Coaching the Writing Process

Posted by HeatherW | 0 comments

I think it’s fair to say we all want our kids to be good writers. Some children are natural writers and some are not. They will do anything to get out of writing even one sentence. Have you ever given much thought as to why we want our kids to write well? Is it because our jobs will be easier as homeschooling parents? Is it so they can pass tests and do well in school? Is it so they can excel in college or another vocation? What makes writing so important? Homeschooling parents try lots of different resources and struggle to find just the thing that will best help their children to write. Surely, there will be something out there that will do the trick!

Today I’d like to share with you the goal I have for my kids in writing and how we have purposed to reach that goal over the years with each individual child without a lot of formal programming. The one writing goal I have for my children is that they will be good written communicators. What does it mean to be a good written communicator? It means that when the intended audience reads your writing, it will be effective in its purpose- to persuade, to explain, or to tell a story.

Often, when people ask me how we do grammar, spelling and writing in our homeschool, they are surprised and somewhat skeptical when I say we just forge ahead meeting goals without using a curriculum. We do a lot of writing within the context of our unit studies which gives us a great wealth of authentic writing practice. Most people though, want the nuts and bolts of how we improve mechanics and spelling. They seem disappointed when I tell them that it is through these more authentic experiences that we focus on the building blocks of writing.

So, how do I do it and what makes me think it’s OK to abandon conventional writing programs? I coach my kids in their writing progress. Word central at Webster’s website defines coach as a person who instructs or trains a performer or a team. That’s exactly it! I instruct and train my performer who is my writer. When you coach someone you meet their skill set where it is and you try to add to it to bring them closer to the goal. In our case, I work with my writer’s skills and add to their tool box to bring them closer to the goal of being effective written communicators.

The key is to have them write! Not filling in the blanks of workbooks, but engaging in real writing assignments. Only then can you really see where your child is on that continuum of writing ability. Of course, this method does require that you have some knowledge of what makes effective writing. Surely, you can coach your kindergartner and first grader that sentences start with a capital letter and end with a period or some other form of punctuation. I use a variety of resources to help guide me in what makes a good writer at various benchmarks. If I see too many sentence fragments in a piece of writing, then I know that child needs to focus on sentence construction. So, in my coaching we talk about what makes a whole sentence. The writer tries again and we see how they incorporated that piece of coaching. Then we can either work on it more or we can target another skill.

If my child brings me something I can hardly read through, it can be overwhelming for the coach and the writer so the first thing I do is have that child read it to me. Usually it sounds so eloquent and beautiful and well organized- even if the paper visually is a nightmare! Then I can praise for a job well done on the content and reading and we can talk about the fact that unless the writer can work on some grammar, it will be impossible for the reader to perceive the content the way it was intended. That is always a perfect lesson on the reason for grammar conventions and why we strive to follow them. They help the writer to convey what they want to say just the way they want others to read it. A missing comma or misplaced word can change the emphasis and meaning of a piece of writing.

I could list out many examples of how a read through of a child’s writing can produce mini-lessons. The next question to answer is what kinds of writing do you assign to your writer? This likely depends on age and ability, but it can be anything from a friendly letter to a summary paragraph or journal entry. My daughter often writes in her sewing journal- this chronicles her creative process. Many times it is a simple narration of something they have read or an explanation of something they are studying. My 3^rd grader started his year with some adventure and wrote in an adventure journal. For me one of the most important things is to have the child write every day and take small opportunities to make large steps toward good written communication.

Finally, I’ll share with you a list of resources I have found helpful in coaching the writing process in our homeschool:

• What Your__ _Grader Needs to Know- offers a scope and sequence of writing benchmarks for each grade.
• Games for Writing by Peggy Kaye- invaluable resource for the struggling and young writer alike
• Story Starters by Karen Andreola- a fun, involved version of the writing prompt
• The Synonym Finder- super resource for increasing your kids’ word choices (a lesson I find myself teaching a lot when I see the same words used frequently in a child’s writing)
• The Dictionary- great for challenging kids with various dictionary exercises and finding new words. There is value in using an actual book bound dictionary because you can experience other words along the way-  pastime made obsolete by electronic and online dictionaries.
• Learning Grammar through Writing- great little guide on grammar and language usage
• StartWrite- handwriting paper software that allows me type what my kids dictate to me and turn it into a copywork page.

So, as you work with your children in language arts, think about what skills your student needs to achieve in order to be an effective written communicator. Then consistently work toward that goal by providing meaningful writing experiences and some solid coaching advice. It’s rewarding to see our children gain confidence from our mentoring and it will be even sweeter when they cross that finish line and you see the result of the coaching process.

Heather is a homeschooling mom of four kids ranging from middle school to preschool and wife to a handsome chemical engineer. Before raising a family, she taught middle school science (with a BS in biological sciences) and has a masters degree in curriculum and instruction secondary education. Now teaching at home means the chance to provide the extraordinary for her children. She’s been homeschooling five years and you can read about those adventures on her blog, Blog She Wrote.