Bonnie Nortz

 

 

Overview

The writing process is how young writers connect words to print. They use these words to make sense of stories and solve problems. What young writers need are authentic reasons to write, regular changes to write, and topics that are interesting to them (Temple et al., 2005). There are steps to getting children to think about what they are writing. These steps, with practice, will help children become fluid and expressive writers. This section will give you an overview of the process and how to incorporate it at home with ideas to get little fingers and minds moving. These steps are shown in sequence, as children improve, this process becomes simultaneous.
The writing process is promoted in classrooms and is widely accepted as a best practice of English Language Arts instruction (Temple et al.).

 

The Writing Process

Planning, Rehearsing, or Prewriting: Getting ready to write
Choose a topic
Sources of inspiration
Brainstorming
Look at your audience – voice
Graphic organizers to help organize and manage ideas

Drafting
Write, Write, Write!

Revising
Sharing your writing with others and looking at it from a different point of view
Adding, deleting, changing, and rearranging the draft

Editing and proof reading
Peer editing
Spelling
Capitalization
Punctuation
Grammar
Sentence structure
Consistent verb tense
Word usage and correct meaning

Publishing
Final presentation

Description of Research-Based Practices

Planning, Rehearsing, or Prewriting

Getting Ready to Write
            Gathering information
            Making a list
            Interviewing classmates or friends

Sources of inspiration
Free writing
Drawing or painting pictures and then discussing it

Brainstorming
What should I write about?
Is my topic too broad?
What do I know about the topic?
Where can I find more information?
What do I want them to know?
What form is appropriate?

Choosing a topic
What would be appropriate for my purpose and audience?

Look at audience
Who is my audience?

Writing the Draft

Label the paper “rough draft” to indicate where you are in the process. Children can write as many drafts as needed, skipping every other line as needed for revising. They can use scissors and tape to cut and paste and rearrange or remove sections. Emphasis on correct spelling and neatness is not necessary at this stage (Tompkins, 2004).

 

Revising

“The word revision means ‘seeing again’, and in this stage, writers see their composition again with help from others” (Tompkins, 2004, p.18).

• Share your writing with others – collaborate with other writers, friends, classmates, teachers, parents, siblings, etc.

 

• Consider changes in composition by the teacher, friends, classmates, parents, and siblings.

• Use more descriptive verbs, adverbs, and adjectives.
• Example: Sally walked quickly towards the car. (adverb)
• Sally writes beautiful poems. (adjective)

 

• Look at your writing from a different point of view.

• Pick places where your writing could be clearer, more informative, or more convincing. Add words, substitute sentences, delete paragraphs, and move phrases (Tompkins, 2004).

 

Editing

Children can enjoy proofreading their work and hunting for errors. Editing checklists help focus attention on particular categories of errors (Tompkins, 2004).

• Spelling
• Capitalization
• Punctuation
• Grammar
• Sentence structure
• Consistent verb tense
• Word usage and correct meaning

 

Peer editing: Peering editing is when you let someone else look at your work. It is not just looking for minor grammatical and spelling errors. It is an attempt to look at another student’s work from a different perspective, to check organization, and content.

Publishing

Always present your final draft in your best handwriting or typed whenever possible.

Family Activities

Items to Have Available at Home

These are the things to have available at home that will help to generate ideas and creativity for young writers.

Provide a place to write and store writing materials.

• Pencils, pens
• Crayons, markers, paints, colored pencils
• Paper, notebooks, construction paper
• magazines
• Scissors, staplers, rulers, paperclips

 

Activities

Kids like to imitate adults in many ways. One of them is writing. These are things you can suggest, encourage, and play with your children at home.

• Create Shopping lists
• Send a postcard
• Produce a play
• Write a mystery
• Write songs
• Create a treasure map
• Write poems
• Share family stories
• Create menus
• Create a miniature book for dolls
• Create calendars or a weekly schedule
• Create cartoon characters and comic strips
• Create a favorite television or radio broadcast
• Write letters to family members inside or outside the house
• Create riddles and crossword puzzles; work on crossword puzzles
• Journal events or create a traveling journal on vacation

 

 

Things to Do Together Writing as a Family Activity

• Children need to do real writing. It's more important for the child to write a letter to a relative than it is to write a one-line note on a greeting card. Encourage children to write to relatives and friends. Perhaps corresponding with a pen pal would be enjoyable for your child.

• Suggest note-taking. Encourage children to take notes on trips or outings and to describe what they saw. This could include a description of nature walks, a boat ride, a car trip, or other events that lend themselves to note-taking.

• Brainstorm. Talk as much as possible about impressions and encourage children to describe people and events. If the description is especially accurate and colorful, say so.

• Encourage keeping a journal. This is excellent writing practice as well as a good outlet for venting feelings. Encourage children to write about things that happen at home and school, about people, likes or dislikes and why, things to remember, or things they want to do. Encourage children to write about personal feelings--pleasures as well as disappointments. If the child wants to share the journal with you, read the entries and discuss them--especially the ideas and perceptions.

