Your first grader and writing

— soapbox superstar/Flickr

By GreatSchools Staff

First-graders should have the opportunity to write every day. Young writers divvy up their time in class, writing alone, in small groups, and with the class as a whole. They often learn by working on creative projects and by writing short stories, letters, poems, and songs.

Students should learn the reasons why people write, which include sharing facts, making arguments, and telling stories. Teachers sometimes use hands-on activities to demonstrate the various types of writing. For example, students might try their hand at creating a pattern book with repeated words and phrases, modeling their work on a book they’ve read in class. (A good example of a pattern book is Laura Joffe Numeroff’s If You Give a Mouse a Cookie.) Finally, as a lesson in nonfiction, teachers might ask a student to write about their experiences on a recent field trip.

First-graders should keep a journal, making entries several times a week, since journal writing helps children build writing skills and develop ideas for stories. Journals also encourage inspiration, so kids should be allowed to write about anything that interests them.

Nicola Salvatico, a former national Teacher of the Year, stresses the effectiveness of journals: “Journal writing allows children to take risks where they don’t need to worry about spelling [or] punctuation.” Students can become better writers by making connections between what they write and their daily lives, focusing on the things they find most interesting.

Students should learn about the mechanics of writing, which means spelling and punctuation, and teachers will focus on writing techniques and strategies, like how to use descriptive words and correct punctuation. Kids should learn how to write using the following steps:

• Prewriting
• Drafting
• Revising
• Editing
• Publishing
• Sharing

These steps often help kids organize their thoughts. Beyond reading widely at home, by discussing their ideas with partners during the prewriting stage, students can improve their focus, hone the content and details in their stories, and begin to understand the writing process as a whole.

As Salvatico explains (emphatically), “By taking ownership of their topics, the student’s voice begins to emerge, and writing for the reader becomes the focus. Authors are born!”

For reference, take a look at these examples of first-graders’ writing from Federal Way Public Schools in Washington State.