Lakshmi Mitter

The association that children build with writing early on has an impact on how they write as they grow older. Needless to say, a positive association with writing as a skill during their early years goes a long way in shaping the nature of their writing as they grow older.

In primary school, children begin to learn to write answers to questions on their own. As they move to higher grades, other forms of writing such as story writing, diary entry, paragraph writing, etc., also get introduced. Formats to be followed may be given. Assignments are graded and so are responses to prompts in the examinations.

The purpose of most if not all writing by children at school is to be graded. If writing is something based on which they are judged, what could be the incentive for children in primary classes to pick up paper and pencil to write anything? On the other hand, play or some handiwork or art are fun for the children as neither is anyone is judging them nor are they allotted marks for these.

Highlighting the role of writing in communication
We write to communicate to the reader at a later point in time. Reenforcing this purpose is the key to enabling children to understand why it is important to write coherently with the required details. Simple writing applications that are not time consuming are a great way to re-enforce this objective behind writing. Making lists for example is writing. Asking a primary school student to make simple lists, say list of things needed to make a simple salad or list of activities to do during vacation. Similarly, writing a small thank you note to someone who has taken the effort to do something for a class. Maybe a thank you note to an author who has visited the school or the person who has organized a science fair at school. Applications such as these involve writing to communicate something to anyone who reads it. No grades attached. No teacher corrections (reduces the burden on language teachers) but student edits only. Student edits has students read and re-read their writing to make sure that the intended message is coming through. Training students to ask questions from a reader’s perspective to make sure the necessary details are provided is important.

Modifying book review as a tool
Book reviews are a common writing application used in schools. These evidently feel like tests as they are marked and it is obvious that the teacher is trying to see if the student actually has read the book. If the student doesn’t have a choice when it comes to book selection, it becomes that much more difficult for them to write a review. Also, these are typically written once the student has finished reading the book. How about having an ongoing conversation about the book that a student is reading? This can be done in the form of small letters to the teacher or to fellow students. Enabling students to choose books allows them to pick books of their interest. Writing a note telling others about the book they chose, gives them a purpose to write. Responses to these small letters could provide feedback to the student in terms of how easy it was for the reader to understand.

Let’s take an example. A classmate responds to a note based on a book a student is reading. The book in question is a book from the Malory Tower Series by Enid Blyton. The student has written that she got books 4 and 5 from the series as a gift. And then moves on to the characters. A classmate could respond by saying that “I don’t quite understand which book you are referring to. You say you read books 4 and 5 and then you talk about all the characters. Could you please elaborate a little more about the story and also indicate which book you are referring to?” This response could set the student who wrote this note to think about how best to provide the required information without giving away spoilers. Writing, reading, and editing must be an ongoing process. Simply writing and submitting it for correction doesn’t help the student and worse it adds another ‘to do’ on the teacher’s already full plate.

Collaborative writing as an activity
Students could be divided into small groups of 3 or 4. Each group has a different picture to talk about. Each child can write down 4 or 5 sentences based on what they see in the picture. Giving them a chance to experiment with different sentences such as statements, descriptive sentences, exclamatory sentences or even questions makes this activity a fun experiment. The key is to give them a specific time after which they must stop writing. Encouraging each group to read out their sentences based on the picture assigned to them enables children to listen to how their sentences sound and if they convey the intended meaning. Often when they read their writing aloud to a class immediately after writing it, they are able to identify errors and correct them accordingly.

Consistently practising writing without having to wait for an assignment or school exam to write, makes writing not only come naturally but also turn out better. Writing regularly, seeking feedback, acting upon the feedback with a genuine interest in becoming better, goes a long way in helping children to write impactfully. The resulting effect can then be measured in terms of grades.

The author is the founder of Talking Circles – An online cohort-based learning program. She can be reached at lakshmi@talkingcircles.in.