Six Traits Writing Goals

After working on this for what seems like forever - like all last year!

I'm finally ready to share.

Each child had a folder with too many goals and it become hard to manage for me, but my kids as well.

I am such a fan of Six Traits plus 1 and the impact that it has on writing is clear. 

To focus on a part of writing and give a chid or group the instruction they need is supported by the 7 areas that need to be explicitly taught. 

You can see how each student works, improves and where to go next. 

But I needed to streamline what I was trying to do.

So - here is what I have worked on to improve the process for my students and I while still be very focused on what needs to happen. 

My Writing Conferencing folder - I have all my goals in here ready to go.

I have checklists for each section and an assessment page for each child. 

There are tags for each component that are attached to work and this way I can track goals and assist in setting new ones. 

This pack will support you to have simple goals of brainstorming writing ideas to more complex goals of using figurative language.

By attaching the tags this is a visual reminder. You can go back and check what you need to work on. 

 Here is the link to my work - click here 

In this pack you find the posters, prompts, bookmarks and interactive notebook pages.

Our Goals can be found here

Click here to see it in our TpT store

Happy goal setting

Keeping track of where kids are in the Writing Process

For a long time I had struggled with what step my kids were up to in the writing process. 

Using this display I can see exactly what step they are up to. 

What is even better is that I can meet with all the kids who are up to the editing phase and see what they are looking for. 

Kids who are working on revising - can meet with me as a group and talk about feedback and how that has changed their writing. 

I have found that my kids are much more specific in checking their editing buddies work and the revisions are much clearer and make a real change to the end piece. 

(I have blurred the names of my kids out for privacy reasons)

This pack has helped me to see where my kids are and what they are working on.

Click here or on the images for more detail.

Happy writing!

Are you in need of some writing prompts?

Writing - over 100 prompts

118 pages

This pack is to help motivate your writers. The prompts can be used by having a discussion about what the topic is, brainstorm possible setting, plot and character if it is a narrative. When doing a recount make sure there is a clear beginning, middle and end that shows sequenced events.

The planning picture is for a ‘quick draw’. Do this in writing pencil and outline only of what the story is about. Then write the story. There are spare writing pages at the back if the writer needs more space.

Conferencing - After writing, read back and revise, edit and share for feedback by completing the checklist together.

When these steps are done the add color to the planning picture and the clip art picture.

Here is the list of topics ….4th July - A Day as a Park Ranger - A Desert Holiday - A Myth - An Author - At the Beach - Australian Animals – Autumn - Back In the 50s – Basketball - Best Present Ever - Best Read Ever - Best Story Ever - Book, Books, Books – Bugs - Building with blocks - Dad and Daughter - Dad and Donuts - Crazy Hair Day - Crazy Sock Day - Columbus Day - Detective for a Day – Diwali - Doctor for a Day - Earth Day - Easter Egg Hunt – Fall - Father's Day - Feeling Sad – Firefighter - Fishing Trip - Follow the Leader - Ghost Story - Goldilocks for a Day - Happy New Year – Halloween - I don't like being sick - I found Gold! - If I was a Cowboy - If I were a Soldier - If I were an Elf - I like to Cook - I love Chocolate - In the Park - Karate Capers - Lil' Bo Peep - Little Boy Blue - Little Jack Horner  - Mary, Mary Quite Contrary - Little Miss Muffet - Mermaid for a Day - Monkey Tails - Mother's Day - Mother and Son - Mummy for a Day - Muffin for Mother - My Dog - My Easter Story - My fav Day - My Grandad - My Nan - My Pop - On a Ride - Our Road Trip - Peace Man – Penguins - Photo Day - Start of School - St Patrick's Day - Off to School - On a Carousel - On the Farm - Our Christmas Tree - Pilgrim Travels - Pirate Day - Playing Football - Playing Soccer - Policeman for a Day - Pumpkins, Pumpkins - Queen for a Day - Robot for a Day - Sailor Story - Saving for a ... - Shopping Trip - Statue of Liberty - Superhero Story - Train Ride - Thanksgiving - Scarecrow Story – Summer - The Baseball Game - The Bike Ride - The Playground - The Rollercoaster - Three Little Pigs - TV shows I like - Ugly Christmas Sweater  - Up, Up and away - Valentine's Day - When I am 100 - What I think about Clowns – Winter – Witch - Wizard

Click here to see more details

40 Christmas Writing tasks

Thanks for all the visits to my TPT store in the last few days. 

