It is never too soon to start children on the road to successful writing. We can, and should, work with even the youngest of writers to begin them on the journey from scribbles to letters, to words, to sentences, to purposeful writing. Write Now! offers a practical, proven pathway for encouraging and supporting early writers through publishing and celebrating their work using four key strategies to get them underway.
Karyn Wellhousen Tunks and Rebecca Giles know that for children, sharing their work with family and peers is a powerful motivator for learning to write. Through publishing, students acquire the basic mechanics and concepts of writing, as well as the confidence that their markings can, and will, be interpreted and understood by readers. Tunks and Giles’ four strategies will help you guide students from their first written pieces to more sophisticated writing:
- Dictating Oral Anecdotes helps children see how speech and narrative are connected to writing.
- Translating Kid Writing gives young writers their first taste of composing and an opportunity to take risks with writing.
- Creating Cooperative Chronicles introduces children to revising and editing through the energy of group work.
- Encouraging Independent Authors brings it all together for writers’ first on-their-own writing experiences.
From sharp ideas on setting up a classroom full of oral and written language and learning centers where young writers can flourish, to tips on watching for key developmental markers, to information on working with English language learners, introducing genres, and organizing individual student projects, Write Now! has everything you’ll need to launch children into a lifetime of writing.
There’s no better time to start young children writing than today. So whether you’re a new teacher looking for an effective way to teach writing or a seasoned practitioner interested in a philosophically sound approach that’s adaptable to a wide range of abilities, start reading Write Now!
