What Parents Can Do

What Parents Can Do:
Parents often want to know what they can do to help their child become stronger writers. Many things, actually. Here’s a brief list of suggestions, to which you should add your own ideas based on your experience as a teacher, parent or both:

For Parents of Student Writers:
1. Read to your child. The reading-writing connection is powerful. When you read aloud to your child, you do many things: show that books are exciting and enjoyable to share, expand your child’s vocabulary and “sentence sense,” and help him or her to understand why writing matters- as a way of communicating to a reader. When you read, put all the passion you can into your reading. Have fun! Let go of inhibition, and let the text carry you. Don’t be concerned if you do not know every word. You and your student writer can work your way through pictures and/or text together. What matters most is that your child sees and hears you enjoying reading.

2. Encourage your child to read to you. Students who read aloud learn to read for meaning. They also develop an ear for voice and fluency—two vital qualities of strong writing. When a child learns to read with expression, he or she becomes a confident reader and also learns to put that same expression into his or her own writing. Really listen as your child reads. Sink into the world of the book. Let the text sweep you away.

3. Be a listener. Ask your child to share his or her writing—even if it is unfinished. Don’t feel that you have to be a grammarian, teacher, or coach. Relax. The most important thing you can do is listen with full attention and interest. Listen as you would to a cherished letter from a friend you have not seen in a long while. Respond to the content from your heart. Tell your child what you hear; what you love; what you picture in your mind; what you feel, think of, or remember; and what makes an impression on you.

4. Talk about topics. Many students have difficulty coming up with topics to write about. You can help. Talk with your child about experiences and interests you have shared. What do you like to do together? Have you overcome a frightening, sad, or challenging experience? Talk it through. Have you laughed together about something? Visited an interesting place? See if you can reconstruct it. Share family stories your child may have forgotten or may not know, including stories of his or her own childhood (and yours). Families make a great resource for writing topics. A family photo album or scrapbook (if you keep one) can be a good place to begin. Perhaps a sibling, aunt, uncle, or grandparent has stories to share or can offer a geographic or historic perspective on life. Other general topic areas; places or people you remember, hobbies, sports, pets, school experiences, work, friends, interesting people, and favorite or least favorite foods.

5. Write. Let your child see you write—a note to a friend, a thank-you letter, an invitations, a letter of explanation, a letter of inquiry, a resume, or job application letter, an evaluation or report, a letter to the editor, a recipe, or a list. Each time you write, you show your child that writing is an important life skill and that it has many purposes.

6. Ask your child to write. Do you need to reserve a hotel room or a car? Do you need to correct an address or request something from an agency or company? Do you want to comment on a product or service? Are you planning a family get-together? Are you putting together an album or scrapbook? Are you sending a greeting card? Let your child write captions, letters, notes, explanations, or invitations. If he or she is very young, you can help, perhaps even doing some of the writing or keyboarding as your child comes up with ideas. When you do this, the child is still doing the thinking part of the writing—the most important part.

7. Let your child be your teacher. Writers and editors learn by teaching. So let your child be your teacher. Ask him or her to explain the meaning of a passage, interpret a piece of business correspondence, or help you to rewrite a sentence to make it shorter or more clear. Ask for help coming up with the right word, the best way to begin a letter, a correct spelling, or the just-right way to end a piece. You’ll find that one of the best things you can do is to seek your child’s help.

8. See your child as a writer. Virtually nothing you can do has more power and impact than believing in your child’s ability to write. Take every opportunity you can to encourage him or her and to say to your child, in your own words, “You are a writer.”

Taken from "Creating Writers Through 6-Trait Writing Assessment and Instruction" by Vicki Spandel