• Write together. Have children help you with letters, even such routine ones as ordering items from an advertisement or writing to a business firm. This helps children see firsthand that writing is important to adults and truly useful.

• Use games. There are numerous games and puzzles that help children increase vocabulary.  Building a vocabulary builds confidence. Try crossword puzzles, word games, anagrams, and cryptograms designed especially for children. 

• Suggest making lists. Most children like to make lists just as they like to count. Making lists is good practice and helps children to become more organized. Boys and girls might make lists of their records, tapes, baseball cards, dolls, furniture in a room, etc. It's also good practice to make lists of things to do, schoolwork, dates for tests, social events, and other reminders.

• Encourage copying. If a child likes a particular song, suggest learning the words by writing them down--replaying the song on your stereo/tape player or jotting down the words whenever the song is played on a radio program. Also, encourage copying favorite poems or quotations from books and plays.

• Allow time. Help your children spend time thinking about a writing project or exercise. Good writers do a great deal of thinking.

• Respond. Do respond to children’s expressions, verbally or in writing. Make it clear that you are interested in the true function of writing which is to convey ideas. This means focusing on "what" the child has written, not "how" it was written. Ignore minor errors, particularly at the stage when children are just getting ideas together.

• Praise. Take a positive approach and say something good about your child's writing. Is it descriptive? Thoughtful? Interesting? Does it say something?

Information was taken from research by the National Center for the Study of Writing and Literacy  and the Helping Your Child series of books for parents.

 

Incorporating Technology

Getting children involved with technology is a great way to motivate them to think about what they want to write.

• Digital Camera
• Computers
• Word Processing
• E-mail
• Software: PowerPoint, Microsoft Publisher, Kidpix

Working With Teachers and Schools

Research has shown that children at all grade levels do better in school, feel more confident about themselves as learners, and have higher expectations for themselves when their parents are supportive of and involved with their education (Ballen & Moles, 1994). Here are some ways that you can stay involved in your child's school life and support his learning:

• Become familiar with your child's school.
• Find out about the school's language arts curriculum.
• Meet with your child's teacher.
• Visit your child's classroom.
• Find out if the school has a website.
• Get actively involved.

 

 

Resources

http://teacher.scholastic.com/writewit/index.htm
This website offers online activities, lesson plans, and features student writing. Its best feature is the online workshop with authors of various genres. They offer writing tips, challenges, and revision guidelines. And, you can publish your stories and poems online.

http://www.kidpub.com/kidpub/
This website has more than46,000 stories written by kids from all over the planet! The largest collection of stories from children. Great for kids to read what other kids are writing about.

http://www.kidskonnect.com/
This website resembles an online encyclopedia for children. It also has a children’s dictionary. Click on any subject listed in the alphabetized section, and it gives you useful information.

http://www.kidsbookshelf.com/
This website offers parents, teachers, and children book reviews and a list of great books to check out. You can submit short stories and poems, and it allows you to write to authors of your favorite books. It also offers fun stuff like a game room to play some popular games and a print and color page.

 

Kids' Poems: Teaching Kindergartners to Love Writing Poetry by Regie Routman (Grade K) Free-verse poems written by kindergartners that will inspire your kindergartner to think "I can write poems like this too!"  Using kids' poems as models to guide children to write poems about things they know and care about: eating popcorn, playing in June, wishing for a pet dog, and more. Children are invited to study the model poem, with demonstrations of the poetry-writing process.

 

12 Genre Mini-Books by Betsy Franco (Grades 2–4) Mini-Books that invite children to read and explore the 12 forms of writing, including biography, non-fiction, tall tales, fantasy, mystery, poetry, plays, and more.

 

Teaching Tall Tales by Tracey West (Grades 3–5) Stories, writing mini-lessons, geography, and map activities. Pecos Bill, Slue Foot Sue, and John Henry are just some of the tall tale characters that help teach history, geography, and literature. Filled with mini-lesson plans and other activities across the curriculum.

 

Getting the Most Out of Teaching with Newspapers by Rebecca Olien (Grades 3–5)    A resource to get kids reading and learning from the newspaper! Lessons and activities help introduce the parts of the paper, create a class newspaper, and use the paper to teach reading, writing, math, and more.

 

 

References

Ballen, J., & Moles, O. (1994). Strong families, strong schools. Washington, D.C.: U. S. Department of Education.

Henderson, A. T., & Berla, N. (Eds.) (1994). A new generation of evidence: The family is critical to student achievement. Washington, DC: Center for Law and Education.

Temple, C., Ogle, D., Crawford, A., & Freppon, P. (2005). All children read: Teaching for literacy in today’s diverse classroom. NY: Allyn & Bacon.

Tompkins, G. (2204). Teaching writing:  Balancing process and product. NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall

http://www.proteacher.com/070037.shtml  Graphic Organizer chart

National Center for the Study of Writing and Literacy and the Helping Your Child series of books for parents. National Library of Education, 555 New Jersey Avenue, NW, Washington, DC 20208, telephone 1-800-424-1616.  http://www.ed.gov/pubs/parents/Writing/index.html