The write stuff: Workshops help first-graders get started on storytelling

Sara Shepherd:

If first-grade creative writing were a language, it would be an obscure one. And Gini Shoulberg would be fluent.

The nekes stashun.

My fimliy luv miu.

The wepuns.

Under Shoulberg's direction, hand-penciled passages like these are carefully translated into comprehensible nuggets and, eventually, strung together into stories.

The next station.

My family loves me.

The weapons...

For more than a decade, the first-grade language arts teacher at St. John Catholic School has led weekly writing workshops for all the school's first-graders. While spelling and punctuation are important, she says, children don't need to wait to master those skills before they start writing.

Posted by Jim Zellmer at March 3, 2013 1:20 AM
Subscribe to this site via RSS/Atom: Newsletter signup | Send us your ideas