I got so much out of this class by Andrew Pudewa. I have four pages of notes (and I still couldn't write fast enough) so I thought I'd split this into two posts so you're not totally overwhelmed. Writing is another one of those things that I knew I wanted to work on next year (the other being band) so this talk was extremely helpful. Mr. Pudewa said this was originially called The Seven Sins of Writing, but thought it may turn people off. One, because the number seven sounds awfully daunting...as does the word 'sins.' So he changed it...
So, here we go with the four deadly errors of writing.
Deadly Error #1: Over-correcting - Probably the most common and dangerous mistake. Writing is not like math where it's right or wrong. Writing is about improvement and there are many levels of improvement. Everybody starts somewhere and everyone improves. Many of us might recall the experience of getting back a redmark plastered paper. Did we look at it and think, “Wow, look at all these great corrections. If I carefully study the teacher’s marks and really try to remember these things when I write my next paper, I’ll probably get a better grade. I can hardly wait!”? Unlikely. More commonly a child looks at the paper and each red mark makes him feel: “I’m wrong...I’m bad....I’m stupid...I don’t know anything...I’ll never be able to do this...etc.” Or perhaps we received a paper with no corrections or comments but simply a “C+/B-” at the top and no explanation as to why the poor grade. That’s another cause for hopelessly thinking: “I’m lousy at this and have no idea how to do better.” How then to correct?
Think of “editing” rather than correcting. Every good writer has an editor (and few good editors are accomplished writers). Every child needs an editor, and parents often need to know what that means. The difference between a mom and an editor is that an editor gives corrections without a lecture attached. An editor does not give grades; he helps prepare a piece for publication. He is an assistant rather than a teacher. With children, your goal is to help them produce a finished product they can be proud of and teach by “editing,” not “correcting.” So, you should only mark on your child's writing assignments if they are going to correct and revise it. Otherwise, your comments and lectures on what they should've done differently will not get through. (Think back to Charlie Brown and how the adults always sounded muffled...that's how your corrections will sound to your child.) Unless you require revision, write positive comments on their paper, give it back to your child and be done with it.
TEACH AT THE POINT OF NEED (this was a big one for me). Instead of correcting, choose a particularly awkward sentence from the child’s composition. Copy it into a notebook for yourself, and then at the start of the next lesson, create a similarly awkward sentence (be sure it's not exactly what your child wrote so they don't know this came from their paper). Put the sentence on the board and discuss it with your students, helping them to see why it is awkward or incorrect, then rewrite it together. Repeat this process each day or each lesson, using a similar (but different) sentence, until they can consistently correct it by themselves. Children (and adults) are always more willing to correct other people’s errors than their own. By providing them with contrived mistakes to correct, we give them the practice they need in small, focused, non-threatening parts. So, we teach at the point of need, without stomping all over our child for every awkward word or construction (which can wipe out the student’s motivation).
He recommended several editing helps: Editor in Chief by Critical Thinking and Great Adventures in Editing were the ones I heard and wrote down. There were 1 or 2 more that he mentioned.
Deadly Error #2: Unclear Assignments - Perhaps the most frustrating problem for children, whose basic nature it is to want to know exactly what is expected of them. Boys especially, crave concrete instructions - "tell me what to do" as opposed to "let's work on it." We need to communicate as precisely as possible what we want our children to do. How long do we want their paper to be? We must give clear guidelines. We cannot say, "make it long enough to cover the subject." This is too unclear because it is vague and open-ended. Tell them how many paragraphs you want (if you tell them how many words you want, they will likely count their words and add as many fillers as they can like 'and then.' It's better to tell them how many paragraphs you want). Be specific about what you want in the paragraphs. A topic sentence, how many supporting sentences and a concluding sentence. (Elementary kids should have 3 or 4 supporting sentences...increase up to 8 in middle and high school.) Or if they're doing a book report, tell them in the 1st paragraph you want to know about the characters, setting, author, etc. The 2nd paragraph would be about the problem that occurs in the book. The 3rd paragraph would tell about the solution/conclusion of the book. Define what you want in each paragraph.
Make sure if the assignment were given to you you'd know exactly what to do.
To be continued with Deadly Errors #3 and #4...I know, the suspense will kill you!
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