From the Desk of WriteShop

“If you wish to be a writer, write.”

—Epictetus

Intrinsic motivation means children write without any additional outside incentive. No bribes. No treats. No money.

But the truth is that few children are motivated by the sheer love of writing. So—short of paying them off with cash or candy—what can you do to inspire them?

Writers Need an Audience

Having an audience takes your child past the point of writing for a “requirement” or a grade—and it certainly takes him beyond writing just for his normal, everyday audience of one: you. 

Importance of an Audience

You can spark renewed interest in writing by guiding your child to think of ways to broaden his understanding of what an audience can be. Help him experience how others can find pleasure in reading his work. He’ll be rewarded with increased joy and confidence, and I think you’ll begin to see his writing blossom as he takes more pride in his efforts.

Seeing Their Works in Print

When I taught writing classes years ago, we always ended the year with a Writers’ Tea. Our students invited friends and family, dressed up for the occasion,and recited poetry. At the end, we passed out class anthologies featuring samples of each student’s best writing.

As they pored over the stories and poems in the spiral-bound booklets, it was clear how much the children enjoyed seeing their works in print and sharing the anthologies with their parents and grandparents.

Thinking Outside the Box

An anthology is just one of many ways to publish. Below are some other suggestions for expanding your kids’ writing audience or showcasing their writing through their published projects. When they polish a story or poem so that it’s the best it can be—and when they go beyond the traditional “final draft” to create an interesting published project—they’ll be much more likely to write for the joy of it. Here are some ideas:

Publishing Stories

• Shape Books: Cut out shapes that match the story’s theme (e.g., house, car, seashell or animal shape). Use cardboard or heavy cardstock for the top and bottom cover and grade-level lined paper for the pages. Staple edges, or lace the pages together with yarn.
• Puzzle: Glue a photocopy of the child’s story to a piece of cardstock. On the back, have her draw a picture about the story. Cut the cardstock into 8 or 9 simple puzzle pieces that a friend or family member can assemble.
• Board Game: Suggest that your child create a board game about his story. Play the game with the family.
• Journaling Notebook: Assemble your child’s journal pages into a special notebook.
• Cards and Letters: Help your child create a card on the computer. Or provide her with scrapbooking papers, punches, stickers, and other supplies so that she can make a fancy card for publishing her friendly letter or invitation letter.
• Comedy Night: Have your child write & illustrate funny story. Host a special family Comedy Night. Start by having your young author share her humorous story. Then choose a funny cartoon to watch or a stack of silly books to read. Invite everyone to tell their favorite jokes.
• Suitcase Story: For a story about a travel or vacation experience, make a suitcase out of a 12- x 18-inch piece of brown construction paper. Fold the paper in half and round the corners with scissors. Cut two handles from yellow or tan paper and tape them in place. Staple the child’s final story inside the suitcase.

Publishing Factual Reports and Book Reports

• Lapbooks and Flap Books: These make great avenues for displaying facts, photos, drawings, and short reports. They work well for factual reports as well as for explaining the steps of a process. Here’s just one of many lapbooking websites to help get you started.
• Mobiles: Mobiles are a fun way to publish a report or book report! You can attach index cards or paper shapes to a length of string or yarn and hang them from a coat hanger or the rim of a paper plate. On one side of each card, have the child write facts about his topic or details about a book’s characters, setting, or action. On the back, he can illustrate.
• Trivia Game: This is a great way to publish a younger child’s short factual report. On the cover of a manila file folder, have the child write five questions about her topic and then staple the report inside. Let family members or friends try to guess the answers. Then they can open the folder and read the report to see if they were right!

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Most of these fun and creative activities come straight from the pages of WriteShop Primary, an early elementary writing program that incorporates clever publishing ideas into every lesson of Book A, Book B, and Book C.

Many—like George Bernard Shaw—have complained about the inconsistencies of our language. Here are some helpful suggestios to bring order into it.

Exceptions are the greatest nuisance. Therefore let us be consistent:

Singular / Plural

Tooth / Teeth
Booth / Beeth
Goose / Geese
Bruise / Breeze
Noose / Niece
Look / Leek
Crook / Creek

Male / Female

Actor / Actress
Matter / Mattress
Butter / Buttress
Under / Undress
Needle / Needless
Supper / Suppress

Diminutives

The diminutive of:
Book is Booklet
Scar    Scarlet
Toy     Toilet
Ham     Hamlet
Bull      Bullet
Inn      Inlet

Collective Nouns

Jewelry   a collection of Jewels
Similarly:
Infantry   a collection of  Infants
Husbandry                     Husbands
Pantry                          Pants
Scullery                        Skulls
Flattery                        Flats
Factory                        Facts

From Little Book of Word Tricks. Copyright © 1958 Peter Pauper Press.

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Happy Friday!

When assigning writing to your children, you don’t always have to reinvent the wheel with a brand-new lesson. Sometimes it’s fun to approach a familiar assignment in a fresh new way. For example:

• Tweaking an existing lesson instruction by adding different elements.
• Having your children revisit an earlier composition—either a recent story or one they wrote a year or two ago) and changing it up somehow. 

Here are some simple ways to add variety to your children’s writing by using lessons you already have lying around!

Change the tense

Using the same composition they wrote before, have students rewrite it, changing the tense. If it was written in past tense, ask them to write it in present, and vice versa. If the story was written long ago, you may also want to have them increase the length, add more sentence variations, or expand description.

