On March 2nd, make a difference.

Put on a red and white striped top hat and be one of the millions of volunteers who will honor Dr. Suess’s birthday by reading to a child in a local school in the community.

My favorite reading experience as a teacher, and as a child, includes Dr. Suess. His rhymes created visual mind movies that humored me and left me in fits of giggles over and over again. Reading one of his books out loud and bringing it to life is like putting on a favorite old sweater on a chilly night.

Grab a book and celebrate the love of reading and writing with a child. Our dear friend Dr. Suess was turned down 29 times before he was finally published. He is a true testament of someone who believed in what children love and held onto his  dreams until they come to fruition.

In honor of rhymes and word play I would like to celebrate another one of my favorite writers and leave you with some word play to spiff up the day.

Happy Birthday Dr. Suess and happy day to the Suesssational writer in my personal life…Sean.

Syllable Soup

Syllable soup is not sour or sweet
No chunky vegetables and no floating meat
There are terms and expressions, from message to motto
Enunciated nouns and verbs with vibrato
There are plenty of adjectives and probably some slang
At least if you’d like your syllable soup to have tang
Would you care to make some? Anything goes -
Gather ingredients and write them in rows
Mean what you say and say what you mean
To create quintessential communication cuisine
Let’s get our soup started, the syllables are hot
Decide on your words then fill up the pot
Now start the stirring, let the flavors all change
A good hearty soup should have sounds that are strange
But you must be careful – do not over spice
Words should enhance, invite and entice
Though all words are free, some do have a cost
Sometimes they’re not simple, so the reader gets lost
The stovetop’s the page, the chef is the writer
Who chooses the words to make stories burn brighter
Syllable soup is a scrumptious delight
When the cook stirs in all the syllables right
Never too many and never too few
Make the syllable soup that’s inside of you
What’s that you say? You’d like a sample?
How about instead I just cook an example?
Seems fair enough – sometimes once we see
Then our hearts and our minds and our spirits agree
Let’s start with a word that’s been pummeled to pulp
Drop it into the soup and get ready to gulp
You may have had a teacher who said, “said is dead!”
But said is not dead, it’s like butter to bread
Or syllables to soup – I’ll explain what I mean
Your teacher just meant that “said” shouldn’t be seen
Said is a word which has only one sound
No matter how you inspect it or spin it around
Yet how many ways can you also say said?
There’s at least a bajillion bulging outta my head!
Speak, utter, voice; pronounce or reply
Your hero could exclaim, or opine or cry
Or maybe declare, recite or disclose
But a rose by another name, is still just a rose
When you find yourself looking for the perfect ingredient
Don’t settle for the one which seems most expedient
There is no substitution for that one perfect word
Which will get the page read and your stories all heard
There is music to language, each word has a beat
To get you nodding your head and tapping your feet
Each word has a sound, whether they run short or long
They are notes in the verse of a sentence’s song
Choose each one wisely, place them all in a group
Then share a savory spoon full of syllable soup!

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Building a community of writers is not an easy task.

I volunteer 4 hours a week teaching 4th graders Writer’s Workshop at Mia and Max’s school. These precious 4 hours keeps me centered on good practices and gives me an opportunity to help students believe in themselves as writers.

The first steps to encourage young writers has been a long tradition embraced in our household; providing resources, modeling, opportunity and ownership of “The Notebook”.

Our family hordes notebooks. Every July we start searching for the best deal on spiral notebooks and every year without fail we find the dream sale: 10 cent spiral notebooks. I have been known to badger general managers to let me have more than the limit of 20 per a customer and resorted to folding my hands and getting on my knees at Staples pleading, “Please let me buy 100 notebooks with one transaction, it is for the children.”

Over the years we have given countless notebooks to students accompanied with the signature blue or black Platt pen made by Pentel that has the word Wow! inscribed next to the brand name. It makes a cool clicking sound when you push the top button and has a built in cushion grip. The children sit up a little taller in their chairs when I hand them the pen and the word Wow! is written on the pen.

What’s not to love?

Some of you may be groaning and saying to yourself no pens, but I insist that students write in pen for 3 reasons.

1. Pencil is hard to read and gets smudgy over time.
2. Pencil lead breaks and the fluency and flow of writing is lost.
3. Pencils have erasers.

