Francis Bacon once wrote, "Reading maketh a full man, Conference a ready man, and Writing an exact man." Students should be taught to express themselves with precision. Our objective as educators is to understand that writing well will ultimately will help student for the rest of their lives, whether by applying for college or applying for a job or even opening the door for other to enter a whole new world through publication. The following are my steps to put my children on the "write" road.
1. Start Up Grammar- Daily grammar sentences are a perfect way to start the morning taking advantage of the first minutes of the day. I follow up with by teaching a skill and going through corrections and practicing the skill using jingles and music. I like to also teach students to use their time wisely as they finish their work in a timely and adequate manner by avoiding the dreaded rewrite which could lead to homework.
2. Essay of the Week- The idea for the essay is to teach proper structure for essays and then follow it up by assigning the essay topic for the weekend. However, they have a week to go through the writing process during the week and turn in their final copy on the following Friday. Assigning essays like this helps students learn to balance work and play.
3. Monthly Book Report- As apart of my reading and writing strategies, book reports are used to develop students. While there are many templates and creative models to create a book report, I recommend using one repititively so that students can become familiar with story elements and summarizing a book. It is important to remember to help children choose a book on his or her level. The key is to build confidence in their reading and writing abilities.
4. Young Authors' Project- One of my favorite activities that I have had students to do is to choose a topic of writing in order to author their own book from start to finish. I tell them that they can write about anything!! This is a memorable experience as students brainstorm, write, revise, edit, and publish.
Students have time to work on any of their writing activities during the block of time for writing at least 3 times a week called Writer's Workshop. They may work on their essays, their book reports, or their Author's project. During this time I usually begin with a quick lesson writing traits, but mostly, you may witness silent writing, editing circles, teacher revising conferencing, or computer publishing.
One of the most exciting parts of our "Writing Workshops" are the celebration events. One of our favorites is our Author's Tea. Each quarter, students may pick out the writing they are most proud of to read aloud to the class and any guest that came to hear our sharing. The ultimate favorite is our Author's Project Book Signing. Students may present their books to their class, share a synopsis, and offer to sign autographs. These books are collected in the class library for reading time and each student has a place to make positive comments and reviews in the back of their books. For most students, these books are treasured forever!