This year I have been teaching writing in our little three family coop.  To be honest, I found it a laughable suggestion when my two good friends suggested that I be the writing teacher.  I do not, nor have I ever considered myself a writer.   They insisted and  I finally relented thinking,  “Boy is it  a good thing you learn more by teaching.”

I decided to follow a teaching model set up by a man named Roger Corey.  My son attended one of his writing classes a few years ago and it was the most awesome and encouraging experience for him.   Mr. Corey also wrote a creative writing curriculum called The creative writer that luckily I had purchased and was setting on my bookshelf.

Armed with Mr. Corey’s ideas and lots of prizes I attempted to teach the writing class.  It has turned out to be better than I had hoped for.

Each day we start with a review of the prior week’s assignment.  I simply look it over and make sure that it is complete (The mom’s are responsible for helping them with grammar and spelling during the revising portion of their assignment.)  If it is complete then they can pick item from the prize box (the box consist mostly of candy and any gross plastic body parts that I can find.)

 Next, we have copy work.  I pick out some inspiring quote, we talk about its meaning and they write it down.

The fun starts when they opportunity to share their stories.  Each child picks two people to sit up front with them and listen to their story.  One sits on the right of him and the other sits on the left.  They have very special jobs.  The person on the right listens and finds something he likes about the story.  The person on the left listens and looks for something he would have liked to hear more about.  Then the student reads his story.

I am amazed at how encouraging the kids have been to one another.  During the, “I would like to hear more about…” portion of the review they always point out that they would like to have heard more of a description.  This is something they understand because they have been writing descriptions as part of their assignments each week.

If there is time left we get to have a “ten minute writing prompt.”  The kids especially like writing from the point of view of something else.  For example - one writing prompt was to write from the point of view of a freshly cleaned floor.  They are given the prompt and then instructed that they have to be writing the whole ten minutes.    I pipe in every now and then and tell them how much time they have left.  This makes them write franticly towards the end.  They love sharing what they have wrote.  It is almost always something silly and they all hope to make someone laugh.

I finish up the class by going over next week’s assignment.  I found that I really needed help with this so I went again to my bookshelf and pulled off a curriculum called, Write, Write, Write.  It has helped because it provides step by step instruction.  It has separate assignments for prewriting, rough draft and revising.  In addition to this I have them write a description or give a ten minute writing prompt.   

In the next post I will tell you about the writer's spotlight presentation we had.