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Goals for 4th grade writing


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What are your goals for your 4th grader in writing?  What do you hope that they will be able to do by the end of 4th grade? And, if you currently have a 3rd grader, where are they now, here near the end of third grade?

 

My 3rd grader loves to do copywork, loves to write stories, letters, and in her journal (a private diary-type thing, not something I read or assign!).  She tolerates doing summaries and has transitioned over the course of the year from oral summaries to written summaries.  She's ok with dictation. She's still working on spelling, but at least it isn't holding her up from writing at this point.   I'm pretty happy with what she's accomplished in 3rd grade.

 

BUT:  she is very resistant to more "academic" writing.  When I want her to write a paragraph about a topic, she wants to be chatty, and add a lot of commentary.  I blame this on reading and listening to so much Percy Jackson!  She has a great voice, but she wants to *only* write like that - like she's talking, having a conversation. When I try to get her to do a straightforward Topic sentence plus supporting sentences type paragraph, factual/academic style, she hates it.   

 

And I feel like this is my goal for 4th grade - that she'd be able to write 1-3 paragraphs on a topic by the end of the year, as well as be able to summarize short nonfiction and fiction readings.  I'm not sure at this point whether to just let that go for the rest of 3rd grade, and start working on it fresh next year? Or what. I'm frustrated, because she doesn't want to learn the kind of writing I want to teach her, and she's frustrated, because she doesn't want to do the kind of writing I want her to.  FWIW, this is not an uncommon occurrence with this child.  Advice or suggestions?

 

Anyway, even if you don't have advice or suggestions about this situation, I'd love to hear about your goals and plans for 4th grade writing!

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I listed my goals in the 4th grade planning thread because I'm trying to focus on those and not just finishing a program (been listening to lots of Andrew Kern lately).

 

I want her to write neatly in complete and original sentences. I would like her to be able to read a sidebar in history, science or a fairytale and have her create an outline then write a summary from her outline. I also want her to begin diagramming sentences.

 

We're in the review rewrite section of TC and I'm slowing it down for two reasons: 1) we moved her into Beast Academy and she's spending a lot of time and energy digging into those problems and 2) she needs much more practice creating paragraphs before moving on.

 

I think taking a break is a great idea. You said she likes to write so maybe let her focus on creative writing for the summer and just work on teaching her to edit her work? Outline it?

 

And now I must get back to the chaos that is taking over at the dining table before the 2 year old starts chucking cuisinaire rods at her siblings. ;)

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I think  those are great goals for the end of 4th, but you are 12 months from that point. :)  Do you think she would meet you half way?  Maybe a transition toward more report like writing?  Do you think she would be open to being a time traveling journalist or a Ms. Frizzle student?  Maybe she could write an eye witness account of a historical event or be a shrinkified student reporting on what she experienced for a science study?  My kids love that sort of thing at that age.  I have some awesome "newspapers" somewhere (not sure after our last move) that my kids put together.  They have headlines, advertisements (there is a toga store ad that is hilarious), etc.   Maybe let her have some fun, but require a non-fiction theme.

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I think  those are great goals for the end of 4th, but you are 12 months from that point. :)  

 

Good reminder  :)

 

Do you think she would meet you half way?  Maybe a transition toward more report like writing?  Do you think she would be open to being a time traveling journalist or a Ms. Frizzle student?  Maybe she could write an eye witness account of a historical event or be a shrinkified student reporting on what she experienced for a science study?  My kids love that sort of thing at that age.  I have some awesome "newspapers" somewhere (not sure after our last move) that my kids put together.  They have headlines, advertisements (there is a toga store ad that is hilarious), etc.   Maybe let her have some fun, but require a non-fiction theme.

 

I think she would really love those ideas, thank you. She wants to write in *her* voice, not an academic voice.  Journalistic-style writing would be right up her alley.  I don't think it's that she doesn't want to write about nonfiction topics - she just wants to do it her way.  I can see her being a great, funny blogger or journalist some day, she does have an awesome voice and I don't want to squelch that. I just worry that she will at some point need to write in an academic tone.

 

Am I hearing you say that you think this is is an ok type of writing for 4th grade, and that the more formal academic voice can wait?  That's what I hope I hear you saying.  ;)  :)

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I think it can wait for what it's worth. If she can write a strong paragraph in her voice, that's great. Formal academic writing can wait until middle school. My goal for end of 3rd was for my girls to be able to write a 3-5 sentence paragraph with a beginning, middle, and end.

 

I'm still working on our goals for 4th.

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I feel like a slacker. :lol: We transitioned from oral to written narration in 3rd grade-- she was able to write a decent summary of nonfiction or fiction with good mechanics--capitalization, punctuation, and spelling. For 4th we have continued narrations, but working more specifically on writing a good paragraph- outlining from a paragraph, and writing a paragraph from an outline. She is progressing well with this and then 5th will be multi level outlining and multiple paragraph essays.

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Our goals this year for third grade:

 

Spelling skills - analyzed and marked 15 words about 3x a week (RLTL 3).  His spelling has improved greatly and is no longer a stumbling block while writing.

 

Dictation skills - dictation once a week and he has come a long way this year.  Mostly in confidence, believing that he can do dictation without dying.   :laugh:

 

Strong sentences - completed TC section 1 and some Killgallon sentence composing.  Continues to use those skills in WR Fable.  He has done so well in this area.

 

Writing endurance - the longer copy work in TC and the writing in WR Fable amped up nicely for him this year.

 

Oral narrations and oral composing - tried to do an oral narration every day.  Happened more like 3 times a week.  He's solid on oral narrations.  The oral/socratic discussion style of TC was great for him.

 

Some independent writing - he does the WR summaries independently now.  We started out together and I slowly stepped back.  He writes his own stories and loves free writes, so I encourage him in those areas.  

 

Summary - WR Fable has been perfect for this.  He responded much better to the summaries in WR, than with WWE 1 and 2 last year.  Maybe he was just ready for it?

 

Have fun - This was my biggest goal this year.  He is a good writer, but he had seen it as a chore and didn't want to put the effort in.  I tried really hard to not push, to be silly, and do scribing for him when he needed it.  To really value what he had to say.  I had him call grandparents weekly to read them something he had written.  We had a very fun year.  

 

Our goals for fourth grade:

Daily oral narrations

 

Move to written narrations/summaries (across the curriculum).

 

Continue weekly dictation 

 

Start a spelling journal to use with dictation sentences 

 

Work on paragraphs and outlining

 

Have fun

 

 

 

 

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