Teaching writing to 6th-8th graders next year, need input...

[ThelmaLou]

I've been doing a correspondence writing class of sorts this year with some 6th and 7th graders from our co-op. It's basically an extension of what they did the year before in class with another teacher. They primarily wrote 5 paragraph essays on science topics (since they all shared a science class in common during co-op hours.)

 

We've been working on thesis statements, topic sentences, clinchers, supporting details, conclusion paragraphs, all the things that go along with 5 paragraph essays. This year I introduced some ideas from a book by Vicki Spandel called Creating Writers Through 6-Trait Writing Assessment and Instruction. It teaches students to evaluate themselves in the areas of ideas, organization, voice, word choice, sentence fluency and conventions. They've done well with the assignments, but we've been very limited because we don't have any face to fact class time.

 

Next year, I'm tasked with teaching writing again, but this time it's with 6th-8th graders. I'm pretty sure that all of these kids except maybe one will have taken 5 paragraph writing through our co-op in recent years. The leaders of the co-op want to shift the writing away from purely informational topics to literary topics at this point. The idea is to have a combination writing/literature class, but with the primary emphasis being on writing. We'll cover a small handful of books in order to digest, discuss, and prepare ourselves for writing.

 

Now for the hard part. I have no idea what to use to guide me through this process! No clue about how to pick writing topics for these kids (we all want to stay on the same topic as we go through these papers.) No idea about which books to pick, what method of writing to use, how to guide them through the literature, etc... Because I was an English major, teaching this class has naturally fallen in my lap. But it's been 14 years since I graduated from college, and I've been changing diapers and teaching my own kiddos how to read since then. I could write my own papers again if I was back in college, but I'm intimidated and directionless when it comes to teaching these kids how to write. Add to that the fact that my students cover a broad age range. The difference between my own 6th and 8th grader is pretty big when it comes to writing.

 

If you've made it this far and have any suggestions, please help! Thank you!

[Peela]

Maybe you could ask the leaders of the coop for some ideas then?

Would Lightning Literature work? I haven't seen it. I presume it has some writing assignments?

Or, could you choose a few novels and look online for ideas of assignments to go with them? Thats what I have done when I need inspiration to make up a writing assignment- I search online for what other people have done already, and it usually gives me some inspiration.

[Linda in NM]

One of the theme-based books from IEW?

[FloridaLisa]

worked very well in a co-op setting for 4 of my dc this year. I just wrote about it in the Curriculum Gems post. If you like the IEW method, they have introduced lots of new theme-based materials this year.

 

HTH,

Lisa

[ThelmaLou]

Thanks for your suggestion, ladies. I'll definitely explore IEW and Lightning Literature. I'm open to any possibilities. And yes, I've also thought about choosing a few books and doing internet searches for my writing prompts. I'll keep everyone posted on how it goes. Thanks!