Success is a Community of Published AuthorsApplying DAP to Tween Writing Programs

Success is a community of published authors!Some members of the Tween WriteAway Club pose with their finished manuscripts.

DAP = Developmentally Appropriate Practice and involves tailoring instruction and activities to a specific developmental level

Most often used in early childhood education, but the concept can be extended to any age\grade level

What is DAP?

Provide a structured publishing product Nix all criticism—constructive or otherwise Engage extended families

DAP for Tween Writers

Projects & Publishing

Adult Writers Can reasonably seek out

opportunities to get published

Utilize writing groups mainly for support

Have a complex view of writing that incorporates a variety of purposes for writing

Tween Writers Write often, but have few or

no real opportunities for publishing or sharing their work

Expect to do a significant amount of writing during meetings

Distinguish only between “school” and “fun” writing

Criticism—Constructive and Otherwise

Adult Writers Have few opportunities to

get direct feedback on their work

Feel free to claim the term “writer” & are more comfortable rejecting criticism

Have more experience giving and receiving criticism

Tween Writers Nearly everything they

write is judged and graded

Are blocked from challenging their teachers’ judgments and grades

Are limited developmentally in their ability to give and receive peer feedback

Extended Family Involvement

Adult Writers Usually see family as an

influence on their writing and often as a writing topic as well

Often feel tension between family responsibilities & writing

Tween Writers Tend not to write about

“family stuff” See themselves as writers

and\or write voluntarily because of family support

Have awesome families!

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Want to discuss or have questions?

And they all wrote happily ever after. . .