Parent Coffee

welcome parents. We are right now taking a little tour

with Miss Sanford to talk about writing for a little bit.

I Miss Sanford I teach grade four here at a U. S. R. And writing is my passion in life.

I love writing. I love teaching writing.

I love everything that has to do with writing.

So

today our goals are

to um just give you a little bit of kind of like what are some developmental stages

that kids go through as they learn to write

and some ideas of things you can do at home.

So let's go down memory lane and think about how we learned writing.

Most of us learned writing

um by really trying to you know on a piece of paper or in a type typewriter

to try to create

not just a draft but like a clean copy.

Um We didn't really or at least I didn't really plan my writing before

um drafting.

And often I would turn it into my teachers and I

would just get red pen marks all over the place.

And the focus was really on editing.

The writing process is so much more than that

in the writer's workshop which is the model that

we use here at school and most international schools

um follow nowadays. Um We start by collecting ideas and brainstorming and

students learn how to decide which ideas

would help them

right better and longer and more in which ideas maybe are just not that great.

One thing we emphasize in grade four is that kids really should be very

excited about what they're writing if they're

writing something that they're not excited about,

they probably shouldn't be writing it.

Um they should be doing something else with it because it's

that excitement that helps them fall in love with writing.

Now

we plan um in very different ways, different, different ages.

When kids are really young, they do drawings.

And I started kindergarten um at the beginning of my

career I learned that the more detailed that drawings are

when kids are younger,

the better writers they will be later on.

So drawing is a really important part in the

early years of planning later on we use different kinds

of graphic organizers and I have a link here

that you're welcome to copy and put into your,

into your computer into um

a document that's going to

may help you make copies of different kinds of graphic organizers.

Then drafting begins drafting is sloppy copy.

We often tell students not to worry about spelling at

that point to do their best with capitalization and punctuation,

but they will have time later on to revise and edit.

Not revising is when we add writing moves description when we change things,

we delete things.

Editing

is what we really focused on when we were growing up or at least I did. So

when I was growing up,

I didn't really know anything about the writing process except for editing.

And I often see parents um have difficulty letting go of that and

that's perfectly understandable because we kind of got to a point where we

at least I became kind of obsessed with, you know, capitalization periods commas.

Um

And

the writing process is so much more than that.

And at the end we publish any writing that is done really should have an audience

and should have a reader and the author should always have the reader in mind,

we should have a purpose as well.

Alright, why do we focus on writing?

Take a look. I'm not going to read this out loud for you.

These are all the things that are really important.

Um and and and all the areas that we encounter writing.

Alright, how do students move along the stages as authors?

It doesn't just happen.

And there are some stages along the way.

Early readers are emerging authors.

You're going to see that in this presentation, I'm going to talk about reading,

reading, reading, reading, reading, reading.

If your child reads, they'll be able to spell better if your child reads,

they'll be able to have more complexity of plot and characters If your child reads,

they'll be able to be better authors.

Now. Early readers are not yet ready to read or write,

but they're ready to love reading and writing.

They're made readers on the laps of their parents.

There's no other way really, truly honestly

to get kids

to a point where they love reading

other than at home, it starts with you

and it continues with you. I still have

fourth graders that I really recommend parents read

with them and to them when when my Children

were young um they're teenagers now but I read with them and to them until they were

In 5th and 6th grade when they decided that they didn't want mommy anymore.

Now there are some different things that Children learn

when they read early on like concepts of print

and this video, if I can play it on the presentation, I'm not sure. It lets me

no it doesn't.

Um The video is simply me reading by using my finger to

trace the words from left to right and up and down,

which is how we,

how the concepts of print go in english

of course other languages like Arabic and hebrew,

they really go the other way from right to left um from up down some languages as well.

So depending on the language, the concepts concepts of print are different

and when kids start writing, kid writing

um has lots of spelling errors

um which is developmentally appropriate still for

Children to be learning how to spell

this is an example of kid writing.

If you'll notice the top is really um the child has not

at that point really understood the difference between some words and sounds,

but later on all the way at the bottom,

you can see that even letters and sounds are

starting to make their way into their writing.

This is writing. Kid writing

is writing.

Alright. I have another video that's not going to play.

But it's literally me reading with my son and my son.

Taking on the voice of the pigeon in a book

when when you read with your child have

them change their voice when characters are talking.

It will help them later on when they're writing dialogue

and the video is not gonna work. But it's super cute.

Alright

now I'm going to mention quickly the other stages in writing.

We have early independent readers, beginner writers,

fluent readers, proficient writers

and lifelong readers who will become confident and competent authors.

And that is our goal in different genres

to have them read in different genres and write in different genres,

narrative writing like stories, personal narratives, realistic fiction,

historical fiction,

persuasive, it could be a quick letter to mom and dad, it could be um um an essay.

