Archive for the ‘Young Writers’ Category

How does she do it?


Little House
Originally uploaded by juliecinci

Every now and then, a writer I’ve read countless times tricks me into rereading her work. As I selected passages for the September issue of the Arrow from Little House on the Prairie (a book I’ve read so many times, I can practically narrate it chapter by chapter from memory), I meant to simply thumb through my 1960s hardback volume to my favorite quotations and then jot them down…

Instead, my teaspoon poised itself in front of my mouth as my French onion soup went cold while I read the first four chapters without a pause or a breath… I rushed to the part where we find out whether or not Laura’s dog Jack survives being washed downstream in a rising creek after his long journey from Wisconsin to Kansas, running the whole way on foot under the covered wagon.

I know how it turns out. I know it so well, I can almost quote the poignant description. But somehow, any time I start reading the opening lines of this book, I can’t stop until I get to that most exquisite writing which releases me from the prison of narrative tension.


Little House 2
Originally uploaded by juliecinci

Laura Ingalls Wilder is one writer who gets more done with simple language than just about any other children’s writer. She so thoroughly inhabits the mind life of a little girl, you forget that she’s in her sixties at the time of writing.

I first heard the Little House series read to me by my mother. She sat in my bed, back against the headboard, reading the books chapter by chapter in her soothing voice. So special did our readings become that for years afterwards, my mother continued to purchase and give to me Laura paraphernalia and any other books related to her life as they were published. I have the full set of hard back books as well as many other Laura related publications all housed in my bookcase.

Eight years ago, I finally had the joy of visiting South Dakota where Laura spent her long winter. Our kids were with me and I had just finished reading the series aloud to them… for the second time. We marveled at the tiny house whose drawing room Laura considered large and spacious. We admired the trees planted for each of the girls. All those years later, they towered over us. What an astonishing experience to see that all we had read found its roots in a real place, among real people. In an odd way, I felt as though we were visiting family. That is the power of Laura’s wonderful writing.

Laura’s books are a gift to every generation. More than a portrait of a moment in history, of pioneering life, Laura Ingalls Wilder offers us timeless writing. If you haven’t read her books, now’s a great time to start.

Posted in General, Living Literature, Young Writers | 3 Comments »

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.

Posted in Brave Writer Philosophy, BW products, General, Young Writers | 3 Comments »

How to Give Positive Writing Feedback

My writing life in brief

This post was written in 2007 but still has timely information!

Last week, I had a near-chocolate experience. I clicked the “send” key and my newly completed synthesis paper for my Master’s in theology zipped away in a cloud of cyber dust. Destination? Professor/advisor. His task? To find the gaffes, flaws in logic, unsubstantiated claims, mistakes in organization, syntactical errors, and poorly developed ideas. I know what you’re thinking, Uh, that’s how Julie gets her kicks? Remind me not to invite her to a party…

The thing is, I spend so much time giving other people feedback about their writing, it’s a real treat for me to receive critique from someone qualified and committed to improving my writing. I get all “pins and needles-ish” about it.

So Thursday night, Jon brought home the white packet containing my 32 pages with professorial commentary. I ripped open the envelope holding the draft with relish (I ripped the envelope with relish, ergo, enjoyment; I did not rip the envelope holding the draft, garnished with the condiment relish, ahem… that’s the kind of editing work I do well… I digress).

My professor had myriad corrections to offer me. As I read each one, I thought about why I was enjoying his feedback versus times when I’ve felt utterly deflated by editorial critique. (And there have been those times in my writing career.) A couple of thoughts percolated to the surface and I thought they were worth sharing with you.

  1. My professor and I have the same goals. The professor and I have a bargain. I do the research, writing and revising. He offers the supportive, yet critical feedback that will help me get my paper into shape so that I will graduate. This paper in particular is not about a grade. It’s about earning the final seal of approval for my Master’s degree. I know that he knows what I need to do to earn the degree. As a result, I view his feedback as support for the achievement of my goal, not as criticism of my efforts.
  2. His feedback was specifically about upgrading the quality of the writing, not invalidating my insights, ideas or conclusions. He and I have dialogued all along the way as I’ve worked on this paper and topic. He’s been available through appointment and email. In those conversations, he’s helped to guide the development of my ideas and he’s affirmed the insights I’ve shared. As a result, when I submitted my paper, I already knew that he and I had a similar vision for the paper.
  3. He smiles a lot. Let me tell you how much that helps in reading his feedback. I can picture his smiling face.
  4. He gave me positive feedback first – and not in a canned way. He expressed concrete and specific reasons why he liked my paper which let me know which parts resonated with him, showed him something new, offered a well-articulated position. Those positive comments helped me view his critical ones as an effort to elevate the whole to the level of the parts he validated.
  5. He considers the topic I’m writing about important. That means he gives feedback in the context of believing in the meaning of my writing, not just affirming the quality of how it is written. This makes me feel as if we are having a conversation about ideas rather than my writing something for his approval or disapproval. I care about these ideas and he cares to interact with me about them.

As I thought about Brave Writer and what we hope to do for our kids, I thought about Dr. Gollar’s useful and wise feedback.

Can we adopt some of his tactics?

  1. Can we have the same goals as our kids when they write? If they want to write a thank you note, can the goal be to help our kids write it so that the grandparent feels thanked? Can we foster an atmosphere where the writing a child does (a story, a report, a written narration) is valued for the purpose of the writing rather than as a checkbox on our list of homeschool tasks?
  2. Can we talk to our kids about the topics for writing? Even outside of the “writing times”? Can we let them know that the things they care about matter to us and we think their perspective on the topic is uniquely interesting to us?
  3. Can we remember to give specific positive feedback first? Find that powerful verb, that insightful description, that clever turn of phrase and notice it.
  4. Can we believe in the importance of the ideas themselves? Will we care about the meaning more than the writing, initially?

Yes, we can.

And let’s smile a lot.

Let’s let our kids know that we enjoy their company, believe in their ideas, care about their success.

I’ve really loved being in school these last four years. I’ve gained renewed respect for the act of writing and the courage it takes to submit your work to those who would critique and grade it. Sensitivity and genuine caring go a long way in helping a student writer to write and receive your ideas as supportive rather than critical.

Partnership Writing

Posted in Brave Writer Philosophy, General, Tips for Teen Writers, Young Writers | 2 Comments »

Oh no! It’s March and I haven’t taught writing!

I get these kinds of emails starting about now and they run until the end of the school year. Totally understandable. When a subject doesn’t fit your lifestyle or if it presents challenges to either you or your children, it’s much easier to let it slide in favor of the other subjects you tackle confidently and naturally.

Writing tends to be one of the most often dropped subjects. Even if your kids don’t like math, it’s easy to put the math book in front of them every day. But with writing, it doesn’t lend itself to that kind of hands-off routine. Instead you wonder when you will have a block of time without any distractions when you can finally sit down and work on writing.

Well, consider this blog entry the “ding” on your email calendar. It’s time to make time to write.

Don’t fret. This is Brave Writer, remember? I have a few tips to help make it easy on you.

First, block out time for writing (even drop something else you usually do to fit it in). In fact, drop the something you’ve done well all year. Now’s the time to turn the tables and focus on what you haven’t had time to do. There are eight weeks until June. If you can commit to doing the following practices for eight weeks (eight weeks isn’t that long!), you’ll have accomplished the goals you had and will finish with a flourish.

  • Start with copywork. Commit to one entry of copywork per week until June. You’ll have eight weeks of copywork, which means eight carefully copied texts. Much better than zero!
  • On a different day, do dictation. Pick short passages (back issues of the Arrow work great or grab the nearest novel and just pick the opening lines of four chapters… easy peasy).
  • Freewrite on Fridays. (I have many freewriting prompts on this blog.)
  • Pick one freewrite to revise. Take it through the writing process. What that means is, freewrite for, say, three or four weeks and pick one to revise. Block out time to go through the narrowing and expanding steps, the revision and the editing. It will take you a couple of weeks to do the steps so plan to have the revision process occur in May. Skip freewriting during the two revision weeks.

