Daily writing, 4th and 5th grades

[DragonFaerie]

What do your kids do for writing each day? Including everything except handwriting/copywork. For example, do they do a writing lesson (ie. WWW, IEW, etc.)? Do they write summaries for history or science? Do they do journal writing? Do they write essays? What do you think is a good amount of writing each day? What is your kids' weekly writing schedule?

[SunnyDays]

We are just starting 4th grade. For now, we're doing the weekly round of WWE - he is only on level 2, I wanted to start him there was I wasn't sure how he'd handle dictation. We usually condense the 4 days down to two, however. Also, I have been reading Bravewriter, and we are going to implement the Friday Freewrite, with periodic choosing of one piece to review and revise. We don't do any journal writing at this point. I do ask him, about every other week, to write something on a history or science topic we've studied, usually just a couple paragraphs.

 

So for now, usually DS will be asked to write SOMETHING 3 days per week. As the year goes on, I intend to have him write more across the curriculum, and we may skip to WWE 3 second semester if he's ready.... and since we're doing MCT, he'll be adding in Paragraph Town writing assignments.

[allymom]

My dd is a 4th grader, but perhaps more at a 3rd grade level for writing. We're also doing WWE, level 3. The dictation is still a struggle for her, but her summarization skills have definitely gotten better. We're about 1/3 thru level 3. For history, she has to write a brief summary (for now just 2-3 sentences) of what she has learned each day. I hope to work up to 1-2 paragraphs by the end of the school year, but it's definitely a struggle for her still. We also have one new Greek vocab word each week and at the beginning of the week she has to copy the word, definition and several variations on that word and their definitions. On Wednesday she has to write sentences for 3-4 of those words that she copied down. That's all the writing she is doing for now, assigned. She writes emails and letters to friends and families at least 5-7 times a week and will often create little stories and books on her own too.

[Hunter]

With my tutoring students, I've just been going through the appropriate level Climbing to Good English workbooks and making a list of all the composition exercises, and assigning those over and over, when appropriate.

 

I like CGE because all the assignments are meant to be handwritten instead of completed on a computer, and the appropriate instructions and accommodations have been made.

 

The assignments are very practical, as they were designed for Amish youth to prepare them for early entrance into adulthood. The Amish also prize some finer things in life and there is a strong focus on poetry writing as well as the handwritten letter.

 

Reports focus on outlining and essay skills instead of plagiarism and rhetoric, which I personally prefer.

 

Each year builds on the previous year's workbook, making the composition exercises a little harder, but similar.

 

It's a little awkward to pick out the assignments, and SOME day, I'm going to photocopy and handcopy each assignment to compile into a handbook for each grade, but...for now I just wing it the best I can, trying to remember what is where in the workbooks. I've yet to see anything in a stand alone curriculum that I like even half as much.

 

I aso like to teach sentence composition during spelling, and tired of picking out sentence models from CGE. I use the sentence models in Mark Twain Diagramming Sentences workbook. It's only $1.99. I SHOW the diagramming of the sentences but do NOT assign them. I just use the sentence models as writing prompts for the student.

[Chrysalis Academy]

For my 5th grader, there will be a writing assignment daily - either WWS or a science, history or lit paper *instead of* the WWS assignment, not in addition to it. So we're going through WWS at a more relaxed pace, but doing a combination of the structured, step-by-step teaching SWB is so good at, and more relevant content-based writing.

 

We'll also be doing Paragraph Town from MCT. I'm thinking on the "heavy" writing days of PT, we won't do an additional writing assignment, but it doesn't look like the PT assignments get really heavy on the writing till the second half of the book.

[DragonFaerie]

Thanks for the replies. I'm stressing out thinking my kiddos may not be doing enough writing. Of course, if they had their way, they wouldn't do ANY writing! LOL Right now we're doing WWW daily (sometimes it's writing-intensive, sometimes not), but I want to add more. I'm thinking about adding a summary from our weekly SOTW reading (1 paragraph for DS, 4th, and 3 paragraphs for DD, 5th) and a weekly journal entry. DD will also be starting Killgallon next week, probably 2x per week. Does this sound like enough? Too much?

