Develop Your Craft To Become a Great Writing Instructor

Many teachers complain their kids don't want to write, so I ask, do you enjoy writing? I've found a teacher's love of a subject matter is contagious. 

In the 1990s, I purchased a few writing lesson books and gave my students fill-in-the-blank lessons. The author started the story and would stop to have students add details. Students used three sentences to describe a person or place. It looked interesting, so I wrote along with my kids.

Before long, I discovered I loved this activity and would share my work with students. I applied each writing lesson to my craft, and guess what? I was writing novels. I've written five manuscripts for fun and multiple reading passages on TpT. I downloaded one middle-grade novel about bullying on TpT as well.

It occurred to me, how does one who doesn't write him or herself teach writing? How do you critique a kid's work if you don't know how to improve it: This is why I recommend writing teachers spend this summer working on YOUR craft. Writing is a critical thinking activity that ignites your creative juices, plus it's fun!

Here is a quick prompt to get you going:

The kids were not the only ones waiting for summer vacation. This past summer, we drove to the beach. When we arrived, we spotted an unusual animal. (Your turn: Write three sentences describing what you saw). 

As our son approached the creature, I said, "Stop!" After all, we didn't know what it was or what it would do to him. Being a curious fellow, his face told us we were in trouble. (Your turn: Describe the boy in three sentences.)

I tried to grab our child, but it was too late. Just like Spider Man's spider bite gave the cartoon hero amazing abilities, our kid became __________________.

If you enjoy writing, you can create something that will make you proud. My students beamed after strong writing, especially when they continually won our city-wide competitions!

I have multiple writing lessons with tips on how to improve writing. Each lesson is a specific skill. However, the trick which helps the most is to eliminate "be verbs."

For example: A kid will write: The dog was big.

First, many adjectives relate to size, so why use this first-grade verb?

More importantly, think about how much power the writer can achieve by removing the "was" and using what follows as the adjective before the noun. Next, find a strong action verb to get the dog to do something that brings talk of its size to another level.

The enormous dog lunged and showed its gunk-filled teeth as slobber dripped down its quivering jaw.

I enjoyed writing that sentence, so I suggest you have fun this summer using writing lessons on your own craft. This will develop a love of writing which can be passed to your kids this fall! Best of luck!

Joyce

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