Hey Missy.... Here I am!:lol: I need a break from *packing* :roll: and I always love to post about one of my favorite subjects! Yep, one paragraph is all they work on in public school. That is even up to the 4th grade. Calvert, on the other hand has them write a 5 paragraph essay by the end of 4th grade. Journaling and composition are very different skills! Journaling is personal, there is no *right or wrong* because the emphasis is put on feelings instead of who our audience is or proper grammar. So thats why so many children like to journal. Especially when its not graded, its liberating! It should be encouraged because most journaling comes from our depths, our inwards. That is the end goal with composition too, we just have to learn rules with it. Journaling should be fun, and doesn't need to be held to a *set of uniform standards*. OTOH, composition is very different. It is structured and has rules that we need to learn. It can be fun too. I know for my oldest, what has helped is to have a model to follow. Studying that model, analyzing how a well written composition should look helps tremendously. Most kids don't like composition because a lot of emphasis on modern ways of writing is put on *style*. This is important but imho it can wait until the older grades when they are reading those wonderful novels like Northwriter was talking about. What I have learned is that children need help on *what* to write and *how* to lay out their thougs. Therein seems to be the *grief* when it comes to composition. It is hard enough to concentrate on a)variety of sentence starters b) grammar c) who is our audience d) fluent delivery 4) variety in verbs 5) clear topic sentences 6)clear closing sentences without trying to figure out WHAT to write about...and HOW to organize their thoughts. So that is why informal outlining, like key word outlining and then doing formal outlining is important as well. It goes hand in hand with composition. Informal outlining should be taught in 4th grade as well as an introduction to formal outlining. Rod and Staff save this for like even 6th grade. It is something that takes *time* to teach,so I'd rather *slay my dragons* early and get a nice introduction to it. I have used publications by Remedia on outlining... The writing curriculum that is very comprehensive is called Classical Writing. This is the one I use where a model is provided to study and then imitate. Style is saved for the older grades. Institute for excellence is good too, imho they too put emphasis on style too early though. But there are several who like that.... At this age or level of 3rd grade, her grammar should be covering topic sentences, how to pick them out, how to stay on topic for one paragraph, effective closings and not using tired and boring words such as *good and bad*... She should be able to pick out in a paragraph when one sentence does not belong because it doesn't have anything to do with what the rest of the paragraphy is about. If you are using Rod and Staff, they do an excellent job in this. They just put emphasis on grammar early and writing later ,whereas Calvert is visa versa.. Does that help?
We just completed the 3rd grade Rod and Staff grammar book. I loved it. Avery did not. I think she hated that it was a smaller book and hard to keep open, lol. We are sort of reviewing for the rest of the year with Scott Foresman's World of Language book. It is very similar to Rod and Staff but with a modern twist and a different layout. She should be getting lots of practice. I just don't have too many "papers" she has written. She has done probably 4??? She has also done poetry, personal letters and journal writing though. Thanks for all the info everyone. I love posts like this because you get so many opinions and such good advice.
Missy... You think they will let me teaching writing with all those typos in that previous post.. As far as third grade, one well written composition a week through the whole year is pretty rigorous for 3rd grade. This composition should compose of 4-6 sentences. The rest of the days you are not correcting or illustrating your composition, should be days for journaling. Some kids don't like composition either because they want to *snap* their pretty little fingers and have it done,kwim? My son included when we started. They need to realize early on that good writers have several drafts and copies. Teach this early and they will enjoy composition a lot better than thinking they are going to write it all in one day. So start off by using only like 3 days a week to teach this.. As she gets older it might take up to a week or longer before she gets a final copy. Here are some more specifics..Day 1, brainstorm the sentences... YOU WRITE down her thoughts. Let her concentrate only on what she wants to say...Let her lounge in her thoughts. By the end of the year the goal is to get her to do this step as well. But start with this baby step.. Rules here: Don't insist on perfect writing. This is a *scratch pad*. So she can write it in a shape planner, or list style. Do insist on correct spelling however, but no need to worry about grammar or boring words she has chosen or capitals right now. The goal is to let the thoughts flow by you using question and answer methods if necessary. Even if its a little sloppy, so is our writing when we are brainstorming,kwim? Day 2, begin drafting....For a side note: I use these writing pads called Top Stingers that are for writing using every other line (skip line method)... One line is white, the other is gray, etc, etc.. This is wonderful because after she drafts and you are working on correcting it, she can scratch out what she wrote and rewrite it underneath on the blank line instead of all the erasing. The most phobic writer loves this because they hate to erase and try to fit new words into a small space. Too, she can see her cross out work and what word she substituted..and what she said before and didn't like,just like real authors. This method works with regular paper, its just easier to see with this brand of pad because each line is highlighted a separate color, does that make sense? So its easy on the eyes.. Rules here: Hold her to better sounding sentences. Check out the variety of sentence openers. Can subjects and predicates be flipped? Did she stick to the subject? Is her closing sentence well written?...This is the time to pull out the Dictionary and Thesaurus and check for more vivid verbs,etc... Did she indent her paragraph? Day 3 Now,she can finalize that paper. Write in her best handwriting to be saved...Illustrate it too. The picture is just as important as the words. Write on the right hand side only and save the left side for illustration. You won't need the back of the page at this age/level since 6 sentences will fit on the front of one page.. You can preserve her work in several methods. Over the years, I have used Mead's sewn composition books and I use looseleaf paper in 3 ring binders. Re: Typing... Typing is generally started anywhere in the 4th to 6th grade..We use Mavis Beacon. The thinking as long as I can remember is that penmanship has always been connected to composition skill. I don't hail to the modern way of thinking that one does not need to know cursive or penmanship. We can do both. So since my son is older and writes more, we do our rough draft in long hand and just now, he is going to be in 6th grade this next year, he will start typing his final copy. Interesting note about this, I think it was in the SAT test this past year that the students could not type but had to write in long hand a composition. It stirred a lot of talk among highschoolers who couldn't hand write one well written composition. They were never taught that--they just typed them. There is a fine line between being sure they have good penmanship and letting them type since compositions get longer as they get older.. Yep, Rod and Staff will get you there! Bob Jones has a good writing program this year too. They changed it this past year and I have seen it.. It looks pretty good!