[Hunter]

Thanks for the replies. I'm stressing out thinking my kiddos may not be doing enough writing. Of course, if they had their way, they wouldn't do ANY writing! LOL Right now we're doing WWW daily (sometimes it's writing-intensive, sometimes not), but I want to add more. I'm thinking about adding a summary from our weekly SOTW reading (1 paragraph for DS, 4th, and 3 paragraphs for DD, 5th) and a weekly journal entry. DD will also be starting Killgallon next week, probably 2x per week. Does this sound like enough? Too much?

 

Sentence composition is a great way to do "writing" when you don't have time for them to write :-)

 

Getting writing done is HARD on the schedule!

 

I don't care if they are child or adult, gifted or LD, they only have a certain amount of time they can stay on task, before their eyes glaze over and they move at the pace of molasses in February, and start falling into passive resistant and codependent behaviors. Writing just gobbles up on task time, like a science fiction movie. Sigh!

Edited August 20, 2012 by Hunter

[foxbridgeacademy]

DS 11 (dyslexic/dysgraphic) and DD 9 both do about the same amount of writing. We start with Creative Writing from CTT which takes about 20 minutes, then we do WWW for about 10 mins, much of this is done verbally. They usually have 3-5 sentences for spelling or we do sentence modeling. So not really a lot. We do not do dictation; too painful for son, too boring for both. Handwriting is also out do to son's physical pain. DD does handwriting practice for fun so it's very random. We do talk a lot about what makes good writing, and still do some narration.

[ErinE]

For my fourth grader, I require a daily narration of 3-4 sentences. We read a passage aloud together and he uses a lap whiteboard to compose his paragraph. I review the writing, noting any glaring errors for him to correct. He then writes 1-2 sentences on paper. The whiteboard has made the writing process much easier.

 

My goal is to get him writing the full 3-4 sentence narration by the end of the year.

 

His weekly schedule is:

Narration (History or Science): 4x per week, 3-4 sentence composition, 1-2 sentences he writes on paper

Dictation: 2x per week, 2-3 sentences, he writes less narration on dictation days

Literature: 1x per week, 3-4 sentence summary of his assigned reading

 

I plan to assign 2-3 summary papers this year, which should take 2-3 weeks to write. Essentially 4-5 paragraph narrations, he will pick a subject, research it, take notes, and then summarize his readings. We did something similar last year and he really enjoyed reading the final product; the process itself, not so much. All other writing requirements are suspended when he writes the papers.

[DragonFaerie]

For my fourth grader, I require a daily narration of 3-4 sentences. We read a passage aloud together and he uses a lap whiteboard to compose his paragraph. I review the writing, noting any glaring errors for him to correct. He then writes 1-2 sentences on paper. The whiteboard has made the writing process much easier.

 

My goal is to get him writing the full 3-4 sentence narration by the end of the year.

 

His weekly schedule is:

Narration (History or Science): 4x per week, 3-4 sentence composition, 1-2 sentences he writes on paper

Dictation: 2x per week, 2-3 sentences, he writes less narration on dictation days

Literature: 1x per week, 3-4 sentence summary of his assigned reading

 

I plan to assign 2-3 summary papers this year, which should take 2-3 weeks to write. Essentially 4-5 paragraph narrations, he will pick a subject, research it, take notes, and then summarize his readings. We did something similar last year and he really enjoyed reading the final product; the process itself, not so much. All other writing requirements are suspended when he writes the papers.

 

Wow. He does a whole lot more writing than mine do! I did do the essays with DD last year, and she enjoyed it. I'm not sure I can imagine DS being ready, though. DD is more advanced for her age. I should add a few research essays into the plan this year for her, though.

[woolybear]

DS 11 (dyslexic/dysgraphic) and DD 9 both do about the same amount of writing. We start with Creative Writing from CTT which takes about 20 minutes, then we do WWW for about 10 mins, much of this is done verbally. They usually have 3-5 sentences for spelling or we do sentence modeling. So not really a lot. We do not do dictation; too painful for son, too boring for both. Handwriting is also out do to son's physical pain. DD does handwriting practice for fun so it's very random. We do talk a lot about what makes good writing, and still do some narration.

 

Is CTT Connect the Thoughts?

[hollyhock]

Last year for 4th grade, my son wrote 4x a week: two narrations (that he slowly began to write by himself until he was writing the whole thing by the end of the year) and two dictation sentences.

