Writing with Mrs. Borg
4/15/18: In writing this week we will continue our Spring Chick writing. The students seem very excited about working towards earning their chicks. This project will include letter writing, grammar, and narrative writing. I have offered a reward for those that still have their chick at the end of the project! We will also be working on an Earth Day writing assignment this week. They will be able to pick between poetry, a letter to Mother Earth, or a story about recycling, reusing, or reducing. They will also create an earth from a coffee filter and display it on black construction paper with their writing. I will post pictures when we are done!
3/19/18: We will continue to review writing strategies and writing at our very best. This includes reviewing grammar. Please check out some review Quizizz games under the important links tab after today. The mentor sentences quiz will be Tuesday the 20th.
3/12/18: We finished up our CER writing last Thursday! We will be reviewing how to tackle different writing prompts. How should they manage their time? What writing strategy should I use for which prompts? How do I organize my writing? We will also have a mentor sentence this week and quiz next Tuesday the 20th.
3/4/18:
This week we will start supporting our Science STEM year long project with a writing piece. This writing will support the CER...Claim, Evidence, and Reasoning strategy. We will then continue our tone and mood standard from reading and apply it to our writing. How can you develop the mood of a piece or the tone of a piece? How does word choice affect accomplishing this?
This week we will start supporting our Science STEM year long project with a writing piece. This writing will support the CER...Claim, Evidence, and Reasoning strategy. We will then continue our tone and mood standard from reading and apply it to our writing. How can you develop the mood of a piece or the tone of a piece? How does word choice affect accomplishing this?
2/25/18:
We have a little break from big writing pieces over this week. We are going to practice point of view within writing by trying to write a short piece that we change the point of view or perspective. We are also going to reinforce figurative language within writing by writing short pieces that encourage the use of different literary elements. We will be working on a mentor sentence this week and the quiz will be next Tuesday, March 6th. If your student is struggling with writing or even enjoys writing encourage them to start a journal. This is a great way to practice writing stamina and using our writing strategies that we have discussed all year. We will also talk about when and where to use different strategies we have learned. For example when should they use RACER and when should they summarize? This can be confusing for them, but we are going to work on that! I am continuing to work on grading the opinion pieces, they are long and I give a lot of notes so please be patient!
We have a little break from big writing pieces over this week. We are going to practice point of view within writing by trying to write a short piece that we change the point of view or perspective. We are also going to reinforce figurative language within writing by writing short pieces that encourage the use of different literary elements. We will be working on a mentor sentence this week and the quiz will be next Tuesday, March 6th. If your student is struggling with writing or even enjoys writing encourage them to start a journal. This is a great way to practice writing stamina and using our writing strategies that we have discussed all year. We will also talk about when and where to use different strategies we have learned. For example when should they use RACER and when should they summarize? This can be confusing for them, but we are going to work on that! I am continuing to work on grading the opinion pieces, they are long and I give a lot of notes so please be patient!
2/12/18:
This is it! We are finishing our opinion pieces this week. We are finishing up editing and revising and then typing our papers. They have worked really hard and I'm excited to read the finished product. I have been very clear that the last day to complete the writing is 2/16/18, this Friday. No exceptions. As students finish, we are working on researching amazing people in our history that have accomplished wonderful things. We are working on a new mentor sentence this week. Test will be on the Tuesday after we return.
This is it! We are finishing our opinion pieces this week. We are finishing up editing and revising and then typing our papers. They have worked really hard and I'm excited to read the finished product. I have been very clear that the last day to complete the writing is 2/16/18, this Friday. No exceptions. As students finish, we are working on researching amazing people in our history that have accomplished wonderful things. We are working on a new mentor sentence this week. Test will be on the Tuesday after we return.
2/5/18:
We have had some great discussions during writing. We are continuing to work on our opinion piece. They will continue to focus on the claim, evidence, and reasons for their topic. We also discussed how to include the other side of the opinion in order to counter the counterclaim! We will start discussing editing and final revisions and hopefully start typing!
Mentor Sentence quiz is on Tuesday! Students should have a completed study guide to help prepare.
