Our district has adopted the Excellence in Writing curriculum.  I will use this curriculum to guide students in writing narrative, persuasive, and informative pieces this year.  I attended a workshop on the curriculum over the summer and I am very excited to begin teaching writing using the recommended techniques.  Stay tuned for more information.

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You will notice that I typically save a piece of writing until final publishing before I send it home for you to review.  I do this so you can see how hard your child has worked through the writing process.  I estimate 70% of my students would choose writing as their least preferred activity.  Please compliment your child on how hard he or she worked.  Note the improvement made from the first draft to the final copy.  Brain research suggests that student confidence is built when they are complimented on the work they put into the piece rather than their smarts. 

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Compliment:  Wow, Emily!  I can see you worked really hard to improve the punctuation in your final draft.  Rather than:  "Wow, Eric!  Look at this work.  You are so smart!"