Success only flourishes in perseverance -- ceaseless, restless perseverance.
--Baron Manfred Von Richtofen

Wednesday, May 25, 2011

Fourth Grade Writing Advice

Last week, I went to my son's fourth grade authors party where we got to celebrate all his writing for the year. Super fun! He even had two of his stories published in hardbound books. Pretty neat. During the party, all the kids stood up and offered their best writing advice for incoming fourth graders. They gave the best advice! So, I thought I'd share it with you. I'm just going to paraphrase because 1) Some of them don't talk very loud and I couldn't hear them. 2) This was last week, and I didn't write it down at the time, so you know... This is what I remember of the fourth grade writing advice:

Use good word choice. Like, "He dashed," instead of, "He went."

Create great characters by using people from real life.

Always be thinking of ideas. Write them down

And the best piece of advice from many of the students:

Don't give up. Keep trying. The more you write, the better it will be.

Pretty wise ten year olds, don't you think? They have an amazing teacher.

Then I made my son sign his books for me. That's what author parties are for after all!

13 comments:

Joanne said...

What a nice tribute the school made to the students' writing efforts. Who knows, a future New York Times Bestselling Author might just be sitting at one of those desks :)

Amanda Borenstadt said...

That's wonderful! As good as a grown-up author party for sure! ;)

Kimberly Krey said...

Awe, this was very sweet. Sort of reminds me of "All I Ever Really Needed to Know I Learned in Kindergarten" by Robert Fulghum. Love it! Thanks for sharing! :)

Shallee said...

How fun! I love that writing advice. :)

T. M. Hunter said...

Great advice for any age... ;-)

Stephanie Black said...

Great advice!

Angie said...

Thanks, you guys. They are such great kids. All so creative and imaginative.

ali cross said...

They are brilliant! That advice pretty much sums it all up, doesn't it?

Thanks Angie!

Terry W. Ervin II said...

Great advice for 4th graders and beyond.

Stacy Henrie said...

Wow - fanastic advice. Those kids need to present at a writers' conference! :)

Angie said...

I know. They are terrific kids! Thanks you guys.

MTeacress said...

Every school would benefit from such an activity. Those kids really know their stuff. :)

taio said...

maravilloso