Mar. 10, 2006 Friday Lesson
A bit on descirptive writing...you can check my links in my sidebar under "Writer's Workshop" if you would like more information or ideas:
My daughter is only seven, so we are doing a lot of oral language practice rather than actually writing. We are describing things we find and expanding vocabulary as well at looking for elements of text structure in the texts we read (we've looked at recipes, Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day..., by Judith Viorst, and are getting ready to look at some excerpts from Charlotte's Web and the bible. All this can be done in writing for older children.
Here are some ideas for prompts:
Artwork...old calendars work well for a cheap way of amassing quality artwork for study. Looking at the artwork while reading an art review on it can really help children see the connections between the image and the descriptive writing. Then students can have a chance to write their own reviews.
Find some food reviews in a magazine or online. Try making the dishes and eat them. Compare the review with your own experiences. Write reviews of your favorite foods...even if it is plain old mac and cheese. Sometimes writing fancy reviews for everyday food can be a lot of fun.
Look at The Snowman, by Raymond Briggs. Have your child verbally tell you the story through the pictures. An interesting activity to try is to give one picture in a series to each child (mom and/or dad can play if you don't have enough children...or just because) and have each person write a description of their picture. Put together, you should have an excerpt from the story that could be woven into an interesting narrative, full of lovely details.
Another book that encourages careful examination is Something's Not Quite Right, paingings by Guy Billout. I do not particularly like his description of what he is trying to accomplish on the back of the book, but the pictures themselves are visually interesting. The titles provide interesting vocabulary practice and discussion of how they relate to the pictures. "Perfection," for example, shows a man laying in a field of red flowers in straight rows. In the sea of red flowers, one yellow one pokes out near the bottom.
Collect some travel brochures and read the descriptions of different places. Create your own travel brochures, focusing on places you have been or have studied about. Using the internet, a child can create some pretty professional looking travel brochures for any place or any time period.
As always, I strongly encourage you to look first at the purpose of the text, and talk about how the author achieves his purpose. Then look at the structure of the text and again talk about how the structure meets the purpose of the text. Then look at more specifics such as word choice and sentence fluency. Try to copy this in your own writing. Just as artists learn from copying masters, writers learn by analyzing and copying master authors (not just rote copying, but discerning the principles of good writing and attempting it on their own.) The Writer's Workshop provides a good structure for doing this with your children on a regular basis.
One thing I caution against is the way I was taught to teach descriptive writing. One activity I remember is giving every child a picture that is very similar. Each child is supposed to describe his picture with such accuracy that a third person can tell which description goes with which picture. Another is to take a picture that is fairly repetitive and have the child write about it. Then cut up the picture and have someone try to put it together based only on the description from the child. This may serve to focus a child on detail and description, but the writing from such activities is boring...both for the author and the reader. It tends to generate disconnected listings of characteristics in the picture. And I have never read a good piece of published descriptive writing that engages in such detail.
The point is for the child to focus on an aspect he wishes to relate and describe it with words in a way that evokes images or experiences in the mind of his readers. The best way I know to do this is to find good examples, analyze them and apply this to writing practice.
homeschooling, Writer's Workshop, teaching writing, descriptive writing, writing, home school
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Mar. 2, 2006 Writing Lessons...Descriptive Writing
For the last two weeks, we have talked a lot about descriptive writing and looked for examples in a variety of texts. This week, we began practicing our own work. Little Mouse is not really ready to write full compositions yet, but she loves writing. Her exercises usually involve outlining and then verbally telling me the story. Sometimes I copy it; sometimes I just listen and we talk about it.
We introduced this type of writing using, Alexander's Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day by Judith Viorst. I was not happy with the graphic organizer I linked to in that entry, so I made up my own. A graphic organizer should visually represent the structure of the text you are reading (or writing), and this book certainly is not organized around what a day smells like, looks like, etc. I asked my daughter several questions and she finally arrived at the conclusion that it is structured chronologically, starting in the bedroom getting ready for breakfast and ending there getting ready for bed. Here are the notes she dictated to me:
Other common structures for a descriptive text are: top to bottom, bottom to top, left to right, right to left and from general to specific (especially in reviews).
To apply what we learned from studying Alexander, she outlined her own story, Little Mouse and the Great, Wonderful, Happy, Very Good Day. This is basically the model I use to teach writing consistently. I teach a concept, we define the terms, then we look at examples. After looking at examples, we apply this to our own writing. Usually, the first examples I use are from the bible, but in this case, it seemed to make more sense to study first, and then look at the examples of description in the bible later.
