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How to use guided writing in your homeschool

by | Jan 20, 2020 | Reluctant or Struggling Writers, WriteShop Primary

Young children in kindergarten and first grade are usually considered “pre-writers”—just learning to write letters, words, and groups of words. Learning how to use guided writing in your homeschool is a step in the right direction.

Their writing experience should be fun! After all, isn’t our goal is to help our primary-age children build confidence as they gain the ability to write?

What is daily guided writing?

Let’s talk about practical ways to use guided writing as a way to model for your homeschool children. Modeling writing for young learners works. Why? Simply because children learn best by example. Take time to model good writing techniques to your child. Let her narrate her words to you through a daily time of guided writing. This gives her that predictable, shared writing experience that’s so important to her development.

For beginning readers, the predictable patterns and easy sight words build confidence. For more confident readers, narration gives daily practice in reading and writing harder words and sentences.

Most importantly, this time of guided writing gives kids the freedom to put together ideas and create word patterns without the limitations and fear of having to write them down. So even if your child already knows how to write simple sentences, you can often get more from him if he is allowed to dictate his words to you rather than write on his own.

Help your child put thoughts into words.

Together, you and your child can write several short sentences about simple, familiar topics such as animals, friends, the weather, or upcoming events. Sounds easy, right? But if you ask your son to tell you all about friends, for example, he’ll probably say, “I don’t know.” It’s an awfully broad topic, after all, and his little mind may be all a-jumble. Most kids need direction, but some will need more help than others to formulate their thoughts into simple words.

1. Use predictable sentence starters.

So how do you get your child to dictate to you? It’s all about asking questions! For the youngest or most reluctant kids, begin by writing three to five predictable sentence starters, such as:

A friend is
Friends like to
Friends are special because

2. Lead and prompt your child.

Next, discuss various ideas for how to complete each of the three sentences. Ask questions to lead and prompt your little one and to keep the dialogue on track. Here’s one idea:

You:  Let’s think of some words that tell us about friends. I’ll go first. A friend is funny. Now it’s your turn.

Child: A friend is happy.

You:  A friend is important.

Child: A friend is kind.

You:  These are all great. Which one should we choose for today?

Child: A friend is kind.

You: Let’s write that. A friend is kind. Here’s the marker. Can you help me write the word kind?

You: OK, so what do friends like to do together?

Child: Play games.

You: Let’s use complete thoughts. Friends like to play games together. Say that. “Friends like to play games together.”

Child: Friends like to play games together.

You: Great. Let’s write it down. Friends like to play games together. Can you help me with the marker?

You: Tell me—why are friends special?

Child: Because they share their toys?

You: Yes, that’s a very important reason. Can you finish this sentence to make a complete thought? Friends are special because ________.

Child: Friends are special because they share their toys.

You: Good job. Now let’s write that down. Friends are special because they share their toys.

3. Together, read what you wrote.

When you’re done, you might end up with something like this:

A friend is kind.
Friends like to play games together.
Friends are special because they share their toys.

Not only have you modeled thinking skills to your child (by asking questions like who, what, and why), but you’ve also demonstrated simple techniques:

  • Beginning with a capital letter;
  • Ending with a period; and
  • Using a complete thought.

See how a simple five-minute dialogue can go a long way in teaching basic writing skills? I hope you’re excited now to use guided writing with your homeschool children!

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WriteShop Primary Book A is perfect for kindergarten and first grade

This dialogue comes from Lesson 4 of WriteShop Primary Book A—perfect for pre-writers in kindergarten or first grade. WriteShop Primary is filled with dialogue examples like this to help you prompt your child during daily guided writing times.

Modeling writing for young learners happens naturally during times of daily guided writing as you introduce and talk about writing ideas.