I found out National Day on Writing is October 20, so in honor of that I'll introduce you to Four Square writing method. I feel it's GENIUS for teaching younger children the concept of a paragraph. The administrators at school are huge fans, and are really pushing the writing method.
Four square writing method simplifies the construction of a paragraph. It can be used for older students who are learning to write four or five paragraph papers. The book, written by Judith S. Gould, Evan Jay Gould, and Mary F. Burke, comes with an instruction disk and great ways to introduce the method of writing to students. The provided four square paper is literally four large squares with a rectangle in the middle. The rectangle is the main idea/topic sentence, three of the squares are the detail sentences, and the final box is the closing sentence. Who could ask for a more simple explanation of constructing a paragraph?
My second graders have gotten used to the writing method so we've started using it more thoroughly. During the week they do the entire process of writing. We start with the circle map to develop ideas about the given topic, then move onto the four square. The students should transfer the sentences for the first draft. Since that shouldn't take any time at all I usually end up editing each paragraph the same day.
This past week they had to write about their favorite sport. I have 13 boys in my class, so I thought this topic would be a hit. I was wrong. I have no choice for the weekly topic, so they wrote anyway. I'm trying to come up with some creative ways to accomplish the four square since they are beginning to say, "Oh no, not writing", so any recommendations are accepted. Here's an example of the four square with the first draft:
Don't forget, October 20th is National Writing Day!
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