Writing goals for 5th and 7th grades

[Mama Lynx]

I know I'm going to get a very wide range of answers on this, and that's fine. I just need ideas.

What are your writing goals for 7th grade, and for 5th grade? Especially for reluctant-writing male types? (But answers for all abilities and genders are welcome.)

[Beth in Central TX]

For my 7th grade son I'm requiring the following:

Weekly:
One paragraph and one essay from Ominbus I
One writing project from CW Homer B or Poetry for Beg B

Monthly:
Short answers written out for history
Narration paragraphs for science (I decided I needed a little accountability in our unscheduled science approach for junior high)
Occasional writing assignment from R&S grammar 7

In contrast my 6th grade son has the following requirments:

Weekly:
One writing project from CW Homer B or Poetry for Beg B

Monthly:
Narration paragraphs for science (at least 2)
Occasional writing assignment from R&S grammar 6

HTH!

[Mama Lynx]

Thanks! How long are your 7th grader's essays?

[Beth in Central TX]

We are doing the typical 5-paragraph essay, so they run about a page long. A few have been almost a page and half.

We do a lot of discussion before the essay is assigned. I even help him think through his points out loud and give him guidance on supporting details. I also ask him to do a quick outline of what he wants to write so that he turns in a complete assignment. If not, I usually get a lot of circular reasoning without any facts.

A couple of his essays have been great, a couple have been so-so, and a few needed more work; right now we are talking about improvements rather than re-writing. I know that essay writing is going to be a learning process for this particular son, so I'm not looking so much at content right now, but focusing on form and just getting him use to writing out his own original thoughts.

[Mama Lynx]

*bump*

I'd really love to see more examples. Don't be intimidated! My 7th grader is still working on paragraphs. :001_huh:

[Colleen in NS]

Don't be intimidated! My 7th grader is still working on paragraphs. :001_huh:

Alright, then, I'll give it a shot! :)

I made "end of 8th grade" goals that build on "end of 4th grade" goals, after much study of WTM, Writing Without Fear CD, R&S TMs, and trillions of writing posts on the boards. Then I paced them out over grades 5 to 8. (and my oldest has been a very reluctant boy writer!! :))

End of 4th grade goals:

dictation: s/b able to take a 25 word dictation with correct mechanics and spelling, and decent penmanship.
narration: s/b able to narrate AND write a 2 to 3 sentence paragraph with correct mechanics, grammar, and spelling, and good penmanship.
fiction narration: summarize the characters, time, place, and events in some type of order
non-fiction narration: summarize the main facts about a person, object, or event in some type of order

End of 8th grade goals:

dictation: s/b able to take a 30+ word paragraph dictation with correct mechanics, etc.. Right now I'm planning to continue dictation through the end of 6th grade.
fiction (lit.) narration: s/b able to summarize on one page a story's setting, main characters, and theme/plot with correct mechanics, grammar, and spelling, and good sentence/good paragraph structure.
non-fiction outlining: s/b able to analyze a writer's argument in an orderly way, by ranking the ideas of several paragraphs down to the 4th level, in some type of logical order.
non-fiction rewriting from outline: s/b able to, on one page, put a writer's arguments back together in a clear, organized essay that expresses the original writer's thoughts well. It should have correct mechanics, grammar, spelling and good sentence/good paragraph structure.

So, for my 5th grade goals:

- I want dc to continue to practice mechanics, etc. and holding longer thoughts in the mind through dictation.

- I want dc to continue to practice putting thoughts on paper, with good mechanics, etc., via narration. My focus for 5th and maybe 6th is to just work on ONE paragraph for each narration, so dc can practice good sentence and good paragraph structure, by applying their R&S grammar/writing skills. I'll also have them use diagraming to "fix" grammatically incorrect sentences (as far as they have learned in grammar, anyway). We'll keep working on the end of 4th grade fiction/non-fiction narration goals.

- I want dc to practice picking out the main idea of a paragraph, via one level outlining of about 4 to 6 paragraphs of non-fiction.

6th grade will pretty much keep building on 5th grade, and increase to two level outlining.

7th grade goals:

- I want dc to keep practicing putting thoughts on paper via narration of literature, and use this to keep practicing mechanics, grammar, and sentence/paragraph structure. And practicing summarizing characters, setting, and events in some type of clear order. One half to one page, depending on how paragraphs are going. ;)

- I want dc to keep practicing ranking paragraph ideas in order, via 3 level outlining of non-fiction.

- I want dc to keep practicing all the mechanics, spelling, grammar, putting ideas in order, good sentence/good paragraph structure, any necessary diagraming, via rewriting an essay from an outline (up to a page of writing). We'll use the rewrites to see how well dc expressed the original writer's thoughts. So, practicing writing skills by imitating a good writer.

Of course, all is subject to tweaking.:D But so far, so good in 5th grade here! My ds10 has been one of those very reluctant writers, and when I heard SWB say on her CD that if a boy can write two sentences in a row by the end of 4th grade, I breathed a huge sigh of relief. He finally was able to do that, and now we are working on very short paragraphs, several times a week. And that's OK, cuz he's learning to think his way through his thoughts, if that makes sense. :) And he's learning to USE his grammar/writing skills from R&S. I figure he'll work his way up to writing several paragraphs when he gets to rewriting from multi-level outlines.

hth

[8FillTheHeart]

My kids only ever have one writing assignment per week. The older they get, the longer the assignment and the more complicated.

Anything under 8th grade is a very concrete, present the information type of paper. My 7th graders' papers aren't given a set length. Depending on the student it might be 3-5 paragraphs or a couple of pages.

Either in 8th or 9th grade (depends on individual ability), they start writing persuasive, comparison, contrast, cause/effect type papers. I never require them before then. My goal in the younger yrs is to learn to gather info, synthesize, write logically, improve construction (for example, get rid of being verbs, stay in same verb tense, voice, etc)

The format is the same every week from grade 3-graduation. Monday assignment, collect quotes,data, etc. Organize info. Tuesday 1/2 of paper, Wed 2nd 1/2, Thursday revise and improve, Friday final copy.