Writing

In Fourth Grade your child uses the writing process to practice different types of writing for a variety of purposes and audiences.

Your child's classroom writing is incorporated across the subject areas. Students write daily for different purposes and audiences — research papers, summary statements, poetry, legends, word problems, essays, responses to literature, and more.

Your child will work to master such specific skills as responding to a prompt, adding details and elaboration, and using age-appropriate vocabulary when (s)he writes.  (S)he will practice writing conventions, including punctuation marks, paragraphing, and verb tenses.  These skills will be used as (s)he begins to write dialogues, explanations, and comparisons.

Different types of writing the Upper Primary student will learn:

• Descriptive writing that creates a clear and vivid picture of a person, place, or thing

• Expository nonfiction writing that explains an event, concept, or idea using facts and examples

• Narrative writing about an event in a personal way 

• Persuasive writing that encourages an audience to share the writer's beliefs, opinions, or point of view

• Imaginary writing that includes a beginning, middle, and end as well as character development

The Writing Process:  Your child continues to expand upon what (s)he learned in earlier grades about the writing process, including prewriting, drafting, revising, editing, and publishing.  (S)he recognizes that writing is more than putting words on paper and understands that writing is not just an end product, but a complex process of communication that involves many steps.

Every fourth grader is given the state writing assessment in February.  Third grade students will participate, but teachers will assess their papers. The writing is assessed on its ideas and content, organization, voice, word choice, sentence fluency, and conventions. These are the same six traits used for assessing students' writing.