Teaching Children to Write Better

written by Bonnie Schultz

Teaching children to write better is a multilevel process; It involves the mechanics of writing, reading, familiarity and comfort with language and various and sundry other components we don't always think about.

As a parent, you have probably heard a lot about the importance of Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) subjects. Summertime might see your child or their friends in STEM camps taking robotics or programming. When my son was young, Mad Science birthday parties were the trend, along with performers such as the Lizard Guys, who wowed the kids with monitor lizards and their fascinating facts. When he was older, he and his friends attended the Rutgers Farraday Holiday Lecture series, where Rutgers physicists would entertain the kids with thrilling physics demonstrations. However, while STEM absolutely has its place in laying the groundwork for careers in science and other quantitative fields, one of the areas in which employers have been sounding the alarm for years is the lack of writing skills in recent college graduates.

According to an Op Ed in the Washington Post, higher education has kids in honors programs who can’t write a coherent sentence. As stated in Forbes, on national writing tests only about a quarter of students score proficient or above. And almost twenty years ago, Dana Gioia wrote in the New York Times about how fewer students are opting to study literature, worrying how “declining rates of literary reading coincide with declining levels of historical and political awareness among young people,” predicting that the “decline of reading foreshadows serious long-term problems.” While there has been a lot of concern about misinformation regarding politics and COVID-19, very little if any media has cited declining reading rates among our populace as a contributing factor. When people do not read well, they are more likely to have problems with critical thinking, and they also tend to not write well because they are not internalizing language in a written form or reading to absorb models of good writing. Reading and writing are inherently linked, just as reading and reasoning are inherently linked. (Sternglass, Marilyn S. “Assessing Reading, Writing, and Reasoning; College English, Vol. 43, No. 3; National Council of Teachers of English; 1981, pp. 269–75, https://doi.org/10.2307/377240).

So what can you do to help a child write better? Depending on the age of your child, there are a number of things you can do at home to lay the groundwork for becoming a strong writer and reader.

• Keep reading aloud: The ritual of the bedtime story is an important one. When I volunteered with foster children, I had a difficult time getting certain kids to sit for reading picture books. It seemed as if they were not acclimated to having someone read to them. Continue reading aloud even after your child learns to read; parents tend to drop the nighttime story once children learn how to read, but continuing the practice has far reaching benefits. In our house, we read books such as “Alice Through the Looking Glass,” the “Lord of the Rings” trilogy, all the Harry Potter books, and “The Magic Pudding,” to name a few, throughout my son’s elementary school years.

  
  

• Model reading: Another recommendation is to not only read to your child but to model reading yourself, so that your child often sees you reading. Depending on the book, you can tell your child about it and express how much you’re enjoying reading it when it’s a good one.

  
  

• Storytime: You probably already love to entertain your child with stories. A good tip is to alternate by asking your child to tell you a story. We found this to be an especially useful technique when traveling, as my son entertained us and himself with a series about a turtle named Tom when we were involved in time-sinking activities such as waiting on line to get into the Vatican. You can start the process by asking questions about your child’s experiences, such as “what was the best day of your life?” or “what was the most fun vacation for you?” You can then ask for details to elicit more description.

  
  

• Ask questions about the story: Leslie Morgan, who teaches high school English at a private school in Boston, says that when she is teaching a novel, “I always ask my students why the author is using the characters this way. I ask them to identify some of the choices that the author is making, so they can inform themselves about it. I try to get them thinking about what happens in the story and why it happens. If students start thinking about an author’s choices earlier, more of them will develop as writers because they can then transfer these techniques to their own writing. I ask why the author chose this symbol; why, not just what is the symbol.” You can have them think about what you just read together. Encouraging them to imagine alternative endings, for example, will stimulate their imagination and creativity. At TeachMe TV, we have just finished producing a reading show called Book Club that models asking good questions in the story.

  
  

• Use art as a topic for discussion. Bring your child with you to the art museum or gallery. Talk to them about the paintings or sculpture. What does the painting say to you? Do you see a story or how does this painting make you feel? Are there bright colors in it? What was the artist thinking when they painted this? Ask questions about why they think the artist painted something a certain way. If you have a favorite artist, or know something about a particular painting, you can discuss it after eliciting their reaction. For example, you can ask “why do you think Picasso painted in blue?” You might be surprised by some of their answers. If you bring along some crayons and paper, you can have them create their own version of a painting as a fun and creative activity.

  
  

• Create stories together. Similar to asking your child to tell you a story, you can also write stories together. You can take turns either telling or writing the story, passing it back and forth, and involve siblings, friends, or other adults so it becomes a fun game. You can create your own storybook, with either you or your child illustrating the book and then switching. You can use a kit such as IlluStory to publish the book, making your child proud to see their work in print.