Change the point of view

Have your child rewrite a story from a different point of view by writing as another character in the story. For practice, have him retell a familiar story such as David and Goliath, The Tale of Peter Rabbit, or a fable or fairy tale. Have him “become” one of the characters in the story and rewrite the story in first person. A younger child can do this exercise orally.

Describe a food

Instead of describing a food, students may write a restaurant review in which they vividly describe an assortment of foods—from appetizers to dessert. Expect this composition to be several paragraphs in length.  Suggestion: Visit a restaurant and have students take “brainstorming” notes as they sample various foods.

Describe a place

As an alternative to describing a place, your child can design travel brochures about a favorite vacation spot, famous landmark, city, country, or geographical region she would like to visit. Include text and pictures.

Write a biography

Every student writes biographies at some point. To change it up a bit, have your kids write an autobiography of a famous individual instead (autobiographies are written in first person) as if they were that historic person. Alternatively, you might ask them to assume the role of an historical figure and write one or more journal or diary entries or letters. Any of these exercises should be historically accurate, perhaps fitting in with a current topic of study.

Create a newspaper

A newspaper format lends itself well to a history unit. Why not have your child write an entire newspaper about a historical era? Include a wide assortment of the following:

• Local, national, and international news stories
• Advertisements
• Comic strips
• Entertainment
• Doctor’s column
• Literary news
• Sports
• Travel
• Vital statistics (births, deaths, marriages, crimes)
• Editorials/opinions/letters to the editor/exposés, etc.

This newspaper activity should be spread over a longer period of time. Some research will be required to ensure historical accuracy. This also makes a wonderful group project, with all your students contributing to one newspaper.

Encourage your children to take their writing in new directions by trying some of these simple ideas. It won’t be long before you—and they—are thinking up different twists all on your own!

Voluntarily choose this multifarious propaganda holder.

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Stop by every 1st, 3rd, and 5th Wednesday for a peek into the world of spelling, punctuation, or grammar gone wrong!

The CHN Family Expo returns to Ontario, CA August 5-8, 2010. This will be WriteShop’s last homeschool convention of the year—and we hope to see you there!

Families from around the state will be gathering for family fun and homeschooling encouragement at the California Homeschool Network’s annual conference, which will be held at the Ontario Marriott. 

Workshops

If you’re looking for fun, creative ways to boost writing this year, I’ll be presenting a workshop at 9:30 a.m. August 6: Gone Fishing: Tips and Ideas to Motivate Young Writers.

Vendor Booth

On August 6 and 7, visit our vendor booth (#117) to ask questions, see what’s new, or browse through WriteShop books in person. Don’t forget to ask for your FREE gift! You’ll love it!

At the convention you can:

• See our full line of WriteShop products
• Purchase the newest WriteShop Primary books.
• Learn how you can teach a WriteShop co-op class in your area.
• Receive much-needed encouragement about teaching writing.

Visit the CHN website for workshop schedule, exhibit hall hours, and directions to the convention. See you there!

“Why do writers write? Because it isn’t there.”

—Thomas Berger

Here’s a great idea for your 4th-8th graders: Challenge them to write 100-word stories! Not only will this activity appeal to your more reluctant writers, it helps drive home the importance of writing descriptive, concise sentences.

Directions

1. Read a few familiar folk tales, fairy tales, or fables together.
2. Have your children choose one of their favorites and place it in a new setting (in the past, the future, outer space, or a laboratory, for example).
3. Next, have them add characters such as a robot, scientist, detective, or superhero.
4. Instruct them to write a story that has exactly 100 words. It must have a beginning, a middle, and an end.
5. Try doing this exercise several times. Then, ask your children to pick one of their stories and turn it into a polished final piece. At this point, feel free to let them use more than 100 words, but only as long as they don’t repeat main words and the extra words are really necessary to the story’s success.

We’re getting ready to wrap up this year’s convention schedule with our second-to-the-last conference of the summer July 30-31 in Modesto, California.

Homeschooling families who live in California’s Central Valley will love the friendly, comfortable atmosphere of the Valley Home Educators Convention (VHE) at the Modesto Centre Plaza. Come be inspired and encouraged by some wonderful speakers, explore the curriculum hall, and enjoy the company of other homeschoolers.

Workshops

I hope you’ll join me for some really fun and inspiring workshops this year. I’ll be presenting two sessions:

• Gone Fishing: Tips and Ideas to Motivate Young Writers
• Writing Across the Curriculum (all ages)

Vendor Booth

You’ll find our vendor booth in the main lobby again this year, so as you begin looking toward fall, it’s also the perfect time to stop by, ask questions, see what’s new, or browse through WriteShop books in person.

At the convention you can:

• See our full line of WriteShop products
• Purchase the newest WriteShop Primary books.
• Learn how you can teach a WriteShop co-op class in your area.
• Receive much-needed encouragement about teaching writing.

Visit the VHE website for workshop schedule, exhibit hall hours, and directions to the convention. See you there!

And don’t forget to check WriteShop’s convention schedule to see where we’ll be next!

Deliverys? Seriously?

The spelling is bad enough, but could you please deliver some punctuation marks? Just ring bell thanks. Or just ring. Bell thanks. Bell thanks kitchen? I’m so confused.

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Stop by every 1st, 3rd, and 5th Wednesday for a peek into the world of spelling, punctuation, or grammar gone wrong!