Students blog their opinions on current events

About 3 times a week for writing, the 3rd graders discuss a short article about a current event taken from KidBiz3000, (which gets them from the Associated Press). We read the article together and then I ask the students some open-ended questions that make them think beyond the article. We brainstorm ideas and possibilities together about ways that question could be answered, then the students write some of those ideas in their journals for about 10 or 15 minutes. I post the articles on our bulletin board.

At the beginning of the following week, we look back and review the articles we read and discussed, and the students look at their notes and select the one that interested them most to write about.

During the course of the week we begin a process in which the students and I come up with a summary statement (kind of like a thesis statement) about their idea, and then they fill out an outline with some of their ideas, some of their notes from the previous week, and some ideas that we discuss together as a class.

The students then take the notes from that outline and we work them into their essays.

See student blogs for the results of our first essays this semester. Getting to a finished essay is about a two week process when you include reading and discussing the articles. Today we began our second round of essays - the students selected favorites from last week and have set up their outlines.