Do your kids have writer’s block? If you think about it for a
few minutes, you might realize that your kids have a limited
amount of contact with words. You have been reading and writing
for 20, 30 40 years, but your kids have only been reading for
3, 5, 7 years. They have not had near as much time spent with
the written word as you have. Yet, we expect our kids to come
up with synonyms, sentence structure and content as well as you
do. I think we need to rethink our expectations of our children
and give them more helps when it comes to writing.
In order to help your children with “what” to write, you should
simple story, perhaps Aesop’s Fables. Read the story with your
child. After reading the story, write an outline structure so you
can do a key word outline with your child. The structure should
look something like this.
I.
1.
2.
3.
4.
If you are an outline perfectionist, you might have a heart attack
since there are no letters on my outline. The only person that will
have a hard time with no letters is YOU. Kids have no problem
using an outline that has just numbers. In fact, they will find it
easier to work with. There should a number for each sentence
in the story.
Reread the first sentence and have your child offer 3 key words
from that sentence that will help him remember what is written.
Underline or circle those words as he tells them to you. Once he
has chosen three words, write them in order on I. Then, move to
the second sentence and underline three key words for that
sentence. Write them on 1. Continue until you have three
words for each sentence. You may have less than three words,
but not more. This forces your child to learn how to make a
ecision. Besides, he does not need to remember EVERY detail
in each sentence.
After you have your outline completed, put away the original source.
Have your child use the outline and tell back to you the paragraph.
Kids have a much easier time telling verbally what they read than
writing it down. You just finished half of the writing lesson.
The next day, pull out the outline with a blank sheet of paper. You
might have your child retell the paragraph if you think he needs to
refresh himself on the content. Now, your child will write a sentence
for each line of his outline. The sentence does NOT need to be an
exact replica of the original paragraph. In fact, your child may
improve on what was originally written. When he finishes each line
of the outline, he will have a completed paragraph. If your child is
young, you might let him tell you each sentence and you write it
down for him. At this point, I would edit the paragraph for spelling
and punctuation. Notice I did not say rewrite the sentences or add
words. Let this be your child’s writing, not yours.
On the final day your child will copy his completed paragraph making
any changes for spelling and punctuation. Of course, there are
places you can see that need improving but you can teach that in
a later lesson. This is an activity to help your child see that he can
write something on his own. He doesn’t have to worry about “what”
to write any more because you will give him a source text from
which to start.
For more helps on teaching writing from source texts, see
Structure & Style, by Andrew Pudewa. The above tip comes from
unit 1 of Structure & Style. I have been using this approach to writing
for 7 years and my children do not have an aversion to writing.
Well, some days they just don’t want to pick up a pencil but overall
they don’t mind writing because they have something from
which to write.
Structure & Style gives you specific ways to improve your child’s
writing after he can write from a key word outline. IEW’s
Structure & Style offers specific structure outlines for a variety
of writings (story, reports, critiques, persuasive writing and so on).
Click here to read more about Institute for Excellence in Writing’s
If you need source texts, you should try Writing Trails in
American History, Writing Trails with Great Composers or
Writing Trails with Men of Science. Each of these books provide
short paragraphs that your child can outline and rewrite. It also
includes vocabulary for each story. This is a great source for
you to use with the tip discussed above. Click here to read more
about any of these books. They are listed under Writing –
Source Text Helps.
BONUS: FREE SHIPPING on all IEW orders over $50.
******************************************
Want to share this article on Writing Tip?
Feel free to forward it as long as you do not alter the article
in any way and you include the signature below:
Kerry Beck, owner of Curriculum Connection, has published books
on approaches to homeschooling and other homeschooling topics.
If you want to jump-start your homeschool, go to
www.CurriculumConnection.net to receive your fre.e report on the
No comments:
Post a Comment