We have had some great discussions during writing. We are continuing to work on our opinion piece. They will continue to focus on the claim, evidence, and reasons for their topic. We also discussed how to include the other side of the opinion in order to counter the counterclaim! We will start discussing editing and final revisions and hopefully start typing!
Mentor Sentence quiz is on Tuesday! Students should have a completed study guide to help prepare.
1/19/18:
We are continuing our writing pieces, supporting an argument with evidence. With one day of school, so far this week, we will continue researching and working on our first rough draft. After the rough draft has been written we will work with that draft over the next several weeks. Mentor sentences will continue, with the snow days we haven't gotten very far on our first one, so I'll let you know when an assessment will be coming at a later date.
We are continuing our writing pieces, supporting an argument with evidence. With one day of school, so far this week, we will continue researching and working on our first rough draft. After the rough draft has been written we will work with that draft over the next several weeks. Mentor sentences will continue, with the snow days we haven't gotten very far on our first one, so I'll let you know when an assessment will be coming at a later date.
1/9/18:
We are starting a new unit in writing, working on an argument that are based on evidence. We will be working on a class paper based on whether or not school should sell chocolate milk. Then the students will decide on a topic for their own personal paper. Believe it or not, these students feel very strongly about their opinions! We have also started mentor sentences in grammar. The students take what they have learned so far and apply it to sentences for in context practice. This week will be a practice week so we can learn the flow of each day and then we will add in assessments.
We are starting a new unit in writing, working on an argument that are based on evidence. We will be working on a class paper based on whether or not school should sell chocolate milk. Then the students will decide on a topic for their own personal paper. Believe it or not, these students feel very strongly about their opinions! We have also started mentor sentences in grammar. The students take what they have learned so far and apply it to sentences for in context practice. This week will be a practice week so we can learn the flow of each day and then we will add in assessments.
12/12/17:
The students are continuing to work hard on their informational writing! Some students have finished and typed their book! The students seem to struggle with sustained writing so that is an area we need to continue to improve. In an effort to push and get the books done before break, we will NOT have grammar this week!
The students are continuing to work hard on their informational writing! Some students have finished and typed their book! The students seem to struggle with sustained writing so that is an area we need to continue to improve. In an effort to push and get the books done before break, we will NOT have grammar this week!
12/4/17:
We have gotten well underway on our informational writing! The students all have a topic and have been working hard to gather research. We will continue writing/editing and constructing our writing and hopefully be done before break. We will start to talk about graphic features they can add in their book towards the end of the week. NO GRAMMAR THIS WEEK!
We have gotten well underway on our informational writing! The students all have a topic and have been working hard to gather research. We will continue writing/editing and constructing our writing and hopefully be done before break. We will start to talk about graphic features they can add in their book towards the end of the week. NO GRAMMAR THIS WEEK!
11/26/17:
This week we will be starting our informational writing unit! The students will start with picking a subject that they feel knowledgeable about or that they are an expert on and start gathering information. The students will be writing a nonfiction piece on the subject. I am hoping that we will be able to type these papers if time allows. We are going to start buffing up our typing skills!
This week we will be starting our informational writing unit! The students will start with picking a subject that they feel knowledgeable about or that they are an expert on and start gathering information. The students will be writing a nonfiction piece on the subject. I am hoping that we will be able to type these papers if time allows. We are going to start buffing up our typing skills!
11/12/17:
We will finish up our seed stories this week with revising and editing! They have a checklist they can use to make sure they have completed all items.
The grammar test will be this Tuesday. We will finish reviewing the study guide tomorrow.
Reading and Writing will merge this week when the students will be asked to write a persuasive paragraph on whether or not they would recommend our book study book to a friend. They should be very interesting!
We will finish up our seed stories this week with revising and editing! They have a checklist they can use to make sure they have completed all items.
The grammar test will be this Tuesday. We will finish reviewing the study guide tomorrow.
Reading and Writing will merge this week when the students will be asked to write a persuasive paragraph on whether or not they would recommend our book study book to a friend. They should be very interesting!
11/5/17:
We are going to be returning to our seed stories this week. They will complete their flash draft and then we will start the revise and editing techniques. The students will all be getting a rubric/checklist that they will use to prepare their papers. We will not be typing this stories for many reasons.....
