If you homeschool in the Dallas area, the annual Home School Book Fair is coming this weekend to nearby Arlington May 11-12, 2012! With great speakers and all sorts of curriculum exhibitors, you won’t want to miss this extra-special conference!
This is a perfect time to stop by to see us at Booth #605 to ask questions, see what’s new, or browse through WriteShop books in person.
Learn how you can teach a WriteShop co-op class in your area.
Receive much-needed encouragement about teaching writing.
At only $20 per person at the door, this is one of the most affordable homeschool conferences in the country! For workshop schedule, exhibit hall hours, and directions to the Arlington Convention Center, visit www.homeschoolbookfair.org.
“What’s the secret to raising enthusiastic writers? Hook them while they’re young with fun, appealing activities that teach foundational writing skills. Kim will share engaging pre-writing games, clever brainstorming ideas, and creative publishing projects that will make your K-6th graders eager to write and proud to be published!”
special spring savings for our spectacular supporters
Have you been thinking about ordering for next year? From now until April 30th, you can save 15% on your order from the WriteShop store using the coupon code SPRING15 at checkout.
The last week in April is going to be busy yet rewarding! If you are attending the SHEM homeschool convention in Springfield, Missouri, I’ll have six sessions packed with tips and encouragement for teaching writing. Please stop by and say hello!
Did you know that WriteShop has a booth at the Virtual Homeschool Convention? Unlike other conventions, this one is open 24/7, and you can attend without leaving home. Peruse the shelves and learn what our writing curriculum has to offer your homeschool.
#WriteShopParty Fast-paced, fun Sharing, linking, chatting Twitter, friends … Virtual chocolate, real prizes Celebrating, learning, writing Festivity, merriment #WriteShopParty
You’re invited to a WriteShop Twitter Party on Tuesday, April 17, 2012 at 9:00 p.m. EST. We’ll have lots of door prizes and virtual chocolate too! Prizes include WriteShop goodies valued up to $100!
Twitter parties can move a little fast, so the easiest way to participate is by using www.tweetchat, www.tweetgrid, or www.tweetdeck. Follow the hashtag #WriteShopParty and @WriteShop to keep up with the questions and prizes.
To start the celebration off, here’s a party favor just for you!
I love homeschool conventions! I love meeting homeschooling families all around the country. And I love encouraging parents with my own experiences and stories.
Next week will bring us to the beautiful state of Washington, where Debbie and I will be exhibitors at the annual WHO Convention at the Puyallup Fair and Events Center.
If you live in northwestern Washington, this is a great opportunity to hear some inspiring speakers, check out new curriculum, and enjoy a weekend of refreshment and recharging.
And as you begin looking toward the next school year, it’s also the perfect time to stop by our booth to ask questions, see what’s new, or browse through WriteShop books in person.
I love hearing from students who have found success in school and life. Recently, I received an announcement in the mail from one of my former WriteShop I students (also a homeschool grad), who graduated summa cum laude from Gordon College.
Along with the announcement, Kaeli included a copy of an essay she had written for a grad school application—an essay limited to just 300 words. The irony of this little requirement didn’t escape either of us, for brevity was never her forte, and was in fact the very fly in her WriteShop ointment.
Back in our WriteShop days, restricting this enthusiastic writer to a single five- to seven-word paragraph was practically the same as torture. More than once she pleaded for eight sentences. More than once she made a passionate case for those extra adjectives. Much to her dismay, I always stood my ground.
Not that it’s a crime to write a ten-sentence paragraph or use a string of four perfect adjectives. Rather, it was all about a skill we were trying to develop in our young writers: conciseness.
Teaching conciseness is a foreign concept for many of you—you’re just happy to see a complete sentence materialize on your child’s paper! But we discovered that the same limits on paragraph length allowed parents to teach one simple WriteShop lesson to both struggling and eager writers.
