How do I teach writing?
WRITING in second grade
One of the main focuses of writing instruction in my classroom is written
fluency and expression. You will be amazed at the progress your child will
make this year in writing.
I begin the year helping students to get ideas down on paper – using
inventive spelling for bigger words, which can be read by your child and me.
I teach students how to gather their thoughts and write about things they
know. They often choose to write about family members, friends, or things
they like to do. This writing builds fluency, which is an integral part of
developing the writer.
I teach students that all stories have a beginning, middle,and end(and
eventually a beginning,middle, middle,middle, middle, middle...end). Stories
or written texts are organized and careful consideration is given to word
choice. We talk about what it means to be a writer. I teach the students how
to think like a writer. We are all writers! We will write everyday and
throughout the year we will learn strategies to improve our writing.
Spelling is an important part of writing. I encourage inventive spellings of
unknown words and work to correct the spelling of words, which are basic
sight words or part of a known word family. Inventive spelling is only
useful if your child can “read” what he has written. Inventive spelling is
also called “phonetic” spelling. Help your child at home by stretching each
word to hear all sounds when she is trying to spell something. It is also
helpful if you get him to stretch the word with you! Don't panic if there are
misspelled words in your child's writing. While I will work with your student
to correct high frequency words; bigger,unknown words WILL be misspelled.
This is OK! If I focus too much on the spelling while students are
writing,they will become robot writers who write stories with only words they
know how to spell. I would be wasting an opportunity for them to write
stories full of depth and expression with those bigger, better words they
can't spell.
I work hard to help your child get the basics of writing down and to enjoy
writing before she leaves second grade. Writing expectations increase as
your child passes through each grade. Please work continually at home to
encourage your child's writing development. The best thing you can do is have
conversations with your child about things happening in his/her life which
would make outstanding story ideas.
Although you will not see writing papers in your child’s graded work, we
write everyday! We keep all of the pieces in a writing folder. Your child’s
writing folder will come home at the end of the year so that you may see
his/her writing progress!