Pens and notebooks gives students an opportunity to act like a writer, live the daily life of a writer, and become a writer. A writer’s notebook is a safe place to create memories, save stories, ramble on about reflections, write to prompts. Even more important, a notebook is an ongoing document of a student’s growth and consistency.

Daily writing and maintaining the notebook is like the little engine that could.

It is part of the process to create writing fluency, but the best part is responding to the student’s words. When I work in tandem with the 4th grade teachers, we value the student’s sense of commitment and achievement by providing immediate feedback with a thoughtful response. This opportunity for personal interaction with a teacher gives students concrete reflections to reread, provides positive reinforcement and helps a teacher gain valuable information to plan mini lessons to address student’s needs.

Taking the time to show that you value your student’s writing influences them to take more risks and write more. This small gesture of writing back to the student increases confidence and establishes a rapport that keeps students motivated as they navigate through the writing process.

Yesterday, a student wrote back to me in the notebook, “Mrs. Platt I used to hate writing. Now I can’t stop. Thank you for my notebook.” Sincerely, Thomas.

We all need cheerleaders, especially our children. So lean into your students and write a simple “WoW this is a really great lead sentence. I am hooked!” and help our children make the Wow factor happen in their daily writing with your actions and words.

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If you are fortunate enough to have a young child that is articulate and has an imagination you can easily nurture their writing talent by taking dictation. This form of modeling the writing process affords the child an opportunity to see their ideas come to life without the frustration of the task of writing. It is never too early to start if your child has language and is already expressing ideas. Modeling the writing process is a powerful and empowering process for a young child.

When a child sees their words on paper written with purpose and intention, the glee in their voice and smile on their face will provide a moment to capture their creativity and nurture the writer inside them with the first in a series of baby steps.

Here are 8 tips to nurture the writer in your young child.

1.Print the words your child dictates legibly. Make a big deal about  directionality. Show them how you start from left to right and top to bottom as you are writing the words. Stretch the individual sounds as you are spelling the words.

2. Record the exact words as your child offers, please do not edit yet. Over correcting will squelch their voice.

3. Offer a prompt or encouragement as needed. Model thinking out loud with your ideas for a jump start.

4. Read the finished creation out loud and point to the words as you read them.

5. Have your child provide illustrations for the text.

6. Date the work and have your child sign her name as the author.  The ownership of the text is important.

7. Use a tape recording device to replay sentences as the ideas of your little one grows larger.

8. Have fun, laugh and celebrate the story.

Cindy

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Deciphering, decoding, and discussing their work gives me joy. A piece of writing also sends me a snapshot of what is going on inside a young writer’s busy brain. I learn more when I ask questions like: how do you feel about your title, ideas, organization, word choice, and sentence fluency?

When I conference with a child I feel as though I hit a lottery of dialogue. The wealth of information gathered from the conference and content is well worth the time spent studying the bonuses and deficiencies of the teaching/learning loop.

Writing is an authentic work sample to measure the simulation of language and a direct format to assess. By using a 4 point rubric to measure growth and development, we can easily focus on the status of a child’s writing development. This strategy is the best method to gather data and help children take the next steps in the writing process.

Here is a generic 4 point rubric to assess your child’s work with a 4 advanced proficient and a 1 not proficient.

4

Demonstrates a clear understanding of the writing prompt
Maintains consistent point of view, focus and organizational structure (paragraphing)
Ideas are presented clearly with relevant facts, details and explanations
Use of various types of sentences (questions, statements, dialogue)
Contains few capitalization, punctuation, grammatical or spelling errors

3

Mostly maintains consistency in the above criteria (all the elements are in place, but lacks powerful vocabulary, figurative language, and strong voice)

2

Somewhat addresses the criteria for a 4, but without consistency.

1

Little or no evidence of the criteria of a 4.

Do not fret. Start modeling the writing process with your child. Children will always learn best when writing with frequency. One of my favorite activities is to write alongside a child. They get so excited watching their ideas spring to life on paper. When I capture that kind of excitement, I know my mission is met.

Observe the joy of your child, write it down together, and keep it forever.

Tomorrow starts today.

Cindy

What are some activities you do to promote writing with your child?

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