The first independent writing sample has been evaluated!  Each grade 6 student on my team has now been given three writing goals that have been selected for them individually.  Going forward, each student will choose one or two of these goals to focus on whenever handing in anything new.  This helps students focus their efforts on improving one element of their writing at a time instead of being overwhelmed by trying to fix multiple areas of the writing traits with every new assignment.  Greater focus leads to greater improvement over the course of the year.  As they improve each of these goals, new goals with be substituted.  

The assignment they are currently working on is a procedural writing piece.  They have been given a checklist for each of the expected elements of procedural writing, a flowchart to aid in the prewriting stage, and the procedures they are composing have been modeled at length in the class.  In addition, a model of a written procedure has been provided for them in the class so that they should know exactly what is expected.  If you would like to view these files, please find them in the documents section labelled as "Procedure Checklist" and "Procedure Model".

The procedure assignment will be wrapped up this week.  Next week we will be working on some story writing, as well as some grammar skills, and familiar homonyms.   

Things are shaping up nicely.  Stay tuned for further assignments and activities.