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My last post talked about the importance of making writing a daily activity for kids. Writing daily just about guarantees proficiency and fluency and is the easiest way to make it a less intimidating task. Kids who write often, won't balk when they get to college and are faced with the inevitable and innumerable research papers. They also won't feel tempted to turn to AI or other forms of plagiarism to meet those demands.
I also described writing as "organized thinking." (Sheeesh, I just quoted myself.) Anyway, that aspect of writing holds so many benefits for kids, especially teens. Laying the foundation for those skills is an invaluable gift you can give your child. I've always liked the metaphor that parenting is the process of giving your child "roots" and "wings." Helping your child towards authentic self-expression through writing adds some very strong feathers to those wings! But these feathers take time to grow and they don't often sprout without serious encouragement from parents. Writing is rarely instinctive, especially in our highly visual world. Writing and reading take focused effort, whereas being bombarded with images is a fairly passive activity (whether in the form of TV, movies, videogames or computer screens). It is the rare kid who (at least at first) will be begging to be allowed to write! Trust me though, especially if you start young, this will become a strong possibility. In my last post, I offered some ideas for starting with the youngest kids, so now I'd like to give suggestions for the teen and tween crowd. I'll start with storytelling first this time and then move on to more academic types of writing. Teens LOVE to tell stories. Encourage them to take these skills a step further and involve them in what's known as "fan fiction." There are tons of websites for this. The benefits of writing fan fiction are numerous -- they allow young writers to stretch their creative muscles without the pressures of coming up with all new characters and settings. They also provide a venue for feedback from other kids with similar interests. They encourage critical reading and writing too -- as kids evaluate the fan fiction of others they will have to begin to develop a vocabulary of criticism. Nothing helped my writing as much as learning how to "grade" the essays of my college freshman. "Knowing" there's a problem in someone's writing, doesn't necessarily mean it's an easy thing to define that problem or explain how to repair it. The thought process that goes into critiquing the fan fiction of their peers will help them develop those skills that will in turn improve their own writing. If your teen doesn't take to fan fiction and would prefer to write their own fiction "from scratch" -- send them over to NANOWRIMO's Young Writer's Program. The National Novel Writing Month (Nanowrimo) organization has tons of resources for students and lots of encouragement to participate in their annual November "noveling" challenge, setting their own word count goals for the month. They also have an organized "editing" month and a script writing month! The support they can get from several tens of thousands of their peers as they take on a challenge like this is invaluable. When it comes to more academic/argumentative writing, the internet is a huge boon to writers. Use it. If your teen tires of writing essays for himself and you, consider letting him start a blog. Blogging though, will generate commentary (if only from family and friends) and requires, by it's very nature, that the writer be aware of audience. They will respond to both compliments and criticism and incorporate the ideas of others into their blog. Encourage them though to avoid single-sided rants and "talk-radio" style argumentation. Argumentative blogging provides the perfect opportunity to teach about Logical Fallacies. Lastly, every teen should be encouraged to keep a journal to document the private ideas and thoughts they don't particularly want feedback about. Invest in a beautiful leather bound journal or even better, play around with book binding (art!) and make one together. If they don't know what to write in their journal, prompt them with ideas. There are many prompt libraries available online. Writing doesn't have to be a boring or isolating activity for kids. With these methods, they really will start to view the process as dynamic, creative and dare I say it.... fun! Really emphasize the social aspects of writing. Writing, after all, allows one access to the "Great Conversation" and kids should realize they have unique and very valuable things to add to that conversation. I can't guarantee your young, expressive writer will never pierce her nose, but I do know that writing creates an essential outlet for kids & teens and is an exercise that will, more than anything else, train them to think for themselves and think well of themselves. I'd love to hear your ideas in the comments. Feel free to share methods you've found effective and fun for teens!
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As a writing instructor for over 35 years (teaching writing privately, at the Huckleberry Center for Creative Learning, USC, Pepperdine, CSULB, and other L.A. area universities). I KNOW exactly where a student's writing should be by the time they're ready for college classes. I'm passionate about this subject because I feel it's the one area homeschoolers don't always handle easily. I'm a huge advocate of homeschooling for so many reasons. It fosters creativity and complex, divergent thinking in ways that classroom experiences can rarely attempt. My own kids were entirely homeschooled until they went to college, allowing them to be out in the world meeting a variety of interesting people from all walks of life. I think homeschooling creates amazing educational opportunities for kids.
