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The Writing Page!
Writing comes in all forms and genres- letters, stories, advertisements, blogs, informational texts, poetry and much more! The main goal of writing is to make meaning for the purposes of communication, and our class will be exploring a variety of different ways to do this. Using our assistive technology, students will work through the writing process of brainstorming, drafting, revising, editing and publishing. This process is recursive in nature; that is, we will move forward, then back, then forward again many times before we come to the publishing stage.
As part of our 'writing territories' (that is, topics to write about), our class will be exploring social justice, aboriginal peoples and their thoughts and feelings about what it's like to be a person with a learning disability. We will be developing our writing and media literacy skills by creating powerpoints, prezis and/or keynote presentations to address the school in order to raise funds for a school in Africa, and to share our hopes of helping to build a teaching lodge on our school property. We will create pages that will become part of a class newspaper that students will take home at the end of the year. And we will build our story telling abilities by writing narratives and personal recounts, both fictional and non-fictional in nature. As always, we will focus on drafting, revising and editing as well as
publication throughout the year.
Please follow the threads below for our writing foci, along with some helpful tips for supporting this work at home. Additional information will be added as we move throughout the year.
WRITING FORM |
REVISION FOCUS |
HOME CONNECTION |
SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER
report writing using graphic and multimedia resources with a focus on research and point of view, recount |
-visual organization -organization of ideas according to topic, time, emphasis, etc. -spelling grammar and punctuation (especially use of descriptive and action words) |
examine newspapers, magazines, television ads, etc., and discuss the following: -whose point of view is presented and whose is missing -how does the author organize the information in an article that recounts an event(s) -what techniques does the author use to help us get information from the text?
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NOVEMBER - DECEMBER - JANUARY
report writing using graphic and multimedia resources with a focus on persuasion, classifying and organizing ideas, narrative |
-does my media text convey a message? -have I used a variety of text features? -is my media text visually pleasing? -have I organized my ideas well |
-read the newspaper, magazines and other non-fiction texts and ask - what is the author trying to tell us? - why do you think the author chose this picture/map/table -how does this picture/map/table help you understand what is written? |
FEBRUARY - MARCH
writing reading responses |
-did I use information from the story and my own ideas? -have I explained my thinking using descriptive language? -have I explained why? |
-oral rehearsal of responses before writing will help your child remember what they want to say before they write it -prompts that ask "tell me more / tell me why / how do you know" are extremely helpful |
APRIL - MAY - JUNE
media presentation and supported opinion; narrative
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-have I recorded the important details in my graphic organizer? -have I formed an opinion and supported that opinion using information from the text and my own ideas? -have I used at least two features of non-fiction text? -have I created an accurate setting for my story based on what know about the historical time period? -are my characters believable? -do they face a problem that is part of history? -have they solved the problem based on real facts? |
-watch documentaries that illustrate important events in history
-watch / read historical fiction (Castle in the Attic, the Legends of King Arthur, Pocahontas, Number the Stars, Hannah's Suitcase)
-make special note of tthe main points that are being made, and how the film creator adds supporting details (visuals, events, music, characters, setting, etc.) that help a/ support their opinion or statement, and b/set the mood |
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