1. Not enough computers
2. They type slower than my grandma
3. They are not going to be typing on the end of the year test, we need to build those writing muscles.
We are reviewing grammar this week and the test will be next Tuesday. I'm so proud of the incredible improvements I have seen in grammar, now we just have to apply that to our writing!!
In case you want some more practice....here are some game resources for grammar.
http://www.sheppardsoftware.com/web_games_vocab.htm
https://www.education.com/games/grammar/
We are going to be returning to our seed stories this week. They will complete their flash draft and then we will start the revise and editing techniques. The students will all be getting a rubric/checklist that they will use to prepare their papers. We will not be typing this stories for many reasons.....
1. Not enough computers
2. They type slower than my grandma
3. They are not going to be typing on the end of the year test, we need to build those writing muscles.
We are reviewing grammar this week and the test will be next Tuesday. I'm so proud of the incredible improvements I have seen in grammar, now we just have to apply that to our writing!!
In case you want some more practice....here are some game resources for grammar.
http://www.sheppardsoftware.com/web_games_vocab.htm
https://www.education.com/games/grammar/
10/30/17: This week we will finish up our MONSTER LAB writing assignment. The students will have a choice if they want to write an informational piece or narrative piece. I put a bunch of pictures on Seesaw of all the monster creations! They look great!
10/23/17: We will be working on a MONSTER LAB writing assignment this week. The students will create their own monster and do several writing assignments with their monster. Thank you to Mrs. McCarthy for sending in play dough for the kids to use! The students will be writing letters, information about their monster, how to make a monster instructions and finally a narrative story about their monster. We will discuss bold beginnings and how to apply our grammar knowledge. We will be working on grammar this week and the test will be next Tuesday. We will pick back up with our seed story next week.
10/15/17: Grammar test will be Tuesday the 17th. We will finishing reviewing on Monday so the students can make sure they have all the corrections. In writing we will be discussing how to stay focused during the story they are writing. What is the point of their story? We will be dissecting our seed stories in order to developing our writing craft.
10/9/17: We are well on our way to finishing our seed stories and will be working with those drafts over the next several weeks. We have discussed looking at the world through a writer's eyes and finding the stories around us.
This week is grammar so the test will be next Tuesday the 17th.
This week is grammar so the test will be next Tuesday the 17th.
10/2/17: We are still working on generating ideas for personal narratives. Students will be picking one of the ideas and doing a "Flash Draft" on that topic. This is the beginning of our big writing piece that we will be working on for the next several weeks.
9/18/17: UPDATE: The Grammar test will be on the 21st due to Civil War Day! The kids should have written this in their agenda last week.
Thanks!
Thanks!
9/13/17:
We will be working on how to brainstorm or what to write about this week. Today we discussed turning points in our lives. We also discussed how we can make connections with a picture or book and it may trigger a connection that we can write about. We will also be finishing up the Grammar Week 3 page we started last week. The test will be next Friday 9/22. As a reminder, that page is the study guide and the quiz comes directly from that study guide.
We will be working on how to brainstorm or what to write about this week. Today we discussed turning points in our lives. We also discussed how we can make connections with a picture or book and it may trigger a connection that we can write about. We will also be finishing up the Grammar Week 3 page we started last week. The test will be next Friday 9/22. As a reminder, that page is the study guide and the quiz comes directly from that study guide.
9/3/17:
This week we will be working on reviewing our RACER responses and how we can improve or what we need to change. We will also start developing our Writing Workshop expectations and developing our love of writing. We will discuss a seed story and how to brainstorm and pick topics.
We will also continue with conjunctions and how to identify misspelled words and spell them correctly.
This week we will be working on reviewing our RACER responses and how we can improve or what we need to change. We will also start developing our Writing Workshop expectations and developing our love of writing. We will discuss a seed story and how to brainstorm and pick topics.
We will also continue with conjunctions and how to identify misspelled words and spell them correctly.
8/27/17
We will be having a grammar quiz on Tuesday. The students have a study guide that we have worked on all week and they should have corrected any incorrect answers they had on the sheet. This Wednesday will be our first graded assignment on a RACER response debate question. What do you think, should video games be considered a sport? No grammar sheet this week for daily review, we will be alternating between grammar and vocabulary.
