Our writing mostly is journaling with some note booking, creative writing and author study. I include prompts here for a taste of how we focus our learning on a specific skills.
Writing is one of my favorite subjects to teach, but it can be challenging for young children. They are still using so much mental exertion to encode that it is often overwhelming. Some experts will advise simple writing activities until the age of 8. Others support inventive writing with great patience for misspellings, focusing on the process and ideas being shared. My children range in skills and we have the independent speller, the child who needs references and tools for spelling and the one who dictates many words and is only expected to spell known words and patterns.
Our four writing aspects are:
1. Creative Writing
2. Journaling
3. Notebook
4. Writer's Craft
Here is a pdf of prompts for each of the above writing activities.
Creative Writing
On Friday we free write as a family. I got this idea from the Brave Writer. I encourage you to checkout the linked description. Some days I set a goal for how long we will write to build stamina. We will sometimes have little creative writing mini lessons on poetry or review free write options. I have a variety of backlines from past units.
Last year I used the Writing Workshop Model of teaching with monthly units. This model focuses on the process of writing-planning, drafting, revising, editing, publishing and sharing. We can revisit our favorite writing formats and dapple with some poetry.
Two new resources I am looking forward to use are Writing Magic: Creating Stories that Fly by Gail Carson Levine and Don't Forget to Write for Elementary Grades: 50 Enthralling and Effective Writing Lessons (Ages 5-12) by 826 National.
Monthly writing units:
How-To
Poetry
Retelling Fables
Opinion writing
Research using a T-chart
Friendly Letters
Imaginative Narrative
Play Writing (see the post on this month lesson plan)
Debate: Speech (see the post on this lesson plan also)
Each monthly unit begins with a bit of ceremony to introduce the genre.
The first and second weeks are for prewriting and drafting multiple pieces.
The third week we pick one draft to revise.
Then, we wrap up with editing and publishing.
It ends with a celebration where the published piece is shared
The Workshop Lesson Outline
Getting Ready- we set out our writing folders and pick the work we will do that day such as starting a new piece or working on one from a time before.
Mini lesson- A hook, a quick teaching point followed by modeling, practicing orally, and then off we go to write. This is where skills and strategies are taught and shown with anchor charts. Writing Strategies by Jennifer Serravallo is a goal oriented collection of mini-lessons that have been inspirational to me. The link is for her free printables.
Writing Time/Conferencing- We all write quietly for 10 minutes and then I visit with each one asking questions and giving praise and tips as needed. A teaching tip or invitation to remember a skill can be exerted as desired.
Conclusion- I notice that ... used the strategy of... to... We clean up.
This next year I have changed my focus to help build stamina and purpose aligned to the well-educated heart teaching and learning.
Journaling
“ Journaling is like whispering to one's self and listening at the same time.” Mina Murray.
As I am pondering the writing of my children, I keep coming back to the practice of journaling. Journal writing helps us understand ourselves better, help others understand us and helps us remember what we learn.
Roses:
Gratitude journaling is a positive habit and aligns the soul with happiness. We write about the joy, the memories we treasure and the adventures, relationships and experiences we find rich and lovely.
Thorns:
Self-introspection on feelings and choices give us a time and space to see patterns that are helpful or not. We will study growth mindset and how we connect our thoughts to feelings and self-talk. The hard things in life teach us. As we reflect on challenges, resources, skills we need or are developing we can see difficulties with perspective. The ability to learn lessons from mistakes and have optimism are habits fostering resiliency. We also ask questions and record inspiration.
Buds:
We will journal goals. We think of the priorities for the day and the good we can do.
The habits created are intention, awareness and service.
For an extra twist on journaling, I have word prompts. These are more for recording memories.
Notebook
While we read our Forgotten Classics Library, historical novels, literature and geography books we are collecting great words, ideas and truths for our notebooks.
Vocabulary: We write new words we are learning and look up definitions
Copy Work: We write down quotes from the books to learn from excellent writing grammar, spelling, craft and practice neat handwriting.
Informational Writing Prompts can be like a narration or summary, but also covers artful thinking prompts and supporting ideas with textual evidence and precision.
Retelling: Oral planning or prewriting
Retelling helps prepare for writing in our notebook. Retelling is taking what you listen to and telling it in your own words. What you recreate you remember. The simplest way is to tell someone, but drawing, writing, and other creative activities also make learning stick. Retelling is a way children process life. As we retell, we are developing habits of attention to detail, articulation, focus and order.
Begin by asking the child to recall what they read yesterday or the last time you read from the book. This helps memories go into long term retention.
Retelling a paragraph, page or chapter will vary by attention and complexity of the text. Each child will benefit from narrating even if they repeat the work of others. Listening to each other helps support and deepen learning. Determine the amount of stopping that is useful. You can tell a child they will retell a part or ask all to be ready.
You will see the prompts are appropriate for different levels of experience and expectation. Identify where you are and start there. As you practice retelling your mind will hold onto more and your skills will improve.
What did we learn last time?
Tell me three things you want to remember.
Tell me something from the beginning, middle and end.
Tell me what you hear with a main idea and details.
What happened?
What did you learn?
Summarize the paragraph, page or passage.
Writer's Craft
I took the traits of good writing and simplified them into five craft categories. The categories are: concise thought, precise word choice, varied sentence structure, eloquent technique and organized structure. As we read we look for craft examples. As we write we plan, draft, revise, and edit to use them. The fluent use of these craft aspects naturally develops a child's voice.
The downloadable pdf has details on each of the categories and can be used for reference.
Using Writing Strategies Book by Jennifer Serravallo, we assess our writing and make a goal.
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