How well do your students write? What is your favorite writing lesson to teach? How do you get through to those unmotivated writers? I ponder each of these on occasion.
I have been through portfolio madness, grammar push, and now ELA common core is staring down at me. I often found that with my 3rd, 4th, and 5th graders a blank lined sheet of paper was either their best friend of their worst enemy!
Where did they start, what made their writing good, who has that much to say, were all questions that I received when beginning paragraph writing with a blank slate.
I decided that if I could have them organize their writing using a graphic I could steer some students clear of hating writing. I selected webs because it was an organizer they were already familiar with and it fit well with having a topic sentence and supporting details.
My students latched on right away. It was easy for them because they didn't feel intimidated by the blank lines they had to fill or worry that their writing wasn't good enough.
Here is a picture of the beginning web...
The students begin with the basic brainstorming web, but then I carry the webs through to writing paragraphs. I had students who were writing complete 5 paragraph essays and friendly letters in no time.
I have had so many people come and ask me how I teach paragraph writing so I decided that maybe this set of lessons was something you too could adjust and use in your classroom. If you are interested just click here or on the link below...it is for sale with a freebie in my Teacher's Notebook Store. I too would love to give it away to the first two people who can share with me why they would like to have it for their classroom! Please leave me a way to contact you!.
Thanks for your support!!
Dana :)
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