Several years ago, I attended a writing conference and had the pleasure of meeting Marion Roach Smith. Marion worked at The New York Times in the 70s and 80s, and in 1985 she wrote a memoir about her mother’s battle with Alzheimer’s Disease. 

She now teaches memoir writing courses and is the author of a wonderful little book on memoir writing called The Memoir Project.

Marion’s talk at the conference, my conversation with her afterwards, and my reading of her guidebook all inspired me to write several of my own memoir essays. It also reminded me of the importance of this literary genre.

Augustine’s Confessions, published circa 400 AD, is considered the first Western autobiography ever written. Since then, memoir writing has become an established genre whether you’re writing an op-ed for a newspaper, a blog post for a website, a personal essay for a college application, or a book-length autobiography.

That means that writing memoir essays isn’t just for adults. It’s an essential assignment for young writers as well.

Memoir writing teaches students how to develop their storytelling skills, express their emotions more fully, and evaluate personal experiences for life lessons. It’s a fantastic way to guide students to write more vividly and let their personality shine through on the page. These skills will give them a strong foundation for all different types of academic writing.

I am reminded of a quote I once came across attributed to the writer Flannery O’Connor, “Anybody who has survived his childhood has enough information about life to last him the rest of his days.”

Just like adults, children have a wealth of experiences to write about. (It’s interesting to note that many adults write memoir essays about their childhood!) Some of my young students write humorous memoir essays. Others grapple with sensitive memories, for example, a loved one’s passing. No matter the subject, each essay shares a valuable and unique experience.

Unlike the cliché back to school essay assignment “What did you do on your summer vacation?”, my memoir assignment for kids asks them to pick an experience where they learned an important lesson. It challenges them to write an engaging story that will inspire their readers.

This is an integral part of memoir writing. In her book The Memoir Project, Marion writes, 

“Let us into your story by shedding light on our own dilemmas, fears, happiness, or wide-eyed wonder…You have to give readers a reason for this thing to live on in their hearts and minds.” 

Here are several possible topics for a memoir essay:

• Winning or losing a competition
• Your bravest moment
• How you overcame a fear
• An event that changed your life
• A time when you made the wrong choice (and learned from it)
• A time when you made the right choice
• The most exciting experience you’ve ever had
• When you learned how to do something for the first time

How to Teach Memoir Writing

I’ve recently taken my memoir writing assignment and turned it into a fun downloadable lesson plan: Inkwell Ninjas: How to Write a Memoir Essay.

It’s a step by step guide for teaching this important essay form and unlocking your student’s true writing potential.

I recommend this guide for ages 8-11 (grades 3-5). I designed it for students who are learning how to write short five paragraph essays. You can adapt the lesson plan to the skill set of your student.

Here’s what’s included: 

1. A 29-page full color PDF written in a conversational tone. The writing ninjas teach everything you and your student need to know about memoir writing — all you have to do is read along!
2. You also get a 9-page teacher’s guide PDF that contains a clear and simple step-by-step explanation on how to use the lesson plan along with black and white copies of the memoir essay outline, checklist, and grading rubric that you can print out for your students.

You can check out all the details on this page.

Right now, you can get the entire lesson plan for just $9.99. I’m not sure how long I’ll keep it at this price but I wanted to make it accessible right now to teachers all around the globe so you can teach this important essay form to your students.

If you purchase the guide or have already purchased it, thank you! That helps to support the website and email newsletter so I can continue making free resources for you too.

On the Bookshelf: Inkwell Scholars Book Recommendation

Having students read an autobiography would be a wonderful companion to this essay assignment. In the memoir lesson plan, I include a short memoir essay by John Greenleaf Whittier so students can read and evaluate excellent writing.

When I was a child, I remember enjoying Helen Keller’s autobiography, The Story of My Life. Published in 1903 when Keller was just 23 years old, it details her experiences growing up blind and deaf. You can read it for free on The Internet Archive or get a copy from Amazon here.

I’d love to hear from you if you have any additional memoir or autobiography recommendations for kids. God bless and happy reading and writing!

The post Why Young Writers Should Write Memoir Essays appeared first on Inkwell Scholars.

When I was about six or seven years old, I learned in school about Benjamin Franklin and his Pennsylvania Gazette. The gazette was one of America’s most prominent newspapers in the 1700s. 

Of course, when I was a child, people still read print newspapers. My mother had worked in advertising for one of the largest U. S. newspaper publishers. She told my older brother and me all about the differences between Franklin’s printing press and how newspapers were currently being produced. 

