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While many of the subjects our third-grader has been studying include some writing, nothing focused on it specifically. So, I wanted to add writing to our curriculum, and with the opportunity to review Daily 6-Trait Writing Grade 3, it was the perfect time.
About the Workbook
The workbook is designed to be used in a classroom setting. The lesson plan information is located at the beginning of each week for the teacher. Because of the way the book is set up, two of the four days of worksheets has the teacher's lesson plans located on them. So, you will need to decide – how will you share the work with your child(ren)? I photocopied side one and four for our daughter and then pulled out day two and three of the workbook.
Each week has a similar set up. Monday introduces the idea or concept, children practice it with short passages and questions on Tuesday and Wednesday, brainstorm ideas on Thursday, and then write on Friday.
The book has 5 units:
- Ideas
- Organization
- Word Choice
- Sentence Fluency
- Voice
- Conventions
And each unit has five weeks of lessons. These lessons are geared towards being taught with more than one child. For example, opportunities are given for students to work together and for you to collect ideas from a classroom of children. I found some of this put pressure on our daughter. She wasn't always willing or able to answer every question in the teacher lesson plans, so I had to adapt lessons quite a lot.
Our Thoughts
I really like the idea of Daily 6-Trait Writing Grade 3 as it provides short assignments focused on key topics that will help your child become a better writer. Mixed in are short grammar lessons, such as the discussion of commas when teaching about organization. These two topics fit hand-in-hand.
With each week following a similar teaching pattern, children who thrive on consistency will do well. Knowing what to expect is important for children, and this workbook sets them up for success. However, if they find one or more activity difficult, they may dread those days. Our daughter was not fond of writing when we started out, so Fridays were not a fun day for her. I ended up staggering when I would start each week, so that the activities did not always fall on the same days. In other words, weeks would start on a Wednesday or Thursday, and then we would pick up again on Monday.
As a former teacher, I really wanted to like using Daily 6-Trait Writing Grade 3 in our homeschool. Unfortunately, I am finding out that the longer we homeschool, the more books designed for the classroom don't work for our family. With teaching only two children who don't happen to be on the same level for writing, it was difficult to make this resource work in our curriculum.
This is a good resource if you are teaching multiple children out of one workbook. With reproducible student pages and the opportunity for lots of class discussion, this will really help you add writing into your curriculum. There is an assessment rubric, so if you are unsure as to how to grade or evaluate your child(ren)'s work, you can do so easily. The tools are there to help teachers (and parents).
One of the features I really like is something quite simple. At the end of the book there is a page of proofreading marks. I really like that the common proofreading marks are all listed on page. We'll be copying that and keeping that in the front of our language arts notebook for easy reference!
Other Things to Know When Adding Writing Into Your Curriculum
Daily 6-Trait Writing Grade 3 is published by Evan-Moor®. Permission is given to photocopy the pages in the book for single-classroom use. Correlations are available online for the current standards. So if you are interested in adhering to national standards, you have that information at your fingertips.
There is a handy "How to Use This Book" guide in the beginning. This explains the teacher overview pages, the student activity pages, and ways to use the book. You can teach the lessons trait by trait or just pull out the lessons for the topics where your child(ren) need help and extra support.
More Curriculum Choices
Are you looking for more for your homeschool? Check out my other posts featuring Timberdoodle products.
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