need a writing book for 3/4rd grade

[ohiomommy1122]

not handwriting- writing as id story structure we have been winging it so far but I think I need to do something more formal any writing book suggestions or sites?

[LilyGrace]

We use Writing Strands. It focuses on one part of writing at a time (persuasive, description, dialogue..) and has the kid build on it each day for about a week, then critique their own writing.

[khenn]

I use The Writer's Jungle by Julie Bogart. You can learn a ton of information about her approach to writing by going to her website www.bravewriter.com and looking around. I teach writing in a homeschool co op and use this approach with 4th - 6th graders so far. I will only use this approach with my children right up through high school I believe in it so much.

I am a writer myself on some level and everything she says is so true! Getting kids off to the right start in writing is crucial. It doesn't take a years to learn how to write effectively. I think the most important thing is to instill in them confidence that they can write. With time, everything else will fall into place. If they are nit picked to death at the beginning and for many years -- they will lack confidence big time later in life when they are face with writing in the real world.

Just my take on it.

[Lillian J]

We used Writing Strands a bit at that age, and I thought it was a nice little program. But what I found was that it wasn't particularly productive to try to learn creative writing, composition, handwriting, and all the rest so young. My son found it much easier to do those things separtely, but not all together. And he had no interest in writing. I remember feeling discouraged when he was around 11 that he'd never have an interest in writing, and friends told me he would when he had something to write about. I was skeptical. Then, when he was 13, he wrote a piece for our state homeschooling newsletter by request of a friend who was putting together a special issue - and it turned out that his writing was so good that people were talking about it. That came only from all the reading I'd done to him over the years, the reading he'd done himself, his viewing of good movies, and just normal use of the language. During his teens, he and his friends were all writing back and forth in emails quite a bit, sharing their news and their creative writing - that gave them inspiration to stretch their limits and get really creative. They also developed their spelling skills by use of their word processors' spell checkers. As he got into college, his undeclared major for a while was writing. I'm just going on about this to suggest that it's not as crucially important what a 7 or 8 year old is writing as it may seem to us at the time. So whatever you choose, I'd just make sure it's enjoyable. Lillian