Saturday, April 9, 2016

National Encourage a Young Writer Day

Sunday, April 10th is National Encourage a Young Writer Day.

When speaking with students these days, many don't enjoy writing or even reading. I take this as a personal challenge to motivate them to read good writers and to become good writers.

Honestly, I began to wonder not too long back who would become our future authors. When teachers announce a writing assignment, many are met with groans of dread. Part of the reason for this, I'm afraid, is that the writing we're teaching them is geared toward passing tests. Instead of being able to work through an intriguing writing curriculum, teachers are forced to hammer writing survival tactics to produce essays on tests that mean nothing in the end. Students are left to think that this is all there is to writing.

I've been piloting a program in the school I work in part-time called TAG - Tomorrow's Author Guild. I'm creating hands on, visual type writing lessons, presenting them to various classes, and then challenging them with a writing assignment. My publisher, Prism Book Group, is sponsoring this endeavor because of the strong desire to support future authors.

For this obscure holiday, I want to encourage the young writers out there. One way to learn more about writing is to read good books. As an author, I do this myself. I not only enjoy reading a book for the story but for learning more about how authors write. Another way to learn more about writing is to write. Dabble in writing poetry or stories or even reporting on things that have happened. The more you read, the better you will become at reading. The more you write, the better you will become at writing.

Encourage young writers - they will be the authors of tomorrow.

Check out my TAG blog where you'll find helps for teachers and an ongoing story for young readers.

TAG Blog Link

1 comment:

CraftyMom said...

Excellent post, Paula! As an Essentials Tutor in our local Classical Conversations (CC) community and a mother of 4, I have so enjoyed our switch to CC this year. A big part of that has been the IEW curriculum (Institute for Excellence in Writing) materials used in Essentials for students at least 9 years old. The structured way concepts and skills are presented is both thorough and engaging. In CC, the students are also reinforcing their study of history, but that isn't required for other users of the curriculum. I'm so glad to hear of others using a less product-driven approach to teaching writing. Although my students write something each week, sometimes even a research paper, it's all about the process of writing and learning to express what they have learned or created. Keep up the great work!!