The Downside of Rewriting Popular Passages

1. Limits Creativity

Rewriting popular passages often confines students to the styles and ideas of established authors. This practice can inhibit their ability to think outside the box and develop their unique voice. When students are constantly mimicking others, they miss out on the joy of creating original content and expressing their thoughts in their own words.

2. Suppresses Critical Thinking

Engaging with original writing tasks encourages students to analyze and synthesize information, fostering critical thinking skills. Rewriting, however, often becomes a mechanical exercise, where the focus is on replication rather than comprehension and analysis. This can lead to a superficial understanding of literature and language.

3. Discourages Personal Expression

Every child has a unique perspective and a story to tell. When the curriculum is heavily centered around rewriting, students might feel that their ideas are not valued or important. Encouraging original writing helps children to gain confidence in their abilities and to understand that their thoughts and feelings matter.

4. Fails to Develop Writing Skills

Original writing tasks are essential for developing various writing skills, such as organizing thoughts, developing arguments, and employing a range of literary techniques. Rewriting passages from existing works does not provide the same depth of practice in these critical areas.

The Importance of Encouraging Free Thinking and Creativity

1. Fosters Innovation

Encouraging students to think creatively leads to innovative problem-solving skills. By pushing the boundaries of traditional learning, students can apply their knowledge in new and inventive ways.

2. Builds Confidence

When students see their original work appreciated and critiqued, they build confidence in their abilities. This confidence extends beyond writing and can positively impact other areas of their education and life.

3. Enhances Engagement

Students are more engaged and motivated when they are allowed to explore topics that interest them and express their ideas creatively. This engagement can lead to a deeper love for learning and literature.

4. Promotes Individual Growth

Focusing on originality and creativity helps students to develop their unique talents and interests. This personal growth is invaluable and can shape their educational and career paths.

Perils of Checklist-Based Curricula

Many homeschoolers fall into the trap of “group think” when it comes to selecting curricula, valuing harmony and coherence over critical evaluation. Checklist-based curricula might seem thorough, but they often do more harm than good. Here’s why:

1. Inadequate Grammar Foundation

Many checklist-based programs only briefly touch on grammar, which can leave students without a solid foundation. Understanding grammar is crucial for writing clearly and effectively. Without these basics, students often struggle with sentence structure and punctuation, leading to poorly written compositions that fail to communicate effectively.

2. Propensity for Plagiarism

When students are repeatedly asked to rewrite passages in their own words, they can develop a habit of paraphrasing without proper acknowledgment. This practice can inadvertently teach them to plagiarize, as they might not understand the importance of giving credit to original authors.

3. Stifling Creativity

Checklist curricula often stifle creativity by forcing students to adhere to rigid guidelines. This approach can make writing feel like a chore rather than an expressive and enjoyable activity. Students who thrive on creativity might become disengaged and develop a dislike for writing.

4. Inhibiting Voice

A unique writing voice is what makes an author’s work distinct. Checklist-based approaches can inhibit the development of this voice by focusing too much on technical aspects and not enough on personal expression. This can prevent students from finding and honing their own style.

EIW: Fostering Creativity and Learning

At EIW, we understand the importance of nurturing creativity and critical thinking in students. Our K-12 ELA curriculum is designed to inspire original thought and expression, providing students with the tools they need to develop their unique voices. Our program emphasizes:

• Creative Writing Assignments: Encouraging students to explore their imagination and develop their ideas.
• Critical Thinking Exercises: Promoting analysis and synthesis of information.
• Individual Expression: Valuing each student’s unique perspective and ideas.
• Comprehensive Skill Development: Covering a wide range of writing skills, from organization to literary techniques.

By focusing on these areas, Essentials in Writing helps students become confident, innovative thinkers who are prepared for the challenges of the future.

Explore Our Curriculum

If you’re looking for a homeschool ELA curriculum that values creativity and critical thinking, visit EssentialsinWriting.com to learn more about our K-12 programs. Join us in fostering a love for learning and originality in your child’s education.

Growing up, I was homeschooled from 2^nd grade through 12^th grade. When I was twelve years old, my mother had her third child and only son, Elijah. I had always wanted a little brother, so from the very beginning, I had a special love for the little guy. Being so much older than him created a unique relationship between us—making me something of a mixture between an Annoying-But-Loved Sister and a Cool Aunt.

