They Want to Write.

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“Children want to write. They want to write the first day they attend school. This is no accident. Before they went to school they marked up walls, pavements, newspapers with crayons, chalk, pens or pencils… anything that makes a mark. The child mark says, 'I AM.' 'No, you aren’t,' say most school approaches to the teaching of writing. We underestimate the urge because of a lack of understanding of the writing process and what children do in order to control it. Instead, we take the control away from children and place unnecessary road blocks in the way of their intentions. Then we say, 'They don’t want to write. How can we motivate them?'" 
Posted on my old teaching blog 1/9/2007.


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