Writing Focus in Language Arts

We are exploring various forms of narrative writing. Over the past couple of weeks, the students have been producing personal recount writing using the format taught in class (orientation sentence which introduces the topic of the recount, organizing word such as first, then next, finally, etc., and then a personal comment to wrap up the recount). We have been honing our editing skills by rereading our writing in order to detect errors in verb tense, punctuation, capitals, spelling and any missing linking words that connect ideas. I have been encouraging students to use the classroom dictionaries to correct misspelled words. Next, we will be exploring the writing process (planning, drafting, editing, revising, final draft) and writing fictional stories. We will be using story organizers to plan our stories and create first drafts.