It could be anything really um trying to convince someone of something and

information of writing expert books research which starts in 3rd and 4th grade.

Alright, what can you do at home? That's why we're here

at home. You can set up a reading corner or a writer's nook.

Now there's nothing kids love better than to have little nooks.

I had a video of a reading corner that's not gonna show.

But um you can see teddy bears, you can see pillows, really comfy cozy blankets,

lots of fiction, nonfiction books and if you are kind of um short with space and

I really recommend um 4th grade parents to get their kids a kindle.

And they have access then to any book in any series in any author

out there.

Um libraries at home really should have different genres.

And there are two resources quickly that I'm gonna mention Mayan dot com, M Y. O. N.

Dot com and epic dot com. E. P I C. Dot com.

These are two resources that we use here at the U. S.

Are we can set the reading level for the students.

Um And this can start in second grade,

1st grade, beginning readers

um all the way to fourth grade and

a great option especially for students learning english.

Is that

a lot of the books I have read aloud options which is fantastic.

As long as the child reads along

the sound,

then they're not just practicing listening,

they're also practicing and reading,

but they're they're really listening to fluent reading

where the author heeds to punctuation.

You know, pauses for commas,

stops for periods where the author changes their their

voice if there's a character talking things like that.

That's a really important modeling and reading

and monkey.

See monkey do really if Children see you reading and writing at home,

they will absolutely read and write and love it and enjoy it.

Reading routines are very important.

So we used to my husband and I are both teachers.

We used to have these really good um reading hours sitting with our kids.

We're very fortunate to have that time with them after school.

And we would sit on the couch.

We would make, I would make cinnamon rolls, they would have hot cocoa.

We would have uh t and we would have the fuzziest pillows and the coziest blankets.

And we would all read together.

Um It would be either they would read their own books or I would read with them.

But it's really important to have routines and it does not have to be every night

as a family. Of course not.

But even once during the weekend,

it's it makes a huge difference if you have

a child who's just not enjoying reading yet,

that child will most likely struggle with writing.

So you don't want to be a drill sergeant with reading.

You just wanna be a salesman with reading.

Um Writing should have real life application at home

and I'll give you some examples in a bit of things you can do at home.

Alright, connections are really important.

Making connections with the book is really important.

I had an amazing video where I was going to show you how um you can

read at home and make connect and help your child make connections with the text.

But that video is not going to work. So

um I'm just going to talk about it quickly and it's really looking at

looking at how they can interact with the text,

thinking about what it reminds them of how it's connected to their life now,

authors and second grade third grade fourth grade,

they really write stories about their life even in first grade in kindergarten,

those are called personal narratives.

And it's exactly that it's making connections.

Fourth grade, when we start realistic fiction,

we actually tell the kids to take something

that actually happened to them and change it.

Change the characters,

add more events for intensity,

but it's still connected to their own experience.

So that's why when Children are reading, it's really important to dig into

what does this remind you of?

What does it make you think of in your own life?

But life lesson does this help you? You know, learn

had some really good videos, Sorry,

I can't show them in this format of present presentation.

Okay. Writing about reading

When Children are reading at home after reading a book

online or on paper,

they can have reading notebooks or posted to

where they write down what they wonder about

things they notice where they keep track of the story.

They can keep track of questions that they have when they read nonfiction.

Um,

and connections to the text.

Children can also have fun changing the endings of books that they love.

And it could be a small little book that, you know,

an older child is reading to their younger sibling or you know,

mom or dad is reading to them,

But that authoring that putting on that hat is really,

it can be really fun and it can get really silly and goofy.

Um but it's also a really important part of taking you know,

this persona of being an author.

Mm hmm.

And I really am gonna end with right on um one of the slides

got skipped in this presentation mode and it was about the writing nook.

The writing nook

at home

can have really amazing things

that are so small and simple. But for kids are great.

I remember taking my Children to the store to staples in the States and getting post.

It's different color and shape.

Post its and getting erase a bullpens and getting different types of

thin markers and getting all sorts of pencils with all sorts of erasers

and puffy things hanging off of them.

Different kinds of paper.

You can have an iPad where kids look up, you know, awesome words,

juicy words we call them in grade four.

they can have access to um you know, more vocabulary.

Um they can also have access to um you know

research if they want to start doing research and writing.

I I often when parents are moving,

I suggest um that at home they can actually have

their Children research the new country where they're moving to

and that type of nonfiction writing is really important.

As long as they're writing things in their own words and that plagiarizing.

So that's my presentation. I hope you enjoyed it.

Um, I hope I didn't talk too fast and um, reach out if you have any questions.

These are just some tips, suggestions,

some hopefully bigger picture understanding for parents on

how intertwined and connected reading and writing absolutely are.

All right. Thank you for listening.

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