Religion/ English - Mrs. Pierscinski

Religion and English

with Mrs. Pierscinski!

Religion:  Last month students worked hard on their Saint Election projects.  After all of the presentations, students cast their votes for the saint they felt should be our "classroom saint."  Congratulations to Emily B. in room 201 with Saint John the Baptiste, Alex K. in room 202 with Saint Clare, and Patrick R. in room 203 with Saint George.  This month we are learning more about the first sin and original sin.  We will also be learning about Abraham and Sarah.  Along with that chapter, students will be making family trees and working on friendly letters.  

English:  Students worked hard on a writing contest: "When is the right time to honor our military heroes?"  I submitted some of the essays to the contest, so we will keep our fingers crossed!  We also finished our work on poetry last month.  This month the students will be working on adjectives.  We will start doing some diagramming to help learn about sentence structure.  We will also start a writing assignment that relates to our D.S.O. field trip.

Here is a reminder of what the students will be using when writing in any of their subjects.

Six traits writing includes the following:

• Ideas
• Organization
• Voice
• Word Choice
• Sentence Fluency
• Conventions
• Presentation

Ideas:  This is the heart of the paper.  It is what the writer has to say. It should be an important topic to the writer and small enough to handle in the paper. Ideas should be expressed clearly so every reader can understand.

Organization:  This is the internal structure that guides the reader through the paper. It begins with a strong start and catches the readers interest from the beginning. There should be details along the way that add to the story and help build toward the conclusion.  A good paper should keep your reader hooked until the very end.  It should use good transitions so it moves smoothly from one idea to the next.

Voice:  Voice is the personality and heart and soul of the writer coming through in the page.  It gives the writing a sense uniqueness, and helps the reader feel that the piece is written directly to him/her.  It is that individual something, different from all other writers, that is called voice.

Word Choice:  Good word choice means that the writer is able to select words that add a richness and color to their paper. It means choosing just the right words so the writing sounds natural and precise. Word choice helps the reader to paint memorable pictures in their mind.

Sentence Fluency:  Sentence fluency is the rhythm and flow of the language, the sound of word patterns, and the way it sounds when read aloud.  Fluent writing has power, rhythm, and movement.  Sentences vary in length and style and are pleasing to the ear when read aloud.

Conventions:  Conventions are the mechanical correctness or writing - spelling, grammar and usage, paragraphing, use of capitals, and punctuation.  Writing that is strong in conventions has usually been proofread and edited with care.

Presentation:  Presentation focuses on the form and layout of the piece of writing; the piece should be pleasing to the eye.  Even if the ideas, words, and sentences are vivid, precise and well constructed, the writing will not be inviting to read unless the guidelines of presentation are observed. 

As we continue more writing in class, students will be spending more time on revision.  It is important that the students know the difference between editing their writing and revising it.  Editing a piece simply means that the student will be looking at the conventions (spelling, punctuation, grammar, etc).  Revision is the process of looking at your writing to see what you can add, delete, and move around to make your piece better.  Even the best writers need to revise their pieces because no one writes perfectly on their first draft.  We can always make changes to our writing pieces to make them better!

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