Final Installment: Getting Kids to Write

Are you ready folks?  It's the last part to the series of Getting Kids to Write.  If you missed the first parts, you can click the links to go back...

Part I
Part II
Part III
Part IV

This last part is all about publishing, so I should be short and sweet.  After the child has finished the editing stage and had some time away from their work, you can pull it back out and dust it off.  It's time to finish what you've started. 

This is the real exciting time.  In public school we didn't have the time to type out the work and I needed to assess handwriting (in cursive), so I'd have the kids rewrite their final draft in cursive.  This gave kids a couple of opportunities.  One, to teach them how the hand written word should appear on paper, and two, utilizing legible handwriting for a purpose.  Both pretty valuable skills that often get overlooked because we love the convenience of our computers. 

For the rewrite process,  you should allow at least 2-3 days for the child to complete their work.  This will give the child ample amount of time to create a piece they would be proud to show off to their friends or classmates.  Adding an illustration is another great way to make the work really 'pop'.  It allows the new author to show what they were visualizing in their mind as they were writing.  After the rewrite and illustration is complete, be sure to find an opportunity for your child to share.  It's important to show off their hard work.

There you have it folks.  My secrets to teaching writing. There are lots of different ways to introduce lessons for the various genres of writing, but these basic steps will get you going in the right direction.  If you are looking for ways to assess your child's final writing, let me know, and I'll share some of my rubrics I used when I was teaching.  Rubrics are the best way to accurately assess the work.