking to see that each student has met the minimum requirements, of 5 - 10 complete sentences written in PARAGRAPH form. Each week of journaling will be worth 20 pts. and 5 weeks of journaling, will give the student an easy 100 in the grade book, under the composition section. I hope to see all students journaling this week, and I will be checking for completion this Friday, Sept. 23. Thank you parents, for all of your support in this matter.
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