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

2. How can we help our children with writing in the intermediate grades?

3. Quick-write Open up your writer’s notebook to a new blank page. Write today’s date. I’m going to read a poem to you and then I’m going to ask you to write. I want you to just write, try to keep your hand moving, and don’t worry about the mechanics. Try to fill the page.

4. I Need to Find a Place I need to find a place Where friendship never burns out. I need to find a place Where I can scream and shout. I need to find a place Where love is forever Where you don’t give up – never! I need to find a place That is comforting and calm. A place – where nothing goes wrong. -Emily G. (100 Quickwrites by Linda Rief)

5. 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).

6. 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?

7. 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

8. 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.

9. 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.

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

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

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

13. Resources National Writing Project: http://www.nwp.org/cs/public/print/doc/resou rces/encourage_writing.csp Scholastic: http://www.scholastic.com/parents/ National Council of Teachers of English: http://www.ncte.org/positions/statements/ho wtohelpenglish