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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]If you're referring to the Writing Workshop, that is generally considered good. Of course we all now know her reading curriculum was garbage and did considerable harm. [/quote]

Disagree. Teacher admitted privately that with Writers Workshop she was forbidden to even mark corrections for spelling or grammar on students submissions, unlike the previous curriculum. She said all the teachers had been told it was not allowed because it would prevent their 2nd graders from "thinking big thoughts".

She suggested privately that we help our DC with explicit spelling and grammar instruction at home. At least at that school, grammar and spelling was not corrected until after WW ended at the very end of 3rd grade. We were grateful for the tip, which was provided only after we politely had asked direct questions why DD's work was not being corrected. [/quote]

I don’t think it’s a big deal that spelling and grammar aren’t the main focus until 3rd grade.   Future bureaucrats might not need to “think big thoughts”  but to emphasize putting thoughts on paper at this very early age over spelling is not a big deal.   [/quote]
Putting "big thoughts" on paper is easier when you've been taught to write.  It's much harder if you give a kid a pencil and expect them to teach themselves.  LC lacks more than just spelling and grammar rules.  LC doesn't teach kids to sort or organize their thoughts or information.  It's all stream of consciousness and it doesn't include any teaching.  Without instruction, kids' writing doesn't improve.  They continue to write terrible, unclear drivel with no improvement year after year.

My own daughter found it so overwhelming to be told to write without being taught how, she'd just sit and stare at her paper.  She brought home a lot of blank pages or pages with only one sentence--her teachers just said she'd write when she was ready.  She's a smart kid and has grown so much with a knowledge-based curriculum and instruction.  LC is rubbish.[/quote]

The very early years they should be allowed to write freely.  A lot of kids start to write around age 4 spontaneously, others don’t start til kindergarten.   You wouldn’t comment on the spelling or no capitals, you would praise the work done.

I remember writing a lot in 3rd grade, not much before that.   I still remember my first book report on Mao Zedong, the former communist dictator in China.  I also remember grammar being intensely drilled all through middle school, especially 8th grade. It was a long process.  If we waited until we had learned perfect structure, grammar and spelling we would never have written anything until high school.

Obviously there needs to be instruction on learning how to properly write a research paper or any kind,of paper but at what grade do you think is appropriate.?

[/quote]
You've drank the Lucy Calkins Kool aid.  Kids can be taught to write in school and do not suffer if they receive instruction.  It's the opposite--they gain confidence and become more excited and confident to write.

The grammer they teach is all age appropriate.  The start with leaving spaces between sentences, using periods and starting sentences with capital letters.  They talk about what needs to be in a sentence, then the parts of a paragraph, and using the transition words to help direct the reader.  They eventually teach quotation marks and commas, etc.
 
These grammer skills aren't necessarily taught first in free writing, but in other practice exercises.  Then they'll work the skills into the revising process to improve writing, asking kids to check their work for these things.  No one is criticizing a 4, 5 or 6 yo for not using these skills in their writing.  But they don't just do free writing as the only "teaching."

It's the same with spelling.  They start with sight words and ask kids to make sure those are spelled correctly when revising their work, slowly adding to the list of words.  Later they ask them to check for phonetic patterns, too.  It's a process.

They also work on pre-writing skills to organize information.  Word webs.  Venn diagrams.  Outlines.  Lots of ways to sort and organize information.

Writing is scaffolded to teach skills.  There is free writing, but also structured exercises.  Kids learn so much and become so much more confident in their ability to write when they're explicitly taught.[/quote]

Our school uses balanced literacy and they do apparently do some spelling (like learning to spell “because” by learning a song) and kids check their own work or classmates’ work for spaces and capitols. Teacher doesn’t check or correct anything.  But my other issue is that it’s piecemeal. There is no set curriculum and it’s just whatever the classroom teacher decides to pull off of TPT or throw onto the iPad. If you get a lazy or incompetent teacher, the kids don’t learn spelling and don’t get that structured/incremental writing instruction. [/quote]

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