Theodore Roosevelt School

Third grade students are becoming skilled writers! For the month of October, third grade students are writing a Personal Narrative about an important part of their lives. They have been showing off their creative thinking by: brainstorming writing ideas in their Writer’s Notebook, writing drafts with sensory details, and revising and editing their pieces in preparation to publish.

This month, the students have had experiences providing their peers feedback on their writing pieces in the form of peer revisions, and peer editing. Additionally, students will share their work in the “author’s chair”. The class will listen, and respond to their writing with a compliment, or positive constructive feedback.

Have you ever stopped to consider your ‘Writing Type’? That’s exactly what’s happening in 6th Grade Language Arts and Writer’s Workshop! We are ‘launching’ our year by discovering our writing passions. Perhaps a student loves writing poetry, or a student might enjoy persuading an audience. All different types of writers are welcome!

Here are some strategies to help answer the question, “What type of writer are you?” :

Read Alouds: In Language Arts, stories are often used to spotlight examples of great writing. These read-alouds are called ‘mentor texts’ and provide a guiding example for students. So far, our favorite story this year was ‘Jimi Sounds Like a Rainbow,’ a biography about the late great musician, Jimi Hendrex!

Flash Drafts: Ready...set...GO! Students have only five minutes to craft a response to a prompt. These quick writing pieces may be messy and imperfect, but they often lead to great ideas for writing pieces.

Painting Pictures with Words: Similes, personification, onomatopoeia - oh my! All of these techniques are used to add vivid descriptions to writing. We are crafting stories like true authors, and breathing life into our rough drafts.

We can’t wait to show you our finished pieces! Let’s continue to make it a great year in Language Arts!