Encourage Writing

At school we encourage writing through having a writer's workshop available in class during reading time, having a reading journal, and math journal.  We also read many books of different levels and topics.
At home, you can also encourage writing.  I found these ideas at this website:  http://www.greatschools.org/students/homework-help/341-tips-to-support-writing-at-home.gs

Provide a place for your child to write.

The area should be an area that is quiet and well lit. Stock the "writing center" with supplies such as paper, pencils and crayons. You can also gather family photos and magazines in the center that can be used as story starters.

Read, read, read!

The best activity to improve writing is reading. If your child reads good books, he will be a better writer. Reading exposes students to general vocabulary, word study and content-specific vocabulary. Through reading, students see a variety of authors' techniques that they can use in their own writing.

Encourage your child to keep a reflective journal.

This is excellent writing practice, as well as a good outlet for venting feelings. Encourage your child to write about things that happen at home and school. This reflective journal can be used to develop the "senses" of writing. Have your child write about what he saw, heard or felt on a trip or adventure. Provide experiences in your community that will interest your child and spark her writing. Especially encourage your child to write about personal feelings — pleasures as well as disappointments. When reading your child's journal (only if your child invites you to, of course), share your own feelings and ideas paired with positive feedback about your child's writing.

Provide authentic writing opportunities for your child.

Have your child write his own thank-you notes, party invitations and letters to family. Let your child make the grocery list. Finding a pen pal for your child would make writing "real." Helping children make the connection between writing and the "real" world will increase an interest in writing.

Be a writing role model.

Make sure your child sees you as a writer. Point out times that you use writing to communicate with others. Discuss authentic writing in the community such as articles and letters in the newspaper, on billboards or in written advertisements. Discuss the purpose of the writing and the target audience. When your child writes, you should write. You can schedule a day of the week that you will turn off the television and share your writing.

Start a vocabulary notebook.

Teach your child new words each week and encourage her to use them. Make it into a game and give points for using the new words. Your child can keep a vocabulary notebook and get rewarded for the number of new words learned. The words will begin to appear like magic in her oral language and writing.

Ask questions.

Always ask your child questions when he writes. Ask specific questions about your child's writing such as: "How did that happen?" "How did that make you feel?" "Can you tell me more about that...?" "What are some other words you could use to describe...?"

Help your child publish her writing.

Share her writing with others, place it on the refrigerator or encourage her to write for kids' magazines. When your child's writing is published in a children's book, she will be on her way to becoming a lifelong writer and author. Check out these options for publishing children's work:

Writing Workshop

We will have a Writing Workshop in our class.

In it, we will have several notebooks that will be class writing notebooks.  Each notebook will have a different topic/question on the front for the students to write about in the notebook.  These will be available to look at when come for Parent/Teacher Conferences.
We will also have many books for the students to look at for examples of things to write and for resources (dictionary and thesaurus).
We will also have small posters that tell about the different writing processes and how papers should look (capitalization, spelling, punctuation, etc.)
We will have paper, pencils, highlighters, crayons, and markers to write and illustrate.

The six aspects of Language Arts

There are six aspects of Language Arts that we will be using in our class.

1) Reading

We will be reading many books together as a class, in small groups, in partners, and indepently.

2) Writing

We will be writing stories, papers, and poetry.

3) Viewing

We will be looking at different books, poetry, and reading websites to see illustrations.

4) Visual Representation

We will be illustrating our stories and poetry.

5) Speaking

We will be talking about our papers and showing our pictures when we are teaching what we have researched about the different informational topics.

6) Listening

We will be listening as other students read what they have learned and when we listen to a book read.

Text Types Taught

There are four general texts we will be reading and writing.

Narrative:

We will be reading in the Harcourt Reading book on our grade level.
We have read alouds of many books that I will add here as we read them, so you will know what your students are currently reading in class.  It will be on the right side, under "What we're reading."
We will be writing stories about our summers, our favorite animal, and other topics depending on the students.  This will also be on the side under "What we're writing about."

Informational:

We will be reading history books to learn more about America, the country we live in.
We will be reading science books to see pictures of the different subjects we're studying:  insects will be our first subject.
We will be writing about the insect life cycle and different insects.

Argumentative:

We will be writing different papers on these topics:

• Why should people have pets?
• How can we get rid of pollution?
• What are healthy foods?
• Sesame Street is a great show to watch
• Why is war bad?
• Is exercising daily important?

Poetry:

We will be reading and writing poetry.  Everyday we'll hear a poem, so the students will be able to hear many different kinds of poetry.  We will learn about haikus, shape poetry, Acrostic poetry, and Senses Poetry.  The picture above is an example of a shape poem.  

Stages of the Writing Process

We have five stages in our Writing Process in class.  

1) Brainstorming-this is where we come up with ideas about the topic we're going to write about.  Spelling doesn't matter, we're just writing down thoughts.
2) Rough Draft-this is where brainstorming ideas comes together.  The students will write their paper with spaces between lines, so there is space to edit.  They are just putting ideas in order and on paper.  Spelling still isn't important, but having a solid topic is.
3) Revise-this is where the students get their paper back with corrections and the student decides which suggestions they want to keep and how to make their paper the best they can, using their voice.
4) Edit-this is where the student gets their paper back again with corrections marked (including spelling, capitalization, punctuation, grammar, word usage, and verb tense) and they are able to fix their paper to make it ready for the final draft.
5) Publish-this is the final typed paper.