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Tuesday, August 18, 2009

Through the Eyes of DJ

The next week, or so, I will be giving info, and tips for getting your 4th grader to enjoy writing. As some of you know, I have let my son DJ start his own blog, Through the Eyes of DJ. He asked me if he could have one, and at first I said no. He insisted it would be a good way for him to learn about writing. After I thought about it for a while, I could see some benefits to it. I told him he could have one, if he agreed to make it centered around his schooling. He has to do two writing assignments, designated by me, a week. The other days he can write about things he wants to. His goals for the fourth grade are to stay on topic, expand the topic idea, use end punctuation, and his best spelling. He learned very quickly that the system will tell him when something is spelled wrong, and look up the correct spelling. Towards the end of fourth grade, I will be introducing paragraphing, and basic outlining to his writing. Commas, and quotation marks, will come sometime during the year. Some of you have already visited his blog, followed, and even left him some comments. You will see me critique his writing, once the school year begins. I am not an expert writer, so if any of you can add constructive criticism to his writings, please feel free to do so. He does not not know typing rules yet, so you will notice the spacing errors, just bare with that, it will come in due time. He doesn't get a letter grade, for writing, he gets either needs improvement, satisfactory, or excellent.

If I see he is doing well, I will start to let him post his own Science projects, that he has done. I will see how it goes. You can watch his progress, and see him grow. I actually am so proud of him for thinking of it, and think others should try it with their homeschooled, and public school children. If you use blogspot it is free, and the possibilities are endless for them to write about.

Now lets talk about the steps in the writing process. The five steps are prewriting, drafting, revising, proofreading, and publishing. To me a lot of these are very similar in their process, and goal, but I will go over them starting tomorrow with step one prewriting.

8 comments:

Aligaga said...

I love your idea of letting DJ write his own blog and show his projects. I followed DJ's blog but for some reason it won't let me leave a comment.

I am learning too! BTW, I saw you from our page "The Salitype".

Jan Mader said...

I came over from the Traveling Suitcase.

I'm a children's author and have a blog for writers, teachers, and homeschoolers at http://ignitetowrite.blogspot.com/

and a blog for animal lovers at
http://animaltalk4u.blogspot.com/

Please come visit!

betchai said...

Hi Melissa, I always enjoy JD's work, I think it is a great idea that DJ is able to practice his writing and creative skills thru his blog.

Melissa said...

Chay thank you. If you have wordpress, I think others have said they can't leave comments too. Thank you for following DJ I appreciate it so much.

Jan, thank you, I will be sure to check out your blogs.

Betchai, thank you, you are always supportive it seems to anything I do. I appreciate that so much.

Anne said...

This is such a great idea! What a wonderful way to encourage him to write. I also like the combination of assignments and writing whatever he wants. That is a great way to teach him to enjoy writing. I will have my daughter check out his site (I am sure a comment from me would not be as interesting as one from her).

A Lil Enchanted said...

Melissa I thnk it's a great idea to let DJ have his own blog. I'm sure it will make learning writing, grammar and spelling much more fun for him. I can't wait to see how much he progresses... and to see those science projects as well. You two have a great time with this :)

He's on my drop list and I'm following his blog too.

A Lil Enchanted,
~LaShan~

Femmepower said...

Hi,Melissa! DJ's writing is cool,I went to visit his blog. You did a great job in supporting his interest.

Melissa said...

Thanks guys, he is so excited to have people reading his stuff. I have read the comments, and he will be reading, and commenting back soon. Thank you to all of you.

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