Nurturing the Young Writer

At some point in a student’s career, you may hear these spine-tingling words: I hate writing.

Parents often ask me: How do I get my student interested in writing? How can I encourage them to do it on their own?

After five years of teaching young students, I have some observations I want to share about keeping the love of language alive in each student.

• Make it fun. We live in a culture that believes “No Pain, No Gain.” We do week-long juice cleanses. We exercise until it hurts. We work 80 hour work weeks. For some reason, if something is fun, we don’t place much value in its ability to affect us.

  At CampWriteOn, we play games at the beginning and end of every one of my creative writing classes.

  But that’s not writing, is it?

  Think about the last time you had fun. How many details do you remember from that time? Would you do it again?

• Use positive reinforcement. Maybe it’s human nature. Maybe it’s that we all want our children to do their best. We know we shouldn’t. Then, out of nowhere the words come flying out like a broken-winged bird: You should. As in, You should take that sentence out. You should check your spelling. You should write more paragraphs. All of a sudden, you are child’s worst critic, crossing out lines and replacing words they know with words you know. Although you suspect that at best this process will end with tears and resentment, you don’t know what else to do.

  Take a step back. Do it now! Tell them what you love about their writing. This feels strange at first; you might feel like if you praise them too much, they’ll never learn from mistakes. Let me be clear: Don’t give a child false praise. They’ll hear it in your voice like the smart kids that they are. Be genuine. Tell them what phrases or parts you love. Phrase what confuses you as a question. For example: I love the beginning of this essay/story/poem. I wonder if it needs another word or sentence or two to make it more clear?

• Make it fun. It bears repeating. Play Apples to Apples, Pictionary & Exquisite Corpse. Most importantly, tell them that their words matter, because they do.