Fascinated by all of this, my brother and I decided to make our own version of The Pennsylvania Gazette using our family’s computer. 

As I grew older, I continued to love customizing the computer templates to create newsletters.

At thirteen, I created a literary newsletter called The Inkwell filled with book reviews and short stories I’d written. I gave copies away to friends and family.

(Yes, I named Inkwell Scholars in honor of that newsletter.)

Eventually, my parents encouraged me to set up a website for my newsletter. That website no longer exists, but it was a wonderful way for me to learn about web design and how to publish my work as a young writer.

While print newspapers are now in decline, articles on websites and email newsletters are still a powerful way for writers to share their ideas with the world.

I now have two different email newsletters, one for this website and one for my website nicolebianchi.com. And, imagine, it all started with that first Pennsylvania Gazette I created with my brother way back in elementary school. 

Creating a newsletter is a fun activity for writers of all ages. It’s an excellent way for them to practice all different kinds of skills, not only writing, but also editing and design.

Here’s how you can introduce this fun activity to your students.

How to Create a Newsletter that Showcases Kids’ Writing

Most word processors on computers have newsletter templates. And even though print newsletters might no longer be popular, you can print these newsletters out so kids can have a physical copy of their work. They love seeing their words come to life in this way.

Students could create a newsletter that showcases the essays they’ve written for school in response to writing assignments. Or they could create a pretend newspaper about a time period they are studying in history and write short news stories about those events (that’s what my brother and I did with our Pennsylvania Gazette).

Writing ads for the newsletter or newspaper is a great way to teach young students about persuasive writing. Students in my writing classes have written ads for fictional products they invented.

When I was a kid, I wrote a newspaper about happenings in my house with an ad, for example, for Mom and Dad’s Restaurant and the Living Room Bookstore.

Some students today might never have seen copies of physical newspapers so this would also be a great way to teach them the history of newspapers and journalism. 

Here are some steps that you can follow:

1. Come up with a fun name for your newsletter or newspaper.
2. Pick a template from a Word Processor like Pages on a Mac or Microsoft Word on a PC.
3. Decide what your newsletter will be about. (You could create a collection of students’ essays or articles written specifically for the newsletter. For example, a newsletter could contain a short story, a poem, a book review, etc. When you’re first starting out, you’ll probably want to keep it simple so kids don’t get overwhelmed.)
4. Show kids how newspapers are formatted and how they can design their own.
5. Print out the newsletter and share with friends and family.

On the Bookshelf: Inkwell Scholars Book Recommendation

Benjamin Franklin by Ingri and Edgar Parin d’Aulaire was one of the books my brother and I read about Franklin’s life. 

Ingri and Edgar were a husband and wife team. They were both professional illustrators. This book is filled with historical details and entertaining folk art style illustrations. 

Here’s the synopsis from Amazon: “Details the life of this famous American from his boyhood as one of the youngest of seventeen children, to his teen years as an apprentice in his brother’s print shop and his later years as an inventor, statesman, diplomat, and signer of the Declaration of Independence. Children and adults alike will enjoy learning about the fascinating life Franklin led from the lively text and beautiful illustrations of this d’Aulaire classic.”

You can buy it on Amazon or read it for free on archive.

God bless and happy reading and writing!

The post This Fun Activity Will Help Kids Improve Their Writing appeared first on Inkwell Scholars.

Has this ever happened to your student?

They put off their writing assignment until the last minute. When they finally do sit down to work on the assignment, they’re fidgeting in their chair and groaning about not knowing what to write.

Maybe they scribble down a few lines, but after several minutes they erase everything. They just can’t seem to find the right words to continue.

Warning alert: your young writer is suffering from writer’s block.

And they’re not alone. Even many famous writers have struggled with creative blocks at some point in their careers.

The famous writer Franz Kafka once lamented in his journal,

“How time flies; another ten days and I have achieved nothing. It doesn’t come off. A page now and then is successful, but I can’t keep it up, the next day I am powerless.”

Thankfully, writers have invented many different methods to help them get back into a creative flow.

As I shared in my previous article, one of those ways is to use writing prompts. Writing prompts are a great way to help young writers spark their imagination.

Another strategy is to break a writing assignment down into small steps so that the young writer will not be overwhelmed. Give the student a short, timed writing session over a series of days in which they work on one of those steps at a time (for example, first writing an outline, then writing the introductory paragraph, etc.).

