PRussell

     In this section for grades three and four, the authors provide additional lessons to expand the students’ skills.  I enjoyed the lessons on beginnings and endings, especially.  The lessons on titles were okay, but not as essential, in my opinion.  This kind of teaching takes as much practice for the teachers as for the students.  I would think that one would absolutely have to commit to the process and then stay committed, perhaps teaching some lessons over and over.  I would probably create a checklist of terms like voice, time focus, etc. for the students to use as they write and for me to use as I confer with them.  In this way we constantly use the same vocabulary when discussing anyone’s writing.  I used one of the ideas about beginnings to help me improve some of my own writing this weekend.