Students are currently learning to write essays. As they continue their journey as 4th grade authors, they will be learning skills to make their writing an experience for the reader.  Our goal will be to craft essays with structure and voice. It is important for students to learn to write tightly structured essays and to do this easily, on the run. It is also important for those essays to not read like they are cookie cutter pre-fabricated pieces. Students will write both personal and persuasive essays. Writers will learn to become more at home with academic language, transitions, the structures of claims, reasons and supports. They will engage in the writing process of drafting, revising, editing and finally publishing. Throughout the process writers will learn to organize their writing. They will develop their writing style as we practice creating hooks, adding in dialogue and details that create emotions in the readers. Writers will learn to be descriptive as they create a picture in the mind of the reader.  Our published authors must of course be celebrated at the end of the unit at a grand celebration. 

KEEP AN EYE OUT FOR YOUR INVITATION!

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ASSESSMENTS

    In preparation for our ELA assessments students are practicing short response answers. They are using the IRAFFET strategy. I - Introduction,  R - restate the question, A - answer the question,    F - fact or detail from the text, F - a second fact or detail from the text, E - explain the facts, T - tie it all together.  

    For extended responses students will be learning to write a fully constructed essay including and introduction, several paragraphs for the body and a conclusion.