For starters, let there be a purpose.
What is the purpose of a book review? That's easy. It is for the teacher to check if the child has actually read the book. Put differently, it is a test. The book review would be read, graded and criticized. Is that fact good enough incentive for anyone to write, let alone a child?
How about altering that a bit and telling the child instead, "What did you enjoy the most about this book? Make sure to give some context in terms of what the book is about before you write about what you liked the most. I haven't read the book myself and I was hoping that I could learn your thoughts about it." Asked differently, "Persuade me to pick up the book and read." This approach gives the child a feeling of importance, a feeling of being purposeful and the feeling that one's work is valued for what it is. "A teacher relying on my thoughts to read a book? What can I do to convince her that this is indeed a good book!"
I had an interesting response to a prompt that could have been fairly ordinary- Write about your all time favorite book or movie. The child whose writing I was about to read, chose to write about his all time favourite movie, Forest Gump. His response surprised me. The reason was that he is a somewhat reluctant writer but in this prompt he shone as a writer. He did an excellent job of introducing the reader to what the movie was about (did not assume that the reader would have watched it) before going to highlight the various aspects that appealed to him. All of this led to a meaningful conclusion that is bound to persuade any reader to give this movie a try. Rewind the process and you will discover that the purpose of writing this piece was to convince the reader to watch his all time favourite movie. When given a chance to express themselves freely for a specific purpose, children start to feel important and hence give the writing task all that they have got.
When given a chance to express themselves freely for a specific purpose, children start to feel important and hence give the writing task all that they have got.
Content first and then other edits
A perfectly edited written piece can do little to interest the reader. On the other hand, a piece that has well thought out content can draw the reader in. Be it a story/essay/letter writing even, writing a perfect text good content and well edited, the very first time it is written, is next to impossible. Students are expected to write well in competitive situations such as school exams and in competitive exams especially in liberal art colleges. It takes regular practice with a structured approach to be able to write well.
Every kind of writing application has a different structure and purpose and hence the writing approach varies. Take the example of story writing and letter writing for instance. Wouldn't you agree that the content and purpose is very different? If that's true, shouldn't the writing approach also be very different?
Discussing the different approaches and having a third person read drafts for feedback helps hones writing skills from early on. Discussions of this kind also help children understand the need for good content and as a result writing becomes a more enjoyable process. It does not get restricted to grammar alone.
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