Chapter 1
Inspiring Young Writers
Children write wherever they are: in homes and schools; in restaurants or laundries or doctorsā offices; in cars, buses, ferries, planes, and subways. They write with pencils, pens, crayons, markers, keyboards, and touchpads. They write with their voices when they dictate words into computers and audio recorders or tell stories to adults. They write on paper, computers, tablets, smartphones, whiteboards, cloth, and any other surface they can find. They write by themselves and with parents, teachers, family members, classmates, siblings, and friends.
Childrenās writing is spontaneous, playful, creative, self-absorbing, and expressive. On their own, children choose writing topics and genres; freely explore words and their meanings; have fun with shapes, letters, numbers, and symbols; and combine writing with art and drawing to communicate ideas and images in their minds. As they cut, paste, staple, and print pages of their writing, they may talk, laugh, and interact with friends and adults or concentrate quietly for long periods of time.
This book showcases the writing of children who became confident in their ability and resolute in their desire to write with the encouragement of friends and adultsāparents, teachers, family members, tutors, and caregivers. These children learned to try and to enjoy all kinds of writingāalphabets, letters, lists, signs, recipes, poetry, fiction stories, chapter books, making maps, math comics, I Wonder Journals, news reports, weather reports, and nonfiction pieces. These written creations arose from their natural curiosity, creativity, and desire to tell stories, express ideas, and understand themselves and their lives. All these youngsters sharing their experiences have taught us why writing is a powerful force for childrenās learning. Here are the stories of a few of them.
Stories of Children Writing
āChristina Writingā
Since she was a baby, Christina had heard the alphabet song almost every day. As soon as she could say the letter names, her mother would stop singing to let Christina put the letters into the song: āA, B, C, __E, F, __, H, I, J, K, L, M, N, O, __, Q, R, S, __, U, V, W, X, Y, __.ā Every day, Christina sees letters and words in books and throughout her home. A small alphabet quilt with pockets hangs on her bedroom doorknob within easy reach. Each pocket has a letter on it and contains an object beginning with that letter sound. She takes these objects out of their pockets and puts them back in other places on the quilt. Then she plays a āWhere Is Your Home?ā game with her mother: āNo, no doggie, not your home!ā she sings as she takes the little dog out of the M pocket. āNo, no yo-yo, not your home!ā she continues, and the yo-yo is returned back to the letter Yās pocket. Christina regularly hears stories, sees her parents reading and writing, and receives encouragement for her own first scribbles. Her mother points out letters to her and writes her name so she can see it in print. Even at this young age, Christina recognizes letters as writing. She is doing what young children do, associating words with objects and letters with words while playing games, singing songs, and hearing stories. As Christina makes lines on paper, she points at her marks and says, āA, C.ā Her mother refers to the scribbles and marks as writing. One day, busily making lines and squiggles on paper, she looked up and proclaimed, āChristina writing!ā
āI Could Be A Writerā
Since she was three years old, Kylie has regularly engaged in reading and writing activities with members of her familyāhearing books read aloud by adults and computers, composing lists and letters, drawing pictures, and telling oral stories. Entering kindergarten at age five, Kylie enjoyed the classroom setting filled with so many choices for playing, building, creating, and problem-solving. A favorite area was the writing table where she composed stories in her own spelling. Nearby was the reading area with favorite books and the block area where she and classmates constructed elaborate wooden structures filled with imaginary creatures whose stories they expressed in vivid language. Always full of questions, Kylie wondered about science and nature and what scientists do, as she was constantly taking apart and reassembling battery-powered toys and investigating personal questions about how these devices work. In the car riding home from school one day, Kylie asked, āHow do people write books?ā Her mother explained that people write about topics they think are important or interesting and then their words are published in books or online for people to read. That night, after her mother reminded her that she could be anything she wanted to be when she grew upāan engineer, a mathematician, a computer programmerāKylie replied, āI could be a writer.ā
āThe Boy Who Writes the Most Books in the Worldā
Clayton had been making greeting cards for friends and relatives at his motherās suggestion and with her help since he was three. Clayton drew the illustrations, and while his mother spelled the words aloud, he wrote, āHappy Birthdayā or āHappy Fourth of July.ā A quiet youngster usually, on the day he and his first-grade classmates each received a Writing Box at school filled with new writing supplies, he jumped in the air with joy, shouting, āI canāt wait to use this!ā Two weeks later, he brought to school his first two stories written at home and announced excitedly, āI wrote fiction and nonfiction. This is the first time I ever wrote nonfiction.ā A month later, a doctor meeting him for the first time asked what he liked to do. Clayton replied confidently, āI write!ā At home, Clayton wrote between two and three stories a day, over 150 pages of writing in four months since receiving his Writing Box. He did not ask for assistance with choosing topics or spelling words, and he did not discuss his stories while writing them; when completed, he read them to his parents. At school, watching an adult type his stories on a computer, Clayton remarked, āI better slow down. You canāt keep up with me.ā Later that week, he proclaimed, āI want to be the boy who writes the most books in the world!ā
āI Just Figure It Outā
āIt wasnāt too difficult,ā said ten-year-old Kennisha, recalling how she began using a computer for writing at home two years before. āThe machine tells you what to do,ā she said. āIf you need help, press help or Google it or whatever. I just figure it out.ā For Kennisha, writing with a keyboard and a screen was āquicker . . . neater . . . just easier.ā Computers were not new to her; she had played games on one at school and at her friendās house. When her mother told her she could begin using the family computer at home, she started exploring the hardware and the software, figuring things out for herself with āa little help from my mom.ā Soon she was writing fiction stories and factual reports for school, saving them to the cloud so she could look at them later. Typing was not a problemāāI just practiced,ā she replied when asked about using a keyboard. Most important to her was how enjoyable it was to write with a computer. Once, Kennisha said laughingly, she and her friend decided to write ā75, maybe 100 sentences just for the fun of it.ā
Adults who are unacquainted with children and writing wonder if these stories are exaggerations or exceptions. The joy, excitement, creativity, and self-expression shown by Christina, Kylie, Clayton, Kennisha, and all the other youngsters whose writing is showcased in the upcoming pages is real. Their writing demonstrates what youngsters can and will do when they receive interest, support, and encouragement from adults.