During the first rotation in my Language Arts class (and continuing on through to the second LA rotation) your child will be working in our “Writer’s Workshop” developing themselves as observers and critical thinkers, using the writing process. It should be an exciting process for them, and one that I hope they will continue after our rotation is over.
Students will be introduced to some wonderful writers and their work, examining various forms of journalism and literature. We will celebrate and analyze mentor pieces for craft, style, and content, as well as the “rules” of grammar and style. You can help your young writer at home as well by making sure students are reading rich pieces of literature every evening. Spend time to talk to your child about their ideas, thoughts, and observations. Share your family stories orally. Tell them about when you were a child, and memories of when they were younger. These experiences will enrich their writer’s minds and give them more fodder to produce good work. The first couple of weeks will be spent especially on developing their own “hot topic”‘ list.
Students have a “writer’s notebook” to record their thoughts and ideas on a daily basis. This week students are decorating their writer’s notebook and making it their own. You can help them find pictures, pretty pieces of wrapping paper to make a collage, gems, stickers, or drawings to make the notebook special. Although this notebook is for “personal” writing, unlike a diary it is not for “private” writing. Students will regularly share their work with each other in class. These notebooks must be brought to school EVERY DAY. Please make sure that your child has a special place for this book so they won’t forget it the next morning.
When you have a relaxed moment I encourage you to sit down with your writer and ask them to share pieces from their notebook with you. These will not be final published pieces. They are only drafts and your writer may decide not to publish a good majority of the work. However, this sharing will give you a better sense of how your child is developing as a writer, and what kinds of things they are working on. You may help them further by discussing the pieces, offering insights, helping with remembering, etc. Later in the year, as students begin to choose pieces that they wish to publish, you may also help in encouraging your writer to add detail, revise their work, and later help them edit their pieces. After our weeks together in the “Writer’s Workshop,” they will be assigned to continue working in their writer’s notebook on their own as they move on to their next language arts rotation. These entries and notebooks should be full of good material that they can draw on when we meet again in the second round of LA rotations.
Please also make sure that your child brings a jumpdrive to their writing class everyday so they can keep their stories electronically and use it at home and at school.
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During the second set of five weeks language arts rotation, students will be working on completing at least one composition of a personal experience to publish and share with their classmates. The “personal story” is a retelling and sharing of any true personal experience they have had in their lives. Remember that the incident or event they choose to write about should be one that elicited a strong emotional response. This can be an incident that makes them feel happy or sad, angry, embarrassed, uncomfortable, scared, regretful, proud, etc. Any or all of these feelings should be an important part of the story they are telling.
They will be using some of the skills we learned last quarter in brainstorming, organizing, expanding their writing with details of observations and reflection. Whereas in their last language arts session with me we emphasized starting a lot of new stories, this session will focus especially on revising and editing towards completing a writing project. Your child may need some help to remember some things and to fill in other details that they may not have been aware of at the time. Students can also be encouraged to take some artistic liberties to embellish their storytelling to make the story more interesting to another reader.
Students will be expected to publish their final project in two ways by the end of the five-week period. They will be expected to submit a final copy of their composition, and also publish a picture book featuring their own illustrations. Although it is not at all necessary, if students have photos they can use with their illustrations we would certainly appreciate them.
Students are still expected to spend at least 30 minutes a day on Writing Workshop homework. This can be drafting, revising, typing, or working on the illustrations in their books. Please help us by reminding your child to bring their writer’s notebook and USB jump-drive every day to our language arts class.
Thank you for your enthusiasm and support,
Happy writing,
Gingerlily
