Children's Writing Needs Help

"40 percent of those who took the ACT writing exam in the high school class of 2016 lacked the reading and writing skills necessary to complete successfully a college-level English composition class," Dana Goldstein explains in her New York Times article, "Why Kids Can’t Write." She offers that "the root of the problem, educators agree, is that teachers have little training in how to teach writing and are often weak or unconfident writers themselves."

Rebecca McMahon Giles, in her beautiful new book, A Young Writer’s World makes the case that teachers of young children must learn how to motivate the desire to write, not just teach the mechanics of writing. She asserts that "writing is a necessity within the teaching and learning process and should be a vital part of the daily routine in an early childhood classroom. You can accomplish this by encouraging children’s voluntary and practical use of print as they comfortably communicate with teachers and classmates through writing. A positive experience sets the tone for future efforts and often leads to a desire to continue writing. It is essential that young children learn in a classroom that promotes and acknowledges their early attempts at writing, while providing numerous experiences worthy of recording in print."

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Source: "Why Kids Can’t Write," by Dana Goldstein, The New York Times, August 2, 2017

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