Through the years, writing - the instruction of it - has been a love / hate relationship for me. I absolutely love, love, love journal writing. This is where I find out all of the little details about my students that make them unique which helps me build relationships with them. Strong relationships with students equals better classroom management which makes for a much happier teacher! Finding out those little details like winning the big soccer game on the weekend or their beloved cat is sick gives me connections with my students. Sometimes they need a high 5 and other times they need a pat on the back. The smallest gestures can have some of the biggest payoffs.
Finding time to teach all of the different writing lessons that was on my wish list was the "hate" part of my relationship. Writing lessons are so time consuming. But, they are so important, what's a teacher to do? One morning at 3 a.m. I had an epiphany! What about a structured writing homework program? Keep in mind at the time I was teaching kindergarten (2nd quarter). I sent home a special spiral notebook which was their home journal along with a spaceman and a letter explaining my expectations. Each week I wrote 2 sentence starters in my newsletter along with my expectations. In the beginning they had to complete the sentence, begin sentence with a capital letter, end with correct punctuation mark, leave spaces between words, and draw a picture. I slowly increased my expectations - 2 sentences, 3 sentences, etc. The amazing thing was the impact this WRITING program had on my READING program! Even my lowest readers began to soar!!!! When I stopped and thought about it, it made sense. Twice a week, a parent is sitting one-on-one with their child helping him/her sound out words. They are hearing the sound, writing the letter, seeing the letters . . . if we could have thought of a way to incorporate the sense of smell and taste we would have used all 5 senses.I've also used this Home Journal Homework program with 1st grade and 3rd grade and had the same type of results. It's evolved through the year as I worked through the bugs. Overall, I really think it's the support of the parents that makes all the difference.
I just finished a new packet for TPT that includes all you need to incorporate the Home Journal program with your class. It includes a year's worth of assignments. The other part of my "hate" relationship with writing is the amount of time it takes to grade writing assignments. In this packet are tips to make grading manageable. In the listing I said this is for ages 1st grade and above because there are some assignments that are “how to's”. i.e. To make a peanut butter sandwich _____ . An advanced kindergarten class could probably do this. I think there are 6-10 of these type of entries. The other entries are general journal writing type of stuff (One day while walking to school I saw . . . , My favorite song ___, If I was __ ).
Here's a preview:
This packet includes:
writing wallet
If you have students who have organizational issues, this is the tool for you. It can serve other purposed such as a tactile-kinesthetic approach to enforcing story elements.
Included in this packet are:
-Directions for making writing wallets
-Labels for the following assignments:
-Story elements
-Research project: animals
-Research project: state
idea book
Do you have students who get writers block during journal time? The Idea Book is the cure for this. This may also be used as a writing center.
Included in this packet are:
-Directions for making an idea book
-Labels for Idea Book
-Sign for Idea Book basket
-Letter to parent asking for supplies
-Six picture stories to introduce how to use an Idea Book -
-These stories are in 2 different formats: primary/intermediate l
lined paper.
home journal
This is the perfect way to strengthen your students' writing skills. Students are assigned two journal entries per week, three weeks per month. There are ten months worth of assignments, a years worth of work. The following rubrics are included which allow you to differentiate:
-journal entries must be a minimum of three sentences
-journal entries must be a minimum of five sentences
-primary rubric (word wall words, draw a picture, etc.)
Included in this packet are:
-10 assignment sheet (1 for each month)
-1 parent letter
-1 label sheet for the journals
-directions which include tips to make the grading more manageable
No comments:
Post a Comment