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Kindergarten Transition - Curriculum & Instruction
Language Arts Writing Lessons/Prompts
Introduction
Along with listening, reading, and speaking, writing is one of the four basic communication strands in any language arts curriculum. Unfortunately, writing often receives much less attention than other communication modes, especially reading. Frequent calls for improvement in student literacy are often directed exclusively at reading instruction or at reading test scores, to the exclusion of writing. In truth, however , reading and writing are reciprocal; improvements in student writing will lead to improved reading skills, and vice versa. Yet, in many Utah classrooms, a high percentage of language arts instructional time still focuses the student only on the improvement of reading, with writing often relegated to journal entries, content area reports, or assigned “creative writing.” And, in too many classrooms, formal writing instruction is either infrequent or nonexistent.
At least part of this neglect can be attributed to student class loads and the enormous responsibility teachers feel to “correct” student papers. A second factor is the complex nature of writing instruction, as well as the necessary demands of one-to-one conferencing and individualized instruction. Last, but certainly not least, is the level of confidence teachers possess in teaching writing effectively. There is no real shortcut in the teaching of writing. Writing teachers must be informed decision makers; they must know good writing from bad, and the specific traits/attributes affecting the quality of the writing. Teachers must possess the ability to coach, coax, and sometimes cajole the best writing out of their students. Like teachers of reading who like to read and see themselves as readers, teachers of writing must not neglect this skill in their own lives; they too must write and view themselves as writers.
The lesson plans and writing prompts in this guide were produced to assist teachers in their roles as teachers of writing. Together, they should not be considered a writing program, complete or incomplete, but simply a tool to assist in the instruction and assessment of students in the most informal of settings, the classroom. You will find in the guide a complete Six Traits analytical scoring guide; lesson plans and writing prompts for each grade level, kindergarten through sixth grade; sample student papers from each writing lesson; and an assessment and analysis of each paper based upon the Six Traits model, with teacher commentary.
The Guide
The following links to the guide will take you to a PDF document that requires a PDF reader such as the free Adobe Acrobat.
Download and view sections of the updated guide that is broken down by grade level.