Today, we stepped back and practiced just describing. This could very logically be done first, but I like to teach from an example. I gave my daughter a graphic organizer and a tangelo, something she had never eaten before. We talked about its various attributes and then she set off to fill out the little chart. Not sure if you can decipher her interesting phonics, here, but you get the idea.
Principles? Leading Ideas? I did not really organize these lessons in that way. We are working forward from the foundation we laid back in the fall when I began formally teaching writing. She identified the purpose of each text and we looked at the elements that gave us clues. We looked at how the author fulfilled that purpose and compared it to God's purposes lined out in scripture. None of these texts answer the highest calling for writing, but none of them go against God's teaching. Teaching the elements of writing in this way, in my mind, is teaching the principles of the subject, although we did not even attempt to tie them to any of the seven principles.
lesson plans, writing, homeschooling, home school, Writer's Workshop
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Feb. 21, 2006 Descriptive Writing, Part One
Reading and writing are inextricably intertwined. In order to develop good writing, children must be exposed to good writing and must learn to read critically, examining each part and how it fits into the whole. I choose my books to work on for our reading exercises based on what I plan to be teaching in writing. For more on how I teach reading, check this entry on text structure. Teaching reading systematically in this way provides an excellent basis for teaching writing because it helps children see how the components of a book work together to form a whole. The following is essentially a reading lesson, but must occur before the writing lesson so that your child has a good working example.
Descriptive writing is perhaps one of the most difficult skills for students to really master. Particulary young children have great difficulty determining what information someone else might need to know in order to describe an experience accurately. Still, descriptive writing is foundational to all other forms of writing.
Descriptive writing paints a picture in the reader's mind. It uses words to describe feelings, sights, sounds, taste, scents and touch. Common examples include menus, travel brochures, catalogs and technical manuals. Word choice, organization and the ideas expressed are main components of descriptive writing.
The best way to teach any kind of writing is to examine examples of excellent writing. Children's literature provides a wealth of resources here because the stories are typically short enough to examine how elements of writing come together to form a whole, but well-known passages from other books can also be used effectiviely as well.
The first step, therefore, is to gather examples of good descriptive writing. My favorite children's book for this is:
I have read this enough time that even my two year old has portions memorized. Perfect for pausing to pick a bit of it apart. This is not the time to introduce a new book or passage. I would keep this activity to ten minutes or so.
Second is to begin analyzing the book. Provide a definition, perhaps a modification of the description above, and ask your child to apply it to the story. Pick out a sentence that illustrates the concept.
This book begins, "I went to sleep with gum in my mouth and now there's
gum in my hair and when I got out of bed this morning I tripped on the
skateboard and by mistake I dropped my sweater in the sink while the
water was running and I could tell it was going to be a terrible,
horrible, no good, very bad day." Things only get worse for poor
Alexander, but we already have a start for a description of what a bad
day is like.
This book does not utilize sights and sounds like a menu or travel
brochure might. Instead, it uses a listing of events which all
children can identify with on some level. They know how Alexander is
feeling because they would feel the same way and probably have felt the
same way at some time.
Introduce the graphic organizer.
This is probably one of the simplest orgainzers of any type of
writing. Use the organizer to map the story or excerpt you are going
to be using as an example in your descriptive witing practice. Pay
special attention to adjectives, details and word choice. These are
the hallmarks of descriptive writing and are very powerful when used
correctly.
Another thing to pay attention to is the organization of these
details. Objects are commonly described from top to bottom or bottom
to top while scenes are described from side to side. Alexander's day
is described from the time he wakes up until the time he goes to bed.
After the chart is filled out, talk about where the author started in
his description and ways he or she let you know the relationship
between different things described in the story.
Once your child is comfortable filling out the organizer with familiar books or passages, you can introduce some material he is not as familar with. Ideas include:
Menus
Travel brochures
Passages from the bible, Exodus 25 has an excellent example of descriptive writing in its description of the tabernacle construction
Field guides
Poetry
Also important is to remember to discuss the purpose of each text. Does the author wish to inform, entertain or persuade? I usually ask my daughter to predict what the purpose is by examining the title and illustrations before reading. She then checks her prediction after we have read it. This is not applicable in these lessons since you will be using texts your children already know, but don't forget to have them define the purpose. All writing should flow from its purpose and your child will need to determine his purpose before being able to write anything meaningful.
Next week, I'll share some ideas on how to incorporate this into a writing lesson.
