When I taught Fifth Grade, we spent quite a bit of time teaching writing.  Descriptive wriitng, persuasive writing, informative writing and …  inevitably when it came time for me to read the kids writing, there were a good portion of the students that would write stories that closely paralleled a recent movie they had seen.  At the time I thought that the kids watched too much TV :)

Now we have our own budding writer, Nehemiah.  Last fall in Sherbrooke I began teaching him writing using a curriculum that was recommended to us put out by the Institute for Excellence in Writing.  I have been impressed by it.  The lessons begin by having the student take a non-fiction paragraph and find three key words for each sentence.  After that, the child uses the key words to rewrite their own sentences/ paragraph.  I like that it doesn’t throw my nine year old onto a blank piece of paper and ask him to “write a story” because inevitably I think he would write one about the latest movie he saw (which was Little Rascals).  I like that at this stage anyway, it is pretty controlled.  After this initial stage, Nehemiah learned to summarize the setting, conflict, climax and resolution of a fairy tale.  For example, one of the stories he summarized was the Princess and the Pea. 

Now that we’ve settled into life in Abeche, we’ve started writing again.   Most recently Nehemiah has started composing his own stories using the format he was using in summarizing other short pieces of fiction last year.  Nehemiah does not like hard work.  He doesn’t like handwriting.  But one thing Nehemiah does like is talking and telling stories and using big words that he has learned in other books:)
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So in an effort to give Nehemiah some motivation for his writing, we have invited him as a third author onto our blog.  He is excited to share with you some of his writing and some of life here.  I will add one caveat.  Most of Nehemiah’s writing now is birthed while he and I sit on our couch and brainstorm and talk about what sounds best or what ways we can paint a picture with words.  So as Nehemiah signed his last story BY NEHEMIAH AND HIS MAMA for now, we are cowriting.  I hope slowly as he becomes more confident and it doesn’t feel like so much work to him but more fun, that he will slowly become independent.
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