Writing With Kids

I love school visits. I spent a good chunk of my life in education, and nothing gives me a rush quite like being in front of a big group of kids again. When I’m presenting, teachers appreciate the chance to sit back, enjoy, and maybe even dream up follow-up activities, instead of constantly scanning the crowd, and stepping through seas of bodies to get at the grand-prize winners who then get to sit at their feet.

After a day of presentations this week, a teacher told me she marveled at how I could control, educate, and entertain many classes of kids at once. The librarian laughed, remembering a few teachers chuckling over an exchange I had with a student during a presentation.

Through interactive activities and songs, the kids learned about story structure and characters finding solutions to their struggles. To stress the need to have characters struggle, I say “No Struggle?” and the kids answer “No Story!” At one point late in the day, a handful of students were getting distracted, so I got their attention back by saying “No Struggle?” After a chorus of “No Story!” a little guy yelled out, “Hey, where was the struggle in that?” I answered “Oh, that was a different kind of struggle.”

Teaching is a struggle. Life is a struggle. Anything worthwhile can be a struggle. For us and for kids. There’s power in Story, and as teachers, we can use that power to not only create writers and readers, but to shape character and solve problems. Life is writing is life.