We will be having a grammar quiz on Tuesday. The students have a study guide that we have worked on all week and they should have corrected any incorrect answers they had on the sheet. This Wednesday will be our first graded assignment on a RACER response debate question. What do you think, should video games be considered a sport? No grammar sheet this week for daily review, we will be alternating between grammar and vocabulary.
8/20/17
We will have a grammar quiz on Tuesday and continue to do a daily review of grammar. I really like the program we are doing for grammar, it is allowing me to see what they know and do not know. Last week there was a question on conjunctions and they struggled to know the differences, when to use them, and how to identify them. So, this week I will be reviewing that! We will continue to work on our RACE responses in reading through a debate question. These debate questions bring up some interesting conversation! The students will summarize the article in one paragraph and then express their opinion through RACER (S) in the next paragraph. This strategy is so important for student to understand how to involve all components of responding to a question in written format! Don't forget to send in any old magazines, stickers, or pictures for the students to decorate their writing notebooks!
We will have a grammar quiz on Tuesday and continue to do a daily review of grammar. I really like the program we are doing for grammar, it is allowing me to see what they know and do not know. Last week there was a question on conjunctions and they struggled to know the differences, when to use them, and how to identify them. So, this week I will be reviewing that! We will continue to work on our RACE responses in reading through a debate question. These debate questions bring up some interesting conversation! The students will summarize the article in one paragraph and then express their opinion through RACER (S) in the next paragraph. This strategy is so important for student to understand how to involve all components of responding to a question in written format! Don't forget to send in any old magazines, stickers, or pictures for the students to decorate their writing notebooks!
8/13/17
We will continue working on RACE(R) or (S) this week since we got behind and didn't start that last week. We will also be decorating our writing notebooks to develop a love of writing. If you have any old magazines, stickers, or pictures consider donating them to the classroom for that project.
We will continue working on RACE(R) or (S) this week since we got behind and didn't start that last week. We will also be decorating our writing notebooks to develop a love of writing. If you have any old magazines, stickers, or pictures consider donating them to the classroom for that project.
8/7/17
This week we will be working on RACE(R) or (S). If you don't know what that is, I bet your student does! Ask them! We will also be working on establishing our routine for writing workshop.
This week we will be working on RACE(R) or (S). If you don't know what that is, I bet your student does! Ask them! We will also be working on establishing our routine for writing workshop.
2017-2018
5/2/17:
We are working on writing our business plan for the water bottle straps. After that we will start working on paragraph construction by writing a class book, "How to Survive 5th Grade". I think they will be expert writers on this subject!
We are working on writing our business plan for the water bottle straps. After that we will start working on paragraph construction by writing a class book, "How to Survive 5th Grade". I think they will be expert writers on this subject!
4/9/17:
We will be reviewing ways to strengthen our writing this week. This will include creating an opinion using evidence in a specific time frame and reviewing RACER response. The students seem to really like the debate aspect of the opinion writing and we have a really good topic this week! Ask your student...after Monday!
We will be reviewing ways to strengthen our writing this week. This will include creating an opinion using evidence in a specific time frame and reviewing RACER response. The students seem to really like the debate aspect of the opinion writing and we have a really good topic this week! Ask your student...after Monday!
3/23/17:
We finished our opinion writing and MY WORD, these kids blew me out of the water! I have seen great improvement over the year! I handed back their graded papers and they were to look at it and reflect on what they could improve on for next time. Of course they had to write a paragraph about the reflection! I told the kids that we will be doing WRITING BOOTCAMP over the next several weeks! We will be focusing on standards over the next couple of weeks that we need to revisit.
We finished our opinion writing and MY WORD, these kids blew me out of the water! I have seen great improvement over the year! I handed back their graded papers and they were to look at it and reflect on what they could improve on for next time. Of course they had to write a paragraph about the reflection! I told the kids that we will be doing WRITING BOOTCAMP over the next several weeks! We will be focusing on standards over the next couple of weeks that we need to revisit.
2/27/17:
We are continuing work on our opinion writing. I will be meeting with each student individually to go over their introduction paragraphs while they work on the body of their paper this week. We should be finishing up the end of this week or early next week. We will continue to focus on supporting our reasons with solid evidence and providing elaboration and details......but not TOO many details!