For an online descriptive writing workshop, check out this site from Scholastic:
Descriptive Writing With Virginia Hamilton
teaching writing, teaching reading, home school, homeschooling, education
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Feb. 8, 2006 Something about writing anyway
It is Wednesday again, and I am supposed to be writing something about writing. But I am away from home and grieving the loss of my computer. The hard drive is fried. We do have a newer, nicer computer now. But all my writing, all our pictures and all my goofy random links in my bookmarks are all gone. Something was wrong with our CD drive or the software or something, so I was not able to back anything up.
At any rate, here is a good post on developing a love of writing with young children. Never underestimate the value of the stories your children make up on the fly. Taking the time to listen, ask questions and write down what they say will give them great confidence, help them through the beginnings of the writing process and give you a wonderful record of your child's younger years. Like I said in one of my Writer's Workshop posts, every part of the process can be taught to young children, but you need to be ready to take dictation. Learning the process of good writing is completely separate from good mechanics (spelling, punctuation and even holding the pencil and sizing the letters correctly). Yet most students and parents get hung up on the mechanics.
tagged: writer/'s workshop, homeschooling, teaching writing, writing |
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Jan. 25, 2006 Writer's Workshop...The Basics
The Writer's Workshop is a teaching tool to teach writing through continuous, repeated exposure to the writing process. It creates a structured environment in which the teacher takes the child through the entire writing process from topic selection through to publication on a regular basis. This can be begun as early as Kindergarten and is a useful means of teaching writing through high school. The structure allows the teacher to work with multiple ages and ability levels simultaneously.
For the homeschool environment, the Writer's Workshop has five basic components: the mini-lesson, writing, conferencing, the author's chair and publication. The process normally takes one week from start to finish.
The Mini-Lesson
I actually tend to teach all subjects following this basic format: give a brief but focused lesson that contains the heart of what I want my child to learn, have her apply that in some manner and record for assessment. The mini-lesson is a brief but focused lesson on writing, geared specifically toward the children you are working with. It should be about five to ten minutes long and involves giving explicit direction and modeling. In the beginning, the mini-lesson really only outlines what the child will be doing with the next part of the Writer's Workshop, ie., "Today we are going to select a topic to write about. When we select a topic, we..." Later, this is where you will address specific features of good writing, focusing only on ONE skill at a time. The skill you focus on is usually something the child has not yet mastered, but is also something that he will be able to grasp. You will give a mini-lesson each day as you focus your children on writing.
Writing
This portion ranges from 20-40 minutes, depending on age and attention span. Pre-emergent and emergent writers will dictate their work to the teacher and then illustrate the work for this time. (Or illustrate and dictate later, if you have multiple children to work with.) More developed writers will write on their own. The child should try to take the concepts from the mini-lesson to their work. The beginning of the week should focus on topic selection and narrowing that topic so that the child can write successfully. Most young children (and even many adults) will choose a topic like "bears" even though it is a topic large enough to fill several shelves at the library. They will need considerable guidance to narrow the topic to something manageable within the length they will be writing. Consider these two fictitious examples (loosely based on examples I remember from teaching first grade):
topic: bears
Bears are big. They eat fish and berries and clams and bulbs. They hibernate. The mother protects her cubs from their father. She has her cubs in the winter while she is hibernating. Polar bears live way up north and eat seals.
topic: what bears eat...clams
Bears are not picky eaters. One thing they like to eat is clams. They look on the side of the river bed and find where clams are hiding in the mud. They use poweful paws to dig the clams out faster than the clams can bury themselves. They use their claws to pry open the shell and eat the clams. Clams provide a good source of energy for the bear to prepare for winter.
Once a topic is selected and sufficiently narrowed, the child will begin writing about the topic...usually the second day of the workshop.
Conferencing
In the classroom, I did this by appointment. That probably is not necessary in most homeschool environments, but is a possibility if you deem it necessary or beneficial in any way. This is the time that the student and teacher sit down together and review the work. The child reads the work to the teacher and the teacher provides feedback. Especially in the early years, editing is not the goal. The main things to look for are: fluency of ideas, logical ordering and the overall connection of thoughts. If your child is younger, more inexperienced or generally timid about writing, this is the time to pull out all the good things about the work. It is a time to build confidence in writing. I generally give two or three things I like about the work, give one suggestion for improvement and then end with another positve comment. I never give a child more than one thing to improve on at a time. There is no sense going on to higher skills until the basics are mastered, no matter the age. Conferencing can also occur daily to assess where the children are at with their work. With multiple children, you simply call one to you, work with him for five minutes or so, send him back to independent writing and call the next child. Public schools often add another facet to this process through peer review. In fact, this has become such an important part of the teaching of writing in public schools that allowances are being made for it in state assessments. I have tried peer review in the classroom and generally found that it made for worse writing examples. Children who do not know how to write do not give good advice. If, however, you have a skilled writer in your home, you can begin working with him on how to give good feedback.
