[Tea] They speak in prose and paragraphs!

Hi Friend,

Let's continue our exploration of writing voice.

Kids speak in paragraphs. They gather their thoughts, group them according to a topic, and express their ideas in sentences. They may or may not organize those thoughts into emphatic or chronological order, but their sentences generally follow an interior logic—one that makes sense to your children. It matters to let them find their rhythm of expression and to support them as they sort it out.

Paragraphs are not predictable formulas—topic sentence, always followed by three supports, ended with a clincher. They have their own integrity. Some paragraphs save the topic sentence for last, like the punchline of a good joke! Many writing programs teach the life right out of paragraphs and so, kids wind up with cardboard boxes of tedious sentences.

What we want—what we aim for—is LIFE in the writing. We can frame the lively thoughts in paragraphs, but we start with the lively thoughts (not the format).

Paragraphing is simply indenting when the mood or content shifts—similar to using a stick shift in a car. You don’t stare at the gauges to know when to move from third gear to fourth. You get a feel for when it’s time to shift.

Paragraphing is similar and it’s not difficult to implement once your children feel free to express their natural vocabulary about a topic. You can read their writing with them and help them to see when the mood or content shifts. Far better than dictating the sequence the ideas must proceed from the mind to the hand (a method sure to bottle up or rob the writing of its power).

So focus on that life in the writer—the interior—the original spark.

Help kids discover the writing voice within. As they age, introduce “containers” for all that robust self expression—sometimes a:

lapbook,
journal entry,
freewrite,
or report.

Allow the content to dictate the shape of the writing.

In the early years, you can focus on "bits and pieces" of writing, and allow the container to hold that writing together. For instance, a lapbook will include small pieces of writing, without any transitions, not in a particular order. The folder itself is the organizing tool, holding the writing together.

By junior and senior high school, kids who are used to self expression and exploring their mind lives in writing are ready to learn about academic containers for writing:

reports,
essay forms,
and research papers.

They will substitute paragraphing, transitions, and sub-headings for folders and pages stapled together.

But remember: academic writing formats only get used for about 8-10 years of anyone’s life. The rest of our years on the planet make use of all sorts of writing forms from tweets to email to social media captions to presenting at a sales meeting or writing a family newsletter.

Kids who grow up knowing that writing is as available to them as speech will often meet those writing demands with confidence and competence. Kids raised on formats tend to feel they don’t know what to write when confronted with a new “container” for writing.

This process works beautifully. You can trust it.

Catch up on all the “Tea with Julie” emails here!

Warmly,

P.S. Have questions? Reply to this email and one of our trained Brave Writer staff members will be happy to help you!

Also: our Season 6 of the podcast just dropped! Enjoy this week's episode.