A.   groan as loud and long as their lungs allow
B.   slump in their chair, slide off to the floor, and lie there face down like a slug
C.   pick up a pencil and start eating it while vacantly staring at anything except the paper in front of them
D.   pick up a pencil—then pick up another pencil and start practicing for their future career in a rock band
E.   write the assignment

For some students, writing is no big deal. However, many others would literally rather do ANYTHING ELSE besides write a personal response or an original poem or an essay.

How can you, as a homeschool parent and educator, help such reluctant writers?

Once students hit high school, this argument sometimes works: “Just do the assignment and get it done because you’re in school and this is what you need to do right now, so just do it.”

But that doesn’t work well with elementary students and middle schoolers.

So what can you do?

Ultimately, you will have to discover what works best for you and your homeschool student. In the meantime, here are 7 helpful tips to keep in mind.

1) People first. Products second.

Make sure your student knows (and YOU know) that they are valuable and important even if their writing needs improvement. Some students resist writing because it is hard or they don’t do it very well. This may lead to their thinking that they aren’t smart or good enough, which will lead to their resisting writing even MORE because it makes them insecure. Let it be clear that your student is valued and important and good even if writing is hard.

2) Break it up.

If completing an entire assignment seems like too much to accomplish, the student may resist starting it at all. If they only have to concentrate on a small piece at a time, however, the work may not seem so intimidating. Breaking the assignment up into smaller parts to be done at different times makes doing the work much less of a chore.

The Essentials in Writing homeschool curriculum has this principle built into the textbooks already. It separates the steps of the Writing Process so that students won’t have to worry about writing an ENTIRE assignment when they sit down to work. They only have to think about one step at a time.

3) Mosey over yonder for a spell.

Take your homeschool student out of their normal learning environment for a session, somewhere that they aren’t used to doing school. The irregular environment may prompt the student to avoid the regular reaction of Noooooooo! Try a corner booth at a fast food joint, or Grandma’s dining room table, or a tree house. Pick somewhere different but not too distracting and then have the student write the assignment.

This won’t be an option for every writing assignment, but you really only need to do it once. If the student realizes they CAN get through a writing project, they may be less inclined to groan or deflate or space out when writing at home.

(Off-topic question: are you a “school room” homeschooler or a “kitchen table” homeschooler?)

4) Just give them a reason. Just a little bit’s enough.

No offense to anyone, but unfortunately, some homeschool students don’t care about their work because only Mom or Dad sees it, and it’s just Mom or Dad. Shake things up and give them a reason to care!

Tell them what they write will be shown to someone else—a grandparent, an older sibling or cousin, a teacher friend of the family, or anyone! Send a picture of the work to the EIW Curriculum Team on Facebook! (We love seeing how students use the curriculum!) Share their work with others. Make it matter if they do the work and do it well. If it matters, they may not drag their feet so much.

5) Live on the flipside.

Some people’s brains shut down when told to write. They believe they just can’t communicate their ideas on paper, but they can TALK about their ideas ALL DAY.

If your student is like this, let them talk! Work through the writing process verbally. Take the pen and paper away from the student and into your own hand. Write down what they say—exactly what they say. Don’t spruce it up, don’t correct anything—just write down exactly what they say. By doing this, you will demonstrate that the student CAN take their thoughts and put them onto paper. That is, they can write.

Show them it is possible. Eventually, they’ll be able to do it on their own.

6) Don’t buy into the “one-size fits all” mindset.

When kids get into high school and college, yes, they will need to write about what the teacher wants them to write about even if the student isn’t interested in the topic at all. That will require discipline and the ability to write even if the student doesn’t care or doesn’t want to.

But elementary and middle school kids aren’t there yet.

In elementary and middle school, we want to teach the kids how to write—not how to survive a boring class, not how to appease a teacher, not how to impress an SAT essay grader. No, at this point, we just want to teach them how to communicate with words on paper. Teach them using something they are interested in! Homeschool students will be more inclined to participate and practice if the topic is something they care about.

Create writing prompts specifically for your student. Focus on monster truck rallies, ballet, animation, the family dog, Disney movies, computer coding, or even Fo….Fo….Fortnite. (That was really difficult for me to get out. I don’t like Fortnite. But you know who likes Fortnite? Middle schoolers. Do you know who has a lot to say about Fortnite? Middle schoolers. Do you know who would probably readily write a letter or a paragraph or an essay about Fortnite? Middle schoolers.)

7) Cool merch.

This last tip may seem a little dumb, but for real: a fancy folder or notebook will make writing WAY more interesting for elementary and middle school students.

I know a pack of lined paper is a dollar and a plastic black folder is $.57, but if your student just does NOT want to write, why not try to bribe them with cool stuff? Yes, it’s a cheap trick (or, I guess it would be a more expensive trick—literally, at least), but it may be what it takes to get your homeschool student over the hump of reluctance. They may not like writing, but you know what they do like? Kai from Ninjago, or Moana, or llamas in hats, or NASCAR. Associate writing with something they like, and they may not pout so much when they have to pull out that particular subject folder.

