MomN Posted November 2, 2021 Share Posted November 2, 2021 What does writing look like in 3rd/4th grade? I own IEW Fables, Myths, and Fairytales and I don't really like it. I also own a couple of other books that teach the basic paragraph. We started but it just feels so boring writing paragraphs like: "Pizza is my favorite food. I like to eat my pizza with pepperoni. I especially like to make home-made pizza..... " We have been using MCT Grammar Island and will continue with that, although that doesn't feel like writing. We also do 3 sentences of narration 3-4 times per week. I want to do more and feel my kids could easily take more but I don't want writing to be boring. Any ideas of an easy to implement program that teaches how to structure a paragraph that is fairly engaging? I want something more than just Topic Sentence, Detail 1, Detail 2, Detail 3, Concluding Sentence. Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lori D. Posted November 2, 2021 Share Posted November 2, 2021 (edited) Wordsmith Apprentice?Writing Tales?Treasured Conversations? Or, maybe take the year to just enjoy practicing what's been learned so far with a wide variety of writing: - real life: short letters to family/friends - persuasive writing: speech to get elected to office - expository writing: create an oral presentation on a history topic; maybe create a poster or slideshow to go with it - journalism: write a news article; or make their own newsletter/newspaper with articles they write - book reviews - free writing: from journal prompts (see Journal Buddies for ideas) - creative writing: from a story starter prompt - creative writing: a joint story that you all take turns writing a few sentences at a time - creative writing: poem writing - creative writing: comic strip - create their own character "trading cards" with facts and an illustration - write their own guide to a favorite video game, board game, or TV show Edited November 2, 2021 by Lori D. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HomeAgain Posted November 2, 2021 Share Posted November 2, 2021 How to structure a paragraph in a way that is fairly engaging: Treasured Conversations. How to incorporate different aspects of language arts with a hands on element: Writing Tales How to do different projects and a flexible timeline: old style Writing Strands (thin books, bird cage on cover with different stages of birds) 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MomN Posted November 4, 2021 Author Share Posted November 4, 2021 Could you give me an idea of how Treasured Conversations tackled the paragraph? I'm interested. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MomN Posted November 4, 2021 Author Share Posted November 4, 2021 Also, what level of Writing Strands would you suggest for paragraphing? Thank you! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HomeAgain Posted November 4, 2021 Share Posted November 4, 2021 6 hours ago, MomN said: Could you give me an idea of how Treasured Conversations tackled the paragraph? I'm interested. There are generous samples on the website, but the unit in our house was something like this: Step 1: find the topic sentence in a given paragraph. Step 2: decide what are the supporting details Step 3: learn to outline the paragraph Step 4: learn to write supporting details with a given topic sentence Step 5: learn to write the topic sentence and supporting details to create a paragraph that goes with a given story. Quote Also, what level of Writing Strands would you suggest for paragraphing? Thank you! This is different. I'd suggest every student start with level 2 or 3, at the beginning, because it's not just about paragraphing and it's organized so that it kind of spirals. There are a variety of projects, starting with how to write a sentence and moving through descriptions, persuasion pieces, short stories....Each piece is set up to take about a week or so, with a week off between to study the same style of writing. We were most successful with this program when we reversed that (studied the style of writing before doing the project) and changed up some of the projects. Treasured Conversations ended up being a better fit for my kid, though. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LauraClark Posted November 8, 2021 Share Posted November 8, 2021 Yes, was just coming here to suggest Writing Strands as well. I am using it with DS10 (who is a natural writer and is doing amazing with it) and DS8 (who needs some hand holding, but is also learning to be very descriptive in his writing). I sat in on an IEW class for a semester at a co-op and it was very boring. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeterPan Posted November 8, 2021 Share Posted November 8, 2021 2nd the suggestion for Writing Tales. Given the length of your current narrations, you should start with Writing Tales 1. http://www.writing-tales.com/ It remains one of my *favorite things* I've ever done in homeschooling. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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