Writing With Kids

My daughter says she wants to be a model. That’s a foreign language to this former northern Minnesota tomboy, though I did get my ears pierced this year and bought my first high heels. However, I’ve been a huge supporter of modeling for decades. The modeling I’m talking about is writing with your students.

We learn to talk by listening. We explore words, make mistakes (which shows courage and risk-taking), and refine our speech throughout our lives. To become a fluent speaker with a sufficient vocabulary to function in our world, we need to hear the words of others.

Reading is a form of modeling the written word, but when we read, it’s often someone’s final product, not the messy exploration that came before. Write with your students. If you’re feeling uncomfortable about that, ask yourself why. Were you criticized for your writing? Did you grow up feeling you were never good enough? Is your perfectionism out of control? You’re the adult in your classroom. If it’s difficult for you, imagine being a child — and no, don’t kid yourself into thinking it’s much easier for them. They have to write when you tell them to write. You have the power. Think of the power they would have if you wrote, too. Let them see you struggle with words, spelling, ideas, organization, word choice.

Show kids your writing process. Write in front of them. Write with them. Use that smart board, overhead projector, or chart and easel — whatever you have — so they can see you put down the first thing that comes to mind. And then mark it up with your changes, lining out, adding with arrows, using formal or informal editing marks. There’s so much that goes on between those first words on paper and the piece of writing they just read in a book. You don’t have to end up with a publishable manuscript. That’s not what’s going to help them the most anyway. I probably have 50 manuscripts in my computer that will never go anywhere — at least in their current form. Let them see your garbage. Give them permission to write their own.

I dare you to try it. Take a big breath. One step. Today.

How did it feel?