14+Ways+to+Improve+Your+Child's+Writing+Skills

url}?f=print|print this page 14 Ways to Improve Student Writing


 * 1) Encourage your child to carry their writer's notebook with them everywhere. Help your child to pick out a special pen. Then encourage him/ her to live a wide awake life---experiencing the significance in the world he/ she lives in--and then to write down those small moments that are significant, detailed observations of what they see, hear, taste, smell, and feel around them.
 * 2) Keep your own writer's notebook. Pick out something really special that will make you feel like a writer. Get your own special pen and model writing for your child. Share your writing with your son/ daughter--especially those small moment stories you've written about him/ her and observations of him/ her.
 * 3) Encourage your child to think through his/ her story either creating a timeline of events from beginning to end or drawing quick sketches of their story from beginning to end.
 * 4) Story tell your stories to your child and have your child story tell his/ her stories to you.
 * 5) Have your child use a graphic organizer before writing. This will help them to organize their ideas and get the details flowing.
 * 6) Tell them not to worry about spelling--just to get their thoughts on paper. You can always go back and edit for spelling later.
 * 7) If handwriting is a struggle, try allowing them to type on the computer.
 * 8) Keep a running list of writing ideas that they are interested in, so that they can go back to it at a later time when they say "they have nothing to write about."
 * 9) Try not to influence their ideas, directing them towards something you "know" will work --tempting as it may be. "Creativity and passion flow best when kids feel ownership over their writing."
 * 10) If your child is suffering from writer's block, let them use one of the strategies they've learned: think of a special person, place, or thing and list small moments you've had with that person. Choose one that matters to you and tell the story!
 * 11) Try to also do your child's writing assignment each week (currently writing one small moment story) in your own notebook. Then, when both you and your child are finished, look over each other's work.
 * 12) Use email. It's a great way to stay in touch with friends and family--that have moved away or that we have moved away from!
 * 13) Read a book with your child. Then write a letter to the author about your favorite parts that you may try in your own writing. This will help your child to realize that writer's study other writers in order to improve their own writing.
 * 14) Timed Writing: Each night have your child speed write as much as they can (yes, it has to make sense) and see how much they can write in 5 minutes. You can tell them it can be something private, if that motivates them, or it can be about their day, or what they want to do that night - anything!!! Have them count up their words, and keep track of how many words they're writing at a time. You'll see progress immediately, and kids love to beat their scores!