1st graders--how are yours writing?

I just sent a note to Jonathan's teacher about our new writing program. His class is one of 2 first grades that is piloting the program. His stories are truely amazing me. For a child who does not enjoy writing (poor kid comes by it honestly--both DH and I have had issues with writing), he is bringing home 2 page stories! They are complete with beginning, middle, and end. Contain details and supporting sentences. This is stuff I don't remember learning until MUCH later!

Marcus--his class is not in the pilot program--writes what I would consider normal to above average for a first grader. He generally writes a page. No real beginning or end, but he tells a complete story, if you know what I mean. He is comfortable using inventive spelling--totally appropriate for his age/grade.

So, I was wondering what other 1st graders are doing.

 

My boys do "journals" in their 1st grade classes. They have to write 5 sentences. One of them does pretty good with beginning, middle, end & likes writing. He's also my storyteller & much more imaginative so that's not surprising. He's also very dramatic & shows promise of musical giftedness. The other one tries to do the 5 sentences as quickly as possible & likes to end end with a question because he can't think of another sentence, haha! He doesn't like to write at all, or read for that matter, & is tends to be more serious & has a hard time being silly. He's very good at logical thinking & fact based things. A typical example is one he wrote about Christmas ornaments that I read while subbing his class on Fri.- "I like the snowflake ornament the best. It is the one I like. It is white and it has glitter. Other ornaments are pretty. What ornaments do you like?" They have manuals that that they use called "Words I Use When I Write" that have pages for each letter of the alphabet with pre-printed words that are typically used at their age in writing as well as several blanks to write in other words that they want to use so that they always have a written reference for spelling. It's always neat to see what words each child wants written in the blanks. Also, both of them are fans of the creative spelling & it always cracks me up to see what they come up with.

 

Sharon, do you know the name of the writing program? Just curious (and nosy ).

 

I was wondering the name of it too...I teach 2nd.

Your boys both sound like they are doing amazing though!

 

QUOTE(twoin2005 @ Jan 25 2009, 12:13 PM) [snapback]1161391[/snapback]
Sharon, do you know the name of the writing program? Just curious (and nosy ).

Me too!
Ella has such a creative productive mind that I'd love to channel it into writing. About a year ago, when I was trying to help her take a nap, she spent 45 minutes telling me all about life in Ella, Colorado (a town she made up). What they wear, what they do for fun, what they eat. Now that I think about it, she (or I!) needed help composing an end to that one .

 

The program is called the Write Source. Here is the website: http://thewritesource.com/ The book they use in Jonathan's class is called Write Source 1. I am just amazed at what Jonathan is writing, and I really think it is due to this program. It takes them through the writing process, but at their level. It is kind of cool seeing a first grader use brainstorming and webbing! I really hope they continue with the program and implement it for all the classes next year!

 

I thought you meant handwriting! For the record, Brady's is beautiful -- he puts his older brother to shame.

As for story writing, I haven't seen much come home from school involving writing stories. They have written letters to students who have moved away, and they wrote letters to us for Open House -- things like that. I think they do a nice job. All three boys like to staple paper together and make their own books. Hayden recently wrote a book called "Superbob" and he included dialogue, narrative, and lots of "biffs," "booms," and "kapows."