Family Writing

As Albert Einstein once said, “Example is not the main thing in influencing others, it is the only thing.”

Many of the world's best-known authors came from families where one or both parents wrote for personal or professional reasons. Pierre Berton, for example, had a mother who wrote voraciously. She was a second-generation writer who wrote regularly just for the love if it.

We learn by living with others. When we live in a family that models and celebrates writing, we learn to value writing. Children are seed beds. Whatever is planted grows, unless it is weeded out. Parents who write serve as models, and in planting the seeds of writing they do their children an inestimable favor. Writing becomes a form of enjoyment and play.

The inspiration for my second book, Simply Write!, came one night when I suddenly realized that as a public speaker on literacy issues I had talked extensively about the importance of family reading to raising strong readers, but I had never advocated family writing as being important to raising effective writers. This realization gave new focus to my writing. I began to look at writing as a family affair, and to ask myself what it would look like if we promoted this concept.

Family writing involves creating ways to extend the classroom community of writers to include the home. When parents, students and teachers celebrate writing together, strong relationships are established. Writing is strengthened and enriched – it comes alive in an incredible way. It creates a community to which all contribute and where all are nourished.

Teachers are the only ones who can make this happen. They are in an ideal position to become catalysts in encouraging families to write and in helping parents learn how to coach students to writing success.

Parents are busy. They don't need another intrusive demand on their time. This has to happen slowly, using simple techniques that don't require huge time commitments. Change occurs one person at a time so don't expect all parents to want to be part of this community of writers. The trick is to start by making it easy for everyone to participate in a small way, to engage people on a new level.

A simple starter activity is to send home two copies of a particularly graphic description or character sketch with blanks replacing the adjectives. Ask the student to have two family members fill in the blanks independently. When the students read these aloud to each other, they will have fun and realize the power of adjectives. By exchanging their paragraphs with other students and taking them home to share with their families, everyone will understand the strength that comes from the judicious choice of adjectives.

Learning is a conversation, a turning around together, a dance. We can only dance together when we bring some common understandings. Families will engage in more productive conversations when they write together. I envision family writing as a partnership between home and school.

In his new book, Inspire! , Larry Secretan differentiates between motivation and inspiration. Motivation is exterior and compels learning through fear of failure, prizes, awards, stickers, pizzas and so on. It inadvertently creates haves and have-nots. It is a method of getting others to do what you want them to do.

Inspiration is interior and stimulates new ideas and creativity. Its rewards are the joy and satisfaction of realizing one's own strengths and capabilities. Every person is creative in a totally unique way. Recognizing that creativity is the basis for a successful life. Writing is so important and powerful because it allows us to capture our unique thoughts and behaviors in a form that can be examined, revised, rehearsed and extended.

Secretan says, “Leaders are coaches. Great coaches inspire.” Having even one teacher who is a true leader, who is able to inspire students to bring their souls to writing, who enables them to recognize the joy and satisfaction of personal writing, is the greatest gift any person can receive. It builds self-worth and confidence like nothing else.

Teachers who choose to broaden their vision, who include the families of their students in the work of inspiring them to become life-long writers, have the potential to become these true leaders.