My friend, Gale, asked what books I would recommend for teaching middle school aged kids to write. To be honest, that’s a tricky question. One twelve year old is never like another, so it’s hard to determine where they might be in their writing. But, from what I’ve learned on my own and what I’ve seen teachers do, here are my thoughts on teaching kids to write.
First, take the fear out of writing. Kids need to start writing as soon as they can spell phonetically. Get them to put their thoughts on paper. No judging. No spelling corrections. No rules. Just get them to write. Give them a prompt, a beginning sentence, an idea if they need it, but try not to tell them what to write.
Next, introduce some structure – the simple sentence, then the paragraph, one that may give one to three ideas on the same subject. Be encouraging and non-judgemental for a very long time as they get used to this. When they need to be more specific, ask, “Could you tell me a little more about this?” It’s hard for parents and teachers to let kids get away with terrible spelling and glaring errors, but they need to learn to enjoy writing before they will ever care about writing well. Where my kids go to school, the teachers of the third grade have a big writer’s party. In the weeks before the party, the kids write about whatever they feel like; on party day, the teacher displays the stories. Then the parents go to the party, read the stories, leave possitive comments on each child’s comment sheet, and drink coffee. The kids are thrilled. They believe they can write. And they continue to progress.
After a child has the swing of it, add in basic grammar rules, spelling, and keep them writing and writing and writing. (Earlier, they may have spelling as a different subject, but don’t make them dread writing by making their stories bleed red ink corrections.) I read somewhere that the average American high school student writes around 2,000 words in a school year while the average British student writes around 14,000. Hmmm. Me thinks they have a huge advantage.
As a seperate process, I love the Editor And Chief books. These are books written for kids, but anyone needing to “up” their editing skills can benefit from them. Again, don’t ruin the fun of writing by beating them with what they learn about editing, but there is something about critiquing other’s work that will help them with their own.
Around the age of twelve, I think a dictionary and Writers INK (produced by Write Source) are great resources. Also, you could add Barron’s Painless Grammar and continue the Editor and Chief series. But keep it fun! I’ve really never heard of anyone who became a better writer by diagramming sentences. I’ve never seen a kid come home with a page dripping in red ink declaring “I just love to write!” You may have to do some of it, but don’t kill your writers with it.
And here’s my best piece of advice, the number one rule of writers everywhere: If you want to write well, you have to read. A lot. All the time. Good books. For a child in middle school, I would recommend the C.S. Lewis Narnia books. Let the kid read for fun the first time. Then encourage them to review the books and study how Lewis uses the language. Get them to summarize each chapter, then plot the book on an outline. Get them to choose favorite sentences or lines. Ask them to think about the way he uses simple words to paint a picture. Get them to find the humor he creates from ordinary things like the things they hear adults say everyday. I’d spend a lot of time with C.S. Lewis and possibly his friend Tolkien. They were masters of the language, and they tell fascinating tales that kids love.
In the beginning of high school, teach them to edit their work. Rewriting is always part of writing, and they are old enough to learn this sad truth. Third drafts are a fact of life.
When they are older and in the midst of all their high-falutin studies of Shakespeare and Aristotle, a writing teacher can really benefit from the simplicity of E.B. White. They need The Elements of Style at this point. They need his collection of beautiful essays that were published in the New Yorker, and it’s a great time to revisit the simple childhood classics “The Trumpet of the Swan” and “Charlotte’s Web.” They should read these when they are younger (or have them read to them), but don’t ruin the magic of them the first time through. Wait until high school to have them read these sweet stories a second time, studying White’s mastery of simple story telling and his deceivingly simple use of English (He makes it look so easy!). Then ask your students to imitate White.
I’ve written this before, but it bears repeating: imitation is a fantastic way to grow as a writer and to find one’s voice. When your writer is younger – get him or her to write a similar adventure to the one they are reading. When they are older, encourage them to mimic voice and technique.
And of course, when they are older, I recommend all the books I mentioned in my post last week.
I think adults and teachers are in such a hurry to create perfect writers that we tend to kill the joy before it’s even discovered. Educators have parents demanding to see perfection coming out of their students, and, with writing, I think it’s a terrible mistake to hurry the progress of a child who is just finding out what writing is all about.
There you have it. My non-professional advice on teaching writing to kids. I’ve broken about a hundred grammar rules in this post. If you look closely, you may even find a misspelled word or two. I’ve yet to find a perfect writer, but I’ve met thousands of people who hate to write. What a shame.
All the best,
Mary