We are continuing work on our opinion writing. I will be meeting with each student individually to go over their introduction paragraphs while they work on the body of their paper this week. We should be finishing up the end of this week or early next week. We will continue to focus on supporting our reasons with solid evidence and providing elaboration and details......but not TOO many details!
2/12/17:
We are still working on our opinion writing. The students have developed their thesis and we will be incorporating this into our introduction paragraph this week. We are also continuing to work on strengthening our sentences through combining, reducing, and expanding as necessary. In addition, we are continuing to working on synonyms and antonyms through daily practice. We will have an assessment on synonyms and antonyms on Thursday, this really should be a review from 3rd grade.
We will not be having vocabulary words over the next several weeks (your welcome, haha) and we will have grammar homework that will be due on Wednesday and one on Friday. The homework will focus on skills that should be review for the students.
We are still working on our opinion writing. The students have developed their thesis and we will be incorporating this into our introduction paragraph this week. We are also continuing to work on strengthening our sentences through combining, reducing, and expanding as necessary. In addition, we are continuing to working on synonyms and antonyms through daily practice. We will have an assessment on synonyms and antonyms on Thursday, this really should be a review from 3rd grade.
We will not be having vocabulary words over the next several weeks (your welcome, haha) and we will have grammar homework that will be due on Wednesday and one on Friday. The homework will focus on skills that should be review for the students.
1/30/17:
We will still be doing opinion writing this week, but we will be changing our focus to a different topic. We needed a topic that the students already had background knowledge in, so change it is! We will be writing a class paper and the students will apply what we do with the class paper to their paper. We will also be learning about synonyms, antonyms, and homographs in grammar.
We will still be doing opinion writing this week, but we will be changing our focus to a different topic. We needed a topic that the students already had background knowledge in, so change it is! We will be writing a class paper and the students will apply what we do with the class paper to their paper. We will also be learning about synonyms, antonyms, and homographs in grammar.
1/22/17:
We will be starting our opinion writing this week. It will revolve around the inventors that we will be studying for Social Studies standards. We will start off distinguishing between fact and opinion and than work on note taking to support our opinion. We will also continue to work on strengthening our sentences. The students learned three ways to strengthen sentences last week and we have been practicing everyday. There will be a quiz on Wednesday.
We will be starting our opinion writing this week. It will revolve around the inventors that we will be studying for Social Studies standards. We will start off distinguishing between fact and opinion and than work on note taking to support our opinion. We will also continue to work on strengthening our sentences. The students learned three ways to strengthen sentences last week and we have been practicing everyday. There will be a quiz on Wednesday.
1/8/17:
What a great day and a half we had to start off writing this year! I recently was reading an article on picking one word to define your year instead of a resolution. I was so excited I did it with my family and then decided to do it with our students. On a funny side note, at the staff meeting the other day Dr. Luscre presented the same idea to the staff!
Above is the word cloud Mrs. Borg's class created using menti.com. Look at those words!! I had to look up a couple of them! We will be working on a paragraph to accompany our words and then they can create artwork to display their word. I am really looking forward to seeing what they come up with. (I accidentally deleted Mrs. Berenger's word cloud, but we will do it again Monday!)
We wrapped up our Informational/Research on Westward Expansion. We will be starting our argument/research/opinion writing next. I know this writing program is rigourous, but I am seeing vast improvements in the students that are applying what they are learning! That is why I love teaching!
This week we will also be focusing on sentences, expanding, combining, and reducing them.
What a great day and a half we had to start off writing this year! I recently was reading an article on picking one word to define your year instead of a resolution. I was so excited I did it with my family and then decided to do it with our students. On a funny side note, at the staff meeting the other day Dr. Luscre presented the same idea to the staff!
Above is the word cloud Mrs. Borg's class created using menti.com. Look at those words!! I had to look up a couple of them! We will be working on a paragraph to accompany our words and then they can create artwork to display their word. I am really looking forward to seeing what they come up with. (I accidentally deleted Mrs. Berenger's word cloud, but we will do it again Monday!)
We wrapped up our Informational/Research on Westward Expansion. We will be starting our argument/research/opinion writing next. I know this writing program is rigourous, but I am seeing vast improvements in the students that are applying what they are learning! That is why I love teaching!