Author's Chair
This is the child's chance to share their work "publicly." You can designate a special spot or chair for the author to sit in while he reads his work. Encourage the child to practice good speaking techniques such as sitting up straight, good enunciation, eye contact and dramatic reading of the material. Everyone in the audience should sit quietly and remain attentive. Each will have an opportunity to give some feedback. In the beginning, the feedback tends to be general and not very helpful, but as you continue to give specific praise, your children will learn how to do this as well. Again, I usually praise two or three things, give one suggestion for improvement and end with a positive comment.
Publication
This can actually occur either before or after the Author's Chair. I always did it as the very last activity, but some like to have the finished product to display for the Author's Chair. This is where the child begins to learn basic editing skills to make a clean copy of their work which they will then illustrate. You can devote as much time and energy into this part as you want. There are a lot of ways to make books...including sending the work off to be "published" as a hard back book! Work is then kept in a portfolio (or notebook) so the child and parent can refer to it later to note progress.
tagged: writer's workshop, teaching writing
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I don't know how many of you have been following my Writer's Workshop, but I have been considering having a contest in conjunction with it. I love the contest idea that Grannie Annie is doing for 9-14 year olds, and would like to have similar guidelines but for 6-8 year olds, because I think they would also have much to gain from collecting stories from relatives and retelling them, whether written or dictated.
I even have a prize...a DVD of Colin Buchannan that was double shipped and they said that we could keep. I'm just not sure how to go about it. Any ideas?
Two things I'm concerned about is safety, seeing as we are talking about young children, and some fair judging standard. I was thinking of taking email submissions and putting them together to email to all contestants. And since it really is more about the experience and the process than polished writing with this age group, I was considering just doing a simple drawing from all contestants.
Next week's topic is setting up a Writer's Workshop with your child to teach and explore writing together as a family. This works very well with multiple children at varying levels...I loved doing this with my second graders, and some of my writer's were quite good while I had two who were barely reading, let alone writing.
And on my other blog, I finally am getting around to making that lamb. I posted the lesson notes that will be leading up to making this lamb and I will be putting up instructions as soon as we actually have made it. Even if you are not interested in making a clay lamb, you should check out the little study.
And if you ever wanted to know what Christmas is like in Germany, at least from my perspective, you can check that out here. The links are to an online visual dictionary, so you can see pictures of what I am talking about.
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Dec. 6, 2005 Writer's Workshop, Lesson 2
Conventions
Mat 5:18 For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.
God is is a God of order and detail. He paid special attention to each aspect of creation and to His plan for salvation. A simple scanning of Deuteronomy or Leviticus lets us know that He is interested in the minutest details of our lives and how we choose to live. Because of this, we should also take care to present Christ even in the details of our life, bringing every part of our life under the authority of Christ.
The care we take in the details of our life shows the importance we place on what we do. This is as true in our writing as it is in our dress, speech and manners. Different media of expression do call for different levels of care. Errors that no one would notice in a blog become embarrassingly obvious in a resumι. Still, whenever the conventions distract from the heart of the message, the writing becomes cumbersome and difficult to read. Take, for example this entry. There are several simple errors which do cause the reader to stumble. The whole "genre" of blogs is a little more forgiving, but the grammatical error right at the start does throw the reader off a bit.
The purpose of proper use of conventions is to express your idea to your readers clearly. Poor use of conventions will distract from the text, making it difficult to follow. There are, however, no iron-clad rules. Every rule my high school English teacher taught me with her red pen on my papers, I have seen skillfully broken by published authors. Of course, you need to know the rules before breaking them effectiviely, but here are some examples to help illustrate why I maintain that the use of conventions is subordinate to purpose.
First, consider spelling. Conventional spelling allows the reader to concentrate on what you wish to express (your purpose) without distraction. Here is a short entry I enjoyed that makes skillful misuse of conventions. The structure of the text would imply that the purpose of the text is to inform, however the conventions alone tell the reader that the author's true intent is to entertain.