The result? The reluctant child sees a doable goal (“I only have to write five sentences”), and the enthusiastic student learns to hone her writing and avoid rabbit trails and unnecessary verbiage.
Kaeli fit the latter profile. Bursting with ideas, she wanted to say it all. But her year in WriteShop taught her instead how to say it best.
Where Are They Now?
It was good to hear from Kaeli. From time to time I think of my former students and wonder, “Where are they now?” Deb and I haven’t taught a class in several years, but it’s really rewarding to see how successful many of these homeschoolers have become:
Pastors and missionaries
Military men and women
College graduates in a wide variety of majors including journalism, English, sociology, criminal justice, Middle Eastern studies, photography, communications, art, music, and theater
MA and PhD candidates in English, economics, political science, philosophy, psychology, and theology
In most cases, it’s been eight or more years since I’ve edited their fledgling writing attempts. But I’ve also read some of their recent writing. And what I see now reflects what I saw in my own son as the post-WriteShop years passed: maturity, knowledge, wisdom, growth. They express themselves in different ways, but they have all moved well beyond those WriteShop days.
Laying a Foundation
Some of you are just beginning your journey. You can’t even begin to imagine that one day your child will write an articulate, coherent thought. Others of you have taught WriteShop to several children who are now young adults succeeding in college and the workplace.
We “veterans” have learned that WriteShop served as a launching place, a training ground for instilling the basics of writing, including concreteness, conciseness, clarity, and sentence variety—skills that many incoming college freshmen lack.
Take heart. You’re teaching your children that writing is more than random thoughts tossed onto paper. You’re helping them learn to use important tools that lay a foundation for future writing—writing that will take shape and mature as their knowledge, life experiences, vocabulary, and thinking skills develop.
My girls were intuitive writers, easy to guide and easy to teach. But I didn’t have much faith that my reluctant 12-year-old son (the WriteShop guinea pig) would be able to write. Our journey was hard, and we experienced more than our share of frustration. But diligence paid off. He’s now a 25-year-old PhD candidate whose writing has actually become his work.
Your child may not become a scholar . . . and that’s okay. But good writing skills will take him far in the workplace and in life. So stay the course, and be encouraged that a great deal can—and will—happen between now and adulthood.
From time to time, parents ask us whether WriteShop aligns with the Six Traits of Effective Writing.
6 + 1® Trait Writing is a model for teaching and assessing writing. Originally, it was intended less as a teaching tool and more as an evaluation tool to help teachers identify student strengths and weaknesses.
Although WriteShop wasn’t developed according to the Six Traits model, our products do offer comparable tools to teach, edit, and evaluate your children’s writing. After all, our goal is to help you become a more effective teacher, and these skills and tools just make sense—no matter what name they go by!
Creating Good Writers
Students become good writers through modeling, discussion, and plenty of practice. But most parents—even those who are intuitive writers—need specific guidelines and rubrics to help them teach writing systematically and effectively, including:
Explicit instruction for how to teach the writing process (along with specific writing skills).
Guided writing (modeling) and discussion.
Step-by-step student directions.
Practical application of grammar and spelling to writing.
Checklists, rubrics, and other tools to help edit and evaluate writing.
WriteShop and the Six Traits
Though our products may not fully align with the Six Traits model, both WriteShop I & II and WriteShop Primary give you the instruction and guidance you need to teach writing with confidence!
However, two favorite WriteShop tools—the Writing Skills Checklists and the Composition Evaluation forms—do meet many criteria of the Six Traits model.
The elements of the Writing Skills Checklist allow you to give your junior high or high school student valuable suggestions and a chance to improve his or her paper. And the Composition Evaluation form provides a rubric for effective, accurate grading.
Each of the Six Traits (listed below) is followed by specific elements WriteShop I and II look for in a composition.
Ideas
The main focus or purpose for writing
Did the student follow directions for the assignment?
Did he include lesson-specific content?
Did he support his ideas with details?
