Today we started our first big writing unit. It's great to see how easily the students are catching on! The 4-Square Method is a great way to learn to write because it gives you specific steps just like when we learned to read we started with decoding skills. This method can be used for all the areas of writing that we are going to do: narrative, persuasive, descriptive and expository.
Today we focused on how writing is organized from the big idea (main idea) to the subtopics.
The students worked in small groups to come up with lists of things like people, healthy foods, board games and sports. Each of the 3 subtopics went into it's own square. The 4th square on the graphic organizer is for the wrap-up sentence. There were so many great examples of wrap-ups:
"Apples, bananas, and pineapples are three healthy foods."
"Board games that are enjoyable are Monopoly, Life, and Guess Who."
"Hockey, Soccer, and Basketball are sports."
It's going to be exciting to watch our writing improve as we work through the steps in the 4-square method!
We will be back later this week to share more about what we are working on! It sure has been busy as we continue to go Running Through 4th Grade!
Love this writing model!
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