Teacher and Homeschool Writing Blog » Writing Curriculum

New Book: How to Teach Writing

Judith Darling — Mon, 22 Mar 2010 19:55:07 +0000

The new book I have been working on is almost finished. It is taking a bit longer because I decided to add a poetry section. It is a genre that children love once they get into it, and is a nice addition. The book discusses the real reasons children hate writing, and why teachers do not like to teach writing. It addresses ways to make teaching writing much easier for parents and teachers, and it provides ideas to make writing fun and challenging for children. We are hoping to get it to the printers soon and have it available by fall.

A fellow teacher and dear friend came for a visit, and read the book in its entirety. She remarked that the book is so needed because it really addresses the problem of teaching writing for everyone involved. She agreed that the poetry unit would be a great addition, and helped me gather materials and write it. It is certainly nice to have a fellow master teacher give feedback and lend a hand.

Beginning Of The Year Writing Idea

Judith Darling — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 22:00:50 +0000

Introduce writing on the first day of school, whether it is in a home school classroom or in the public classroom. Students need to know from the onset that they will be expected to write every day. A good beginning of the year writing assignment would be for students to write something about themselves. To make the assignment much easier for parents and teachers, I have attached a pdf. The pdf includes the brainstorming sheet and the paragraph organizer

Give the brainstorm sheet to the student and ask them to fill it out.

Next give the student the paragraph organizer to fill out.

Once the students have filled out the paragraph organizer have them write a rough draft and have a peer or parent edit it.

Next have them write their final paper.

If you are teaching a group or class of children, instruct them to not put their name anywhere on the story. Once each student has completed their final paper, ask them to draw a picture of themselves in the situation they described. They could also including some clues about themselves and things they are interested in, in the picture. Example: Draw a picture of yourself with a soccer ball or baseball glove and bat, or draw yourself in a mall shopping, or with your favorite musical instrument. Once everyone has turned in their papers with pictures of themselves, hang them up around the room and instruct parents to find their child’s paper from the story they wrote and the picture they drew.

Even if you are teaching one child, ask them to draw a picture of themselves to go with the story including things they are interested in, and then see if family members can remember the event.

Good luck and let me know if the pdf helped. I know this was a favorite assignment with students and parents alike.

Writing Every Day

Judith Darling — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 17:29:32 +0000

The application of grammar, punctuation, and parts of speech into writing is a long and often arduous task for teachers and parents alike. The most important thing to remember in motivating children to apply these skills is in having them do it often. It will not be learned by having one writing assignment a semester, or month, or week. Children need to be writing every day. How do you do that?

As I mentioned in my last post, have a daily practice that includes a fun writing assignment.
Have a creative writing assignment every week.
Assign a long term essay or research paper to be worked on over time.
Have students tell you about the book they are reading in a weekly letter.
Do a quick speed writing lesson for fun.

These are some suggestions on how to get your student writing every day so they become comfortable with writing and begin applying the skills they have learned or are learning.