One of the main focuses of writing instruction in my classroom is written
fluency and expression. You will be amazed at the progress your child will
make this year in writing.
I begin the year helping students to get ideas down on paper – we discuss what
it means to be writer, how to go about writing during Writing Workshop. which
happens everyday, and what we can write about. We spend time learning
strategies for prewriting that we can use throughout the year to help us when
we write.
I teach students that all stories have a beginning, middle,and end(preferably a
beginning,middle, middle,middle, middle, middle...end). Stories
or written texts are organized and careful consideration is given to word
choice. We talk about what it means to be a writer. I teach the students how
to think like a writer. We are all writers! We will write everyday and
throughout the year we will learn strategies to improve our writing.
Spelling is an important part of writing. I encourage inventive spellings of
unknown words and work to correct the spelling of words that students should
already be able to spell. Don't panic if there are misspelled words in your
child's writing. While I will work with your student to correct high frequency
words and words 3rd graders should know how to spell;
bigger,unknown words WILL be misspelled. This is OK! If I focus too
much on the spelling while students are writing,they will become robot writers
who write stories with only words they know how to spell. I would be wasting
an opportunity for them to write stories full of depth and expression with
those bigger, better words they can't spell.
Spelling will be emphasized on language arts activities.
I really work with students so they will fell comfortable and even enjoy
writing before they leave third grade. I also expect students to be able to write an organized text with
depth and sentence fluency as well as interesting word choice. Writing expectations increase as
your child passes through each grade. Please work continually at home to
encourage your child's writing development. The best thing you can do is have
conversations with your child about things happening in his/her life which
would make outstanding story ideas.
You will not see writing papers in your child’s graded work, however, we
write everyday! We keep all of the pieces in a writing folder. You are
welcome to come see your child's writing in the classroom at any time. Your
child’s writing folder will come home at the end of the year so that you may
see his/her writing progress and enjoy all those stories!