Organization
The internal structure of the writing
Did the student use appropriate topic and closing sentences?
Did he use transition words when necessary?
Did he communicate clearly?
Voice
The sense that the writer is speaking directly to the reader
Did he write in the correct narrative voice for the assignment?
Word Choice
The use of concrete, colorful, precise vocabulary to communicate meaning
Did the student use vivid, active, colorful words?
Did he avoid vague, repeated, or overused words?
Did the student limit use of passive voice (“to be” words)?
Sentence Fluency
The flow and readability of the text; effective use of sentence variations
Did the student communicate clearly and avoid awkwardness?
Did he use a number of interesting sentence variations?
Did he use his tenses properly?
Conventions
The mechanical correctness, including spelling, punctuation, and grammar
Did the student adhere to conventions of form?
Did he correctly use punctuation, capitalization, and grammar?
Did he spell correctly?
Did he use correct sentence structure?
WriteShop Primary materials for kindergarten to third grade also align well with the Six Traits model, both for teaching and evaluating. For more information about WriteShop products, visit www.writeshop.com.
It’s always so encouraging to open up my inbox each day and find a glowing review or happy testimonial from a homeschooling mom who’s been using WriteShop with her children. It’s been nearly ten years since we first published WriteShop I and II, and believe me, I never dreamed the results would be so far-reaching.
I’d love to share some of these comments with you. Be blessed!
WriteShop I and II
“Thank you so much for a fabulous two years!” ~Mindy
“Kudos to WriteShop! I have found your program to be the most clearly laid out program that I have ever used. My son and his friends went from whining about a writing project to being capable of producing a great essay in a short period of time. Best of all, they now see themselves as writers. I simply cannot believe the difference.” ~Kristel
“Write Shop has been a wonderful program for us. I don’t think my dyslexic daughter would have ever learned to write without it!” ~Dena
“I’m using this program with my 13-year old son. I used it with my freshman-in-college son also. I believe WriteShop gave my oldest son amazing writing skills; in fact, he aspires to be a writer. Thanks for putting out an amazing curriculum!” ~Roseann
“We have used your products for three years and love them!” ~Lisa
“Let me tell you what a wonderful writing program you’ve created in WriteShop I & II. I used it with my son, who received a journalism scholarship to Samford University in Birmingham, AL … Your material covered every reasonable thing he needed to know about sound, solid writing and enabled me to objectively assess his work. I recommend WriteShop to everyone who talks to me about writing skills.” ~Mary
“WriteShop is a Godsend to us…Thank you so much!” ~Linda
“I love your program! I have taught in the public schools, and I have also homeschooled, so I have seen my fair share of writing curriculum, but this is the best. It’s not hard to teach from the teacher’s point of view, it’s not hard to learn from the student’s point of view, and—it’s fun! Plus, thank you for the twenty-two pages of word lists—they’re fabulous! …Your program has answered many prayers.” ~Sharon
“You should call this program Writing for Children Who Have Mothers Who Didn’t Pay Attention in High School. It’s just so easy to teach!” ~Becky
WriteShop Primary
Book A
“My son and I have already dived right into Book A—he’ll be starting Gr. 1 in the fall. I have been very impressed so far at the fun we’re having and how well this has been put together.” ~Dianne
“I am working through your WriteShop Primary Book A with my 2nd grader. He loves this program. He told me that it is his favorite subject. He loves the creative part of dictating the story and illustrating it each day.” ~Tami,
“This is the best writing experience my kids and I have ever had. They are writing!!! My little one (Kindergarten) is writing as well as my 2nd grader and both are doing so much better than I ever expected.” ~Mia
Book B
“A special thanks to the dedicated staff at WriteShop for a wonderful curriculum! We really enjoyed using WriteShop [Primary] together. It was challenging and rewarding, and also held his interest because of the subject matter and creative way that it was presented.” ~Julia
