English Language Arts: Writing Ohio Content Standards: Benchmarks | Activities Supporting this Standard |
Writing Process: Band Pk-2 | |
| Generate ideas for written compositions. | 5,6,7 |
| Develop audience and purpose for self-selected and assigned writing tasks. | 4,5 |
| Use organizers to clarify ideas for writing assignments. | 5 |
| Use revision strategies and resources to improve ideas and content, organization, word choice and detail. | 5,7 |
| Edit to improve sentence fluency, grammar and usage. | 5,7 |
| Apply tools to judge the quality of writing. | 5,6,7 |
| Publish writing samples for display or sharing with others using techniques such as electronic resources and graphics. | 5,6,7 |
Writing Conventions: Band Pk-2 | |
| Print legibly using appropriate spacing. | 1,2,3,4,5,6,7 |
| Spell grade-appropriate words correctly. | 1,3,4,5,6,7 |
| Use conventions of capitalization and punctuation in written work. | 2,4,5,6,7 |
| Use grammatical structures in written work. | 4,5,6,7 |
Writing Applications: Band Pk-2 | |
| Compose writings that convey a clear message and include well-chosen details. | 5,6 |
| Write responses to literature that demonstrate an understanding of a literary work. | |
| Write friendly letters and invitations complete with date, salutation, body, closing and signature. | 4 |
| Generate questions for investigation and gather information from a variety of sources. | 4 |
| Retell important details and findings. | 2,4 |
| Use active listening strategies to identify the main idea and to gain information from oral presentations. | 2 |
| Connect prior experiences, insights and ideas to those of a speaker. | |
| Follow multi-step directions. | 2,4 |
| Speak clearly and at an appropriate pace and volume. | 2,6 |
| Deliver a variety of presentations that include relevant information and a clear sense of purpose. | 6 |
Sample Activities
1. Students review words on spelling list and find all words that have the letters learned this week. They make a list of those words. The instructor in the small group monitors the letter formation as the student writes the word list and provides feedback reinforcing correct formation and correcting errors.
2. Students interview a special student of the day and as a group generate sentences from student responses. The teacher writes the sentences where all students can see them. Each student then selects one sentence about the student, copies the sentence and illustrates it.
3. Students use a laser pointer to find words around the classroom that contain the letters learned this week. Students generate a list of words as they find them. The instructor in the small group monitors student letter formation and provides feedback.
4. Students write a letter to one of the instructors in the Write Start program and are directed to ask questions about the instructors. Students are given a template for the letter format within which they can fill in the key components. During letter writing, the small group instructor monitors letter formation, letter legibility, use of mechanics and compliance to letter format. The instructors then answer all of the letters modeling correct letter format and legibility.
5. When a student finishes a story, he or she meets with one of the teachers and collaboratively edits the story. The student then uses the editing notes to produce a final copy. The teacher checks the final copy prior to publishing.
6. As an outcome of the writing workshop process, students are given the opportunity to go to the “share chairs”. Three sets of chairs are set up around the room facing each other. Once a student completes their story, they can go to a share chair to read their story to a friend.
7. Students are given the opportunity to publish their stories. After a story is finished, edited with instructor input and corrected, the student creates a cover for their story and binds it. It then is included in the classroom library of published books for other students to check out and read