Thanks for checking out the blog update today. Our heavy focus in Language Arts has been on writing. We have been writing summaries in response to our reading and we have been writing personal narratives. Writing is a relatively new skill to Second Graders and one that takes much practice to improve on. Below, I've listed several things to emphasize with your child when writing with him or her at home:
*Ask your child what good writers do first? They should emphatically say "THINK!" Teach your child to think before writing and determine what it is they want to say.
*If your child has trouble sticking to a topic or tends to not write enough, a graphic organizer will help him/her set the focus and stick to it! We use the umbrella organizer often, which can be made with an umbrella, three lines under it, and a space for a closing sentence. Graphic organizers should contain words or phrases only. The time to change these thoughts into sentences is when the child is writing on the lined paper.
*Encourage your child to write about specific events that have happened in his life, rather than broad topics. I modeled writing a personal narrative about my husband bringing a frog into our house last night and it jumping on me! The point of this for the students was that this particular event only lasted about 3 minutes, but I wrote a two-page story with rich descriptive vocabulary.
*The use of transition words to identify the sequence of events is important in a personal narrative. Words or phrases like In the beginning, First, Next, After that, and In the end should be used throughout this genre of writing.
*Lastly, after praising your child's wonderful story, sit and edit it together to make sure the "conventions" are correct (capitalization, spelling, punctuation and grammar).
The bottom line...Writing needs to be practiced just like Reading! Get your child a cool journal and give them fun topics to write about. This week, we wrote stories about whether we'd rather be invisible or be able to fly! I didn't hear one complaint about writing and I actually heard "...well when can we finish what we started?" when we had to stop to go to our specials for the day - music to my ears!
Extra Credit Homework...(Your payment will be a your choice of a trip to the prize box or lunch with a friend in our classroom with Mrs. Wadsworth)
Write a personal narrative. Choose a topic that is a specific event that happened to you. This personal narrative must be done on the computer with some sort of graphic or computer drawing that is related to the topic. To earn the reward, the following must be done correctly...
1. Include a centered title and your name on the second line
2. Skip a line and indent.
3. You must begin with a topic sentence, include AT LEAST 6 detail sentences with rich vocabulary.
4. Close with a fabulous closing sentence.
5. All punctuation, capitalization, and spelling must be correct before bringing to school (Parents can edit with you).
6. Practice reading your story at home and be prepared to share at school.
7. Due Date: Any time on or before Friday, September 26!
No comments:
Post a Comment