From Skeletons to Paragraphs

Comparing like items is important. Whether it is two books, two boxes of cereal, or two colonies, you need to be able to sort characteristics of those items. That has been the task of my kids this week. Previously we mined information about colonies in different regions. From there we turned the information into a radio advertisement, and then into a Venn diagram (rather, filling the venn diagram). The next step is synthesizing that information, and putting it together as a coherent piece of writing.

I've been fascinated by the evolution of their writing. Over a month ago they wrote about explorers, and I'll be the first to admit that I needed to improve my writing instruction. Their writing was laden with strings of facts in lengthy sentences. Since then we have worked on having topic sentences, and using transition words that move us from general information to specific information. The work has really started to pay off, and conferencing has been taken to heart.

I believe that part of this evolution has been tied to our use of evaluation. I don't evaluate everything, but for larger pieces of work I want my kids to self evaluate the quality of their work. Not only is it complete, but do I have sentences that make sense? Do I a variety of sentence lengths? Do I have accurate information? Do I include general statements as well as specific information? The writing sessions today were highly successful, and the quality of work was really good.