What kinds of writing will my child do?

I hope everyone enjoyed their break over the long Thanksgiving weekend.  I think I've finally eaten through all of the leftovers!  This week I thought I would post some information that I had handed out to parents who were able to see me at conferences.   One of the major changes to the Enlish/language arts curriculum this year involved the amount and types of writing done in the traditional "reading" class. There are five types of writing that your child will complete in his/her reading/writing literature class.

Classwork:  This type of writing is informal and will contain all the notes and entries made during mini-lessons. These will be organized chronologically in your child’s notebook and can serve as resources for other activities.

Sneeze:  This type of writing demonstrates strong initial thinking on a prompt/question. While this is an informal type of writing, it should follow all non-negotiables. Sneezes can occur based on a read aloud, a whole-class novel, a literature circle, a choice novel, etc.

Response to Literature:  This type of writing is a more in-depth, thought out formal type of writing. A Response to Literature should contain evidence of planning, be well-organized, demonstrate deep thinking, and follow all non-negotiables. Some Responses to Literature will be graded individually right after being assigned, while others will only be assessed at the midpoint or end of a quarter.

Literary Analysis:  This type of writing will introduce the basics of literary analysis in the areas of character and theme. Students will write two formal papers that will be taken through the writing process. The primary goal of these papers is to lay the ground work for the types of literary analysis they may be asked to complete in high school and beyond.

Reflection:  For this type of writing, students will be given a menu of possible reflections to select from. Some reflections will be assigned by me, while other reflections students will have the opportunity to select from the menu. Reflections should be well-written, organized, and should demonstrate your child’s best reflective thinking while following all non-negotiables. Reflections include the following topics: agree with/challenge the author, diction of the author, literary devices, questioning the author, theme analysis, mood analysis, and vocabulary development.

As you can see, your child will be doing a lot of writing in my class over the course of the year. Almost all of this work will be kept in your child's notebook which is usually housed in my classroom.  If you'd like to take a look at what your child has been up to, ask to see his/her notebook!

Again, as always, if you have any questions or concerns please let me know and keep encouraging your child to keep reading!