Writing

The primary goal of the Huckleberry Hill literacy program is for students to become proficient readers and writers who enjoy literate lives and have the skills and strategies to become lifelong readers and writers.

Fourth grade literacy instruction at Huckleberry Hill School is designed to embed the Connecticut Core Standards in a balanced literacy approach to reading, writing, word study, speaking, and listening. Using a workshop approach, teachers facilitate a learning environment that helps each student access the

Connecticut Core Standards and grow to appreciate the value of a literate life.

Our literacy program relies on students, teachers, and parents/guardians all working together for the same goal: for students to become literate adults who not only love to read and write, but also have the necessary skills for literacy excellence. By working together this can become a reality.

Writing occurs throughout the day in all areas of the curriculum, including the content areas. Formal instruction occurs in narrative, nonfiction or informative/explanatory, and persuasive/opinion. Students develop spelling skills, semantic knowledge, and writing mechanics which they apply daily in their writing. The instructional model of writers' workshop gives children the opportunity to draft, revise, and edit their own writing pieces as they practice a strategy or skill taught by the teacher in a focused mini-lesson. Assessment is ongoing and is used to guide instruction of the class and individual students. Such assessment includes analyzing students’ journal writing and responses to writing prompts.

Units of Study:

Fourth grade students are engaged in writing through implementation of the following units of study:

• • The Arc of Story: Writing Realistic Fiction

  • Boxes and Bullets: Personal and Persuasive Essays

  • Bringing History to Life

  • The Literary Essay: Writing about Fiction

Major Concepts and Strategies:

During writing workshop, students develop the skills to be effective writers. They learn to:

Pre-Write:

• • Orally explain thoughts, feelings, etc.

  • Use visuals to generate ideas

  • Use literature to generate ideas

  • Generate ideas for writing in groups and independently

  • Use free-writing to develop fluency and ideas

  • Use reference materials to gather information for writing

  • Independently plan a piece of writing

  • Use graphic organizers

  • Demonstrate an awareness of purpose, audience, and form

  • Use word associations to generate ideas

Draft:

Content/Organization:

• • Use different purposes for writing: narrative, informative/explanatory, argumentative

  • Write a piece on a given topic

  • Select an appropriate title for a piece of writing

  • Write in complete sentences and paragraphs

  • Use a topic sentence for a paragraph

  • Stay on topic

  • Develop supporting details for a topic

  • Write a rough draft with fluency

  • Maintain a logical sequence of events

  • Organize written pieces into beginning/introduction, middle, and end/conclusion

  • Develop a sequential and logical pattern for a written piece

  • Write about content areas of the curriculum

Style:

• • Identify and use parts of speech correctly

  • Expand simple sentences with adjectives, adverbs, and similes

  • Write complete sentences

  • Vary sentence structure

  • Experiment with different points of view

  • Use a variety of words to develop richness of vocabulary

  • Use originality and creativity in writing

  • Begin to develop clarity and preciseness of language

  • Use appropriate details in description

  • Experiment with mood

Revise:

• • Read own work aloud to others for response

  • Clarify meaning, expand word choice, or add details (with help)

  • See work as a product that can be changed and improved

  • Remodel sentences and paragraphs

  • Use reference resources when revising, such as a dictionary and a thesaurus

  • Restructure a piece with a specific focus (with help)

  • Consider responses of the teacher and/or peers when revising

  • Use the information from teacher/peer conferences to help revise a piece of writing

Edit:

• • Capitalize the first word in a quotation

  • Capitalize titles of newspaper, magazines, and books

  • Capitalize names and titles of schools and organizations

  • Proofread their own writing for legibility

  • Place quotation marks around a speaker’s exact words

  • Correct fragments and run-on sentences (with help)

  • Use correction symbols appropriate to grade level

  • Work cooperatively in pairs or small groups to edit pieces

  • Indent paragraphs

  • Use margins appropriately

  • Proofread for clarity and preciseness

Publish:

• • Write legibly in manuscript and cursive (after review and practice)

  • Use technology to produce final written products

Students continue to develop and improve their narrative writing skills by writing their own stories and by using a variety of writing strategies. Students also complete different kinds of writing such as poetry, personal narratives, opinion pieces, and shared research.

How can parents/guardians help their children with writing?

Children can write letters to relatives who live far away. They can write “thank you” notes for gifts. They can write grocery lists. They can be encouraged to write in a diary or writer’s notebook. They can keep a journal at home, write poems, and share with the family.

Spelling and Word Study

Word study is a critical, daily component of literacy instruction for fourth grade students. This time of day is allocated for teaching phonics, spelling, and vocabulary. Teachers will administer a spelling inventory to determine what specific skills to target in their students’ instruction. Using this data, teachers will design small group activities, such as word sorts, that support students at various stages of spelling and decoding. During a word study session, the teacher will often begin with a small group “mini-lesson”. The teachers will then scaffold instruction with guided practice. Students will be provided with time to apply the concepts taught in partnerships. Finally, students will apply these lessons independently in their reading and writing. These lessons are designed so that each student receives appropriate instruction based on his/her specific needs. The goal of word study instruction is for students to transfer these phonics, spelling, and vocabulary skills into their independent reading and writing.

Handwriting

In fourth grade, students continue to write legibly in manuscript. They refine and reinforce their cursive writing skills to increase speed and legibility.

How can parents help their children with handwriting?

Parents should expect their children’s work to be legible. They can encourage them to be neater and praise them when their papers are neat and legible.