A Leap Ahead in Writing
Third graders’ growing maturity allows them to tackle more complex assignments.
This year you’ll likely see a significant leap cognitively in your child, and as a result more will be expected of him at school. Your child will not only learn how to write in cursive, with letters joined together, he’ll stretch beyond the paragraph writing of the second grade and begin to compose short essays.
Jane Webster, a teacher at Booker T. Washington Elementary School in Clarksdale, Mississippi, sees 3rd grade as a transition year. “By now, the school and homework routine is well established, but children aren’t capable of functioning as independent students yet,” she says. “Still, parents can expect a huge gain in maturity.”
Teaching to the Test
Learning Longhand
Upping the Vocabulary Ante
Writing as Process
Writing Across the Board
Teaching to the Test
As a result of the No Child Left Behind legislation which was signed into law in 2002, states are now required to test students annually in language arts, beginning in the 3rd grade. These exams are designed to make sure schools are meeting curriculum standards at performance levels set by the states.
In many states, language arts tests assess standards for reading, listening, and writing. Tests generally consist of two types of questions: multiple-choice and open-ended. In reading, students read several passages representing a variety of genres, then answer questions that demonstrate their understanding of the passages. For listening, students hear a passage read out loud, then answer comprehension questions. An editing task is typically included in the writing section; in 3rd grade, students are asked to correct capitalization and punctuation mistakes. Students are also given a timed exercise in which they must write in response to a prompt, which could be a short passage of text, a poem, or an illustration. Teachers typically carve out class time a few weeks prior to prepare students. They might take practice tests and complete timed writing exercises as well.
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Learning Longhand
Along with formalized testing, another hallmark of 3rd grade is learning to write in cursive, or longhand. For many 8 year olds, cursive separates them from the little kids — and they love it. In the majority of classrooms across the country, cursive is taught in 3rd grade (although some 2nd grade teachers introduce it toward the end of the school year). When computers arrived in the early 90s, handwriting, it seemed, went out of style. Educators thought that children needed to learn how to type on a keyboard, not write in cursive. But now that states and the College Board (the group that sponsors the SAT, the college entrance exam) have figured out a way to evaluate writing samples, cursive is making a comeback. Webster, a teacher since 1970, stresses legibility to her students, pointing out that penmanship is one way in which they make an impression.
Over the years, some letters have been modified to make them easier to write and recognize. Today’s cursive Q and X may look quite different to someone who learned to write them a generation ago. Now that cursive has made a comeback, teachers begin the school year by devoting one week to each letter and spending a few minutes each day in review. Webster always begins the same way — by demonstrating how to form each letter on the board. As the students imitate her motions on lined paper, she talks them through each step. Using baseline, midline, and headline terminology helps them with sizing and spacing.
Forming the letters may be the easy part for your child — the real challenge often lies in connecting them. Jan Olsen, an occupational therapist who developed the popular Handwriting Without Tears curriculum, teaches connections between just two letters at a time. “I like to say that the end of the first letter is the boss of the connection,” Olsen says. “The second letter has to start where the first letter ends, even if that isn’t the spot where the second letter usually starts.”
Some parents are pleasantly surprised when their child’s illegible print transforms into crystal clear cursive. “The main reason children are generally successful with cursive is because of the age at which it’s introduced,” Olsen says. “Eight year olds are young enough to be teachable, meaning the desire to learn is still there, and old enough to pay close attention. Plus, most of the fine motor issues have been resolved.”
Generally, handwriting homework is not assigned. “You may find your child practicing cursive on her own, though,” laughs Webster. “Children love writing like their parents and older siblings. It makes them feel grown up.”
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Upping the Vocabulary Ante
Third graders are ready for solid work in written composition. Their thinking is more abstract and their stories less simplistic. Using transitions and writing in paragraph form remain challenging, but your child will have plenty of opportunities to practice these difficult skills. Now your child will work to enrich his stories through word choice, with a continued emphasis on using adjectives to enliven his compositions. In addition, your child will be introduced to reference books, such as the thesaurus (a book of synonyms and antonyms), to help him select more interesting words.
Teachers typically give their students high marks for weaving unusual vocabulary into their work. My daughter’s use of the word “circular,” to describe a round pillow, drew praise. “Third graders typically resort to words like good, bad, and nice,” says Cynthia Graves, a 3rd grade teacher at Forest Avenue School in Verona, New Jersey. “Interesting homonyms and synonyms get rewarded along with good spelling, proper punctuation, and using capitals correctly.”
Verb usage is another area of concentrated focus. The forms of irregular verbs — the plural form, the ‘ing’ form and the past form — are introduced and children are expected to make verb tense agree in sentences. Katie Wood Ray, a consultant of language arts education and the author of several books on teaching writing, shows 3rd graders how verbs can be used to describe action. “‘The dog hobbled across the road’ is very different from ‘The dog tiptoed across the road’ and ‘The dog ran across the road,’” she says. “This isn’t grammar — it’s about crafting an interesting piece of writing.”
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Writing as Process
Writing as a craft is a fairly new classroom concept. “Learning to write well isn’t considered a one-shot deal,” says Cynthia Graves. “It’s a process that evolves over time.” While the focus may vary from school to school, you can expect that your child’s work will progress through the following phases:
- Prewriting, or brainstorming, includes activities such as creating a story web with ideas related to a main topic.
- The first draft, or “sloppy copy,” is a student’s initial attempt at converting his thoughts into sentences and paragraphs.
- Feedback involves sharing the first draft with classmates and/or the teacher to strengthen the work. The reviewer reads the piece, then tells the writer what’s good, bad, or confusing about the story.
- The student incorporates the feedback during rewriting.
- Correcting grammar, punctuation, and spelling mistakes takes place during the proofreading phase.
- The final copy is either handwritten or typed on the computer.
- Publishing is the last step, and each teacher handles it differently. It may mean turning the story into a book with illustrations, adding it to a class book, reading the work out loud to the class, or submitting it to a children’s publication.
Sometimes writing genres are combined. My 8 year old’s favorite assignment was both persuasive and creative. Just before Thanksgiving, the children wrote a turkey advertisement. They were asked to imagine being a turkey, and to give readers at least three reasons why they should eat something other than turkey for Thanksgiving dinner!
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Writing Across the Board
Don’t be surprised to find that your child is required to write in all subject areas — science, social studies, even math. A science test question, for example, might ask children to describe an experiment. (My daughter had to explain and give an example for both a physical and a chemical change.) According to Graves, writing throughout the curriculum is not only good practice, it enhances the learning process. “Writing forces students to really think about what they know and to apply it,” she says. This is particularly true in math, where children are now required (thanks to a push from the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics) to explain how they come up with their answers in complete sentences.
In Graves’ opinion, writing is the most difficult task taught in school. “To write well, a number of things have to be done concurrently — correct grammar, punctuation, and spelling must be used. The meaning has to be clear and the work has to be organized. That’s a lot for young children to think about.” Apparently, her students agree. As one put it: “The hardest part of writing is the first draft, because you have to think so much. It takes a long time and you have to erase a lot, too!” Fortunately, in time the effort pays off and childrens’ skills improve. For some, writing becomes an absolute joy — and even a life’s work.
Ann Matturro Gault, a freelance writer and the mother of four children, lives in Verona, New Jersey.
