How Parents Can Support Their Children’s School Successes
Providing students and staff with challenging opportunities can bolster their confidence. This can improve their desire to excel when they experience success.
Writing a Novel
Our middle school’s teachers have dedicated themselves to promoting literacy in all subject areas this year because many of our students are not reading and writing at grade level. Our 7th grade teachers decided to have their students participate in the NaNoWriMo National Novel Writing Month last November.
Each 7th grade student wrote an 8,000-word novel about a personal experience, hope, or dream by completing the following steps:
- Research a topic.
- Outline the novel’s fictional or non-fictional contents.
- Write the novel in 30 days.
- Peer review and self-edit through feedback.
- Use the Hemingway software application for writing feedback.
- Professionally assemble the novel.
- Learn how to sell a self-published book at a local book fair.
Many students were surprised that they could complete the assignment. They also began pursuing more writing challenges that allowed them to be creative. [Read more…]
Yvette King-Berg, is the Executive Director of Youth Policy Institute’s Charter Schools. She was the former California Charter Schools Association Vice-President of School Development and Outreach-Southern California. Ms. King-Berg has over thirty years of experience working with teachers, students, parents, and organizations in a variety of positions including Director, Assistant Director, Curriculum Advisor, Bilingual, and Title 1 Coordinators, classroom teacher (K-12) in Pasadena and LAUSD. She has been married for twenty-three years, and is the proud mother of her son, EJ, who attends UC Berkeley.
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When I was seven years old, I wanted to create a book with Christmas cards. I had never made a book before. I loved the beauty of the holiday cards and I wanted to save them for future enjoyment. My mom suggested that I glue the Christmas card pictures in a book filled with blank pages. She would then help me write a Christmas story. This one shared bookmaking experience with my mom stayed with me for life. I soon ventured into jounaling and creating books of writing for school assignments. Later I discovered that I loved writing when taking my first English composition class in college. I created a career in writing training manuals for teachers on parenting topics and family literacy projects. Most recently, my passion for writing and self-discovery helped a group of parent and grandparent teachers create the 