We have officially reached that magical moment in our classroom when the announcement that it's time for Writing Workshop is met with mostly excitement and enthusiasm--hooray! I have been enthusiastic and excited about teaching writing from the beginning--it's one of my favorite subjects to teach--but writing is hard, so it's not always everyone else's favorite part of our day. I can say with confidence that students are exhibiting some important habits of mind during Writing Workshop--including persisting, applying past knowledge to new situations, and striving for accuracy--and this is directly affecting their work. Last week's lessons included a lot of coaching in how to get words on the page, as many students were very hesitant to try this. Being "right" is important to many students, often in a somewhat crippling way. I encourage students to write it the best they can, and move on. That said, students do have some new skills and knowledge to draw upon, such as their growing collection of letters/sounds they know and sight words they can read and are beginning to spell. So, students are being asked to apply the skills learned in Word Study lessons to their writing. Hard work! But, students are persisting and not giving up, even when it's hard (also the focus of recent lessons). At this point in kindergarten, students should be attempting to write words. It is not expected that students spell words correctly, though I encourage students to strive for accuracy with spelling our sight words, as they are post in the room and are practiced often. In terms of other words, though, it's normal for students to use "kid spelling" and say the words slowly and write all the sounds they hear. At this point, most students are hearing and writing the beginning sound, with many students starting to include the ending sound as well. This is awesome! Parents often ask, how can I help my child with writing at home? My own son, Will, thinks writing binders are fun. He created one while we were at school yesterday (his idea!). I think it makes him feel grown up. He even wanted to write while in the car! :-) Help your child say words slowly and get the letters down on paper. Don't worry about accurate spelling--I want students to be confident with their best attempts. | This Reading Mama, a blog, has some good posts about writing with children. I've linked one such post here. |