Show School and Home 1 by Dr Daryl J. J McCarty Executive Secretory Utah Education Association Learn writing Ski skills I Is Many maybe most students in public schools dont don't rank writing as their best subject In fact a survey of 2200 students showed that they ranked writing skills at the top of their worst subject list Teachers are seeking ways of making writing more interesting to students Its It's one subject where students learn by doing In Illinois some teachers had their seventh-grade seventh students ask a group of school pre-school children what they'd like to see in books that were especially written for them Then each seventh- seventh grader was to write a childrens children's book bookfor bookfor bookfor for the youngster he or she had in in- in It was a good experience for several reasons This was was- the first chance some of the seventh-graders seventh had to write for a non-adult non audience to know four- four and They got year five olds It was an experience in creative writing literary criticism interviewing interviewing interviewing in in- techniques and child development Best of all the young writers had fun doing it That same response seems to come from the Utah elementary students who learn how to write poetry Theres There's some poetry in every everyone one of us apparently and youngsters who write it love to recite it Lets Let's face it Writing skills are basic to many kinds of success Parents too can perform a valuable service to their children by encouraging encouraging encouraging en en- them to write When you prompt your daughter to write a t thank ank you letter to Aunt Polly for that print dress youre you're not just nudging the youngster into meeting an obligation of youre you're providing her with a learning experience Urge your son to write his own comic strip when he complains that the ones hes he's reading dont don't have enough action in them Persuade your children to correspond with the cousin who lives in California the best friend who moved away to Michigan or the kids they met last summer when the family went to Dallas Pallas for tor vacation If your children do these things they may not go on to become But the practice will help them develop a skill they may desperately need someday |