As my brother has grown, I’ve done my best to meet him on his level and connect with him through play. One particularly dear memory I have is when I unintentionally introduced him to creative writing before he had even learned to write words on his own.

Creative Writing Before Writing Words?

One day when my brother was around three or four years old, I cleared a space on the floor of his bedroom for the two of us, pushing all the toys and shoes and blankets to the side. Elijah and I opened a new box of crayons and drew together, holding those one-sentence-per-topic conversations that happen with young kids.

“So, Bub, what’s your favorite color?”

“Blue.”

“That’s a nice color.”

“Velociraptors are my favorite dinosaur.”

“That’s cool. I like stegosauruses.”

“Uh-huh. I saw a dog eating a bug.”

“That’s gross.”

“I like baseball.”

And so on.

The previous Christmas, I had given my brother a little homemade storybook about a knight who saves his sister, a princess, from a dragon (starring ourselves because I’m adorable and sentimental like that). That must have been what brought the idea to our minds, for before long, our random colorings became a project to create a new storybook. I told him that he could come up with the story and draw the pictures, and I would write the words.

The project was on. He’d draw a picture, and then I’d ask him to tell me what it was. (After all, I knew his markings meant something, but I couldn’t decipher them whatsoever without his explanation.)

“Okay, so what’s happening here?”

“These are pirates!”

“Wow, that’s really cool! What else?”

“Um…they like PUPPIES! They love puppies.”

“So they’re nice pirates. Gotcha. I’ll write that down.”

I labeled the picture according to his description, then asked him, “What do these puppy-loving pirates do?”

“They…go on an ADVENTURE!”

“Brilliant! Draw the picture of their adventure.”

Back and forth we went. I kept asking him what happened next. It didn’t matter if it didn’t make sense. It didn’t matter if Elijah told me something that wasn’t in the picture he drew. No matter what, I wrote down what he told me for the story.

I wish I still had that collection of pictures we amassed, or at least remembered more of what we came up with. The only other details I remember of that afternoon are one particular image and my brother’s description of it.

The page had four small, clumsy squares drawn at the four edges of the paper. Lines connected the squares to a circle in the middle of the page, inside of which were several squashed and deformed figures I knew to identify as puppy-loving pirates at this point.

“What’s happening in this one?”

“They’re down a hole.”

I decided that we didn’t really need to know how they got down the hole for the sake of the adventure.

My brother continued, “And there’s smashing things.”

“Smashing things?”

“Yeah, smashing things.”

After scrutinizing the page, it dawned on me. “Oh! The squares! Those are the smashing things?”

“Yes!”

“And they are going to smash the pirates who are down the hole?”

“Yes!”

“Oh no! How do they escape?”

“They…They get away.”

In spite of this rather anti-climactic description of the dire escape, I knew without a doubt that the scene playing in his little pre-K brain was of Indiana Jones-level epicness.

What about you and your homeschool student?

What does this matter? How does this story affect homeschooling and writing at all? After all, my brother didn’t actually write anything that day.

Or DID he?

Even though my teenage-self was not trying to teach my brother a lesson, I realize now that I did. I not only encouraged creativity (“Let’s write a story! You tell me what happens.”), but I also demonstrated how you can express what is in your mind in a shareable manner. Elijah’s ideas became pictures. At my promptings, he had to explain the pictures to me verbally. That verbal explanation became written words at the bottom of the page—words that he couldn’t even read yet but still knew somehow communicated what he was thinking.

He wrote the story, even if he never picked up the pen.

Writing is one way to clarify and to express your ideas in a sharable format. Creative writing and story-telling are ways to learn to express what is happening in your brain. And in this form of writing/expression, you don’t have to worry about having “the right answer,” because there isn’t one.

Try it yourself! Whether your homeschool student is physically writing yet or not, you can teach them to be creative and put their thoughts into words!

Pull up a carpet and create a story with your young student. They don’t have to draw pictures if that’s not their thing. They can tell whatever story they want. They can tell the story of the Lego build they’re constructing, or the frog they caught on the driveway, or the plan they have to clean the kitchen. (That last one sounds strange, but I have a friend whose toddler is very, very scrupulous about keeping things tidy and loves to tell people about his processes.)

Write down what they tell you, and let them see you do it. Show them that writing is thoughts put into words put onto paper, and it’s as simple as that.

And have fun with your kid! That’s what I did with my brother on that random day when we wrote the story of the Puppy-Loving Pirates and the Smashing Things.

Athena Lester

Head of Curriculum