This fall, a group of 3rd and 4th graders were assigned to two writing classes during journal time.

Writing Prompts was designed to help these reluctant writers develop creative ideas and to get their ideas on paper. At our school children have a half hour of writing each day, during which time they can write about anything.  Some children struggle with open ended assignments.

At the start of the class children are given a choice of prompts and challenged to “write for the whole time.” Other expectations include no talking, and children will not receive help for spelling. We explain that spelling errors can always be fixed later, so our main objective is to have children  writing all the time and not stopping for spelling help.

In the Writing Skills class the same group of children have been learning about the mechanics of writing. First we studied what makes a complete sentence. Then we started exploring parts of speech. We started with nouns and proper nouns, pronouns and most recently articles. Typically there is a mini lesson at the start of each class, and then time is allowed for children practice each new skill.