1. Home-School Connection: Promoting Writers
Literacy Consultant K-5: Launa Kruithof

2. How can we help our children with writing?

3. What does the research say?
70% of students in grades 4 –12 are low-achieving writers (Persky et al., 2003).
Every year in the United States large numbers of adolescents graduate from high school unable to write at the basic levels required by colleges or employers (Alliance for Excellent Education, 2006).

4. What can YOU do? Make writing fun! Don’t make it a chore.
Show your child that YOU are a writer
Set aside a time to write together
Find a place in the home to keep writing supplies
Is there a place in the home where you can write together?

5. Listen to soothing music when you write in a quiet atmosphere
Be encouraging
Give them praise for what they did well as a writer
Find writing opportunities at home and for different reasons

6. Have a conversation about your writing before you write
Ask questions- make it a conversation not an interrogation
What did you hear? see? taste? feel? smell?
Who was with you?
What happened first? After that? At the end?
Tell me more.

7. Focus on the ideas in the writing not the mechanics
Keep the flow of writing going
Don’t critique every error
Help them think about capitalization and punctuation
Spelling: “Say the word slowly and write the sounds you hear.”
Teach them to circle words that they are unsure about and show them how to use tools to help them.

8. Keep a Writer’s Notebook
Collection of thoughts
Be an observer
Make lists
Quick-writes
Reviews of movies & books
Feelings
Memories

9. What can we write about? Anything! Make it authentic: Lists
Thank you notes
Letters
Invitations
Leave a message for someone
Newspaper article
Flyers

10. Quick-write
Open up your writer’s notebook to a new blank page. Write today’s date. I’m going to read a story to you and then I’m going to ask you to write.

11. In your notebook write about-
If you had an imaginary friend, what would you do together?
Just write, try to keep your hand moving, and don’t worry about the mechanics.
Use your best spelling, grammar, punctuation, and capitalization.
Try to fill the page.

12. Station 1 Decorate your own writer’s notebook to make it personal
Today- add stickers to personalize
When you get home you can add more!
Magazine and newspaper cutouts
Photographs
Ticket stubs (movies, sports, concerts, etc.)

13. Station 2
Tape in the photograph that you brought inside your notebook (if you choose) and write about that special time.
If you don’t have one, take one that is provided and make up a story. Think about the 5 W’s (who, what, when, where, why)
Try to take yourself back to that moment.
Think about your senses. What did you- hear? smell? taste? feel? see?
Try to fill the page with your best spelling, capitalization, and punctuation.

14. Station 3
Tape in the artifact that you brought inside your notebook (if you choose) and write about that special time. If you don’t have one, sketch the artifact or moment first.
Try to take yourself back to that moment.
Think about your senses. What did you- hear? smell? taste? feel? see?
Try to fill the page with your best spelling, capitalization, and punctuation.

15. Questions/ Comments? What’s next?
What would you want to see in future workshops?
Would you be interested in more workshops to write side-by-side with your child?

16. Resources
Buckner, A. (2005). Notebook know-how: strategies for the writer’s notebook. Portland, Maine: Stenhouse.
National Writing Project:
Scholastic:
National Council of Teachers of English: