Category: Parent Engagement

Encouraging Young Authors

5/24/2017

"How can I help my child improve their writing?" is a question parents ask me all the time. While there are plenty of great resources and learning opportunities out there for kids, the best thing parents can do at home is to model good writing attitudes and behaviors. Need some ideas? Here are several take-aways we can glean from the San Jose Diocese Young Authors Book Event held at St. Victor School earlier this month.

Inspire
Just like you would take your aspiring young athlete to a basketball game or your budding young ballerina to a ballet performance, take your young author to meet a published author. Look for author book events or signings at independent book stores and libraries. If your child has a favorite author, look on the author's website to see if they'll be visiting your area.

After the author's presentation, ask your son or daughter "What was the coolest thing the author shared?" or "What surprised you the most about the author's writing process?" If you attended the Young Authors Book event, your child might have been challenged to expand their reading repertoire with programs like Gene Yang's Reading Without Walls, or they might have been surprised to learn that Thien Pham wrote stories to accompany his art. Have your child identify with what the author shared and help them adopt an "I can do that, too!" attitude about their own writing.

Write
Encourage your kids to write for fun and acknowledge their efforts. At the Young Authors Book Event, student writing was beautifully displayed. Students also read their favorite part of their book to an audience full of proud family and friends. Similarly, when your child writes a special story or brings home writing they are proud of, display it in a prominent place or take a picture of it and send it to Grandma or Grandpa. Take a video of your child reading their story to capture some precious moments!

School's almost out...are your kids looking for some summer fun? Have your kids try their hand at these writing opportunities and contests. Go for it!
San Jose Public Library's Graphic Novel Making Contest.
Bookley Book Blog Book Review and Recommendations.
Writing contests for kids listed on DogoBooks and Scholastic.

Create and Connect
When working with your kids on writing, focus on the creative process. Talk with them about their interests and passions. What makes them tick? And what tickles their funny bone? One of the activities at my workshop involved creating stories from fortunes found in fortune cookies. One little girl's fortune said her future profession will pay handsomely. When I asked her what her dream job would be, she shared with me that she wanted to be a geologist. If it were your child who received that "fortune," how would they respond? What a valuable opportunity it would be to share that moment with your child to connect with her about her dreams!

Another activity I presented at the Young Author's Book Event involved writing poems using words that can be found in magazines, a type of poem appropriately called "found poems." I really like how this exercise leads kids to find words that interest them while simultaneously exposing them to new vocabulary.

Here are a couple of "found poems" composed by my own kids. I was super fascinated by how my own children interacted with words they found. My 10-year-old daughter worked for a while arranging random words to her liking, finally resting on an upbeat, positive poem. She especially liked the line "bring Your Smokin' hot love. Best bacon." I agree with her - who doesn't love bacon?! My 7-year-old decided to piece together phrases she found. She confided that her original poem ended with "Turn your little one into a well-crafted coffee" but decided it didn't make sense. Yes, I'll take a mini-me-clone over a mini-me-coffee any day. I love how both girls are experimenting with word choice!

Encourage
As the old adage goes, "Birds of a feather flock together" - find ways for your kids to surround themselves with friends who are also writers. When they are in the presence of other writers and book lovers, it will help them to be creative, learn techniques, and develop ideas for their stories. These opportunities build confidence, provide affirmation and will help fuel your child's passion.
Sign up for a summer writing camp with the San Jose Area Writing Project or Society of Young Inklings. Or try some of these story starters and book club ideas from Raina Telgemeier.

Friends, if you didn't get a chance to come to the Young Authors Book Event, make sure to look for it next time. If you have questions or would like to add ideas on how to encourage your young writer, leave a comments below. Would you like more tips and strategies? Come to one of my workshops in the fall.

Jaime

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SCCOE Families Learning Together - STEAM Event

4/9/2017

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Mobiles, Roto-copters, push cars, balancing acts, spinning tubes and pendulums...what do they all have in common? They were all featured at the Santa Clara County Office of Education's Families Learning Together Spring STEAM event. Partly learning and mostly playing, children and their families discovered and explored Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Math concepts. With free breakfast, free lunch, and a resource fair with lots of give-aways, the event was a big hit! Be sure to look for the next Families Learning Together event in the Fall.

Here are a few snapshots from the event.

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One of the Few

4/4/2017

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"Are you Chinese?"

After presenting two sessions of a workshop at the Berryessa Unified School District's Parent University on Saturday, I set up a table to hand out flyers for this upcoming STEAM Event and this Summer Writing Camp. Rose asked me a seemingly simple question but this question always makes me pause. It's a loaded question. Yes, I'm ethnically Chinese and culturally American. But the real zinger was that Rose, who is Chinese, asked correctly if I am Chinese**, which meant she probably already sized me up. I braced myself for the next question.

"Do you speak Chinese?"

I knew that was coming! Again, another loaded question. If I said yes, then the unspoken expectation was that I should continue to converse with her in Chinese. If I said no, then how could I even claim to be Chinese? So, I gave Rose my honest answer and hoped that it would satisfy her curiosity.

"Yes, but I only know enough Chinese to order food at a restaurant."

We both laughed. My laughter was more like a nervous giggle, but Rose's wholehearted chuckle told me she thought it was funny. Whew! I averted a super uncomfortable situation! I was glad she did not ask the next question typical in this type of conversation, namely "Why did you study English in college?" Sensing that our small talk was over, she made a comment, which caught me by surprise.

"So, you're one of the few."
"I'm sorry, what do you mean?"
“I mean you’re one of the few who grew up in this area, went to college locally, and stayed here to work and to raise a family. You could have moved away to follow your dreams!”

I never saw it that way, but I guess you could say I am one of the few. Yes, I attended BUSD schools as a kid. Last year, I visited my 5th grade teacher, Mr. D, who still teaches at the same school. How amazing is that! (Full disclosure here - I was a lousy writer and failed my 5th grade writing sample. Despite that little hiccup, Mr. D still believed in my potential and recommended me for advanced classes in middle school.)

A total late-bloomer, I somehow managed to do well in high school. I attended Santa Clara University through the Future Teachers Project and was one of the first seven FTP graduates. While I was a teacher at Rancho Middle School, the school received its first designation as a School to Watch. Currently, my own children attend a BUSD school where I am involved with their education. My family and I live in the lovely Bay Area where we contribute to the community and practice “loving our neighbors.” My parents and siblings live close by. My husband’s family also lives close by. As an Education Consultant, I have this awesome opportunity to connect with parents and share reading and writing strategies with them to encourage literacy at home.

No, there is need to move away to follow my dreams as God has already given me a wonderful life here in the Bay Area. I may not have been articulate as a 5th grader, but some goals have remained the same. I'm trying to do what I can to help make the world a better place right here in the place I call home.

"Yes, Rose. if you put it that way, I am one of the few. And I absolutely love it here."

Jaime

**Interestingly, people have also asked if I am Vietnamese, Japanese, Korean or Filipino.

P.S. In case some of you missed the BUSD Parent University, here are a few pics from my workshop. I hope to see you at a future event!