“My son progressed in his ability to organize his thoughts before starting to write, and he learned the importance of choosing the right words to express his thoughts…. I love the way the curriculum guided him through the writing process in small steps, and the way it offered me lots of options to tailor it to him.” ~Debbie
Book C
“My daughter, who has always loved to write, feels like she has gotten much better at writing paragraphs. I would agree with her! She’s never lacked confidence, but just needed some guidance and this program has helped her tremendously…. She loved this program so much that she has been writing paragraphs on her own during her free time!” ~Beth
“I am thrilled with my 10 yo’s progress…. This last project was so encouraging!! It was a ‘Yes! This is why I am homeschooling’ moment…. Now he is much more OK with writing on blank page—once we stop and do the brainstorming! Since I’ve used your other products I must say—you do such a great job of breaking it all down—making the end project attainable. It’s fun to see kids even at this level able to make so much progress!” ~Sharie
“One of the cornerstones of powerful writing is the use of concrete details that can tell your story for you. I don’t care if you’re writing a sales letter, a blog post or a short story for The New Yorker, you need details.” ~Sonia Simone, Copyblogger.com
Concreteness transports us into a story like nothing else. It’s the key that unlocks the door of the reader’s imagination. If your child’s paper is vague and sketchy, what happens? She loses her readers and they come away without a clear understanding of the characters, setting, or event. Instead, her writing should contain specific, concrete details to hold her readers’ attention and give them a mental picture of the topics she’s discussing.
Choose Words Wisely
Concrete writing engages the senses. Your child’s descriptive and narrative writing should employ strong, colorful word choices that allow readers to experience an object, setting or situation through sight, sound, smell, taste, and touch.
Robust nouns and active verbs always pack more punch than weak ones that are simply preceded by a string of adjectives or adverbs. Not to say they don’t have their place, but adjectives and adverbs should boost—rather than define—the words they modify.
Search for Word Pictures
It’s fun to ask your children to search for descriptive, concrete passages in the books they’re reading, such as this excerpt from The Fellowship of the Ringby J.R.R. Tolkien.
Down the face of the precipice, sheer and almost smooth it seemed in the pale moonlight, a small black shape was moving with its thin limbs splayed out. Maybe its soft clinging hands and toes were finding crevices and holds that no hobbit could ever have seen or used, but it looked as if it was just creeping down on sticky pads, like some large prowling thing of insect-kind. And it was coming down head first, as if it was smelling its way. Now and again it lifted its head slowly, turning it right back on its long skinny neck, and the hobbits caught a glimpse of the two small pale gleaming lights, its eyes that blinked at the moon for a moment and then were quickly lidded again.
Notice how Tolkien paints a haunting image of Gollum as he makes his wily approach. Can’t you just imagine that scene in your mind’s eye? Can you see the thin padded fingers and toes and feel the cool smoothness of the rocks in the weak moonlight? Can you picture the secretive, insect-like prowler with the luminous eyes?
This passage from The Miracle at Speedy Motors by Alexander McCall Smith describes a different scene altogether:
Two days passed—two days in which more rain fell, great cloudbursts of rain, drenching the length and breadth of Botswana. People held their breath in gratitude, hardly daring to speak of the deluge, lest it should suddenly stop and the dryness return. The rivers, for long months little more than dusty beds of rust-coloured sand, appeared again, filled to overflowing in some cases, twisting snakes of mud-brown water moving across the plains…. The bush, a dessicated brown before the storms, turned green overnight, as the shoots of dormant plants thrust their way through the soil. Flowers followed, tiny yellow flowers, spreading like a dusting of gold across the land.
Powerful verbs—drenching, thrust, spreading—propel this passage along. Imagery of the river as a snake and flowers as gold dust appeal to the senses. The reader feels the quench of thirst and drought. Such is the power of concrete writing.
Your children can learn to write more vividly too. For starters, encourage them to:
Recognize the importance of using specific vocabulary.
Pay attention to detail.
Add more description.
Replace tired, vague words.
