From freewrite to finished writing

When I offer observations about other writing programs, I feel a little squishy. I don’t like to target competing curricula and then pass judgment. It makes me feel like Simon Cowell.

Yet every now and then, it must be done. I forget that moms reading this blog may not know about Brave Writer, don’t realize to expect something very different than scopes and sequences. My hope is that by unfolding how we do things around here, you’ll catch a vision of what writing can be when we give our children the gift of written self-expression. Let’s take a look at some Brave Writer writing, shall we? Enough “telling” – let’s do a little “showing.” 🙂

To start, let’s look at a ten year old girl’s writing: from freewrite to finished piece. I leave in all errors deliberately so you get a realistic picture of what a ten year old is capable of producing. What I want you to notice in this journey through freewriting to finished piece is the strength of the young writer’s voice. It grows in confidence and creativity as she revises. This is no “I love spaghetti” paragraph. Through paying attention to what she loves and knows, she discovers some powerful writing elements and these translate beautifully into a finished piece of work that very much reflects the age and stage of development of this ten-year-old girl. To read more, click here.

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3 Responses to “From freewrite to finished writing”

  1. JoVE says:
    May 30, 2007 at 3:10 pm

    Thanks for sharing this. I am a different kind of mom in that I avoid scope and sequence materials like the plague. But I find it hard to judge what kind of writing might be expected of my own almost-10 year old. This has helped enormously.

  2. Anne says:
    June 2, 2007 at 1:19 am

    Thanks Julie. from the mother of a 10 year old girl. This blog gave me a concrete examples of suggestions that respectfully encourage elaboration.

    What do you mean by the phrase “scope and sequence”? This is new to me.

    Anne

  3. Rachel says:
    June 5, 2007 at 7:59 am

    Thanks for sharing this gem. We’re working through the revision process with stories right now that the boys decided to do. I’m a little overwhelmed with how to do this. Your examples have inspired me to go back and get going again. On a plus note…the boys (12&14) are willingly writing full stories for their process piece this month!! The volume of writing has very suddenly increased in our home after 6 months of BR Lifestyle as compared to what we did the last years!! Thanks Julie!!
    Rachel in NH