Parents and teachers usually find that children thrive with recognition. We’re so conditioned to warn them away from danger and improper behavior that often we forget to praise and give them encouragement.
When I finished conducting the writing workshop with the 15 youngsters I mentioned in my last post, I gave them certificates of achievement.  It’s usually not possible to do this when I visit schools as an author and to teach workshops simply because of the number of students involved.  (I do try to give out bookmarks instead.)
However, because there were only 15 young writers, I decided handing out certificates at …read more

OneBookTwoBook.com
One of my favorite activities involves in encouraging young writers.  I enjoy visiting schools and working with teachers, either coordinating something they’re teaching or planning my own workshop.  It’s rewarding to see youngsters become excited about writing stories, poetry, plays, essays and often illustrating them.
Youngsters work at various speeds and with differing degrees of inspiration.  When you can get a youngster, who professes to hate writing, turned around so he/she enjoys it, that’s a height of joy for a teacher.  Because I’m also a teacher (doing solely substitute teaching now), I can keep up with what teachers are teaching about writing …read more