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Learning to Write Well at Home

As homeschool parents, you have a unique opportunity for teaching writing to your children.  In public schools, it is difficult for teachers to have the time for children to write on a regular basis because writing takes so long to evaluate.  Because of the personalized instruction available to homeschoolers, children can practice their writing every week, and see significant improvement.  Writing is a difficult skill to teach, because there are so many levels and nuances to language; it is, however, an essential skill to high academic achievement.  So, how do you begin? Here are a few hints to get you started.

The Write Start

As soon as children begin to read, they should begin to write.  It is important for writing to be an integral part of language acquisition from the start.

As children read a story, have them write about it.  Stories are told in a very specific way; there is always a problem or conflict that rises to a climax, and a resolution in which some lesson is learned. Story Hill, a graphic organizer, helps beginning readers not only understand how the stories they read are written, but also how to write their own stories. Base Camp, at the base of the hill, is where children write a description of setting and characters. One first-grader who was reading "The Tale of Peter Rabbit," wrote a new adventure for Peter with this Base Camp description:

"Once upon a time a little rabbit named Peter was hopping along the lane to pick some strawberries and then he saw the door to Mrs. McGregor's flower garden.  He decided to go there.  He slipped under the door well.  Mrs. McGregor was planting tulips."

This is very good description for a first-grader. Yes, there are errors, but they are not as important and the description.

After Base Camp, the characters then climb Story Hill. They find they have a problem, which they solve, and so learn a lesson.  For example, a first grader wrote this finished Peter Rabbit story:

"Once, Peter s mom told Peter to take care of Peters new little sister Katie Rabbit.  He was so happy that he was dancing all night long.  In the morning, his mom was on her way to Beaver the Weavers house.  She needed to go there because Mrs. Beaver the Weaver was a dentist and Mrs. Rabbit had a tooth that came out and wasn't suppose to come out.  Flopsy, Mopsy, and Cottontail were at a school trip.

Peter and Katie were not suppose to go into anyone's garden, but Katie Rabbit was a girl so she went into Mrs. McGregor's Flower garden.  She was picking flowers for her fur, but she was picking so many flowers that nearly all the flowers were gone.  Mrs. McGregor saw Peter, so did Mr. McGregor and they both were waving rakes at Peter.  Then they saw Katie Rabbit.  Mr. McGregor was going for Peter and then they ran all the way home and were safe and sound at home."

There is some nice description in this story, and a problem, climax, and resolution—pretty sophisticated writing for a first-grader.

Targeted Topics

One of the most common complaints from children asked to write an essay is, "I don't have anything to write about."  It is always difficult to get kids to write well on a "cold" topic, one that is given without previous preparation.  For this reason, writing should be related to reading.  Once children have read and discussed a reading selection, their ideas can be easily organized into an essay.  This is much easier than if they have to pull ideas from their limited experience.

Two effective ways of conquering a lack of ideas are the two "E's": empathy and epiphany.

Empathetic writing asks children to put themselves in a character's shoes and write from the selected character's perspective.  For example, children reading "Into the Light" a play about the life of Helen Keller, might be asked to step inside Helen's shoes, and write a journal entry describing how Helen felt on the day she first understood what the word "love" meant.  This type of writing usually yields much better results than asking children to define love on their own. They may not be at all clear about what love means to them, but they are sure about what it means to Helen.  Empathetic writing gives children a chance to go back to the text for answers, rather than to have to create their own from thin air.   It also helps children understand characters' thinking and motivation that adds to their understanding of the reading.

When children are asked to write about experiences from their own life, the most common response is, "I can't think of anything.  Nothing ever happens to me."  Children who think this need to look at their life experiences in a different way.  No matter what age they are, they have changed in many ways since birth, and it is their experiences that have changed them.  These experiences help children see themselves, other people, and the world in different ways and make for interesting reading.  For example, children who read, "Through the Tunnel," a story about a boy who conquers his fear, might write about a time they conquered a fear of their own, and the epiphany, or insight, that followed.  If the experience caused the writer to change in an important way, it will be important to the reader.

Writing with a Purpose

An important key to a well-written essay is to have a clear purpose in mind before beginning to write and to make sure that all supporting ideas address that purpose.  So how do we decide on the purpose of each essay?  By separating writing into different genres and knowing what purpose is specifically satisfied by each one.

There are basically seven genres, or styles, of writing for K-8 children and each one has a unique purpose. 

1. Narrative writing relates a story.  In a personal narrative, the writer tells a true story about him or herself, and the purpose is to share an insight gained from this experience.  A fictional narrative is often written for entertainment, but it will sound pointless without a theme or message in the resolution.
    
2. Descriptive writing uses visual and sensory details to create a vivid picture in the readers' minds.  The purpose of descriptive writing is to get the readers to see and feel what the writer wants them to.
    
3. A Response to Literature requires a student to demonstrate an understanding of an essential theme from a reading selection, and to find supporting textual evidence, examples and quotes, from the reading to support the writer's conclusion.
    
4. The purpose of Persuasive writing is to convince the audience that the writer's opinion on a specified issue is correct, and that they should take the action he or she recommends.
    
5. Research Report writing provides information on a specific topic.  The writer asks questions, researches facts, and then connects the information into a cohesive whole.
    
6. Expository writing covers a very wide field.  The basic purpose is to provide an explanation of a specific topic, but this could include: cause and effect, evaluation, comparison and contrast and many other different elements that require the ability to analyze and explain.
    
7. Summary writing shows the ability to find the main idea and the primary supporting ideas of a reading selection while leaving out the extraneous details. It involves an evaluation thinking process, and is much more difficult than it looks.

There are of course other genres of writing not covered in the above list, but most others combine elements of these seven.

Evaluation and Assessment

There has been a prevailing philosophy that children should not be criticized for their writing, or they will not want to write.  Compare this with a music student; if he or she is never corrected for mistakes or criticized in any way, how well do you imagine he or she will play?  And bad playing is certainly more discouraging than constructive criticism.  There are many different writing rubrics available and it is important to use them consistently.  We, at Polaris, grade 1-4 on each of these six criteria:

1. Organization
2. Covers all points of the prompt
3. Technique
4. Purpose
5. Language
6. Grammar, Usage, and Mechanics.

Grading on a set writing criteria will help children become their own best editors as they write, and target the areas in which they need to improve.

The synthesis of reading, and the ultimate test of language acquisition should be how well a student can write about what he has read.  Reading and discussion should prepare a student for writing, and writing should be the crystallization of the reading process.  It is a symbiotic relationship, and as with other symbiotic relationships, both parties work together for their mutual benefit.  I hope these few hints will help you bring out the reading and writing talents within your child and help you make the most of your homeschool experience.