Teaching Kids to Write
TEACHING KIDS HOW TO WRITE
By Ted Finch
Note: I recently posted on http://authorsincognito.blogspot.com and on my old blog. I wrote this seven years ago.
I am a fifth grade teacher. School just started. I am excited. The kids are excited. I wanted to get students writing early, so I assigned a five page paper where students explain each of our five classroom rules and why the rules are important. It seemed like a reasonable assignment, to me. In fact, I stole the idea from a fellow teacher.
I was wrong. I talked to three parents and the principal about the level of homework (mostly centered on the amount of writing) the class had been given. I should mention that students are also required to write a one page journal entry every day.This all happened before the first week of school was over.
You might ask yourself why I assigned a five page paper during the first week of school. Do I like to terrorize the kids? I won’t answer that. Do I want to work them to death so they hate school and writing? No. I believe that each student can be a writer, they just need to do a lot of writing in order to develop the skills they need to be good writers.
In my homework conversations with the principal we talked about how that is a lot of writing for a kid. She mentioned that it didn’t seem like much to me because I am a writer and writing comes easy to me. But for others like her, writing isn’t easy and it takes a long time and a ton of stress. I can understand this, but I still think that everyone can write well if they have practiced and know use their skills.
As a teacher and writer, I wonder what causes such stress over writing assignments. Is it the act of writing? The deadlines? What about coming up with ideas? Writing can be hard, but so is running a 5k race. Both events are possible through skills and practice.I believe everyone, if they are in decent physical shape, can run a 5k race. The same is true about writing. Everyone can learn to write well with the right amount of motivation and effort.
The best things we can do to help our children and students overcome the fear of writing is to help them believe they can write. It will just take study of the writing craft and perfect practice.
Another important part of teaching writing is to get students to read. They more they read, the better their writing gets. The more students read, the more exposure they get to published prose and good examples of what works, and what doesn't. Read! Read! Read!
It's also important that kids share what they've written.When they read aloud they will notice how their writing really flows.It's also is nice for students to get feedback from their peers rather than only from the teacher.
Parents and family can help as well. Ask to hear about your kid’s writing. If they ask what you think, point out three things that work for you and the give one thing that could improve. Most importantly, listen, and encourage them. Even if a student will never write for pleasure or to be an author, being able to write well will help them be successful after they leave school.
I asked my fifth grade class why we write. One of the boys said, “We write so we can express our thoughts and feelings to lift others.” He was right.