Teachers have been checking out my 

   

I so love Christmas! So I have been getting ready for all you early planners. 

I have put together 40 writing tasks to keep you on your toes.

This project has been one of my favorites and I can't wait to use the tasks with my own grade. 

Our 'work on writing' time will be full of fun while the students will be learning. 

      

  

   

This pack contains 62 pages

1.     Christmas word wall – as a grade brainstorm words and add to them over time to support the 

writing for all students

2.    A-Z key – record what you know about Christmas. Come back to this at the end to add any 

new learning, use a different color to do this

3.    Reasons why I love Christmas

4.    List stocking fillers

5.    Christmas in Paradise – Summer/Winter Venn Diagram in color and b/w

6.     My Christmas wish list

7.     A letter to Santa – I haven’t always been good

8.     A letter to Santa – I think I have been good

9.    A thank you letter to Santa

10.   Food we leave out – list and draw

11.    My note to leave with the food for Santa

12.  How to pick a great tree

13.   Who do you give presents to?

14.   A tale of two naughty elves – a planning page, an illustration and writing page and 

an additional writing page

15.   Christmas in Paradise – color writing stimulus and a planning page, an illustration and 

writing page and an additional writing page (summer)

16.   Christmas in Paradise – color writing stimulus and a planning page, an illustration and 

writing page and an additional writing page (winter)

17.   Label Santa’s outfit

18.   Design a new Santa outfit

19.   Santa is-can-has

20. Reindeer are-can-have

21.  An Elf is-can-has

22. Food we eat on Christmas Day

23. Design a new toy

24. Evaluate a toy for Santa

25. Santa dropped off the wrong presents – a narrative – a planning page, an illustration and writing page 

and an additional writing page

26. What could be in this present?

27. What is the best gift of all?

28. Draw and label your favourite/favorite decorations (two pages with different spelling)

29. Review a Christmas Book and convince someone else to read it

30.  Santa got stuck in the chimney

31.   Application to be an elf

32. Reindeer Application

33.  Best Christmas ever – recount

34.  A week in the life of an elf

35.  A reindeer scared of heights

36.  Procedure – how to wrap a present

37.  Describe a reindeer

38.  Research and write some Christmas jokes

39.  An Acrostic Poem

40.  Where do you spend Christmas?

Happy Writing.......

A focus on writing

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Oh my!

 

A before and an after photo.

 

I have been concerned about the writing my children were not doing in Daily 5 and 'Work on Writing'.

 

I reflected on what they saw as prompts and wanted to push them to do better and be motivated with increased stamina.

 

So I removed some stuff - re arranged some stuff to create a better space.

 

So I put the story wheel up on the wall - they can spin the wheel and write about a character - setting - plot. They love it, today we wrote about a zebra, in a backyard that wanted to play with you.

 

There is a new chart on what to do as part of the writing process. This will be in my TPT store on the weekend so follow me and you will know when it is there.

 

There are also prompts for writing genres and we had a great discussion about what types of writing we could do.

 

 

Graphics Melonheadz and Scrappin Doodles

 

I have had so many requests for my English Planner that incorporates Daily 5 - so I will put that up in my TPT store on the weekend.

 

Thanks to all my followers who are also pinning my stuff - I really do appreciate your support.

 

Tomorrow I have four staff visiting from another school in our region to see how Daily 5 looks in my room.

 

I used to work with this group as a regional based coach and I am nervous about them seeing me in my new 'habitat'.

 

Stay tuned for how it went.

 



Have a great week

Books waiting for authors

I have made some small books - 26 of them in total.

They are on a revolving stand in my classroom waiting for authors to write in them.

Each one has a different topic and a student chooses one to write in at 'work on writing' time.

It is just another way to motivate my writers.

They are in my  TPT store and the kids love them.

Click here to check them out

The small books have about ten pages in them.

A writer chooses which book to use, opens up to the next page and starts to write.

They must write their name and add an illustration.

The writer then shares, gets feedback and places the book back on the stand waiting for another author.

Print off the packet in colour. I glued mine on black card and laminated them as well as black card for the backs. I placed about 10 pages in each book, stapled them and put black binding tape on the edge to cover the staples. If you have access to a book binder you could use that. I did bind them last year, but found that with constant use the paper kept coming out of the combs that I used for binding.