Grade 3 Independent Writing

    By the end of Grade 3 our goal, as a team, is to get our students to become more independent in their writing. It is imperative that our kids learn to write independently. An independent writer uses ideas from shared writing to produce their own piece, refers to charts and rubrics to revise and edit their own composition and has a teacher evaluation (conference) for growth.

This is how we get the whole independent writing process started in our class:

    

     After introducing the genre, I read a few books or stories related to the genre of writing being covered in class (mentor texts). 



Above and below are examples of texts I would use to teach persuasive. The kids loved The True Story of the 3 Little Pigs!



   

      We discuss the elements of that genre. For example in persuasive we know the reader has an opinion or a problem they want solved, they give reasons and facts to support their argument.  

      We then do a piece of shared writing. Together as a class we will write one piece on chart paper. If we are covering persuasive writing, we write a persuasive piece together etc.This piece is normally very rough and filled with mistakes. When we are finished I take the opportunity to model how to edit the writing. All of the above is over the course of a few days/week.

       Finally, we start our independent writing. Students will normally complete a graphic organiser, a rough draft, and 2nd draft and a final good copy. Again this is done over the course of a few days/week. Before doing any of the "stages" of this writing, we discuss the graphic organiser, how to edit the rough copies and what the final copy should look like. We try to keep this as independent as possible. However, I normally assign a topic and our kids can ask me questions to verify some part of the process but for the most part the writing is their own. Our kids come up with their own ideas and edit their own work using checklists and a rubric. The rubric below is the rubric your child used to help determine whether their procedural writing was just okay, good or great.

Procedural Rubric-Grade 3	Okay	Good	Great!	Teacher
My procedure has a title.
My procedure tells what to make or do.
My procedure tells what is needed.
My procedure has steps that tell what to do.
Each step starts on a new line.
The steps are in the correct order.
My procedure has all the steps needed to reach the goal.
I have used present tense verbs to begin sentences.
I have used capital letters and periods correctly.
I have checked that all words are spelled correctly

    When the students have self edited, their rubric has been completed, and their final copy is ready (according to them)- we conference. In a conference we review the rubric and discuss their writing. "What did you do well?" and  "What could you do better next time?" are a few questions you would hear in our conference. The conference not only provides recognition but an opportunity to give feedback to the student.
      I hope this helps anyone who may have had questions about how we write in class! Again, if you ever have any questions comments or concerns please feel free to email me or call me at the school!

Mrs. Ashley Daley-Creamer