JayChesser

     By late third grade, several aspects in writing should become apparent.  Students should begin to seek peer approval of their writing.  This approval may come in the form of suggestions for making the writing better to general comments about the writing.  Students should be able to develop a sense of genre.  Students should be using tools like dictionaries, thesauruses, and word checks to help in the task of writing.  Higher level writers should be able to rewrite without the attitude or the crossing out of words or phrases. 

     As teachers, we need to verbalize our pleasure when we see our students entering into these phases.  When students demonstrate the mastering of a specific element in writing, we need to give it a name so that students can make the connection.  We need to continue encouraging our writers!

     Lessons demonstrated in this section include focusing on a topic, giving weight to significant information, developing characters, writing strong leads, and more appropriate endings to stories.  I find that I could use many of the craft lessons with my students.