Narrative Writing
Students spend September, October, November working on a narrative writing piece. This piece will be a memoir. Students will use their writing territories and questions for memoirists to help find a topic that is meaningful and important to them. Students will learn and be able to accurately use dialogue in a writing piece with proper punctuation and successfully use transition words to advance their story. As well, they will learn how to include their thoughts and feelings into their piece.
Expository Writing
From December through February /March students write expository pieces. Students will use their prior knowledge combined with new lessons to write a fully elaborated essay. Students can choose from a number of essays in order to find a topic they are interested in. The major lessons will cover thesis statements, leads, topic and concluding sentences, elaboration, and using transitions.
Friendly Letters
Students spend a couple weeks in December learning how to write a friendly letter to a friend, veteran, or senior citizen. Students learn how to set up a letter with a proper heading, salutation, body, closing, and signature. As well, students learn that even letters must have a topic sentence.
Poetry
Students spend 6-7 weeks learning about and writing various types of poetry. As well, students spend a week researching other authors, looking for poems that "connect" to them personally. Students are expected to complete a poetry book for their final project including a reflection paper, a bibliography, 5 found poems by other authors, and 5 written poems. Students get the opportunity to design their books using all their personal talents. Below are links to several book binding styles.