I was continually marked down on my English papers for sentence fragments. No amount of arguing or demonstrating the effective use of the sentence fragment in classic literature ever helped my grade, and I don't think my 11th grade English teacher appreciated me telling her that Shakespeare would not have faired well in her class. I still have not been cured of them as you can see HERE. (And probably throughout my entries if you really look. See, there's one already.) I'm not saying this is the greatest bit of writing, but put all the sentences back into proper English, and the short piece does not have the same effect.
One final example, because I SO identify with this song. I'm better now, but you should have seen me in my college days. I truly thrived on stress and its infamous counterpart, caffeine. This song makes good use of the run-on. I think there really are only three or four sentences ("Where are the sharks? Where are the sharks?") If you listen to him sing it, he really does do it on only a few breaths, further expressing the frenzied, caffeinated, Type A lifestyle.
Before teaching conventions, it is important to have some idea where your child is and what the next stage of writing s/he should be aiming at is. Take a look at this rubric. It outlines the developmental stages of writing. Assess where your child falls in this rubric. My little Baby Bear (2) is in the scribbling phase. It would make no sense for me to try to teach him spelling lists (even if he were 8...it is about his developmental level, not age.) My Little Mouse, on the other hand, is beginning to approach conventional spelling. She is in the transitional phase, as evidenced by this bit of writing, and explicit spelling instruction would benefit her greatly.
You probably are familiar enough with your childs writing to place him or her within the appropriate stage, but here is an engaging writing assignment for most elementary students. Keep this (or whatever assignment you choose to use) in a notebook so that you and your child can periodically assess development over the course of the year(s). The title of this exciting bit of prose is, The Biggest Scab I Ever Had. You will need crayons, a pencil, blank paper and a band-aid. For the paper, I took one sheet of printer paper and cut it in half length-wise (that would be hot dog fold, or when you have the two long ends touch in folding). Lay that horizontally and fold the right and left edges together to meet in the center. Your child can color this like a big band-aid. He or she then opens up the little book and writes his story about the biggest scab he ever had inside, complete with illustrations. No work is complete without a band-aid. Look carefully at their finished work and decide where they are developmentally if you do not already know. Make sure that your direct instruction is tailored to meet them where they are at and pushes them slightly toward the next stages of development. Movement through these early stages of writing really has more to do with their reading level than anything, so I will give more specific activities for each level in separate entries. Here I will focus on what is appropriate for multiple ages and skill levels.
Daily practice for conventions can start very early. I did this simple activity with my pre-K students, my first graders and my second graders. It is appropriate, with small modifications, until your child has the basic conventions mastered. Each morning, we do a short paragraph about the day. Your paragraph can vary according to how you structure your day. Mine was tied into our calendar routine, which is something I believe those of you who do Math Their Way are familiar with. Our paragraph would look something like this:
Today is Wednesday, December 7, 2005. It is 8°F. There is snow on the ground. It is the coldest day we have had so far this month. It is partly cloudy. It might snow more tonight.
When I do this, I verbalize everything I am doing. For young children, that is the extent of it. I say, At the beginning of a paragraph, I need to indent. That shows I am starting a paragraph. The first letter of a sentence is always capitalized. Days of the week and months of the year always start with a capital letter because they are proper nouns. When you write the date, you need a comma after the day of the week. A sentence always ends with a period. I make note of each convention and why it is used as I come across it. After children are familiar with this, I will pause and ask, I am getting ready to start a paragraph. What do I need? Little Mouse will answer, An indent! I do the same for each feature. Later, you can write the paragraph with errors and have children orally correct them. I used this to teach common editing marks. Eventually, they will be ready to be given the paragraph to correct independently on their own paper. When I did this with my second-graders, I made only five mistakes so students knew when they had finished. Most state standards I have looked at require a third grader to consistently begin sentences with a capital letter, end them with a period and have no random capital letters.
Here is a quick reference for the most common editing marks needed for young children. It is handy to keep at the front of your writing notebook. Use them consistently for all writing, but remember your child's developmental level. My daughter and I would both get overwhelmed if I made note of every error. Right now, we are working on capitalization/period, so that is all I correct unless she mispells a word I know she knows.
Here is a more extensive list for more advanced students.
My daughter is too young for this, but we may do it just for fun. Here is a writing contest for ages 9-14 that looks like it could be quite meaningful, even if you do not enter or win. Hmmm...the whole topic sounds like the beginnings of yet another notebook...
