Lesson 1: Review of Writing Basics and Teaching Expository Writing
The first part of this course, Teaching Writing to Children introduced many basics about teaching writing at home or in your classroom. This section will have a brief review of some of those ideas, and then continue with the teaching of Expository Writing.
Review
Some Basics
About 15 years into my teaching career, I attended a workshop on teaching writing that changed my professional life - and helped me make writing a fun and rewarding experience for my students. I began using a Writing Workshop approach, and that change in philosophy was vital. After using that approach, I can't imagine doing it any other way!
In this workshop I will share some of my own experiences, some books that I have found to be personally rewarding, and some teaching ideas to take with you and use right away in your own classrooms.
One of the first lessons I learned is that for children to become writers, the writing must be meaningful to them. No matter what aspect of writing you are teaching, students need to feel that the subjects they are writing about are important to them.
Another important idea to focus on is the response you and your students give each other. Good writers need an audience - someone to be writing for. In this workshop, for each writing genre I will include at least one way for students to present or share their work with others.
Supplies
In my first course, there is a rather detailed discussion of writing supplies that I have found to be useful. Here, I will just list those again. See Teaching Writing to Children for a complete discussion.
1. large easel and chart paper
2. basic writing supplies: paper, pens, pencils
3. colored white out
4. writing folders
5. reference books such as dictionaries and a thesaurus. (I've also included one "misspeller's" dictionary on the workshop recommended book list.)
6. Sharing Chair
Warming-Up
Before you have students begin, it is a good idea to do a few easy writing warm-ups - just to get the creative juices flowing. One that I've found to really good at getting students started it the Free Write. Here's how to do it:
In Free Writing, students just write for a certain amount of time. Start with one or two minutes and have them write continuously for that amount of time. If a student says he has nothing to write about, just tell him to write "I don't know what to write about." over and over for the allotted time. No just sitting and playing with a pencil allowed! Most students will soon find something else to write about. The most important thing is for students to keep pencils on the paper and just write whatever comes into their heads.
Resource Books
The resource books for this course will give you a wonderful background on the workshop approach and the writing process in general. I would encourage you to choose one or two to use as you go through this course, both for great ideas and for some real writing inspiration. You will also find some real hands-on ideas in some of the other recommended books.
