Writing is generated as a
meaningful tool to share meaning throughout curricular work. |
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Children retell
familiar stories using a wide variety of materials. |
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Children's
expressive language is extended in many ways. |
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Writing in Grade One - Middle of
the Year
by student teachers: Miss Heacock,
Miss Horne, and Mrs. Turner
The students are encouraged to
generate their own writing in a variety of contexts. One way the
children are involved is through creating original class stories
based on the styles of famous children authors. For example, a
grade one class decided to build their own class story based on
the style of Robert Munsch. First, they used their background
knowledge of Mars to brainstorm the characters, setting, possible
expressions and so forth. These ideas were then placed onto a
storyboard to get their creative ideas flowing. Story boards
allow students to organize and plan their thoughts to create a
title, characters, setting and a beginning, middle and end to
their story. The students expanded upon these ideas to produce
their own original class work that replicated the style of Robert
Munsch. The students love this type of activity as they take on
the role of authors. Another way the students generate writing is
through the modeled approach. Here, the students write a daily
saying down in their journals, paying attention to word structure,
punctuation and spelling.
Writing a journal is a
very powerful tool and practice which can help students explore
and develop their writing skills. Students write about the
personal experiences and feelings they have in and out of school,
which allow them to reflect on the situation, and then choose the
words they want to use to express their thoughts. By writing
about something they know, students are the experts and they will
be more selective and descriptive in their sentences, and are also
more likely to want to learn creative words to retell their
story. The grade one students are constantly generating writing
across curriculum subjects. For example, in science, the students
keep a scientific journal of the subject they are learning about.
Writing is not strictly limited to Language Arts.
During the
middle of the year, the students use more descriptive words in
their writing. Again, using descriptive words is reinforced
through brain-storming words onto the board that describe a
certain topic. For example, the students may be working on a pig
unit and the teacher would work collaboratively with the students
to decide upon words that describe a pigs behavior, colour, and
characteristics. Another way students can learn to incorporate
descriptive words into their writing is to retell a published
story using their own words. For example, students can retell a
patterned story, such as The Mitten. Students can brainstorm
different animals and words that would describe how they would
move into the mitten. Words brainstormed in one Grade One class
included lumbered, waddled, wiggled and jostled. These
collaborative methods assist the students in learning descriptive
words and expanding their written and oral vocabulary. Through
the use of descriptive words, students develop an understanding of
making a piece of writing interesting.
It is
imperative that children have the opportunity to share their
written compositions with others as there are many benefits to
this. As students share their writing with other classmates,
teachers, and parents, they become more aware of what it is that
they have written. Moreover, students begin to self-correct what
does not make sense in their writing. Students become aware of
the variety, or lack of, sentence starters they use. For example,
with the use of different sentence starters (I enjoyed when, my
favorite part was, it was interesting how) students continue their
journey to becoming fluent authors.
When given a
piece of paper, some students dont know where to start an idea or
what words to use. Allowing students to first orally tell a story
with felt boards or pictures promotes them to learn through play.
By acting and orally telling a story, students use their
imaginations to create characters, a setting, dialogue and an
order to a story. This can help the students telling and the
students listening by giving them these ideas, as well as words
which they may have not thought up on their own. Teachers can
help this collective process along by recording the words the
students use to tell the story and to keep the felt board /
picture book visually present to the students so that they can go
back to it if necessary.
Teaching students how to
write can be accomplished in many different ways. The examples
above show that writing activities should be personal and
interesting to the students. Most writing activities are
collaborative and they love to share their stories-just like they
love to hear stories!
These activities also encompass the
different types of learning styles students use to learn, such as
visual, auditory and interpersonal. By using a variety of
activities, all students will learn and excel at writing, which
will help them in their reading skills as well. |
Ideas to
Support Young Writers
How I Can Get
My Writing Started
Talk over my
ideas... with a friend ... with a group ... or with my teacher.
Brainstorm
ideas with some friends.
Draw or paint
a picture of my ideas first.
Read about my
topic.
List questions
I want to find answers to.
Look through
my journal for ideas.
How to Revise
My Writing
When I edit, I
can ask:
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Does my
writing make sense when I read it over?
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Which part
sounds best?
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Is my
beginning interesting? Is my ending good?
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Could I add
some details to make it more interesting?
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Could I join
some ideas together?
When I
proofread, I can ask:
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Do any words
look wrong?
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Did I leave
out any words?
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Did I put
capital letters:
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Did I put a
question mark at the end of question sentences?
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Is my
writing neat and easy to read?
How I Can
Share and Present My Writing
Make it into a
book.
Act it out
with some friends
Give it to a
friend or relative.
Read it to
someone.
Tape-record it
for others to listen to.
File it in my
portfolio.
Make a display
with it.
Illustrate or
paint it.
Print it out
on a computer. |
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Middle of the
Year (Jan March)
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Letter-sound connection
chunks, word families, blends, diagraphs, more vowel work than
consonants
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Generating writing:
original text, familiar stories author studies, themes describing
words; brainstorming; reading versions; building background knowledge;
genres fairy tales retellings; personal experiences adding detail
who, what, where, when why; storyboards; felt boards oral first;
shared writing, modeled writing, paired writing,
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Word Work dictionary;
word wall, Making Words, McCracken, word endings (s, ed, ing, ly, es);
contractions, compound words, prepositions, describing words, action
words, thing words,
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Editing marks spelling,
sentences, punctuation, spacing, capitalization
Click here for an Editing
Checklist.
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Punctuation
quotation marks, comma, apostrophe, exclamations, periods,
,
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Reports outline group
outline, then they add sentences from form; from non-fiction jot
notes; simple sentences; brainstorming
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Questions
Who, What, Why, Where, When, How

Sentence
Rubric
WRITING
SELF ASSESSMENT
Student Name: ____________
IN MY WRITING
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EXCELLENT
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GOOD |
KEEP WORKING |
I used capital
and lower case letters correctly |
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I used periods,
exclamation marks and questions marks correctly |
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I spelled high
frequency words correctly |
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My sentences are
clear and make senses |
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My sentences
stayed on topic |
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I used several
sentences to describe my topic |
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For
a printable version of this rubric, click here.
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