Continuing on with the last two errors of writing...
Deadly Error #3: Withholding help - "If I help my child too much he won't be learning." Haven't we all thought this at one time or another? Or, how many times have our children said, "I don't know what to write about," and we respond with, "Be creative...just make something up." In other words, "Be - like - God." Ouch! Did that make you flinch the way it did me in this class by Andrew Pudewa? His solution to the "I don't know what to write about" problem is to let them know it's okay to use already existing ideas. Have our children had enough life experience to pull something out of thin air and write about it? If we were told to 'just make something up,' would we struggle thinking of something? Mr. Pudewa's advice is to provide content through a 'source text.' Let them re-write an existing story. Give them content to work with. We should teach HOW to write before we charge into WHAT to write. "Helping too much" is deeply ingrained in those of us who were public schooled. Schools have convinced parents not to help their children...Mr. Pudewa says 'this is dumb!' We think it won't be 'fair' if we help too much. "I shouldn't just tell them what to write...it wouldn't be their own work." There is truth to that statement, but we can't forget our goals: to model structure and style, teach through application and develop confidence and fluency. It is IMPOSSIBLE to help a child too much. They will tell us when to stop. "Okay, Mom, I've got it." Children are wired for independence. He used this example...how do we teach our children to swim? We hold them up, show them how to kick and stroke, teach them how to blow bubbles thru their nose. So, why wouldn't we do the same when teaching how to write? There is nothing 'illegal' about teaching by providing examples and options. It is especially important for reluctant writers. How else are they going to learn? (I will have another post soon about Teaching the Reluctant Writer with application to this point and how to use a source text.)
Deadly Error #4: Over expectation - We CANNOT compare our children with others. Mr. Pudewa says this will either lead to vanity or bitterness. Comparing children does not benefit the children - it benefits society. It comes down to this: they are GOD'S children and we don't need to compare them to others. Standardized tests are as meaningless now as they will be in 16 years. (This was particularly comforting to me. All 3 of my children will be tested next month and I have found myself getting anxious about it. I'm not worried about Abbi, but I am concerned about the boys. Jacob, because if he's asked questions that he doesn't know the answer to, he feels dumb (like why don't I know this? If they're asking me, I should know the answer) and he gets teary-eyed. Caleb because he is a struggling learner. He still doesn't know the difference between a verb and an adjective. Do I care? No, because I know he'll eventually get it. He still has many years of education in front of him, and a verb will always be a verb. But I know that when the test results come back, if Caleb is in the 'below average' category, I will feel like I've failed him.) The bottom line is that elementary kids should love learning and believe they're good at stuff. So, we need to allow our children to focus on one aspect of writing without expecting them to do everything right the first (or even second) time. When they've turned in a paper, we cannot say, "You had this word on a spelling test a few weeks ago. How could you spell it wrong in this story?" Spelling, Handwriting, and Composition are very different neurological functions. These activities don't even happen in the same areas of the brain (which was confirmed in the brain class I went to that I'll share about soon). Not that Spelling and Handwriting are not important - they are. But they are very different activities than composition. For many children, writing neatly requires full concentration, so stopping to determine the correct spelling of a word can derail the whole train of thought. We should always look for something to compliment first, before pointing out errors. Success breeds success and we, as the teachers, must be the coach, not the judge.
Writing is an art - we practice, we improve.
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