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Nov. 29, 2005 Writer's Workshop, Lesson 1
Purpose
The verb to write comes from the old Saxon writan, awritan, gewritan and carries the basic sense of scratching, scraping or rubbing. The verb carries many connotations and has fourteen usages outlined in Websters 1828 dictionary. For the purposes of this workshop, we will use the following definition:
WRITE; v. To express by forming letters and words on paper or stone; as to write a deed; to write a bill of divorcement. The ten commandments were written with the finger of God on tables of stone.
There are two seeds of this definition which will establish our focus. The first is the idea of expression. This is the authors purpose in writing and how he chooses to express that purpose. The second is the act, defined by the use of letters. This seed may also be identified as the conventions of the language. In many writing programs, primary importance is put on the act of writing or teaching conventions (spelling, capitalization, etc.), particularly in the early grades. Conventions are important for the expression of ideas, but I feel they should always be taught as a means to expression. Good conventions on their own convey no ideas, inspire no action and carry no emotion to share with an audience. Problems in this area can be easily corrected in editing, whereas major problems in the area of expression such as a poorly defined purpose require a great deal of rewriting to correct.
The written word bears great importance in scripture.
Exo 32:16 And the tables were the work of God, and the writing was the writing of God, graven upon the tables.
The creator of heaven and Earth wrote the laws he expected his people to follow by his own hand. For a more in depth study of the significance of this act, read this article from Follow the Rabbi. They were to be kept in the Ark of the Covenant, the most sacred of places to the Jews. The king was to write these and display them near his throne so that he would remember that he was but a servant of the Lord and all power and authority was derived from God. The Jewish people were to have the law written and displayed in prominent places in their homes, including the doorposts and even on their own clothing.
Proverbs makes this written law even more personal, calling for the law of the Lord to be written on the heart.
Pro 7:3 Bind them upon thy fingers, write them upon the table of thine heart.
The New Testament draws continual distinction between the written law and the oral tradition, or mishnah, which had slowly developed up to the time of Christ. The phrase, it is written is repeated continually, each time emphasizing the supremacy of Gods written word over mans tradition. It is interesting to note, however, that Christ followed ALL of the written law and MOST of the oral tradition. And of course, we all know of that great Book of Life which contains the names of all faithful believers.
The primary purpose of writing is to provide the world with the message of God, His law and His plan of salvation. The Christian, therefore, has a responsibility to maintain this standard of excellence. This does not mean that the Christian may write only theological dissertations, but that he must continually uphold that which is good and holy in Gods eyes, whether it is a devotional, a newspaper article, a childrens story or a research article.
There are essentially three purposes for writing: to inform, to entertain and to persuade. It is important for a young person to recognize these purposes quickly. It will guide their reading, and later their writing. With practice, a child should be able to identify the primary purpose of a text before even reading it. The title and format usually give significant clues to the reader. A good reader will identify the purpose of a text and adjust their reading accordingly, just as a good writer will adjust his writing according to his purpose.
Here is one beginning activity to teach this to your child. Make a sunburst diagram. This consists of a circle with the heading Purposes of Writing inside. Have your child give you as many purposes as he can think of and record each one as a ray from your circle. Examples might be for fun, to not forget, to give instructions, etc. Lead with questions if necessary. When you have a good sampling, stop. Provide a sheet with three columns with one of the three purposes identified above as a heading for each. Help your child to sort his ideas into the appropriate category. When you are finished, you should have the basic ideas for a decent definition for each purpose, written in your childs own words.
From this point forward, any time you read a text with your child, ask him to identify the authors purpose (to inform, entertain or persuade) after you read the title, author and give him a moment to look at the text. Do this with a variety of texts: a newspaper article, a childrens book, a shopping list, a recipe or instructions to a game. If you give any writing assignments, take a moment to make sure your child knows his purpose in writing. This will be an important habit for him to develop and continue throughout his life. If you do not know why you are writing, there is really no way to express anything meaningful.
I encourage you to ask any questions, provide your own ideas or give me any feedback at all. I want to make this as helpful as possible to everyone, and I certainly am not the final authority on anything. Let me know how thing go
my suggestion would not to be to cover all this at once. Personally, I would share the definition of writing and what its seeds are one day, discuss the biblical purpose the next and work on the sunburst activity the third. After that, I would begin trying to form the habit of having your child identifying the purpose of a text each time he picks up something to read. This really is foundational to all writing and is worth taking it slow. Im not real sure how to set up the notebook, as I have not yet finished with all this. At them moment, I think a title page and then two main sections, the first being purpose and the second being conventions. I would further subdivide purpose into structure and tools. Conventions I would break down into spelling, punctuation and grammar.
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