This week we will also be focusing on sentences, expanding, combining, and reducing them.
12/4/16:
We are working hard on our Westward Expansion informational writing still! We will be talking about elaboration and start writing the 2nd paragraph. We are on a tight schedule to finish this before our break!
We are working hard on our Westward Expansion informational writing still! We will be talking about elaboration and start writing the 2nd paragraph. We are on a tight schedule to finish this before our break!
11/27/16: We are still working on our Westward Expansion informational writing! Monday all the students should have finished their timelines. We will start working on our lead paragraph on Tuesday. The students will each be given a rubric to look at while writing their lead. My hope is that before we leave on break, all students will be done and have typed their paper!
11/11/16: We are continuing to work on our Westward Expansion informational writing. We have had a great week of note taking and we are going to work on adding some text features to our topics, such as a timeline and table box. Hopefully we start working on the lead paragraph this week also!
10/31/16: We are continuing to work on our Westward Expansion and note taking. This concept is difficult to master so we will spend quite a while on how to condense and pick out important information.
10/17/16: We are starting our informational unit this week! We will be writing about Westward Expansion and learning about research.
10/10/16:
We are still working on editing and publishing our stories. Hopefully everyone is done by Friday! Many students asked to type their paper at home. I have no problem with this, especially those that struggle with spelling, this would really help. I told them no parental help on editing or typing! They will also need to print at home and bring it in. We will start on informational writing next!
***NEEDED***
For our informational unit I need 4x6 vertical post its, lined. A pack of 3 per student is my goal!
Thanks!
We are still working on editing and publishing our stories. Hopefully everyone is done by Friday! Many students asked to type their paper at home. I have no problem with this, especially those that struggle with spelling, this would really help. I told them no parental help on editing or typing! They will also need to print at home and bring it in. We will start on informational writing next!
***NEEDED***
For our informational unit I need 4x6 vertical post its, lined. A pack of 3 per student is my goal!
Thanks!
9/23/16:
We are rewriting our second drafts and will work on editing when we come back from the break and then we will publish!
We are rewriting our second drafts and will work on editing when we come back from the break and then we will publish!
9/14/16:
We are working on elaboration with our drafts. We have talked about adding details, slowing down the action, adding personal internal thoughts, flash backs and flash forwards. They have turned in their work and that will be a grade before being added to the drafts. We will move on next week to ending our papers, revising, and editing. Within editing we will learn about commas, quotation marks, verbs, and wrap it all up in C.O.P.S. which is C=Capitalization O=Organization P=Punctuation S=Sentences. We will also touch on spelling and how to identify and correct misspelled words.
We are working on elaboration with our drafts. We have talked about adding details, slowing down the action, adding personal internal thoughts, flash backs and flash forwards. They have turned in their work and that will be a grade before being added to the drafts. We will move on next week to ending our papers, revising, and editing. Within editing we will learn about commas, quotation marks, verbs, and wrap it all up in C.O.P.S. which is C=Capitalization O=Organization P=Punctuation S=Sentences. We will also touch on spelling and how to identify and correct misspelled words.
9/7/16:
We are continuing to finish our flash drafts. If the students didn't finish them today, they need to finish it for homework. Next we will start learning about story arcs and how their story fits in an arc. We will continue to learn about revising and editing our papers and hopefully move towards publishing by next Thursday.
We are continuing to finish our flash drafts. If the students didn't finish them today, they need to finish it for homework. Next we will start learning about story arcs and how their story fits in an arc. We will continue to learn about revising and editing our papers and hopefully move towards publishing by next Thursday.
8/29/16:
This week we will be picking the subject of our seed story! I think the students are excited to stop brainstorming and actually work on a personal narrative that we will actually finish! We will review the checklist and rubric for narrative writing, set goals, and then start writing with a flash draft. Once the draft is complete we will start working with that narrative to revise and edit, according to the checklist.
We will also be working on verb tenses. Below I have attached a practice "quizizz". Just go to join.quizizz.com and type in the game code and USE YOUR REAL NAME! No cute nicknames or I won't know who is who! You are feel to practice at home and I will also have the students practicing in the classroom.