This will help them learn how to plan out big projects, an invaluable skill for high school and college and the business world.

But, even with those strategies, a student might still struggle. 

That’s where the “Writing Out Loud” method comes to the rescue.

This is a super simple method that requires a little patience and guidance from the writing teacher.

Here’s how it works.

Step one: identify what the student is struggling with.

Sometimes it could be something as simple as not understanding the assignment. Once this is cleared up, they’ll be writing away. If, however, it’s something more complex (for example, they don’t have any idea how to write their first sentence), you can proceed to step two.

Step two, ask them guiding questions about what they’re struggling with and have them answer out loud.

For example, let’s say they are struggling to write the first paragraph of their memoir essay. You can say, “Ok, how would you begin telling the story? You can use a phrase like ‘It all started on the day…’ Repeat that and fill in the rest of the sentence out loud.”

Step three, write down their words on a separate piece of paper.

For young writers, it can be difficult for them to formulate their thoughts and then immediately jot them down. They can quickly forget what they just said. Show them what you’ve written, ask them for their feedback, and use guiding questions to help them make it stronger. For example, you could say, “Can you think of an adjective you could use to describe the day? What was the temperature like?”

Fourth and finally, when you and the student finish editing the sentence or sentences, have the student copy them down on their own paper.

This method does take a little extra effort on the part of the teacher, but it is an excellent way to prevent students from becoming frustrated and to help them think more deeply about their writing.

Eventually, they will not need your guidance and can graduate to the “Writing in Your Head” strategy where they think about their writing independently. I’ve discussed this strategy more in my video here and in a video on the 8-step Essay Writing Process (for high school and college age students).

I use this strategy with my own writing. Whenever I’m struggling with writer’s block and unsure how to craft a paragraph or a sentence or even before I begin a writing project, I’ll step away from my computer and find a quiet room where I can sit down and think through what I want to say. Many times I’ll start formulating the sentences in my head. I’m sure there are some writers who like to formulate their sentences out loud.

That’s exactly what the young student is doing when they tell you their sentence out loud before writing it down. After all, for young writers, telling a story out loud is much more natural to them than writing it down.

I hope this strategy helps you and your students! I’d love to hear if you have more methods to help young writers overcome writer’s block.

On the Bookshelf: Inkwell Scholars Reading Recommendation

Don’t you love beautifully written and illustrated books that are also educational?

Paddle to the Sea is a 1941 Caldecott Honor Award Winner. Written and illustrated by Holling C. Holling, it tells the story of a “young Indian boy [who] carves a little canoe with a figure inside and names him Paddle-to-the-Sea. Paddle’s journey, in text and pictures, through the Great Lakes to the Atlantic Ocean provides an excellent geographic and historical picture of the region.”

This is a wonderful book to read aloud. If you enjoy this book, be sure to check out the other titles the author has written. Here is a link to borrow the book for free on Archive or you can get a copy from Amazon.

Another fun book that follows a character’s journey is The Travels of Monarch X by Ross E. Hutchins with illustrations by Jerome P. Connolly. It follows the course of a Monarch butterfly from Canada to Mexico. This one is currently out of print, but you can buy a used copy from Amazon or read it for free on Archive.

Paddle to the Sea and The Travels of Monarch X were two of my favorite books when I was a kid.

God bless and happy reading and writing!

The post How to Help Kids Quickly Overcome Writer’s Block appeared first on Inkwell Scholars.

Autumn is nearly here, and kids are heading back to school. Today, I’m sharing an essential school supplies list for writing teachers and their students.

Of course, you can shop for many of these items online, though often it is fun to let kids pick out their own pencils and notebooks in person at the local bookstore or stationary store. That helps to get them excited about using these items when the school year starts.

Here is the Inkwell Scholars supplies list to make sure young writers are well-equipped for their writing adventures:

1. Journal

A journal is a wonderful way to encourage students to write on a consistent basis. They can use the journal to record what they did each day or fill it with their own fictional stories.

This is one item that I think kids should pick out for themselves. They might be happy with a simple spiral ring notebook or they might love one with a decorative cover or one that looks like an actual book.

I was obsessed with writing in journals as a kid, but I know that not all kids share the same passion. My free eBook 31 Best Writing Prompts is a great way to get kids into the habit of writing in their journal. (Subscribe to the email list to get your free copy).

