Choosing a Topic to Teach Writing
Lately, I have written a number of articles to help you teach kids, whether you’re teaching in a school or home-schooling your own children. Recently, I was reminded yet again of the importance of allowing children the freedom to choose their own assignments. Thanks to my son, I learned a valuable lesson to make me a more effective teacher, while turning him into a more powerful writer.
A week ago my son listened to IEW Student Writing DVD for his assignment. His lesson was on writing a biographical sketch in a 5-paragraph paper. In the back of my mind I thought it would be great if he wrote about one of the early church fathers. We were studying the end of the Roman civilization and it would help him remember one of them. Besides, he could read one of the books that we did not have time to read in history. Of course, he was not very interested in those men.
He was clearly not interested in the topic which I found so fascinating. Once we talked about baseball, that all changed. He had been reading about the life of Derek Jeter, and wanted to learn more. When I suggested that he write his biography on Jeter, his whole attitude changed – suddenly, he could not wait to get started! He already knew of three sources for more information, and could not wait to get started.
We decided that he would write about Derek Jeter, rather than church fathers.
Over the past week, he has been hard at work researching Mr. Jeter’s life and collecting information. Today’s assignment was to narrow the facts down to three, keeping his paper from becoming a full book. From this point, he will work on an effective outline and begin to write.
Believe me, I have a much happier son because he is writing about someone he likes, not someone Mom told him to research. I know his paper will be much better, just because he has an interest in his topic.
By letting your kids choose their own topics, they take ownership of their project. Give it a try – it makes a huge difference! Your children will learn more and be happier about it; you’ll be thrilled with the results.