 

This year for 5th, we've moved on to SWB's middle grades writing recommendations so he is doing two narrative summaries, two one-level outlines and one beginning lit essay per week. One assignment a day.

 

This is our actual writing lessons. He also writes down answers for math, fill-in-the-blank stuff for spelling and logic... and the occasional narration/report for history.

[amyrjoy]

We are only on week 2 of school, but we seem to be doing dictation/copywork every day, definitely a larger paragraph than last year (using Paths of Settlement this year, Paths of exploration last year). Also, we have some other writing to do, in vocabulary, comprehension questions, and misc. history assignments as it relates to "your" life and discussion. I am also going to begin IEW each week, the US Volume 1 to go along with POS). Science is not too much writing yet but I think we'll be putting some time into it soon. Literature assignments are not everyday but today she did begin a short story/tall tale and crafted one paragraph. I guess this may not help much but it seems it's similar to some other replies.

[ErinE]

Wow. He does a whole lot more writing than mine do! I did do the essays with DD last year, and she enjoyed it. I'm not sure I can imagine DS being ready, though. DD is more advanced for her age. I should add a few research essays into the plan this year for her, though.

 

On paper, he only writes 1-2 sentences per day. The oral narration is 3-4 sentences; a whiteboard has been an invaluable help here. For some reason, the physical act of writing is easier using the markers and whiteboard.

 

When SWB talks about her boys and writing, she captures my son. In second grade, he was a very reluctant writer. I spent third grade building up his skills. We did a mix of copywork, dictation, and oral narration until by the end of the year, he was consistently writing 1-2 sentences a day. In the beginning, I asked for one thing he remembered, I wrote out the sentence, and then he would copy it onto paper. I gradually asked for longer or more sentences until he was composing 3-4 and writing 1-2.

 

Writing the summary papers also helped him. Once he saw that over a period of 2-3 weeks he could write a whole paper, it made the act of writing a paragraph easier. Not to say the papers were easy. The process required my supervision the entire time. I'd say writing, more so than any other subject, requires my constant presence to keep him calm and on task.

 

His hard work has really paid off. Over the summer, he wrote several narrations about various science topics he researched; this was not something I requested.

[2_girls_mommy]

My 5th grader today:

*** And keep in mind that we are just starting up the year, and there will be more writing when we start all of our curric for the year. Right now, we haven't truly started logic stage history yet. We are just quickly trying to read the last 6 chapters of SOTW4, before we begin the cycle back over again at the beginning of Sept. So right now she is only listening and discussing SOTW4, filling in a map workbook and a timeline, and doing memorywork. She will have outlines and summaries due soon.

 

Latin: filling in workbook pages

 

Spelling: workbook pages

 

Literature: she had to answer some questions on paper.

 

Math: 1 lesson, copied to a notebook from the textbook, no worksheets

 

English: diagrammed some sentences to paper

 

History: map work book and cut and pasted timeline pieces, and colored flags on the timeline

 

Science: answering questions in complete sentences in her workbook

 

This is only our 3rd week. So far she has written 1 book report for English and 1 book summary for her lit. curric. She will have 2 summaries and 1 outline a week due soon, plus whatever composition exercises come up in her 5th grade English text. She has a pen pal, but those letters are going to have to be moved to her free time, as her school day is filling up.

[MiniBlondes]

:bigear:

[2squared]

My kids are reluctant writers. This year my 5th grader is going through IEW SWI-A. Last year she completed WWE3 and next year I want to put her in WWS1.

 

I will also have her write 1 paragraph summary narrations on the days she doesn't outline her history.

 

She is quickly working through LoE, but most of that is oral. When she has that completed, she will alternate daily dictation and Killgallon Sentence Composing. She doesn't use workbooks, so her extraneous writing is limited.

 

My goal for this year is to get her to the point where she is comfortable completing a writing assignment (however small) on her own. I really think SWI-A and Pudewa will get her there.

[mirabillis]

My kids are reluctant writers. This year my 5th grader is going through IEW SWI-A. Last year she completed WWE3 and next year I want to put her in WWS1.

.

 

Sounds just like us! Reluctant writer, completed WWE3 last year (really started hating the monotony of it) and plan to skip WWE4 and go to WWS next year.

