Writing UPDATE

Writing Update

Hello Families,

I appreciate the time you are investing at home helping your child with at home learning!  I appreciate any time they are able to spend on writing.  I know some of you with multiple children in different grades are struggling.  Just do what you are able.  I know it is difficult, especially considering our current circumstances, and some children do not perform for their parents the same way they perform at school for teachers.

I sent an email earlier today regarding writing and the electronic lessons. With the problems some students are having accessing them, let’s just eliminate the lessons.  Students have done the bubble organizer on their own at school and should be able to re-create that at home, but to make learning at home easier for you and your student to manage, below is a checklist that might make the process easier.  It is not the same checklist we use at school, but considering the current circumstances, you probably have less time and energy at home than we have at school to do writing.  You can also contact me for a templet of the organizer used in class.

Five Paragraph Essay Checklist

1st Paragraph (introduction – at least three sentences)
Write a sentence introducing the topic of your essay
Write a sentence stating the three ideas you will write about in your essay.
Write a “hook” to keep your reader interested.
2nd Paragraph (the first of the three ideas you are writing about)
Write a main idea sentence that begins with a transition word – this is the first of the three ideas you stated in your first paragraph.
Write at least four elaboration sentences (you can do more, if you want)
3rd Paragraph (the second of the three ideas you are writing about)
Write a main idea sentence that begins with a transition word – this is the second of the three ideas you stated in your first paragraph.
Write at least four elaboration sentences (you can do more, if you want)
4th Paragraph (the third of the three ideas you are writing about)
Write a main idea sentence that begins with a transition word – this is the third of the three ideas you stated in your first paragraph.
Write at least four elaboration sentences (you can do more, if you want)
5th Paragraph (conclusion)
Write a sentence that restates the topic of your essay.
Write a sentence that restates the three main ideas you wrote about in your essay
Write a sentence that neatly and nicely wraps up your essay.
Conventions/Mechanics
I indented all of my paragraphs
I started my sentences with proper capitalization and used proper capitalization throughout my essay
I correctly punctuated all of my sentences and used commas and quotation marks when needed
I have few or no spelling errors
All of my sentences make sense
I had a someone else read it
The essay DOES NOT include: Thank you for reading my essay, thank you for your time, The End, slang words, emoji’s, excessive use of exclamation marks, words in all capital letters, and other words or items we discussed in class that you shouldn’t use.

Best wishes, 
Mrs. Bacoch