That being said, I think homeschoolers often don't get enough experience writing. I want to be clear though: I don't think traditionally schooled kids do any better. I just think homeschoolers COULD do better. Homeschoolers are in a position to gear writing tasks around the specific interests of each student -- an opportunity rarely possible in the classroom. (Again, see below for practical ways to do this.) Unfortunately, this doesn't always happen. Writing is difficult to teach. There are few "right or wrong" answers when it comes to teaching writing. Sure, we can all correct grammar, syntax and spelling errors, but that's really the tip of the iceberg when it comes to writing. In reality, writing is "organized thinking." This is what makes it difficult to teach. Teaching writing is like teaching students to sculpt their own thoughts. It's an art. Even the most brilliant among us needs to be able to convey those brilliant thoughts to others and that requires organization. We've all had the experience of trying to follow disjointed or meandering writing. It's no fun. "Stream of consciousness" style writing may be fine if you're James Joyce or Virginia Woolf, but fiction and academic writing have different goals. That being said, reading fiction works wonders for the burgeoning writer. Avid readers of all ages have a huge leg up when it comes to writing skills and home schoolers often have more time to enjoy literature and lots of encouragement to do so. Reading gives young writers lots of experience "watching" others practice the craft and that experience is invaluable. When it comes time to put pen to paper or fingers to keyboard, readers have the advantage of having watched the "pros" organize their ideas and that WILL make it easier. Teaching writing, however, can be difficult BECAUSE people perceive it as an "art," a talent you either have or don't. There's a teeny tiny bit of truth to this -- certainly some people are naturally better at it than others. Like every talent though, proficiency really comes only if you're willing to work at it. We need to think of "arts" like writing as "skills" because that's really what they are. Do you admire that kid playing the Bach Invention at age 10? He can only do it because he's practiced the piano daily for a good chunk of time since he was probably 6 years old. Is he a prodigy? Maybe.... but probably not -- more likely he's a "practicer." He's played scales up and down that keyboard every day, building the muscles in his fingers until he's able to handle the demands Bach makes on your fingers. Writing is a skill the way playing the piano is a skill. You will only get better if you practice. Students need to start practicing this skill early and often: daily. All students need to do this whether they are homeschooled or schooled in a classroom, but homeschoolers have the advantage of being able to design their own curriculum and schedule their time as they think fit. With that freedom of course, comes great responsibility. Most homeschoolers realize they can make science a lot more fun if they do hands-on experiments and incorporate field trips and active discussions. Writing is more difficult to make "fun," but it's certainly not impossible. The best way to do this is through modeling. Show your child how to write down ideas. It can involve anything, as long as it happens daily. Consider the following scenario: you're at the market and you notice that once again someone has parked so close to your car, you can barely open your door. You complain about this, but when you get home, sit down with your child and "organize" your own and your child's thoughts on this. Ask your child to describe what the main problem with this is and then write down her thoughts -- making them more concise as you do so. For example, your child might say: "It's no fair when people take up so much space. We can't get into our car and we get scratches on our paint and it's just really mean for them to hog all the room." Then you write down: "Parking too close to other cars is unfair and can damage the cars." Then go a step or two further (even with the youngest child): Ask whose fault this is? Is it just the fault of the driver parking too close or are the parking spaces made only for small cars? You could even incorporate math skills in something like this. Be creative. Next time you go to the market, bring the tape measure and have your child measure the spaces and then measure a sampling of cars in the parking lot. Is there enough space for the average car/truck/SUV? Then write down your findings and ask your child what she thinks you can do to avoid this problem in the future. Maybe she'll say you should park further from the door, so the chances of someone parking next to you are slim. Maybe she'll say you should complain to the market. Maybe she thinks people should buy smaller cars. Prompt her with questions when she gets stuck and then write down her answers. As you can see, you're not just teaching her how to write, you're teaching her how to organize her thoughts and add depth to them. Imagine making this your writing curriculum (and think of all the money you'd save!). Every day you take twenty to thirty minutes to model writing a short paragraph on a real world scenario experienced by your child, something they are already thinking about. By the time they're eight or nine years old, they can do all the actual "writing" themselves with you just prompting them with thought provoking questions. Gather all these paragraphs into a special book you keep for your child. Title it "Junior's Thoughts" or whatever you like and fuss about how proud you are of that book. You can do the same with storytelling (I don't like to isolate writing stories as "Creative Writing," since so much creativity goes into academic/argumentative writing too). Here's what I used to do with my daughters: I'd sit at the computer and say, tell me a story. I did this from the time they were 4 years old. They'd tell me some long, meandering story and I'd prompt them with questions to try and elicit a clear plot. As I typed, I'd clean up their sentence structure, but keep the main essence and details of their story. These too I'd keep for them in a book and they would proudly read their stories to anyone who would listen. You can title this something like "Junior's Stories" and they will have two ever-growing volumes that serve as monuments to their writing abilities. Every day add something to one of their books. EVERY DAY! Miss it only the way you'd miss a day of practicing the piano. As your child gets older, their writing will get longer and more complex. There are plenty of free writing guidelines available on the internet to help them understand more complicated paragraph and essay structures... every University writing program website has these. Here's a link to Purdue's Online Writing Lab or OWL. There are MANY more (and did I mention they're FREE!!). These can help you to guide the 10-12 year old to more sophisticated writing and teens can use them on their own. The whole key is practice... DAILY PRACTICE! Sorry to shout in ALL CAPS like that, but "Daily Practice," is the most important thing anyone can glean from this post. Too often I work with students who have hardly any experience writing. They struggle to put sentences together, let alone paragraphs. These are really bright kids too, but by 9 or 10 they've already missed out on years of language experiences they should have had. As a result, when they sit down to write something, they struggle over every word and procrastinate as much as they can possibly get away with. Believe me, I talk to the parents and I know they're struggling too. Some kids begin to HATE writing and getting them to compete assignments is a challenge. The best advice I can give is to make it a habit, a non-negotiable habit like brushing their teeth before bed. Make it fun though and make it practical. Help them to see the value of writing down their ideas. If you didn't start when they were little, start now. It's literally never too late. Start today, and you'll already be doing better by tomorrow. I could go on for hours about this. I'd love to talk about how being a strong writer helps immeasurably with a kid's self-confidence. Teaching kids to express themselves in writing can help eliminate some of the more destructive forms of self-expression teens sometimes choose. I'd love to talk more specifically about the skills a student needs to prepare for college writing. I'd love to talk about how writing will help them in every single subject they ever study, I'd love to describe some of the amazing things kids in my writing classes have accomplished.... Clearly, I could go on and on, but this post is already long enough, so I'll curb my enthusiasm for now.  Internet Research can be a tricky area for students. Any research requires a student to be a critical reader, culling sources to determine what will provide useful support or insight into the area under investigation. Online research though, requires an extra layer of discernment. Students have to make sure that their source is reliable and preferably, peer reviewed.
