In working with students on writing, I can tell you that all have brilliant ideas to share. Some are hesitant because somehow they have developed the impression that they cannot write. Others are just nervous about getting started. These are often perfectionists who want the opening sentence to be perfect and so they think and sigh, or perhaps they groan as they search for an ideal launch. Another group shudders. They have been criticized in the past, or they view "help" from outsiders as an invasion of their personal effort, and so they vacillate between "I can..." and I can never..." and so frequently, they don't.
I have also witnessed two additional groups. The first are confident. You name the topic and they have something to say. Most often they come from families who chat about a variety subjects, they read books and articles, and they have had the opportunity to travel. This travel may be nearby, as picnics on the weekend and camping overnighters during the summer or perhaps they have journeyed across the state, country, or around the world. Because they engage in conversation, their writing flows more easily - they know and love words. The final group simply loves writing and the use of words. If you ask for one sentence, they pen a paragraph. A request for a paragraph transforms into a page (justified by never indenting so "paragraph" loosely matches the definition), and a page converts to a tome. Because they write with profusion, rarely pausing for a reread and editing, understanding the total work is out of the question The focus tends to wander as the reader wonders what on earth is happening and how ideas link in any way.
A teacher shared some classroom work with me from student free write journals and from formal assignments. She noted that free writes filled pages. One thought led to another and as confidence built, so did the strength of the paper. As young writers, they displayed no fear. Little ones have an innate sense of brewing success. Sometimes teachers, with the best of intentions, snuff this out by trying to improve the writing too overtly or by ignoring errors and misconceptions by attaching a grade with no specific feedback.
In examining the formal papers, however, the same writers moved away from proficiency toward stilted "Is this what my teacher wants?" The wildly self-assured writers became cautious and unsure, moving from "I am making myself happy" to "Am I making my teacher happy?" How does one "cure" this tentativeness while also teaching correct grammar and spelling and assisting with sentence structure and word choice?
First students (your children) need to write every day in every subject. They need to utilize many formats, from poems to essays, lab response to mathematical explanations. They need to play with sentence structure. For example, the sentence, I am nice. Using "am" creates passive voice plus the word choice is very non-descriptive. What exactly is nice? First brainstorm other choices for nice: sympathetic, kind, gentle, thoughtful, understanding. Now move that adjective to the beginning and adjust it to become the subject or part of the subject. My sympathetic attitude drives me to think of others. Thoughtfulness radiates from my heart. The same idea is present but the sentence is active. Careful word selection empowers the ideas.
Have children scan their papers for key verbs that establish passive voice: is, am, are, was, were, seems, looks, and often the use of appears. Circle these potential passive creators and then choose one sentence to change to active. I say just one because often this task is difficult and overwhelming. We want writing, not blank stares and empty pages. From a student paper, "The mountain bluebird is Nevada's state bird" changes to "Nevada's state bird, the mountain bluebird, soars through the skies and perches in the state tree, the pinion pine." In the second sentence is transforms to soars and perches, plus two short, repetitive sentences combine to create a more complex one.
How about, "The house is brown." First select shades of brown: dark, grizzly bear, reddish, copper-toned. Now pick a verb that explains how the brown arrived on the house: splashed, rippled, covered, or splattered. The new sentence, "Grizzly bear brown paint splashed across the front of the house with the golden tones shining in the sunlight. " Once students start playing with sentences and words, the results will amaze you.[[In-content Ad]]
