Ideas for Writing Content for Third Grade
Teaching students good writing techniques at a young age helps them develop language and communication skills. Third-grade writers begin experimenting with dialogue, figurative language and point of view while learning the basics of putting together a topic sentence and paragraphs with supporting details. These ideas help students create good content and makes their writing stronger.
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Brainstorming
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The brainstorming process begins with writers putting anything that comes to mind down on a sheet of paper, getting writers to focus on a topic. Students can write down ideas, characters, words, phrases and even sentence fragments to start the writing process. Brainstorming produces a number of content ideas; ideas students may choose to later discard or adapt to the writing assignment. Students can brainstorm individually or with others in a group setting. In younger children, group brainstorming activities allow children to hear how their classmates think, giving them their own ideas and teaching them how to expand their own thoughts. Brainstorming is sometimes called prewriting.
Field Trip
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Taking students on a field trip addresses a number of learning objectives, but in the writing process it gets students to think about details when writing content mainly through observation. With a notepad and pencil, students write down what they see and describe in detail. The color of clothes, the height of people, the color of the walls, the cleanliness of the floor, the brightness of the lights and the color of the trees, for example. Getting students to recognize details at this stage teaches them the creative writing process, putting together better content. Think simplicity when planning a trip at this stage; a trip to the school library or gym, even a walk to a local park would suffice.
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Journals
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Journals allow students to reflect on the world around them, getting their reactions to things happening in their daily lives. These types of reflections help build content because they practice storytelling and making inferences about situations. Writers at this stage may need a place to start, so teachers should feel free to give them ideas like "the perfect place in the whole wide world is" or "if I were president, I would." These ideas get creative juices flowing and get students thinking about content. Journaling daily builds writing confidence and gets students into the habit of writing more frequently.
Book Reports
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Book reports summarize the most important information found in all types of literature. They also teach children to look for character development, plot, setting and the theme, essentially all of the content students deem significant. Good book reports do not simply retell information; rather writers give their opinions and make observations. Even at a third-grade level, students grasp simple information used in a book report. Students can also create a timeline on poster board, mapping out the flow of the story. Book reports also work well across the curriculum in just about every discipline.
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References
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