Your child has plenty to say about a story. Ask for a written response, though, and the page stays empty. A useful starting point is to choose one thought from your conversation and show how to turn it into a sentence.

If you are exploring The Writing Revolution for your homeschool, start with a familiar reading and a small writing task you can teach together. You can build from there as you see what your child can do.

What is The Writing Revolution?

The Writing Revolution describes a method of teaching writing through the content children are learning. Its book, by Judith C. Hochman and Natalie Wexler, offers strategies that teachers can weave into their existing subjects. The second edition includes contributions from Kathleen Maloney. The authors' introduction to the book is the best place to begin with their own explanation.

The lesson below is our suggestion for a parent working with a child at home. It is an original example, not a lesson reproduced from the book.

Start with something your child understands

Choose a short passage you have already read together. Ask your child to explain what happened or tell you one thing they learned. If the reading is still confusing, return to it before asking for a written explanation.

You can read aloud. For this activity, the useful question is whether your child understands the passage well enough to talk about it. You will still need to judge whether its language and subject are suitable.

An original reading to try

Mina wanted to finish her drawing in the garden. Rain began to fall, so she carried her paper inside. She put it on the kitchen table and drew the wet leaves she could see through the window.

Ask what Mina wanted to do, what changed and what she did next. Keep the reading visible so your child can check a detail.

Show one sentence taking shape

Write Mina carried her paper inside because... and think aloud: “Because asks for a reason. I need to explain why she moved. The rain is the reason in this story.”

Mina carried her paper inside because it had started to rain.

Read the whole sentence aloud. Point out that the ending explains the action at the beginning. Then offer a new start: Mina could still draw the leaves because... Ask your child to say an ending before writing it.

One possible answer is she could see them through the window. Your child might use different words. Check the meaning against the passage rather than asking them to copy your wording.

Choose the next task from what you see

  • The answer is hard to say: return to the relevant part of the reading and discuss it together.
  • The spoken answer works, but the written sentence loses its meaning: repeat it together and work on one part at a time.
  • The sentence is clear: try a different connection. What would change if the stem ended in but or so?
  • Your child has several related sentences: try choosing and ordering details for one paragraph.

These are practical decisions for this activity, not a placement test. A child may find a task straightforward with one reading and need more help with another.

Keep the teaching and the worksheet together

A worksheet gives you somewhere to begin. Sit together for the worked example, ask your child to explain a choice and use the answer key to guide your feedback. Completing every available exercise is not the aim.

If you use Zigzag & And, start with the shared reading and select one worksheet. Guided Practice includes more prompts and smaller steps; Independent Practice leaves more decisions to your child. You can open the complete reading and sample PDFs before deciding whether they fit your homeschool.

What does the research tell a parent?

The US What Works Clearinghouse recommends teaching the writing process and sentence construction in its elementary writing practice guide. Those recommendations concern instructional practices in schools. They do not establish that this subscription will produce a particular result for your child.

For your next lesson, our because, but, so guide gives you a complete short activity. When your child is ready to organise several ideas, follow the worked example in our paragraph-writing guide.

Zigzag & And is an independent publisher. We are not affiliated with or endorsed by The Writing Revolution. The examples in this guide are our own.