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Tina P.
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| Posted: Nov 10 2005 at 6:41pm | IP Logged
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What happens to creativity when a child has to write it down. My kids can play happily all day, can tell me scores of things about books they've read. But ask them to write any of this down and they say, "Well, I don't know what to say." Even when I offer to type or write it for them, they clam up. Why is that? How do I get them to open up for writing or even narration?
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Tina, wife to one and mom to 9 + 3 in heaven
Mary's Muse
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teachingmom
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| Posted: Nov 10 2005 at 10:57pm | IP Logged
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Tina P. wrote:
| How do I get them to open up for writing or even narration? |
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I have a success story to share from this week on this very topic. We are studying ancient Egypt this semester for history. Up to now history has always been one of my girls' favorite subjects. For some reason, they have all decided that ancient Egypt is completely boring. I really don't understand it because I am finding out lots of interesting things!
When we were talking yesterday about them doing a comprehensive narration soon about ancient Egypt, I was getting all sorts of groans and complaints. Then I suddenly had a great idea. One thing my older three girls do find interesting is their favorite book series -- Harry Potter. (I know that many of you don't read these, but you could adapt my idea to fit something else.) I told them to write a story about the Weasley's trip to Egypt (Ron's family takes a trip there one summer in one of the books) and have them be magically transported back to ancient times. Then they could narrate what they have been learning in the context of writing about the characters they love from HP.
We have a long list of vocabulary words related to ancient Egypt on our refrigerator--words like hieroglyph, archaeologist, embalming, pyramid, canopic jars, etc. I told them they have to include all of those words in the story, and that should help them to hit most of the important stuff.
Well, they were very enthusiastic about writing today. My 4th and 6th graders each wrote about 5 handwritten pages and aren't nearly finished yet. They are actually having a good time with this. What a difference from yesterday!
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~Irene (Mom to 6 girls, ages 7-19)
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MacBeth
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| Posted: Nov 11 2005 at 9:00am | IP Logged
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Hey Tina!
Andrew Pudewa has an interesting take on creativity...and I tend to agree. He is coming from a Suzuki music background so that ought to put his thoughts into perspective.  He says that just a painters copy the masters, and musicians play music before they write their own pieces, kids need to be exposed to great literary creativity before they can write creatively on their own with any fluency. In other words, kids should hear and read and copy the masters of literature so that when it comes to a creative writing assignment, they will have the skills to do it well.
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MacBeth in NY
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Karen E.
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| Posted: Nov 11 2005 at 11:46am | IP Logged
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Irene,
I love your idea. (Btw, my girls got bored with ancient Egypt last year, too. They loved the hands-on projects we did -- made canopic jars and udjat eyes and things like that -- but their interest quickly strayed.)
Tina,
I agree with MacBeth's/Pudewa's observation that kids need to be exposed to lots of good writing before they can do it, so of course keep doing that. And another trick I've found that helps is to put their writing in a context that makes sense to them. For example, ask them to write a letter to a friend, favorite aunt, whatever, and tell that person all the wonderful details they've been sharing with you. An essay suddenly becomes less intimidating when it begins with, "Dear Grandma." 
I think another thing that helps is to stress that writing is a process. Many kids expect their first draft to be perfect, so they stress over saying/writing everything perfectly the first time out. By emphasizing that they are doing a rough draft, you free them from that stress. Tell them nothing matters with the first draft -- not spelling, or vocabulary or grammar or anything. The rough draft is to get their ideas out of their heads and on to the paper. Only then can they begin to craft the writing.
Stressing the freedom of rough drafts helped my oldest daughter tremendously. It also helped her to know that great writers often do many drafts of their books, stories or poems before considering it "done." (She loves to read bios of writers, so she learned some of those stats on her own.)
Does this make sense?
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Karen E.
mom to three on earth, and several souls in God's care
Visit my blog, with its shockingly clever title, "Karen Edmisten."
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juliecinci
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| Posted: Nov 11 2005 at 7:13pm | IP Logged
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I'd love to address this too.
Sometimes the energy expended in telling is shot when it's time to write. It's like being asked to go jogging on a high school track after you just ran twenty minutes in a neighborhood, all so that you can measure how far you ran. It feels like, "Well shoot. I've already run; why do I have to again?"
It's better to catch the thought/story/ideas when they are fresh - brand new. At first, I do it this way.
I catch the child in the act of thinking.
Let's say you are making lunch and your 9 yo dd prances up to you to tell you all about the game she is playing with her doll. Stop spreading peanut butter, grab the paper napkin nearest with a pen and start jotting down her words as she expresses them in that first rush.
She might wonder what you're doing. Just let her know that she is to keep talking because "this is so good I want to share it with your dad at dinner tonight and I don't want to forget what you are saying."
Then keep writing. And then at dinner, read the napkin to your hubby offering lots of natural praise.
Kids need to make the connection that what they have expressed verbally is worth preserving in writing so that a reader (audience) will enjoy it.
Once that connection is made (even several times), kids become more able to write. They are more willing to put in some work because they want to produce the reaction they witnessed before.
Lastly, if your kids don't have great mechanics yet, you can work on those using copywork and dictation so that they will gain confidence for those times when they begin to write their own words.
Hth!
Julie
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Julie
Homeschooling five for fourteen years
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4Real Forums : Language Arts Come Alive
Topic: Creativity and writing
