Writing Activation with Maria Parenti-Baldey
A Reading and Writing Workshop for Kids
Maria Parenti-Baldey
Author and school teacher Maria Parenti-Baldey surprised us with a workshop for children on reading and writing. Not only was it informative and gave us adults an insight on how read our stories more effectively with children but it also gave us confidence in our ability to draw!
Maria used the beautiful picture book GLITCH by Michelle Worthington and Andrew Plant as a mentor text.
How to get started:
- Read a PB story or excerpt from a book – depending on age group.
- Ask 2-3 questions – 5Ws + 1H. (Who is the character? What’s happening? Where is it set? When is it happening? Why? How?)
- Before drawing ask kids, ‘How do you feel?’ Responses – nervous, hesitant, curious. I can’t draw.
- When they say, ‘I can’t draw,’ say something unexpected Eg., ‘Good to know or thank you for sharing. Come on, let’s get started.)
- Scan for any opportunity for positive feedback to kids.
- Remind kids all pictures will be different because we are all different.
- Draw book character. (Disconnect kids from the stereotypical way of drawing.) Develop their confidence using step-by-step line drawing (horizontal, vertical, diagonal, curved lines etc., do not name body parts).
- Monitor, scan, give more positive comments to kids.
- Share your drawings with each other, kids behind, kids in front.
- After drawing ask kids, ‘How do you feel?’ Good, lots of head nodding, smiles, compliments to each other. Admiring their work. *This is also the same way kids react in classrooms.
Pictures books are the first books young children connect with. Get them hooked and they’ll go on to be avid readers. However, depending who they meet along the way will depend how well they travel into the reader-hood. Any type of books which keeps kids reading is a positive step. Drawing is a powerful way of building a child’s self-confidence.
This activity will cover the Australian curriculum areas of English – reading, literature – sentence structure, pace, pitch, alliterations, rhyming, questioning, art – drawing language, maths language, science – study bug characteristics, hand-eye-pencil-co-ordination, developing social and emotion skills, building confidence, resilience and persistence.
A story: In term 1, I had a child who ripped pages out of his book because it was not exactly the same as the drawing on the board. Hence, our motto – ‘All drawings will be different because we are all different’ is repeated often. It’s important to share your drawings, kids will nod and smile making each other feel good about themselves through peer appreciation. If pictures are different versions of the same character, and usually easily recognisable, it’s 10 out of 10.
It took this child until the sixth week to stop tearing and scrunching his attempts at drawing.
This activity will cover the Australian curriculum areas of English – reading, literature – sentence structure, pace, pitch, alliterations, rhyming, questioning, art – drawing language, maths language, science – study bug characteristics, hand-eye-pencil-co-ordination, developing social and emotion skills, building confidence, resilience and persistence.
A story: In term 1, I had a child who ripped pages out of his book because it was not exactly the same as the drawing on the board. Hence, our motto – ‘All drawings will be different because we are all different’ is repeated often. It’s important to share your drawings, kids will nod and smile making each other feel good about themselves through peer appreciation. If pictures are different versions of the same character, and usually easily recognisable, it’s 10 out of 10.
It took this child until the sixth week to stop tearing and scrunching his attempts at drawing.
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assignment writers australia
Writing is a form of art and the children should be guided accordingly. Their dreams should be alive and no one should tear those dreams. We can help them and those smiles will be our greatest reward. A reward that we will keep in our hearts for us to be reminded about the good deed that we have done. Let us make this world a better place for children.