Also, for your consideration, three words:

multi

colored

pencils

Every homeschool family will have to figure out what works best with their reluctant writer, for every student is unique. Until then, we hope these tips will help you and your student discover the way to excellent writing.

By Athena Lester

Head of Curriculum and Scoring

Read.

This may seem strange and even counterintuitive. If you want to be a better writer, then you should read more? If you want to be an artist, should you frequent museums? If you want to be a professional sports player, do you watch as many games as you can?

As a matter of fact, yes! You do!

Exposure to an ideal is instructive. If you want to do something well, then surround yourself with things well done. Reading will naturally prime homeschool students’ minds for how to write well. This doesn’t take the place of hands-on practice—that is also important! But think about how an infant learns how conversation works and how to interact with objects around them by observing how their parents act. In the same way, reading will play a major role in instructing a student on how to write well.

Why is reading such a big deal when it comes to writing, you ask?

Reading demonstrates how to communicate through writing.

By ingesting what others have communicated through written language, students learn that sharing ideas through writing is not only possible but effective. When students laugh or cry or become scared or learn something because of a piece of writing, they are normalizing the idea that written words connect with the reader and mean something. They aren’t just words.

Reading introduces students to new vocabulary for more effective self-expression.

Having the words to express oneself is important. Reading introduces students to language they can use to understand themselves and the world around them better. For example, they may say something makes them feel mad. But if they had greater knowledge of vocabulary, they may more accurately say that the thing disgusts them. But what if it’s more? What if, given the right language to use, the student realizes that the issue is not just with their reaction, but with the thing itself—that the thing itself is perverted? Each of these words/ideas (mad, disgusted, perverted) is similar but means something slightly different, becoming more and more precise. Reading helps students learn these types of increasingly precise ways to express themselves and process their surroundings accurately.

Reading shows how to use prepositions in the correct way.

This one is a little strange to think about, but it’s true. I have it on the authority of college English professors with PhDs that they can immediately tell which of their students “is a reader” by how they use prepositions. It’s also a fact that, when learning another language, proper preposition usage is one of the most difficult things to pick up.

For example, in American English, there is a difference between “I talked to my daughter” and “I talked at my daughter.” Imagine if someone asked, “What did you do in the weekend?” instead of “over the weekend?” Or if someone said, “I got my degree in Harvard” instead of “from Harvard”? It just sounds wrong, doesn’t it?

Reading shows how to use prepositions properly according to the cultural standard.

Reading is important in the quest to learn to write well. What should you, as a homeschool educator, do to help your student read and write to the best of their ability?

Here are some suggestions:

1) Encourage reading!

Obviously. Chapter books and novels are great and interest many children and teens. Right now, the market is full of books directed at these audiences!

However, know that they aren’t the only option. Some students just aren’t all that into fiction, and that’s okay! Offer them poetry, or magazines, or articles. Let them read about history, science, current events, NASA, philosophy, engineering, anything! In whatever area your homeschool student is interested, encourage them to read.

2) Give your student reading material they will like!

Associate reading with something positive rather than making it a chore. When it comes to fiction, many children and teens will most likely be interested in books that are purely fun or wildly sensational.

You know what?

That’s okay.

You really don’t have to hand your thirteen-year-old Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky. If they want to read fantasy books about cats or goofy books about long-lost princesses and just really aren’t interested in the more literary children’s or YA books, that’s okay. Let your child develop a love of reading their way. I promise you they will grow as readers and get into more quality stuff eventually. Almost every one of my reading peers (twenty- and thirty-year-olds) has certain books that they look back on and think, “Wow, those were so stupid and horrible, but I loved them.” And they turned out fine and did grow to appreciate more quality novels. The important thing is that the “reading bug” was caught and encouraged young.

3) Engage with your student about what they are reading!

Don’t let the experience stop with reading of the words on a page. Talk to your kids about it!

“Did you like it? Why?”

“What was your favorite part? Why is that your favorite part?”

“Who was your favorite character? Why do you like that character?”

“Did you learn anything?”

“Was there anything in the book you didn’t like? Why?”

Discussing what they read will encourage students to really think about what they are ingesting rather than just ingesting it and moving on. Verbal discussion (or hey! Written discussion) will help students understand that written content has deep meaning and can relate to many things in life.

Plus, talking about books gives you the opportunity to connect with your kid on their plain. Any excuse to deepen the relationship between you and your child is a good one.

Bottom line: You want your student to write well? Get. Them. Reading.

(Note: This post is not about how to judge the content of children’s and YA novels, some of which do not contain positive influences on a student’s thinking. For guidance about how to sort through the thousands of options, talk to your local librarian or do a search online for parent-friendly reviews.)

Athena Lester

Head of Curriculum Development for Essentials in Writing and Essentials in Literature