Writing Goals!

     Today we had the very best day in third grade!  I will be honest, yesterday was a little rough so I came in wondering what today would be like.  Oh WOW!  They knocked my socks off.  They made transitions quickly, they came into the room at a level 0 and sat down ready to learn, they worked hard and the most amazing thing is that I didn't even have to ask them.  It was the coolest thing to watch!  I am really hoping they are all feeling well today because it was a night and day difference with yesterday.  Praying for another "perfect" day tomorrow!
    I want to highlight an activity I like to do before every writing unit.  I always start every unit by giving the students a benchmark assessment to determine where they are at in writing.  I use the same rubric I would use at the end of the unit and I score their writing.  I really stress to the students that I do not expect them to have mastered anything because I have NOT taught them a single thing in the unit.  I give each student their piece of writing and their scored rubric.  They use this to highlight two goals they want to really focus in on in this writing unit in order to improve their writing.  Then they take this information and write it in the section of their binder labeled "writing goals" with today's date.  This way throughout the unit I can refer back to their goals and also elaborate on their goals with them.  I can also go into this section of the binder and give them feedback on how I think they are doing at meeting their goal.  I always date this so they can measure their progress over time.  I have found in doing this that my students always make a lot of gains in writing.  It is always exciting to compare the first product to the finished product.  The students find a lot of excitement in doing this also.  
    

You can see the pictures below:

Our objective for the day:                                           A scoring rubric:

A students goal sheet:           

 



HAVE A GREAT WEEK!  Make today the best day!