 

We too are moving into IEW SWI-A - just bought it, haven't received it yet. Hoping it will launch him. Love to hear how your IEW experience goes...

 

We do weekly journal writing as well.

 

I will also teaching typing this year, as my son is avid computer user (though we don't really allow screens in our house, but when he has the chance...) and I've let him 'type' a story/journal entry before and the amount he writes far exceeds what he writes in the written word. So this is something to consider?

[Pen]

:bigear:

[Halcyon]

For fifth, my son does WWS, science writing (answering questions or summaries), history narrations twice a week, math writing, latin writing, spanish writing, spelling twice a week, grammar and diagramming three times a week and geography hw for coop for an hour or so a week. Obviously, some of thismis more intense than others: WWS is challenging, historynand science stuff not so much, and technically i dont count the rest as "writing" persay, but he does write for those subjects.

[DragonFaerie]

For fifth, my son does WWS, science writing (answering questions or summaries), history narrations twice a week, math writing, latin writing, spanish writing, spelling twice a week, grammar and diagramming three times a week and geography hw for coop for an hour or so a week. Obviously, some of thismis more intense than others: WWS is challenging, historynand science stuff not so much, and technically i dont count the rest as "writing" persay, but he does write for those subjects.

 

Yes, I'm not talking about just putting pen to paper for all the various subjects. I'm talking about "writing." Even so, with the summaries and narrations, it sounds like your son is doing a lot more than I have planned, too. *sigh* I'm beginning to think we're behind on our writing. Bummer.

[2squared]

We too are moving into IEW SWI-A - just bought it, haven't received it yet. Hoping it will launch him. Love to hear how your IEW experience goes.

 

I am in love with SWI-A so far. I love that Pudewa teaches via DVD and I get to change diapers, wipe spills, stop fights, etc without interrupting the lesson. I love that I don't have to prepare anything. I love that my dd didn't complain about her writing assignment at all today AND she completed it all.by.herself. Writing feels so much better already. I really expect this year to be great for my dd.

[8filltheheart]

What do your kids do for writing each day? Including everything except handwriting/copywork. For example, do they do a writing lesson (ie. WWW, IEW, etc.)? Do they write summaries for history or science? Do they do journal writing? Do they write essays? What do you think is a good amount of writing each day? What is your kids' weekly writing schedule?

 

My kids only write 1 paper/wk. Depending on ability, at those ages they might be focusing on learning to gather notes from a single article and writing a single paragraph or they might be learning to synthesize information from 3 articles and writing multiple paragraph papers.

 

I have been using this approach w/my kids since my oldest was in 3rd or 4th grade (think from the 90s :tongue_smilie:) It has produced solid writers in all of my "old enough to judge" kids. I like the approach b/c it teaches them multiple skills simultaneously and it gives them time to put their thoughts together and focus on the process vs. just rushing to get it done.

 

Standard Operating Procedure :D in our household:

 

Monday: I provide the broad topic and sources (at those grade levels. Heading into middle school they start finding their own sources. Also, for a struggling writer, I narrow the topic and provide the topic sentence.) They take notes and generate their narrowed topic.

 

Tuesday: 1/2 of their rough draft is completed (if they are writing their papers by hand, they write double or triple spaced so that we have room for writing when we meet on Thursday)

 

Wed: finish rough draft

 

Thurs: meet w/me and we discuss their paper. We revise and improve together (this is a major time commitment on my part b/c this is when there is a huge amt of time spent in writing instruction via guided discussion about how their writing can be improved)

 

Fri: Final copy due

 

I alternate their assignment topics across curriculum. This way writing also takes on double duty b/c they are also not just writing for writing's sake. Their writing is also digging deeper into a topic they are already studying. FWIW, b/c they only write the 1 paper/wk, I do expect it to be quality work for their abilities.

[Penelope]

For most of fourth grade, it was three narrations per week, one to three paragraphs each, across the curriculum. Two dictations per week, 25ish words each. We also did some Killgallon and Writing Strands assignments. We did some longer retellings of fables and myths as in CW Aesop, focusing on varying sentences and word choice, choosing strong nouns and verbs, and incorporating dialogue.

