Teaching Writing without (BUYING) a Writing Curriculum

We must walk before we can run, and we must learn the building blocks to writing in the same way.

Here are the steps:

Sentences
Paragraphs
Essays

The ability to write sophisticated and mechanically accurate sentences is foundational. So start there.

Then move to the five sentence paragraph.

And finally expand that same structure into a five paragraph essay.

Any of the three levels can be used with any writing topic. This is perfect for homeschooling a variety of grades. For example, your children are all studying the American Revolutionary War. The second grader writes a sophisticated sentence about the causes of the war. The fourth grader writes a paragraph about the same topic, and the seventh grader writes an entire essay.

If you want some guidelines for what type of writing should be expected at the different grade levels, visit these GRADE LEVEL EXPECTATIONS (GLEs):
1. Washington State's Writing GLEs especially study the chart on pp. 10-11
2. Vermont Writing Grade Level Expectations which are found on pp. 99-133 of the PDF document
3. Lancaster, Pennsylvania Writing Scope and Sequence

Once the three levels of sentence, paragraph, and essay are mastered, you can go on to experiment and move beyond the formulaic writing. But don't be fooled. The formulaic writing will serve you well in college classes and on entrance exams. So don't despise it.

Writing is far more complex than simply putting pencil to paper (or in today's day, typing at a keyboard). The skills involved in writing include

thinking
organizing
word choice
grammar
mechanics
proofreading
editing
formatting

And for most writers, doing all of those tasks at one time is impossible. Thus we use the writing process. We first think and plan what we will write. Then we organize those thoughts into some type of logical structure. That step is called prewriting.

Then we begin to dig in with the actual writing. This is the drafting stage. And it gets messy. Ideas are flowing, but sometimes spelling, punctuation, and grammar get lost in the shuffle. That doesn't matter. Because in the drafting stage, our main concern is capturing on paper all the precious ideas that the brain is churning out.

The next step is painfully long -- the editing stage. This is when you have to read and reread your draft, looking for ways in improve coherence and organization. You consider word choice and nit pick for those pesky spelling errors.

Once you've polished and rewritten, you're in the publishing stage when you share your work with someone or with the entire world.

Free Printable Writing Process Posters
ETTC.net
Cerra.org (a chart with the steps)
Read-Write-Think
Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory

Understanding the writing process is critical to writing success. Why? Because if you don't understand the steps, you may get bogged down with an irrelevant task. For example, you are grappling with grammar issues in the prewriting stage when you should not be considering that at all. There is a time for everything that relates to good writing. But each thing must be taken in turn. Otherwise you short circuit the brain's creativity.

So help your children to focus on just one part of the writing process at a time. And adapt your expectations to match the step that your child is working on. Writing is a messy task, and if you are expecting beauty too soon, you may end up discouraging your child.

During the revising stage, your child will benefit from extended one on one conferencing time with you. This is where the six traits of effective writing come into play. Look at one aspect at a time, and point out problem areas. Also be sure to point out places where that aspect is right on target! Specific praise is important not only as a confidence builder but also for reinforcing existing writing skills! So don't just focus on the negatives.

POSTERS and HANDOUTS
Full color Six Traits handouts -- especially good for the visual learner
Simple, black and white Six Traits posters in both PDF and DOC formats.
Whimsical Six Traits posters -- a big set of 28, detailed, black and white pages.

RUBRICS
Six Traits in a scoring rubric format -- what's excellent and mediocre for each trait
Student Friendly Six Traits Writing Rubric for self assessment

Do you feel overwhelmed by correcting your children's writing assignments? Don't! Instead you should be helping your child revise and edit his own work. Be sure to read this article,"Tired of Being a Red Ink Slave to Corrections?" Although it's written for the context of a classroom teacher with dozens of students, the principles are the same for a homeschooling parent.

The most important piece of advice I can give you is to select writing assignments from your currently studied academic areas. So if your child is studying chemistry this year for science, give her chemistry topics for writing assignments. If you are doing a unit study on Monet, have her write an essay about his art or his life. Write about poetry or novels that you are reading.

This is sometimes called writing across the curriculum. A great (and free) manual for writing across the curriculum is offered by Teaching That Makes Sense. There are some good tips for teaching writing as well as practical ways to develop writing prompts that connect to academic subject.

Choosing topics that are relevant to a child or teen are okay occasionally. Visit this page for examples of what I'm talking about. These topics sound like something a child would write in her diary or include in an email to a grandfather. Use these sparingly.

If you're preparing your child for college writing tasks, realize that the vast majority of writing assignments will be about an academic subject -- literature, science, art, or history, for example. If you constantly give your child creative writing assignments or "what do you think about this?" type of topics, you are putting your child at a disadvantage. Make him write about academic topics.

Please read Linda Gorton Aragoni's fabulous article "Is Your Teen Ready for College Writing?"

So how do you come up with writing prompts for your academic areas? If nothing comes to you immediately, try adding these beginnings to a topic your child is studying.

Compare ____ and _____.
Contrast ____ and _____.
Explain _____.
Tell why _____.
Describe the steps of _____.
Thoroughly define _____.
What are the causes of ____?
What are the results of _____?
Give examples of _____?
Summarize _____.
Convince someone _____.
Tell the characteristics of _____.
Demonstrate that _____ is _____.

For more inspiration, read these sample writing prompts organized by academic areas.