Pick out a poem and select a line from it. Write it at the top of your page and freewrite about it! Then post your results here. I’d love to see what you come up with.
If you don’t have time to find a line, here’s one: He clasps the crag with crooked hands… (The Eagle, by Tennyson)
Kidswrite Intermediate, Hand-Holders and Advanced Composition all start Monday. They all have space. You may not see them again until the next school year. Don’t miss your chance to get in on these important classes.
Quick notes: Kidswrite Intermediate is one of the most unique writing courses on the market! We use exploratory writing tools (specially created by me, Julie Bogart) to draw out the rhetorical thinking and linguistic creativity necessary for powerful academic essay writing and crafting in high school and college. I’m telling you – learning to write a dusty dry essay just doesn’t cut it. We’ve got to help our teens translate that spark and writing aliveness into a forceful, compelling academic writing style. Who teaches that? We do! Sign up today. Your teens will love it. It’s the most energizing, surprising class they’ll take this year. Nothing like what they’ve done before.
Hand-Holders is a brand new tool created on request from countless Brave Writer Moms. After working through KWB or The Writer’s Jungle, many moms want the comfort, accountability and support of a BW instructor to help them continue to guide their children into productive writing projects. Christine Gable, instructor, is especially equipped to help you. She’ll give you all the tools and support you need to finish out the school year strong!
And last, but most certainly not least, is Advanced Composition which I teach! I don’t get to do the online classes as much as I used to so don’t miss this chance to put your teens with me. I use all my academic experience to help your kids be up to the minute in their preparation for what colleges expect in their essay assignments. If you wonder what other kinds of essays your kids will be called on to write, these are the ones: definition and textual analysis are commonly assigned in the undergraduate programs. Don’t miss this last minute chance to get your teens ready for fall (if they’re seniors) or for the coming year of writing (if they’re juniors). I’ll happily take some precocious sophomores, too.
Register here ASAP.
Writing wears kids out, have you noticed?
Children may get that burst of linguistic energy working for them (when the inspiration strikes, they’re hard to stop!), but when they’re done, they’re done. Sometimes after a successful writing project, all anyone wants to do is lie about doing nothing.
While taking some time off, or while your kids aren’t quite proficient enough to write lengthy passages of prose, you might try writing lists. Lists can be an incredibly therapeutic way to interact with language. For one thing, there is no shortage of topics for lists.
As you can see, there is no limit to what can be listed!
Lists allow your kids to continue to work on handwriting, vocabulary development, categorizing, ordering, and information gathering. They also offer a place to house disparate thoughts or ideas or fantasies. It’s nice to keep a list of all the things you’d buy if you had $100.00. Cheaper than spending the dough-re-mi!
Lists can be kept in notebooks, on white boards, on sheets of paper. My daughter kept a list on her bedroom wall (all the friends she had and something funny about them).
Lists often mushroom into sub categories too: birds in my backyard, birds I saw on vacation in Florida, birds I saw at the zoo, birds that live at the beach.
So get out a notepad and start a list.
P.S. I love the little moleskin notebooks that fit inside a purse for listing, jotting down words, keeping my thoughts together so that anywhere I am, I can write them down. Your kids might like that too – a portable list!
Did you know that? Old hat for Brave Writer fans, right?
One of the funny things about being in the “hot seat” for writing and language arts is that I’ve become a confessor of sorts. Mothers like to corner me at conferences or in the hallways of our co-op to ask me their questions and to tell me their guilty tales of failed writing attempts. One question I get frequently is: “How do I teach poetry? Do I have to? I’ve never liked it and don’t understand it. Truth is: we never read it.”
If that’s you, if you’re wondering how to give a lesson in poetry to your kids when you never spent much time with it yourself, I’ve got some ideas for you! April is obviously just the right month to tackle it.
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To be a good academic writer, it helps to be an effective reader. Close reading of texts is the key. I found a great set of tips here:
