Teaching Children to Write Well

            The schools are turning out too many graduates who can barely write a coherent English sentence.  A lot of these young people somehow get into college and then struggle to write papers that would have been simple for American high schoolers as recently as the 1940’s and 50’s.  Homeschoolers are well aware of this and for many, this is one of the reasons they are teaching their own children.  Still, teaching young people to write well can be intimidating and overwhelming, especially as students enter the higher grades.  There are three important components to preparing children for writing assignments in high school, college, and beyond:  Making sure that they are good readers and read a lot; giving them numerous writing projects; and finally, teaching them to master the basic five-paragraph essay.

            Once your child is a competent reader, you should make sure that he/she is spending time every day reading high-quality books. It is good to continue reading bedtime stories aloud, but now the child should also be spending some quiet time reading alone, at least a half hour per day, preferably more.  Some of our favorite books for read-aloud and newly-independent readers are:  Frog and Toad by Arnold Lobel; Henry and Mudge by Cynthia Rylant; Mr. Putter, also by Cynthia Rylant; and The Boxcar Children by Gertrude Chandler Warner.   An excellent resource for lists of classic literature for all ages and levels can be found at www.classical-homeschooling.org.

            In addition to reading, the more a child writes, the more likely it is that he/she will become a confident and proficient writer.  Starting in second grade, children can start writing by doing simple copy work. It is exactly what it sounds like:  The child is given one or more sentences to read and then copy, as accurately as possible. We like to use Learning Language Arts Through Literature, which includes copying as a part of the weekly lessons, but you could also give your child a sentence or two from an easy reader.  Even though they will have the sentence right there to look at, chances are they will make a mistake or two copying it, and that is how they can begin to learn to be careful observers.  One note:  try to select complete sentences when choosing what to have your child copy.  A lot of authors take creative license and use sentence fragments, but since you will be teaching your child to avoid using these in their own writing, it is best not to use them as examples.

            After your child has done a lot of copy work and needs more of a challenge, it is time to start dictation.  Once again, Learning Language Arts Through Literature includes dictation as a part of weekly lessons for children who have become proficient at copying. Dictation is simply the teacher reading a passage to the student while the student writes down what is read.  This can be very challenging, especially trying to get all the punctuation correct.  Once the writing is done, the teacher should take a look at the student’s work before letting the student correct their work against the sample in the book.  Don’t get discouraged if your child makes a lot of mistakes.  The more they practice, the better they will get.  Learning to check their own work trains them to become good editors, which is a skill that becomes more and more important as children get into the higher grades.

            Editing, spelling, and grammar are all skills that need to be mastered once the basics have been learned.  For editing work, a great program that is easy to use and inexpensive is Editor-in-Chief by Critical Thinking Press.  You can start with book A anytime from fourth through sixth grade.  Book A is also challenging enough for a seventh grader who hasn’t had this type of work previously.  Spelling Workout, published by Modern Curriculum Press, is an excellent, easy, and inexpensive way to keep kids sharp with spelling skills.  If a child needs additional help, have them write down the words they keep misspelling in a special “spelling notebook,” writing each word at least ten times.  Include these troublesome words in regular spelling tests.  For grammar, we like Easy Grammar and Daily Grams.