I was teaching a class in proper writing techniques to my sophomores this morning when the subject of my blog came up. They are such a lively, enquiring group that they are fun to teach, but when it comes to writing, they wonder what I am bothering them for. The blog may help me with this lesson.
We had a long conversation about the merits of good writing and I told them that my Mom is a very good writer as well and that’s how I learned. Trying to emphasize how important strong writing really is, the hour just slipped away like a river for us.
Sand Dunes National Park, CO
As I got caught up in my lesson, I gave them an entire list of things they must do if they want to learn to write well. To write well, they will need to learn to take their time, completed an outline, writing a rough draft, do a thorough edit scan and produce a final copy.
They worked very hard on the outline today, trying very hard to write a narrative piece instead of a how-to. I got many delightfully outlines on the subjects of hunting, pets, trips and food. I’m so excited to see how the papers develop.
I have spent so much time working on grammar concepts with the sophomores and now I’m going to try and show them why it matters. I’ve done all I can to teach them the parts of speech. Two years ago, I was singing, Row, row, row your boat, row, that is a verb. Verbs show action every time, unless they link a word. Teaching them the merits of sentence structure and strong spelling, it has been an interesting time, teaching the sophomores about writing.
I have made pretty much every mistake that is possible when constructing this writing and now I’m going to direct my sophomores to this blog to see if they can find them. In the meantime, I’m putting this online for anyone to see. If you would care to check out my writing mistakes, you are welcome to give it your best and perhaps, show the sophomores why their writing is so important!
Sophomores, you must find at least five writing errors…good luck to all of you!
dropsinthewell 