How Will You Teach Writing? (Part 2)

This summer I’ve been posting reviews of our writing products as well as some articles about writing. This is an article that I wrote last summer that I thought you might find helpful.

In my last article I described a unique approach to teaching writing. It follows the guidelines set out by Andrew Pudewa in IEW's Teaching Writing: Structure & Style. This program spends most of it's time teaching students "how to write" instead of brainstorming "what to write about".

There are a number of free writing lessons online that follow Mr. Pudewa's program. You can start any time - today, the first week of school, over summer vacation. This is a great way to help older children who struggle with writing skills. To begin, find a short story that your child enjoys. For best results, your students should be using predictable books to teach writing.

Day 1 In order to help the child decide what to write, find a simple story that is around one page in length. Aesop's fables are perfect, though you may choose anything you like. Begin by reading the story out loud with your child. From there, develop an outline/structure to help outline key words in the story. Your structure will look similar to 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. Children 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.

Here’s a video review of one of our writing products, “History Based Writing Lessons.

Go back to the story, and re-read the first sentence. Ask your child to choose three key words from the sentence. These words will help him to put the story in his own words, which happens later in this exercise. Underline or circle these words, and then write them beside the "I". Make sure you write them in order.

From there, read the second sentence and choose another three key words. Write those words beside 1. If your child only has a word or two, that's fine - just make sure that there are no more than three words. Your child must decide for himself which words to choose. We are not trying to force your child to remember every little detail, just the highlights so he can re-write the sentences later.

Continue in this fashion until the outline is complete, and then put away the original story. Now let your child tell you what each paragraph was about, using the written outline as a guide. It is easier for children to say it out loud, rather than writing it all down. Congratulations! You have completed the first half of this writing lesson!

Whatever the age of your children, make sure that they tell you the story again, paragraph by paragraph. It may seem childish, especially for older children, but it is an important part of the thought process.

Join us for the part three, which includes more free writing lessons online. Using the outline you created today, you will take the next step - teaching your children to write a story in their own words.

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Copyright Kerry Beck, 2009
You have permission to reprint this article, as long as you don’t make any changes and include the bio below.


Kerry Beck encourages homeschool moms and classroom teachers with middle school writing. Go grab Kerry’s free mini-course on Teaching Writing Easily at http://www.howtoteachwriting.com/ today.

What's Your Method for Teaching Writing Skills? Part I

This summer I've been posting reviews of our writing products as well as some articles about writing. This is an article that I wrote last summer that I thought you might find helpful.

When I first started homeschooling, I decided not to buy a Writing Curriculum! Why? Because all the programs I reviewed were activities I could do on my own. I taught fifth grade for six years and most homeschool writing lessons were like my public school writing curriculum, teaching students "what to write".

I was firmly convinced that this was the best approach to teaching writing, at least until I discovered the Institute for Excellence in Writing (IEW). Its founder, Andrew Pudewa, has created a fascinating product called Teaching Writing: Structure and Style. His program does not focus on helping students develop ideas to write about. Instead, he focuses on teaching students how to write. This seemed contrary to all my training - my students, like all others, were most concerned about finding a topic to write about.

Here's a review of one of our writing products, "Windows To The World".

Andrew's approach to writing solves the "what to write about" problem by simply telling the students what to write about. His program spends more time teaching "structures" or outlines for a variety of writings, offering lesson plans for writing process. Depending on the type of writing and your purpose for writing, you can use different outlines to organize your thoughts.

Once a structure is defined, the program teaches students how to develop their own "style". By selecting strong verbs and adverbs, descriptive adjectives, and various clauses, students learn to dress up their writing and experiment with their writing style. They learn effective ways of opening and closing a sentence for maximum impact.

In my next article (part 2), I will share a simple activity you can use with your own children this week (or the first week of school). If your older students struggle with writing, this is a great place to start.

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Copyright Kerry Beck, 2009 You have permission to reprint this article, as long as you don’t make any changes and include the bio below. Kerry Beck encourages homeschool moms and classroom teachers with writing skills. Go get her free mini-course about Teaching Writing Easily at http://www.howtoteachwriting.com today.