 

We are beginning 5th and are using WWS four days per week, though sometimes the fourth day takes two days to do with discussion and revision. So far additional writing is one narration per week in either science or history, one dictation per week, and one outline in science or history.

He has a very little other non-composition-oriented writing in geography, Christian Studies, and Latin. But I expect that we will finish WWS1 by or before January, and then probably more Killgallon and doing something like what 8FilltheHeart posted, until WWS2 is out.

[2_girls_mommy]

Yes, I'm not talking about just putting pen to paper for all the various subjects. I'm talking about "writing." Even so, with the summaries and narrations, it sounds like your son is doing a lot more than I have planned, too. *sigh* I'm beginning to think we're behind on our writing. Bummer.

 

Ok, I answered how much pen to paper mine is doing. For writing for 5th she will be doing:

 

History: 1-2 history outlines a week and 1 summary a week

Science: answering questions in full sentences and occasional summaries and lab sheets.

Lit: 1 summary a week, plus dictation 1-2 times a week.

English composition (Rod and Staff) varies. In 3 weeks she has had a couple of write a paragraph assignments and a book report so far. So 1 a week on average. We may have to cut down on the summaries for the other subjects the weeks she has reports due for English or make the reports about her current science subjects as opposed to the random topics the English book gives.

That is about it off the top of my head.

[DragonFaerie]

My kids only write 1 paper/wk. Depending on ability, at those ages they might be focusing on learning to gather notes from a single article and writing a single paragraph or they might be learning to synthesize information from 3 articles and writing multiple paragraph papers.

 

I have been using this approach w/my kids since my oldest was in 3rd or 4th grade (think from the 90s :tongue_smilie:) It has produced solid writers in all of my "old enough to judge" kids. I like the approach b/c it teaches them multiple skills simultaneously and it gives them time to put their thoughts together and focus on the process vs. just rushing to get it done.

 

Standard Operating Procedure :D in our household:

 

Monday: I provide the broad topic and sources (at those grade levels. Heading into middle school they start finding their own sources. Also, for a struggling writer, I narrow the topic and provide the topic sentence.) They take notes and generate their narrowed topic.

 

Tuesday: 1/2 of their rough draft is completed (if they are writing their papers by hand, they write double or triple spaced so that we have room for writing when we meet on Thursday)

 

Wed: finish rough draft

 

Thurs: meet w/me and we discuss their paper. We revise and improve together (this is a major time commitment on my part b/c this is when there is a huge amt of time spent in writing instruction via guided discussion about how their writing can be improved)

 

Fri: Final copy due

 

I alternate their assignment topics across curriculum. This way writing also takes on double duty b/c they are also not just writing for writing's sake. Their writing is also digging deeper into a topic they are already studying. FWIW, b/c they only write the 1 paper/wk, I do expect it to be quality work for their abilities.

 

I LOVE this plan! Thanks for the breakdown. This sounds like something I might be able to incorporate into our day.

[DragonFaerie]

I am in love with SWI-A so far. I love that Pudewa teaches via DVD and I get to change diapers, wipe spills, stop fights, etc without interrupting the lesson. I love that I don't have to prepare anything. I love that my dd didn't complain about her writing assignment at all today AND she completed it all.by.herself. Writing feels so much better already. I really expect this year to be great for my dd.

 

What is SWI-A?

[2squared]

What is SWI-A?

 

You can find it here.

[DragonFaerie]

You can find it here.

 

Thanks. That looks great, but pricey.

[CatholicMom]

My oldest just started 4th grade and he usually writes about 4 sentences daily for the "Apply It Now" section of the lesson.

 

Other than that, I don't know if you're talking ALL writing all day, but I also have him write a couple sentences daily in his Reading Journal about whatever he read for Reading that day. Just to solidify the story in his mind and help us keep track of how much he's reading. I also have him write a couple sentences when he finishes a book and tell whether he liked it or not.

 

On top of that, handwriting practice, some fill in the blanks for our geography workbook, and a bit of dictation with All About Spelling. That's all I can think of.

[JoyceTWTM]

What do your kids do for writing each day?

QUOTE]

Written narration.

[tjlcc]

For more details on 8filltheheart's writing, see this thread. Wonderful advice.

[DragonFaerie]

For more details on 8filltheheart's writing, see this thread. Wonderful advice.

 

Thank you!