Wednesday, May 5, 2010

kids and writing

I don't know what the current education theories are on how to teach kids to write well.  My personal opinion (based only on my own experience) is that writing is best taught one-on-one, working together on a project.  I remember sitting with my mum for hours (normally a couple of days before a school assignment was due) going through the best way to structure an essay, making sure that the flow within paragraphs was logical, that the sentence lengths were varied and interesting and checking that the conclusion was strong (you know a conclusion is strong if you can hear 'land of hope and glory' playing in the background as you read it out loud!)  Mum had a big hand in a few of my early high school assignments.  I don't think this was a problem because by year 10 they were entirely my own work and much better than they would have been otherwise.

For homework, Nathan (age 10) had to write a story based on this ad.  A pretty hard task.  Most grown-ups I know would struggle to do a decent job of it.  We worked on it together and came up with this.  I'd say it was 60% my work.  It's not assessable, just a NAPLAN practice activity (like everything else year 3, 5, 7, and 9 kids are doing at school right now!) but I'll probably let the teacher know I had a hand in it.  Do you think I should have helped him so much, or just let him go by himself?  

8 comments:

  1. Great punchline!

    I remember my mum tracing illustrations for my assignments at that age (and she was terrible at it, I might add!) - I think the transition happened for me around the start of high school. And now, of course, I am a brilliant wrtier and commicator. ;-)

    I think it's ok. I imagine it helps with balancing out how much time you spend with each of the kids on this stuff, and that's a good thing. But I guess I'd be starting to wind back over the next couple of years. Probably if you can fake a degree of incompetence, the onset of adolescence will take care of the rest!

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  2. I think it's a great idea to help & it would be wonderful if more parents had that attitude. I also agree that 1:1 time is essential, particularly in literacy (even more so in creative writing than scientific or analytical works) and in reality, there's very little chance to have this time in the classroom. I use to 'conference' with my kids which would work out to about 5-7mins 1:1 time per child.

    Alternatively I've also seen one case of a parent who did far too much for their child so that by grade six the child didn't even know the alphabet. A tad concerning really...

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  3. I say, well done Simone!!

    Speaking as a teacher, what you have done will hvae mildly inconvenienced Nathan's teacher at the surface level because it is very difficult to assess a set of writing exercises "fairly" when some have been completed alone and others have had parental input. It would, in my view, be good to tell the teacher that this is what you have done.

    But I think that beyond the surface annoyance, the teacher ought to be absolutely delighted that you are doing what he or she cannot, which is give solid, undivided guidance and teaching.

    Speaking as a parent, I think what you have done is a great thing because it is part of preparing your son for his adult years and if he can read well and write well then the world is his oyster.

    But good points made above - important in the long term to be making sure that your role here eventually becomes one of proof reader only as Nathan learns the craft of writing and spreads his wings. But I think it is OK to take a long term view here - you don't have to have stepped back by the end of this term. Give him what he needs in the long term.

    A bit wandering...hope you get my sentiments here.

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  4. I love you and your son's story especially the ending! Sad though to see the Midas legend turned into a lolly ad. It's interesting to see how our parenting culture is slowly changing. My parents gave virtually no help with my homework and most of my friends likewise. By the time we had kids parents did a lot more. We never co-wrote school assignments although we did do a lot of proofreading and editing, but what we did do was read to our kids all the time and they picked up good writing abilities from that. However, different kids need different sorts of help. In real life we learn exactly like you and your son were learning - as young people we are supervised by or paired up with a more experienced person and we learn our trade or profession or ministry by working with them. Then as we get older we have the confidence to do things on our own, and to mentor young people - from whom we continue to learn! School is pretty much the only environment where any one expects something to be "all your own work".

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  5. Ah yes, reading. Every kid I have ever known who wrote well read a lot and was read to a lot.

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  6. I've just read Stephen King's "In Writing" and he says the same thing, Meredith. Reading is the key to writing. I think he spends as much time reading other people's books as he does writing his own. Tough, though, when reading is hard like it is for your son Simone. I guess audio books are a big help?

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  7. Nathan - who I wrote this story with - has no reading problems. He reads heaps.

    Joel - who struggles - has listened to many many many audio books.

    Reading is a key to writing, but even kids who read heaps will still need to learn to write well.

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