Tomorrow is the day. Yep. We're going to start to examine our writing a little more closely, and start to put it together into a coherent, multi-sentence, sophisticated piece. I will restate the following from yesterday: My kids can write. Where I am taking issue is with the overall sophistication in their work. At times it is more formula than substance, almost checking off the box on the writing checklist instead of really putting feeling into it. That isn't always, nor with all students, but it is certainly an affliction.
Where we'll start tomorrow is with two examples of tackling the same writing prompt they had yesterday. The first will look a little something like the image to the left after it is been put through Wordle. While it looks like quite a few words, phrases and expressions... it really isn't. It follows the formulaic process of "first, then, next." The writing is also riddled with sentences that are a little empty. For example: "I like running because it is outside. Running outside is fun." Does it accomplish the task of writing and explaining your favorite activity? Kinda. Does it tell you much about this favorite activity? Not really. My example mimics some of the prompts I have read (or parts of them).
Now we'll also look at the example to the right, also from Wordle. The first thing that kids will notice is the volume of words by comparison to the first piece. Hmm, why is that? Word choice and sentence variance. If you change up your sentences, and vary your wording you end up with a larger word cloud. Is a larger word cloud better? It certainly can signal more sophisticated writing, even if "really" and "like" are two of my most used words. The beauty of that is conversation is how it naturally brings us to: How did you get there? At that point there real work begins.
We are going to start from their basic structure. We'll use the topic sentence and details. The difference is that we are going to work on explaining those details or making connections to those details... "Awesome, you like running. What is it about it? Being outside? Tell me what that is like...". We're also not going to beat a dead horse. We're going to do this in response to a news article from Time for Kids about transitioning to the dollar coin. Kids will need to say if it is a good thing or bad thing, and why. It seems like a lot, and is... but should be relevant, challenging, and engaging. We'll use Wordle to check our word choice and volume. Finally, we'll post on Communicator and respond to each other. Big undertaking that should be interesting.
