• Journal
    Every Tuesday and Wednesday nights for homework your child will have a writing prompt to respond to.  The goal is for your child to write a complete paragraph in response to the prompt that includes at least 5 complete sentences.
     
    How much help should parents give for the writing prompt?
     
    Prewriting
    Discussing ideas is a good pre-writing activity.  Verbally brainstorm the ideas that your child has, and offer some suggestions if they are stuck.
     
    Adding Content
    Remind them to include 5, or more, good sentences in their written response.  If they don't have 5, discuss more ideas he/she could add.
     
    Spelling
    Students should refer to the word wall chart to spell commonly used words.  Encourage your child to use "Kid Writing" (phonetic/sound spelling) for more difficult workds they do not know how to spell.  If they are curious about the spelling, you can "underwrite" the conventional spelling underneath their attempts.  You do not have to underwrite.  I'll be able to read their Kid Writing.  I'm looking for good content, not perfect spelling!
     
    Capitalization and Punctuation
    Encourage your child to check his or her own work by reading over what he/she wrote and making sure every sentence starts with a capital letter and has a period, question mark or exclamation point.
Last Modified on October 6, 2013