If you write across the curriculum...

[Monica_in_Switzerland]

Do you have any kind of set pattern or set of assignments, or do you just assign what strikes your fancy?  

 

For example, maybe you have a set-up like:

Mondays- summarize science book, write lab report, or other science-related thing

Tuesday- summary of history chapter

Wednesday- assignment from current literature selection

Thursday- Creative writing prompt of some kind

Friday- Edit/revise Thursday's work

 

Just trying to get some ideas.  I find sometimes in the moment, an idea doesn't jump into my head, and if it takes me more than 2 minutes to think of something, writing just doesn't happen that day.  

[chocolate-chip chooky]

We usually have a couple of big writing projects on the go at any one time, as opposed to assigned writing for each subject. These big projects can take weeks or even months to complete.

For my daughter (12), assigning writing to every subject would sap her interest, so we generally just read and discuss for things like science, history and literature.

It looked different a few years ago though, because at that point my focus was still on the sub-skills and also on writing stamina and enjoyment. These days my focus for her is on honing those established skills into bigger, more polished pieces.

 

 

[hollyhock2]

My kids generally do history or science every day so they generally write from whichever one they did that day. If they don't want to do that, then I have often pulled out a reader, like Pathway, and done writing from there. We also write about books they're reading. Between all those options, we usually come up with something.

[Slache]

We do whatever strikes our fancy which often results in him asking to write about a certain thing. It works well here.

[8filltheheart]

For your 4th and 6th graders, we have a pretty general pattern that I have followed for almost 20 yrs.  FWIW, I only expect my kids to work on 1 writing assignment per week. No chpt summaries, no written narrations, etc.

1. Monday--receive topic (pulled from a current history, science, or lit topic) Read multiple articles, begin collecting information
2. Tuesday--finish notes, create topic sentence/thesis (depends on age and ability), create general outline
3. Wednesday--write 1st half
4. Thursday--write 2nd half, proofread, revise/edit
5. Friday--review with, make corrections/edits, write final copy

Depending on the grade level and complexity of assignment, the above might be expanded to 2 or more weeks.  That would not be the norm, though, for kids your kids' ages.  

For example, this week my 7th grader wrote a 6 page report on the construction of Egyptian pyramids.  That writing assignment covered her history and writing for the week.  Her next writing assignment will be from science and the writing assignment will be her writing and science for the week.  That is a pretty typical set up for my kids until they reach high school level science.  At that point, writing assignments do not replace science during that time, but they do for history and lit.

[Monica_in_Switzerland]

Thank you @chocolate-chip chooky, @hollyhock2, @Slache, @8FillTheHeart!  

 

I do see the idea of a week-long assignment as something I'd like to work toward as a goal.  But I've noticed my kids are not transferring many of their grammar/spelling skills to their writing and I think it's about time they really focused on that.  So for at least the short-term, I am having them write just a paragraph, but then self-correct as much of that as possible before giving it to me to look at.  My kids have excellent voice when they write, and their structure is generally pretty good.  But somehow they are still occasionally not capitalizing first letters, not conjugating their verbs to their subjects (they write in French as it's the language they are tested in), not making agreements...  Gah!!!  

They can do dictations well, so I know when they are thinking about it, they *can* remember those rules for writing.  I feel, especially for my oldest, that it's time he pulls all those skills together in his own writing.  So that's the focus for the year.  But maybe once a month, switching to a writing process piece would be a good idea for also getting into the habit of revision and rewriting.  We all tend to fall into the "moving hand writes and having writ, move on..." mentality, when rewriting really should be encouraged.  ?