That’s it.

By the end of the year, you’ll have:

  • 8 passages of copywork
  • 8 dictation passages
  • 6 freewrites
  • 1 polished piece of writing that has gone through the writing process.

This schedule is do-able. So go for it! You’re investing in your summer vacation by putting in a bit more energy right at the end of the school year. You’ll go into summer guilt-free. That’s a worthwhile goal, isn’t it? This little writing program is the last sprint to the finish line.

For those who are unclear about the steps for revising/editing, The Writer’s Jungle details the process and supports you in achieving these goals. You may also find that it is the boost you need at the end of the year when new ideas and enthusiasm for homeschooling are waning.

Posted in Brave Writer Philosophy, Email, General, Young Writers | Comments Off on Oh no! It’s March and I haven’t taught writing!

Spelling in Style

Funschooling


Spelling is a perennial concern to most homeschooling moms. Do we need to use spelling lists? Which spelling book would help? Why can’t my 7th grader spell when he writes but gets all the spelling words correct on his tests?

Spelling is like learning to speak a foreign language fluently. It takes years before proficiency shows up and about ten years before real fluency kicks in. Reading and writing are the best ways to grow as a speller. Learning to take responsibility for spelling words correctly when writing is the key to spelling success down the road. That means that after writing, the writer looks for spelling errors, runs spellcheck in Word, double checks any words she isn’t sure of, and asks for a second pair of eyes to help her spot typos and misspellings.

Copywork and dictation support growth in spelling, and especially attentiveness to spelling in the context of writing.

Beyond that, however, some kids really enjoy a spelling challenge. They like the tests, or spelling verbally as if in a bee; they like showing off how much they know. And for other kids, sometimes they are proficient spellers, but they have a particular area of vocabulary that is challenging and they want to be sure they know how to spell those words correctly before having to write using them.

I have a couple of ideas for you. First, if your kids enjoy spelling tests or bees, by all means enjoy spelling together. There are some terrific spelling lists online or you can make your own from the reading your kids are doing.

If they are struggling with a category of words (names of birds and birding equipment, ancient Greek mythological character names, engineering terms, WWII tanks, cities and states, furniture in your house, breeds of dogs, apparatus for gymnastics, football terminology), you can tailor make a spelling list for that category. Use that list to play some spelling games, and ultimately, to test those words before writing in that category.

For instance, my daughter Caitrin (who is featured in the photo above) is hoping to be a fashion designer some day. She loves to design, sew and create. She pours over Vogue magazine for inspiration. We created a spelling list that included famous designer names (these are HARD to learn otherwise) and the typical vocabulary found in the fashion world that she will want to know how to write easily, without thinking. She chose words like: couture and boutique, pants and v-neck.

Once she and I pored over a magazine to make the list (featured above as well), we wrote out the words on slips of paper and played a spelling game. She would draw a word for me to spell (I had a tough time with those designer names) and then I would draw a word for her to spell. We kept the slips of the words we got right and returned the ones we got wrong to the table.

The selection of the words introduced the vocabulary to her through the act of selective reading. Caitrin had to discover what words she felt unsure of and choose them for the list. I offered suggestions as well. The act of writing out all the words onto the slips of paper served as copywork and spelling practice. The reading of the words to me for me to spell reinforced the spellings Caitrin had already written. The reciting of the spellings (based on words I chose for her) forced her to remember what she had already seen and written. Freewriting about fashion after this whole process was a breeze! She was also very able to spot and correct her mistakes once her freewriting was finished.

Hope that gives some new energy for those who wonder what to do about spelling!

Posted in General, Spelling, Words!, Young Writers | 1 Comment »