Introduce the Thesaurus
A thesaurus is a writer’s best friend (my all-time favorite is The Synonym Finder by Rodale). A thesaurus will help your child find synonyms for repeated words that keep cropping up in the writing. It can also help her find more specific words to replace dull words that contribute to boring prose.
And if you’re looking for curriculum to help your students write more descriptively, consider WriteShop Primary Book C for grades 2-4 (or even older) and WriteShop I for grades 6-10. Both offer several lessons on concrete description that will draw out the best in your young writers and make their writing sparkle with interesting, colorful vocabulary!
Whether you live internationally, rurally, or attend a local convention offered to your community, you won’t want to miss The Schoolhouse Expo.
Convenient.Sponsored by The Old Schoolhouse magazine, and featuring a stellar lineup of speakers, the Schoolhouse Expo offers all the perks of a homeschool conference—but without the hassle—including:
Popular keynote speakers like Susan Wise Bauer, Diana Waring, and Todd Wilson
Vendor booths
Freebies
Door prizes
And so much more!
Flexible.Unable to listen to all the sessions live? The Schoolhouse Expo lets you choose! All sessions will be recorded. Plan to attend some sessions live, and then listen to any or all workshop audios at your convenience—all year long.
Practical.The Schoolhouse Expo will help your home and homeschool run more smoothly with suggestions, encouragement, and practical, how-to information. You’ll enjoy the fresh ideas, camaraderie, and affirmation that homeschooling works—all from a solid, Christian perspective.
Join WriteShop at the Expo
Attend Kim’s workshop.As one of the featured speakers, I’m excited to share tips and ideas on Growing Your Child’s Writing Vocabulary. The live session will include a Q and A time.
Visit WriteShop’s virtual vendor booth.
Chance to win a WriteShop door prize:a $50 gift certificate
Early Bird Registration
Register early.Get some special perks—and a $5 discount if you register by March 31, 2010. Regularly $24.99, attendance is only $19.99. Take advantage of this limited-time offer by registering now—and I’ll see you at the Schoolhouse Expo!
I’ve been thinking about the importance of giving our kids a wider audience for their writing. After all, if they only write for an audience of one—whether parent or teacher—they tend to write for his or her benefit alone.
But if we want our students’ writing to improve, shouldn’t we also encourage them to find opportunities to share their stories, poems, and essays with someone other than Mom?
Benefits of a Wider Audience
Having an audience takes your child beyond the point of writing for a grade. So why not start thinking of ways to broaden his understanding of what an audience can be?
Help him experience how others can find joy 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.
Think Inside—and Outside—the Box
When Debbie and I taught WriteShop classes, we always ended the year with a parent tea. The students recited poetry, and we passed out class anthologies. As the children pored over the stories and poems in the spiral-bound booklets, it was clear how much they enjoyed seeing their works in print.
But an anthology is just one of many ways to publish. I want to challenge you to think outside the box, too! Here are some other suggestions for expanding your kids’ writing audience or showcasing their writing projects.
So help your children look for new ways to share their work with others. Once their writing pieces get published—whether in traditional or nontraditional ways—they’ll begin to grasp what it really means to be an author!
Share a comment:What are some things you do to give your children’s writing a bigger audience?
Hi, I'm Kim--curriculum author, speaker, retired homeschooler, and grandma to seven. Welcome to my little corner of the blogosphere. My heart is to equip and inspire you to teach writing, even when it seems like it's always an uphill battle. I invite you to poke around the blog, where you'll find writing and poetry activities, grammar tips, and hope for reluctant writers. Thanks for stopping by!
If you homeschool in the Dallas area, the annual Home School Book Fair is coming this weekend to nearby Arlington May 11-12, 2012! With great speakers and all sorts of curriculum exhibitors, you won’t want to miss this extra-special conference!
“I am working through your 
by J.R.R. Tolkien.
by Alexander McCall Smith describes a different scene altogether:
