When it comes to writing, you should start early. This is why as a teacher, you need to provide your students with the right lessons. It should be more than just handing out learning to write worksheets for your students to fill up. If you want their writing skills to blossom, then you need to be active in teaching them.
Here are a few lessons and activities to help boost their writing skills:
Conduct Regular Writing Workshops
Writing workshops may seem like something that college kids do for their creative writing courses, but children can also do workshops. Of course, it is a lot less stringent than adult workshops. Writing workshops allow children to write about a variety of things with full freedom. In addition, it showcases the talent of children. When planning a workshop, start with a lesson and then move on to a writing period and finish off with some sharing so that your students would have a taste of having others learn about their writing.
Focus on Mini-Lessons
One of the things you’ll notice about young people is that sometimes, they have a short attention span. Though teaching them to focus is a good idea, just working within their limits is often a better idea. This is where short mini-lessons come in. Start the day with a five to ten-minute lesson and then move on to an activity that uses the lesson. These can be simple things like how to pronounce a word or how to use it. These mini-lessons should be structured so that they move from one to the next and their learning is structured.
Create Picture Books
Children love picture books and they are the first type of book that children will recognize. This recognition factor makes it easy when you want them to make their own picture book. A drawing and a short sentence for each page are well within their abilities. Instead of just a sheet of paper, why not give them five sheets and instruct them on drawing and writing. With a child’s enthusiasm for making things, they’ll love making their own books.
Start Them on Journals
Journaling is a habit that should be started early. Young students often take pride in their achievements and a journal can go a long way in helping with that. If you want to get them into the habit of writing, journal writing gives them a chance to express themselves daily and without any restrictions.
To be able to see the progress of their writing, collect your student’s work if possible. Keep them somewhere safe so that you can review them after a few weeks. Children like to feel special and knowing that their work is treasured encourages them to write more and to get better at their work.
When you start them off correctly, children tend to do well in whatever path they choose. For young prospective writers, being given the above lessons can lead to a rewarding and fulfilling life as a writer. For those who don’t take up the pen as their goal in life, the life skills that writing imparts can be very useful. Begin their lessons now so that their skills are developed correctly.
