Continue writing ideas for "The Big Snow" - then put those ideas into sentence form and write rough draft. Will is having a problem creating a cohesive storyline...lots of ideas but it's hard to "make" a story. This is taking some time, but Will is willing to work. He has a great attitude.
Clay did a pretty solid job proofreading his paragraphs from yesterday, but still missed some pretty glaring mistakes. Once I wrote the sentences up on the board, he was able to identify the problems, but he still needs to work on self-editing when writing.
Introduce new writing prompt - "A Snowy Day" then brainstorm ideas. Explain/give examples showing the importance of using specific/colorful words when writing a story. You want the reader to "see, hear, feel, etc." the things you are describing to them. We did not get very far today (30 min.) and it takes a while to develop your thoughts/ideas in a meaningful way. Will has lots of ideas and we will continue this tomorrow.
I had Clay write 3 paragraphs about his Thanksgiving. His paragraph structure is pretty sound, but we need to work on developing his ideas more fully. His homework is to proofread and rewrite the paragraphs. We'll see how he does.
Clay's writing has improved a great deal, and it has gotten much easier for him since we began. He needs to focus on writing solid sentences every time. Sometimes he's in such a hurry to finish that he forgets about everything we've learned.
Clay did a great job with the plural noun worksheets. He's remembering all the special plural's and wrote some solid sentences using them. I then had him write three paragraphs about hurricane preparation. He did better, but still needs to focus more while writing.
Clay wrote two pretty solid paragraphs, but he completely forgot to use punctuation. He used complex and compound sentences, but without the proper use of commas it totally defeats the purpose. In each case, when I asked him what was wrong with the sentence, he looked at it and could immediately spot the mistake. We're going to work on his proofreading.
Clay wrote two solid paragraphs today. He needs to improve the full development of his ideas, and has a tendency to keep things very simplistic. But his actual writing has come a long way. It's getting much easier for him.
