Falling In Love With Teaching Writing

I am so excited to be part of this Blog Hop!

This is my first and I am excited for so many reasons!

I can't wait to see all the wonderful things we all love about teaching.

Anyone who knows me loves I love reading.

I love teaching reading.

I love reading for fun.

I love talking about reading.

So, I really thought my blog post would be about reading.

However, this year I have grown to love writing as well.

I decided to talk about writing because I think many of us are afraid of how to teach it 

because we were not taught how to teach writing.

If you were taught how, PLEASE leave me a comment so I can get in touch with you!

I have always enjoyed reading the wonderful stories my students wrote for creative writing.

I even enjoyed reading the facts and seeing the excitement in their faces as they learned new things about interests they had.

My view of writing has changed completely over the last few years as our testing has changed;

therefore, changing the way I have had to look at how I teach writing.

HOW TESTING HAS CHANGED

1.  Our testing will be on the computer.  On the reading test the students could have up to 2 texts and then respond to a prompt about what they have read.  On the social studies test, we could have any primary source, map, diagram or text, that the students will have to analyze and then respond to a prompt.  On top of that, the students will have to type their responses while scrolling up and down to the text.

2. We have been told to be prepared for mainly opinion writing on both of these tests.

3.  Our social studies standards for third grade in Tennessee include THE. ENTIRE. WORLD. - geography, culture, history, government, economics, etc.  of each continent.

So, my amazing third grade team and I had to sit down and rethink how we were teaching.

HOW MY TEACHING HAS CHANGED

1.  My kids are on this blog almost every day.  I give them crazy photo prompts.  I give them social studies prompts that apply to what we are studying in social studies as well as reading. I have found the key to making this work is my responding that day to what they have written.  This usually takes me no more than 30 minutes at night (or early in the morning).  The next day, the students know they have to find their comment, read my reply and, then, reply back showing their corrections.

Here is one of our fun "Picture of the Week" posts.

When we read about Marco Polo (who is part of our social studies), the kids looked and responded to this post.

The kids fell in love with Ellis Island when we did this study.

I have seen such a huge growth already in our writing due to these additions to our day.

As a teacher I LOVE them.

I love them because they are fun to write.

I love them because they are fun to read.

I love them because I am seeing ALL my students grow in various ways.

Some of them are typing a sentence and that is a celebration.

Some of them are leaving peer feedback which is amazing!

2.  We still do the paper and pencil writing because that is critical as well.  We have had to do this for years, and I have loved them all.  (Some are up for a MAJOR facelift, but that will come. Please excuse those that aren't "cute.")  Our "saying" for our writing time has come from my 

fabulous friend/teaching neighbor, Belinda, from Third Grade to the Edge.

To Seek...

To Know...

And Thereby Grow...

We seek information through observing primary sources, websites, books, magazines, etc.

We take the information we gained and see what we know about that subject now.

We grow when we can put what we know into writing and share it with others.

We have done this with Mt. Everest, presidents, colonial times, The Star Spangled Banner,

American symbols, etc.

                         

3.  In our reading, we have implemented the reading response journals with the Power Reading Workshop plan.  Every week the students are writing in their journals about the book they have read.  Many times what they are writing is an opinion that has to be supported with evidence from the text. I saw so much growth with this last year, and can't wait to see how it helps my kiddos this year.

I could go on and on, but this has already wound up being longer than I had planned.

I want to hear from you!

Do you have any questions or ideas?

Please leave a comment for me!

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