• Play age-appropriate word games. Games like Boggle, Scrabble, Dictionary and crossword puzzles will increase vocabulary and are fun for everyone. However, be careful not to introduce these games before your child is ready so they don’t consider them too challenging.

• Playwriting can make writing fun. Propose that your child write a play with their friends. If you have a dinner party or gathering with other families, the kids can go off and create a play as post-dinner entertainment. Damien Chazelle, an Academy Award winning director, created plays from a young age in which his classmates and friends would perform. Playwriting is a great way to get started in telling stories and learning how to create interesting characters and compelling narratives.

  
  

• Pictures can be a good topic. Use a wordless picture book or photos to inspire your child to tell the story behind it. You can try asking questions to get the ball rolling, such as “What do you think is happening here?” “Where is the girl going?” “What are they doing?”

  
  

• Create a neighborhood newspaper. One of my son’s friends started a neighborhood newspaper called The Weston Way Weekly. The children contributed to it periodically with jokes, book reviews, comics, and stories about band concerts and other events. With the advent of the internet, you can be set this up as a Wordpress blog, with parents alternating overseeing the security of the site. Children will enjoy putting out the “news” about their neighborhood or town, as well as being part of a team.

  
  

• Write a letter. You can suggest that your child write a good old-fashioned letter to relatives, friends, or past teachers. It can be sent by email, but whichever the route, it is excellent writing practice and will especially delight grandparents. They can write thank you notes or postcards while traveling; these are handy methods of writing practice that establish a connection with someone as well as being fun.

  
  

Better Writing with Tips from the Experts

Natalie Wexler is a journalist who has written extensively about education. “Writing might be the hardest thing we ask children to do,” Wexler says. “Inexperienced writers may be trying to juggle everything from forming letters of the alphabet (if they’re young) to choosing words to use, spelling them, structuring sentences, and generally organizing their thoughts.”

As a co-author with Judith Hochman, Wexler wrote The Writing Revolution, an evidence-based guide to teaching writing to children. Described as “The Hochman Method,” the guide begins by focusing on sentence writing, considering that sentences are the building blocks to writing. Students are given tasks such as a sentence stem, upon which they must expand using a subject such as Abraham Lincoln, for example, or whatever they happen to be studying in school. In this method, the mechanics of writing are not divorced from content but an active component that is intertwined with learning across subjects. Once a student has demonstrated expertise in basic sentence composition, they advance to creating more complex sentences, paragraphs, and then essays. They learn the process of outlining to write a paragraph or essay. (Hochman, Judith; Wexler, Natalie; The Writing Revolution: A Guide to Advancing Thinking Through Writing in All Subjects and Grades; Jossey-Bass, 2017)

A Teacher teaching the mechanics of writing at school.

One of Hochman’s gripes is that children are not actually being shown the mechanics of writing. The Hochman method models writing and provides a structure for children to practice. As a tutor, I have found that one of the biggest challenges my students face is writing a truly complex sentence, such as a sentence that expresses two contrasting ideas, or reverses direction later in the sentence. Something like: “The Monroe Doctrine warned European nations against further colonizing the western hemisphere, stating that interference would be considered an act of war, but the United States, as a young nation, could do little to back up its declaration and was therefore forced to turn a blind eye in 1833 when the British occupied the Faulkland Islands, and again in 1845 when it declined to act as Britain and France imposed a naval blockade against Argentina.”

Hochman and Wexler are critics of Lucy Calkins, a “constructivist” who is the founding director of the Teachers College Reading and Writing program at Columbia University, whereby each child is considered to have their own personal writing style, which the teacher encourages them to realize and perfect. Recent criticism of the Calkins’ method, which is widely used in American schools, has found her method deeply flawed for teaching reading because it has mostly abandoned phonics, among other problems.

Lisa Eckstrom, Assistant Head of School at Princeton Charter School, says that another good tip for improving writing is for the child to read their writing aloud. “It’s great for them to hear what’s there and think about what’s not there. Most kids, when they’re starting out, should spend time identifying the question they’re trying to answer. It’s a good thing to ask yourself.”

For fourth and fifth graders, she recommends the RACE writing template from the Teachers College at Columbia: Restate (the question), Answer (in your own words), Cite (the text), and Explain (and elaborate). “If a student doesn’t know where to start, it’s a nice template for a beginner,” Eckstrom says.

We all know that writing is an essential and pragmatic life skill. The good news is that there are many things that you can do at home to help your child develop their writing skills. Any one of the activities mentioned in this post would be a great way to start. Alternate activities and games so that your child won’t become bored, and the most important aspect is to keep everything light and fun. You will have raised a great writer before you know it.

Bonnie Schultz lives in Princeton, NJ, where she works as a tutor in Language Arts, content creator and editor. She is a published author with Jonathan Eckstein of "Introductory Database Design for Business, Using Microsoft Access." Her website is http://www.schultzwritingservices.com.