goals for writing for 5th grade

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  • caedmyn
    Participant

    I’m trying to set some goals for writing for my 5th grader for next year. She started doing written narrations this year, doing one a week from a one page tale. I can think of several things that she needs to work on, but I think I need to narrow them down to just 2 or 3 for the year. She does have dyslexia so things like spelling in the process of writing is more difficult (and more time consuming) for her than for the average kid. She needs to work on proofreading her writing (catching her spelling, punctuation, and capitalization errors), finishing narrations (I set a 20 minute time limit so she wouldn’t get too overwhelmed, and maybe 1/3 of the time she didn’t finish the narration in this amount of time), writing complete narrations/not leaving parts out so she has less to write, and doing written narrations from longer selections. I could also have her do more than 1 written narration per week. Any suggestions on which of these I should have her focus on for next year?

    Melanie32
    Participant

    It sounds like your daughter is writing perfectly normal narrations for a 4th/5th grader. 🙂

    Her narrations will improves as she practices and gains maturity. I think 1 written narration a week is appropriate for 5th grade. You could have her do 2 if it’s not too much for her.

    I’m not even sure that I would edit too much with her at this point. I might choose one editing issue to help her with per term. For instance, punctuation this term, capitalization next term, etc.

    Honestly, I keep things pretty relaxed for a 5th grader. My goal at this age is for them to practice the art of getting their thoughts down on paper. I hold off requiring too much from written narrations until middle school. I think my daughter was in 7th before I began to require more written narrations per week and that was when we also started editing each written narration together. That’s about the time her written narrations increased to about a page or so, typed.

    She is now starting 9th grade and can whip out 1-2 page narrations in 25 minutes or so. Sometimes I have her write a narration every day and other times we focus on other subjects and I only require 1 or 2 a week. I’ve also begun teaching her the essay model and having her write many of her narrations in essay form.

    I shared the latter part so you can see how my daughter’s writing has progressed using this method. I really couldn’t be more pleased with her writing skills.

    All that to say, writing matures as the student matures. It takes time and practice and reading lots of great books to get a feel for what great writing is. We moms simply have to learn to be patient with the process.

     

    jill smith
    Participant

    I am so glad I read this post! My daughter is also going into the 5th grade and struggles with spelling and punctuation. A friend of mine suggested All about Spelling. WE may use this next year as well. I don’t want to have her laughed at when she cant spell like her friends. How much should they be writing at this age? A page, a half page?

    Melanie32
    Participant

    I think a paragraph or 2 is plenty for this age. It all depends on how long or detailed the reading was.

    As far as spelling goes, dictation starts around this age and has been HUGE in helping my daughter to progress in her spelling abilities. Consistency is key.

     

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