I wanted to add to this....my dd is in 3rd grade ps this year as well. They have not covered paragraph writing, punctuation, etc at all this year. As far as parts of speech goes, they did a blurb on verbs and nouns for a total of four days.
Wow, I did not know how much I needed this thread untill I read it! I was wondering if my 3rd grader was getting in enough writting for answers in his AO books. I give them little story starters, and being a writer I have made my own up. The problem is I had a rough time with my first child learning that he had to do what was required regardless of if he wanted to learn it. My second child is an advanced student, everything comes easy for her. Now with my little one ( 8.5 yr old) I am finding that I have expected him to follow his sister's pattern in learning. Forgetting of course that each child has thier own way of learning things. Reading this over I am finding that Johnny is doing okay! Praise the Lord! Thanks for asking that question and thanks to all of you who have replied to her question! Wee hoo! What a great way to start the school day! Be blessed!
Missy, My daughter jsut brought home instructions for a research report. THe teacher set it up so they are to write about 5 paragraphs but, one per page rather than alll one one page. Still focusing on one paragraph at a time. She is to use three resources, one internet site, one book and one encyclopedia. Then the teacher titled the paragraphs....introduction, habitat, characteristics. She was given 6 weeks to complete this project. This is the first real report she will be doing. She did have an oral report earlier this year on a person from history. This was also written however, she was not expected to organize the reoprt into an actual essay, with indentations and paragraph structure.
Thanks Maureen. Sounds like a good idea for me to have her do a research paper as well. I think we have already do papers like this but they were made up stories. It would be good for to do a real research paper too. Thanks for all the info. Just curious...did the teacher pick the topic or do the kids get to pick their own?
They had to pick an animal that is not a housepet. My daughter chose a Tiger. I was looking at the packet the teacher had sent home and they also have to do a table of contents and a bibliography. She had one page lined paper with a boarder for each paragraph and the page was titled for them. Overall I was impressed with how she presented the paper so as not to make it overwhelming. She gave them plenty of time (including class time) and a format to follow. My daughter seems excited to do the project.
Tie the research into something you're doing in history, science or geography. It can count as both Language and the other subjects. The idea of one specific paragraph per page is good. I would write very specific questions I wanted my kids to answer when I gave them "research" to do. You MIGHT want to teach them how to do an outline to organize their information. Each paragraph would be a different point. There is a writing part to the Fourth Grade Ohio Proficiency Test, but I know little about it since HS'ers aren't required to take it.
We just did this with my son! In ps he would be in 3rd grade, but he works on a 4th grade program at home. Writing is his WORST subject (ironically, spelling is one of his faves - I think it's because so many spelling lessons seem like games and he is totally into games!) but this year I got a book on writing at the teacher store (it was on sale). We began with LLTL orange book and the research writing project in there - it is on what ever state you live in. THen we did an idea web for what to write about, then learned about topic sentences, then wrote each on a sheet of paper. THen we looked up/downloaded info for each topic sentence, he decided what to include under each ts, the took his notes an spent 2 days typing it out. When he was done, he had a 7 paragraph (albeit short paragraphs!) research paper (including an introduction paragraph). Then he drew a picture of the state and we even went over a works cited page! (I did most of that). With writing as his worst subj, I wasn't sure how it would turn out, but he did me proud! THere was some hand holding to get through it, but he did it none the less! Now we are moving onto poetry - my poor boy . . .
OH wow, my 3rd/4th boy loves the poetry, because it was like a game to him to learn. He liked the rhythm and beat to the poems as well. I believe his gifting is in music and have been trying to find someone who will barder a year of lessons on Piano because he has a nack with the keys of the baby grande at church. He is good at spelling but hates the writing part of his work. Story starters that I write up with spaces and addins helped a little there. I think its just a normal 8 yr old thing not to want to do 'sooo much writting' with a pencil. Pens help but they are so messy.
Maureen, did she give them instructions for each page? MY son is doing a project on Texas, a report. I have been trying to teach my kids how to do this for years as they have never seen one in completed form.
*** I have another question on the writing angle... How old do you teach Cursive Writing? My kids, well mainly my boys, do not like cursive and fight me all the way. Johnny (8) can do it okay but hates it and so he gets so frustrated while having to do it. Miresa (12) fought it at first but when I tell her she has to write it she is pretty good at it. Dan (14) is like his dad and mixes cursive and printing. I have not been a good teacher at the type of writing I love to do somehow. Any clues? Help!
NO CLUE!!! Rachael can do it, but very messy. Faythe WANTS to learn it, but I'm not good at "teaching" it and her writing is so difficult to begin with! I tend to avoid it!