I explain to my students that although Wikipedia can often be useful for general information, it is not a reliable source for an academic essay. The beauty of a wiki is that anyone can modify it. The danger of a wiki is that anyone can modify it. Instead, I encourage my students to use search engines that are dedicated to scholarly research. These search engines will lead them to reliable sources and some, like Google Scholar, will even provide APA or MLA documentation pre-formatted. Another great resource is Microsoft Academic Search, which similarly highlights reliable sources for academic essays. But there are many, many options. Check out my Resources page for a link to 100 Search Engines for Academic Research. This is an invaluable resource that highlights search engines that specialize in a variety of fields. Make life a bit easier for the student in your family and pass on this important link. Be sure to look at the other valuable resources I've listed, including help with documentation and overall essay organization and development!  "The thrill of reading a great essay is sensing and sharing the discovery of the writer. Paradoxically, we need the genre now more than ever. In these shouty times, the quiet assurance and understated erudition of the essay speak louder than ever. In its purest form, the essay achieves something often missed by writing that is determined to be relentlessly punchy and relevant." I found an interesting article today on the continuing relevance of the essay. Written in response to the publication of Essayists on the Essay: Montaigne to Our Time, by the University of Iowa Press, it makes the case that the essay form offers far more freedom than the newspaper article, which, by nature, has to worry about readership stats.
Essays are the primary form of writing that teachers assign for students from about 5th or 6th grade through graduate school and this is because the form demands discovery. As students write an essay, they learn their subject and they demonstrate that knowledge to the teacher. Certainly, the essay form, as taught in schools can be too restrictive when it comes to structure. Some students learn the 5 paragraph format and never move beyond it. But those who do, those who organize their essays to really reflect their learning, gain a new and broader understanding of their subject matter. The essay allows students to demonstrate that understanding to themselves and their instructors and therein lies its true value as an educational tool.  It's almost funny to think that parents pay me to teach their kids to argue, but I'm happy and proud to say they do. One of the most important benefits of learning to write well is that it gives a child a voice. I am always impressed by the ideas that start to flow from previously reluctant writers, once I begin to ask them their opinions. These kids have something to say, but they lack confidence in their ability to clearly convey their thoughts. Some of my students are working on Reginald Rose's classic play "Twelve Angry Men." I have found that this is a great way to help students understand argumentative technique. Once students can differentiate between the types of appeals being made in an argument, they are not only able to use them in their own writing, but recognize them in the arguments of others. I take my students through Aristotle's basic categories to teach these techniques: appeals to authority (ethos), appeals to logic (logos) and appeals to emotions (pathos). I'm always impressed by how quickly they are able to grasp these ideas! Recognizing appeals is just another important step towards strengthening critical thinking.  Critical thinking cannot be taught overnight, but writing is certainly the way to achieve it. Once writers have mastered the basics of organization, they can begin to expand their ideas and build their analysis. The best way to do this is with daily practice. Writing is less of a traditional "subject" to be studied and more of a skill to be developed. Just like other skills, writing has to be practiced. If you want to learn to play the violin or the piano, the best way to improve is with daily practice.
Children are all born with a natural sense of curiosity -- think of how many times a day 4 and 5 year olds ask, WHY. By the time we reach our teens, we have developed some fairly firm opinions about the world. The student who regularly articulates those opinions in writing will have a much firmer grasp on how to take a problem apart and logically draw conclusions. By the time, students are in high school and college, teachers evaluate their progress and their comprehension of the material by asking them to write essays demonstrating what they have learned. Critical thinking is a skill that is necessary in almost every discipline. A firm foundation in writing is the most effective way to develop this skill. Individualized tutoring is the ideal way to develop critical thinking abilities. Students get personalized, immediate feedback, enabling them to explore possibilities and test their understanding. For more info on developing critical thinking skills, feel free to email me: [email protected] |
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