4th grade writing curriculum

A Simple Yet Effective 4th Grade Writing Curriculum We Use For Homeschool

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Daily writing is extremely important in 4th grade. It’s essential for kids to learn how to communicate their ideas clearly and coherently, which includes learning about sentence structure, punctuation use, grammar usage, and so much more. From personal experience, I know how hard it can be to find a good 4th grade writing curriculum that gels with your family. I’m excited to say we’ve found one that has been working great for us called Daily 6-Trait Writing, Grade 4.

Daily 6 Trait Writing helps children learn to write better and it’s also easy for homeschool parents to use. See how Daily 6 Trait Writing Grade 4 can benefit your child (like it did mine) and how to get started with it!

4th grade writing curriculum: Daily 6-Trait Writing Grade 4

Disclaimer: I received this product from Timberdoodle at 50% off in exchange for an honest review. I was not compensated in any other way. See our disclosure policy for more information.

About Daily 6 Trait Writing Grade 4

The Daily 6-Trait Writing series consists of volumes for grades one through six (with the final book covering beyond sixth grade) that comprehensively cover writing skills appropriate to each grade level. They have a book for each appropriate level through middle school, but I don’t think they have any high school books available just yet. The books are simple to teach and perfect for busy homeschool moms to follow, and they don’t require any prior preparation. All the books follow these traits.

The “6 Traits” refer to 6 key areas for kids to learn writing skills and the writing process:

  1. Ideas
  2. Organization
  3. Word choice
  4. Sentence fluency
  5. Voice
  6. Conventions.

The daily writing lesson plans are engaging, interesting and just the right length of time for my fourth graders as they learn a writing skill each day of the week. They love this homeschool writing curriculum because it’s engaging, interesting and they know exactly what needs to be done every day!

4th grade writing curriculum: Daily 6-Trait Writing Grade 4

What Are the 6 Traits in the Daily 6-Traits Writing Curriculum?

Covering 6 traits, or focusing on 6 key areas in a writing homeschool curriculum, is a brilliant way to teach writing and so much fun to work through! Really, it’s impressive. The traits effectively teach kids how to write well and assess their knowledge of each trait.

It’s an important skill for all kids know how to write well, not only because it will serve them in their future career options but also because writing is a very useful learning tool. They’ll become good writers when they know the best way to put the process together, including grammar, parts of speech, spelling, organizational structure, and so on. The Daily 6-Trait Writing curriculum serves as a wonderful vehicle to learning how to write better and understand complex situations easily.

The Daily 6-Trait Writing traits are explained like this:

  1. Ideas – What is your main idea? What are your supporting ideas? Learn about the main ideas in each text during this trait.
  2. Organization – How are you organizing the information? Do you have a beginning, middle, and end?
  3. Voice – What is your sentence voice (formal or informal)? Did someone else write this for you, or did you write it yourself? Is there too much description?
  4. Word Choice – Are you using words that are simple and easy to understand? Do your word choices help the reader get a clear picture?
  5. Sentence Fluency – Does each sentence sound good by itself, or is there something “off” about it? Is this a complete thought or do you need to add more detail?
  6. Conventions – Are you using correct punctuation, capitalization, and spelling? Is there something that needs correcting before the reader can understand your work fully?

The lessons are presented in a simple, non-intimidating way that teaches new concepts and are easy for both kiddos and parents to understand and use. The curriculum also comes with an assessment tool, or scoring rubric, so you can easily gauge your child’s learning and progress.

Daily 6 Trait Writing Grade 4: Lessons for each day of the week for your 4th Grader

The lessons are laid out in an easy-to-understand-and-follow way for each weekday, Monday through Friday, with Friday being more of a prompt exercise than a usual language arts lesson. And yes, you can use this program as your all-inclusive english language arts program!

The curriculum map is divided up into units with each unit providing specific details about each trait and long enough for you to work on for about 5 or 6 weeks before moving on to the next unit. Each unit carries a deeper look into one of the 6 traits as you move through the curriculum, however, some traits are taught on a daily or weekly level no matter the unit you’re in.

I think the traits taught in this way helps young writers meet writing standards as you go through each lesson and then check back with the scoring rubric. (Daily 6-Traits do correlate with writing standards, after all).

For example, the lessons for each day of the week for the 4th grade writing curriculum look like this (just keep in mind each unit varies but the overall structure is the same):

4th grade writing curriculum: Daily 6-Trait Writing Grade 4
4th grade writing curriculum: Daily 6-Trait Writing Grade 4
4th grade writing curriculum: Daily 6-Trait Writing Grade 4
4th grade writing curriculum: Daily 6 Trait Writing Grade 4
4th grade writing curriculum: Daily 6-Trait Writing Grade 4

What writing lessons looks like for us in a homeschool day

We use interactive notebooks in our language arts curriculum we’re doing. I must say, after going through Daily 6 Trait Writing Grade 4 and doing just one lesson, I deemed this as our sole 4th grade writing program! Even though one child is technically in 5th grade by societal standards, I teach them on most subjects together. I still use it alongside our interactive notebook, but I really like that if we’re short on time or simply not feeling it that day, we can forgo the interactive notebook and just do a Daily 6-Trait Writing lesson and still get our lesson in!

Inside the workbook, you’re provided with the black and white student worksheets for each day of the week, along with a helpful teaching guide for how to present the lessons and practical tips on how to teach them to your kids. This is a truly an open-and-go 4th grade writing curriculum!

4th grade writing curriculum: Daily 6-Trait Writing Grade 4

Each lesson is only on one side of a worksheet with the next lesson on the other side, so all of the lessons are short and succinct, perfect for you to teach every day with little bits at a time, saving valuable time not teaching “fluff”.

The teaching guide, for example, may prompt you on what to say to the kids and gives you instructions on going through the lesson, whether it be a lesson for determining the main idea of a text or teaching a short grammar lesson.

Since the pages are perforated, all I simply do is tear out a week or two of worksheets at a time and then I put them in my kids’ binders. I also tear out the teacher’s guide for the week and I put that on my hanging file pocket on the wall OR in my mom binder. All I have to do is reference that page before each lesson, and we’re good to go!

The lessons usually only take about 10 minutes, 15 tops. At times, though, these lessons have lead us into rabbit trails, prompting conversation about the lesson’s topic and going into deep, meaningful conversation about that topic with my kids. It’s the best!

Times like these can make a lesson (any lesson) go from 10 minutes to 60 minutes easy! I don’t mind, though. Learning takes place everywhere and not just on a worksheet.

A Simple Yet Effective 4th Grade Writing Curriculum We Use For Homeschool!

Daily 6 Trait Writing Grade 4 will help your kids learn how to write more confidently, without worry of mistakes or judgment, as it integrates the 6 traits of effective written communication into every lesson. We hope you find this overview helpful! You can read more about it over at Timberdoodle!

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