This week we will be picking the subject of our seed story! I think the students are excited to stop brainstorming and actually work on a personal narrative that we will actually finish! We will review the checklist and rubric for narrative writing, set goals, and then start writing with a flash draft. Once the draft is complete we will start working with that narrative to revise and edit, according to the checklist.
We will also be working on verb tenses. Below I have attached a practice "quizizz". Just go to join.quizizz.com and type in the game code and USE YOUR REAL NAME! No cute nicknames or I won't know who is who! You are feel to practice at home and I will also have the students practicing in the classroom.
8/22/16: This week we will discuss focus in your story. We will also review C.O.P.S. = Capitalization, Organization, Punctuation, and Spelling. I will give them strategies for each one of these so they can revise and edit their papers. We will also continue our Quick Writes and generating ideas. We have started a lot of stories from generating ideas and soon we will pick one to carry through to completion.
8/15/16: This week we will be talking about how to generate ideas for writing. We watched a video from J.K. Rowling today and she talked about how writing Harry Potter took her 10 years of research and 5 years of drafting! Wow! We will also talk more about a watermelon story versus a seed story.
8/8/16: This week we will work on identifying the habits of good writers. We will also continue to review the expectations in writing and writing workshop.
2016-2017
2015-2016
5/2 Our final project of the year will be more of a passion project. The students can choose something they are good at and present it to the class. The only writing requirement will be a set of how to instructions to teach the class what it is they are demonstrating. They may bring in a prop to show the class, as long as it is easy to carry and not dangerous or inappropriate. More details will be sent home soon!
March 20th:
We are continuing to work on our How to Writing. I think they are learning how important it is to include details that they may already know, but when explaining something, they must include. After this assignment we will be working on characteristics of good writing and categorizing them by rating them according to a rubric. We will be doing several short writing assignments after that so they can learn to apply some of the things we have talked about.
We are continuing to work on our How to Writing. I think they are learning how important it is to include details that they may already know, but when explaining something, they must include. After this assignment we will be working on characteristics of good writing and categorizing them by rating them according to a rubric. We will be doing several short writing assignments after that so they can learn to apply some of the things we have talked about.
March 7th:
Hopefully your student told you all about our bubble gum activity! We will continue to work on the how to writing and using transition words!
Hopefully your student told you all about our bubble gum activity! We will continue to work on the how to writing and using transition words!
February 29th:
Tuesday we will start our how to writing with the bubble gum experiment! They will learn a lot from this experience! They will be able to pick their own activity to do a how to writing, I can't wait to read them! I also learn so much from my students!
Tuesday we will start our how to writing with the bubble gum experiment! They will learn a lot from this experience! They will be able to pick their own activity to do a how to writing, I can't wait to read them! I also learn so much from my students!
Week of February 22nd:
We are still working on poetry to get ready for Author's night on March 22nd! I would love for students to show up to our Poetry Slam and "perform" one of their poems!
We will start working on a "How to" writing next. We practice by writing directions for how to blow a bubble!
We are still working on poetry to get ready for Author's night on March 22nd! I would love for students to show up to our Poetry Slam and "perform" one of their poems!
We will start working on a "How to" writing next. We practice by writing directions for how to blow a bubble!
Week of February 8th:
We finished up the "Try This" writing! We are going to work on some poetry and be publishing our favorite one! Poetry is not only great for writing, but it shows the students great uses for figurative language. I am expresses to them the importance of spicing up their writing by using interesting words, strong verbs, idioms, alliterations, personification, similes, and metaphors!!
We finished up the "Try This" writing! We are going to work on some poetry and be publishing our favorite one! Poetry is not only great for writing, but it shows the students great uses for figurative language. I am expresses to them the importance of spicing up their writing by using interesting words, strong verbs, idioms, alliterations, personification, similes, and metaphors!!
Week of February 1st:
The students are continuing to work on their "Try This" writing. I love some of their ideas! They want us to try having a pet mouse, play Minecraft, and fishing! We will focus on the transition words they need to be using and using interesting words.
The students are continuing to work on their "Try This" writing. I love some of their ideas! They want us to try having a pet mouse, play Minecraft, and fishing! We will focus on the transition words they need to be using and using interesting words.