Jay Said:

How to teach a child to write in their own style and teach creative writing?

We Answered:

creative writing can only be cultivated if you provide freedom to the child..let him/her choose the topic on his/her own..dont bind the child by time or words limitation.first let him/her write the ideas which s/he thinks..dont mark the spelling mistakes in the initial stage..let him/her explore

Dawn Said:

How to improve hand writing or re teach hand writing?

We Answered:

Ask yourself several questions ...
1) Why is my writing bad?
2) Are there certain letters that makes my writing difficult to read?
3) Is typing what I write in class really helping me or making me feel better?

One comment that may (or may not) be useful ...
My first name is John. When I was about six years old, I was upset that signing my first name was taking me so long. Beginning with a capital J was taking me so long. ("How can I go faster?") I practiced a capital J about five minutes and found one method that was pretty fast.
Maybe you would be able to practice each of the twenty-six letters in both small and capital form for awhile and that would help you in writing better (and not needing to type anymore). In addition, when it comes to taking notes, I often wrote down only enough words to remind myself of the material. Four clear words can be much easier to understand than seven unclear words.

Ted Said:

Who out there teaches writing?

We Answered:

I have taught writing at universities in Kansas, Florida, and Iowa. I have found that my students are at there best when they are honest with themselves and do not become emotionally attached to their writing. Writing is a skill. Like bowling or vacuuming, it takes talent and perseverance to excel at English composition.

If you want to write professionally, you must expect to write things you don't believe in and things you don't care about.

But I don't teach those truths. Instead, I teach my students to arrive at their subjects naturally and not rely on me to provide them with fodder. Writing must come from that which you already know, and in the writing of it, you come to know of it differently.

Kathryn Said:

Does anyone know how to teach/write in elvish?

We Answered:

This site is all about Tolkien's languages.

http://www.uib.no/people/hnohf/

Christian Said:

I like to make books,my writing teach. says I'm really good but i want to go a step farther.Publishing my Book

We Answered:

Save some money, its expensive to publish a book on your own. You can have your parents contact publishing companies, but you are not likely to get far because they receive so many books. Also have more than just you writing teacher look at it, different people will help you make the book the best it can be. Good luck!

Salvador Said:

How can creative writing be taught in a standardized way?

We Answered:

In design class, we're taught that there are certain "Rules" to design, and while you can break those rules in advanced design, you have to understand the rule in order to break it effectively. You need to have a reason to break the rule. I think creative writing is the same way. You have to understand writing, understand what people expect with writing, and learn the various rules and, more importantly, when to break those rules.

That's why rhyme schemes are taught in poetry classes. If you're going to rhyme, then it needs to have a scheme... until you've learned rhyme schemes well enough that you can break the scheme during an emotional part of the poem in order to illicit a reaction.

I think the teaching is in the "rules" not in the content. You can't teach someone to come up with good content: they can only be taught to know the rules, know the history, and apply what they've learned to their personal content.

Hope that makes sense, and hope that helps answer the question for you!

Dianne Said:

How do you squeeze everything you need to teach into your school day?

We Answered:

I can't imagine not doing writing most days all year long. This is my current timetable - we've just started a new term here (in NZ) so I've just changed it as I wasn't happy with what I was doing. I have year 3 and 4, so the students are 7 and 8,

We have a very different programme on a Friday - 1.5 hr block for arts (currently doing music and drama); 1.5 hours of discovery time (science, technology, key competencies), a school assembly in the afternoon followed by sports.

Monday - Thursday from 9:10-10:40, I start every morning with a picture book, then I do the roll. We then do oral language for about 15 minutes, and run through the calendar. That gets us to about 9:45. We do maths for 45 minutes, then I read our class novel as they have a snack. They get a 20 minute recess.
From 11-12, we do reading. I have 8 reading groups, so sometimes I go past 12, but I try not to! At 12 we have about 10 minutes of fitness, then we come inside and do 15 minutes of language - usually based around a poem.
Lunch/recess runs from 12:25 to 1. The students do about 10 minutes of silent reading. We do our writing then - about 30 minutes. Then we do whatever inquiry topic we are working on. We work in 13 week cycles - the first 13 weeks this year are science (living world); the next 13 weeks are technology, and the last is social studies.
We have a short break from 2-2:10. From then until 3, I do what I've missed! Some days we come back to our writing, or we carry on with our inquiry. Sometimes I'll take a mini lesson on spelling or grammar. One day a week I do Maori, which is the language of indigenous New Zealanders. One day I do PE in that slot. We start tidying up at 2:45, I have a daily brain teaser which we talk about, and then we do our reflections and celebrations for the day.

I don't know if that helps.
Good luck - fitting everything in is a huge challenge. I try to integrate as much as possible - art into my reading responses, health into our class meetings or reading matter, science into our writing and so forth.