Set aside time each week for journaling. Let kids select a prompt from the eBook and write their response in their journal. You could even join in on the fun. When students see adults completing the same exercise as them, they often have more enthusiasm. I love joining my writing students and writing a story for the prompt as well. 

Often, they are surprised because they have never seen a teacher joining in on an assignment. They’re excited that I am writing with them and eager to hear what I write and share their responses too.

2. Three ring binder

I always request that my writing students bring a three ring binder to class and their own lined paper. If they are older students, they will probably type up their final assignments. But they can write down their outlines and first drafts by hand. 

Also, if they receive any handouts in class, you can easily slip the papers into the three ring binder so that they don’t get lost in the student’s backpack.

Along with lined paper for the three ring binder, I also recommend a folder with three hole punch where they can keep additional handouts that don’t fit into the binder’s pockets.

3. Pencil and Pens

Obviously, students need pens and pencils to write. Again, I recommend letting students pick out at least one special pen or pencil. 

One of my writing students was thrilled with his mechanical pencils and loved to show me how they worked.

In the United States, No. 2 pencils are usually the required type of pencil for standardized tests.

You might want to purchase a separate pearl eraser because students can quickly wear down the erasers on their pencils. And get a hand held pencil sharpener too! 

4. Pencil Case

Kids can be notorious at losing their school supplies. I had a “lost and found” basket that was often filled with kids’ left behind pens and pencils.

So I definitely recommend a pencil case to keep all of their writing tools in one place. You could fill this with other school supplies like highlighters or sticky notes.

5. Dictionary & Thesaurus 

Nowadays we can easily search dictionaries and thesauruses online. But for very young writers, a physical dictionary and thesaurus are fantastic if you are trying to limit screen time. I recommend getting a dictionary and thesaurus written specifically for kids. Here are examples on Amazon of kid’s dictionaries and kid’s thesauruses.

These books are a great way for children to learn spelling and new words. 

6. Paper Hole Puncher & Electric Pencil Sharpener

These two items are really for teachers rather than for students. If you are a teacher in a school or homeschool, I highly recommend getting these for your classroom. The paper hole puncher is very helpful to make sure printed handouts can be put right into kids’ three ring binders. 

Of course, an electric pencil sharpener isn’t required. You can use a mechanical one or a hand held one. But I think my electric pencil sharpener was one of the highlights of my writing class. Kids would eagerly line up at the start of class to use it. 

On the Bookshelf: Inkwell Scholars Book Recommendation

A novel would make a great back-to-school gift for your young writer.

Basil of Baker Street by Eve Titus was a favorite read-aloud in my writing class for students ages 8 to 10. This book was the inspiration for the 1986 Disney film The Great Mouse Detective.

In Titus’s book, “Basil—the famous sleuth of mousedom—lives in the cellar of Sherlock Holmes’s house. A devoted admirer of the great detective, he has learned his craft by listening at the feet of Holmes himself. But will it be enough to help Basil solve his most baffling mystery yet?”

This is a fun read to introduce students to mystery stories. Encourage them to write a mystery story of their own in their new journal.

You can check out Basil of Bakerstreet here on archive for free or buy it on Amazon.

I’d love to hear if you have any other writing supplies to add to my list. God bless and happy reading and writing! 

The post Back to School Supplies for Young Writers appeared first on Inkwell Scholars.

When I was in college, I took classes from a professor who is an author and prominent film critic. At the start of class, she would have us write by hand in our notebooks for about ten or fifteen minutes. Often she gave us a prompt to follow, but the final piece of writing was not graded. 

This was a wonderful way for us to switch into writing mode. It helped us clear our minds from worries, push away thoughts about other classes, and get into a creative flow. I typed all of my other assignments so writing by hand was refreshing, forcing me to slow down and truly reflect on what I was putting on the page.

I loved this exercise in college so I decided to try it with my own groups of writing students. If you’ve ever taught a big group of elementary or middle school students, you know that they can become very rambunctious. 

Setting a timer and having them work on a writing prompt at the start of class is a fantastic way to get them to settle down, warm up their writing muscles, and start thinking creatively. 

Additionally, impromptu writing is an important skill for academic success. Tests in all school subjects often contain short essay prompts. Impromptu writing helps train students to organize their thoughts and write quickly and well under pressure. 

Here are five more ways writing prompts can improve a student’s writing skills:

1. The prompt can get a reluctant writer excited about writing. Many of the prompts in my eBook, 31 Best Writing Prompts, are for writing stories. I’ve rarely seen a student who didn’t have fun writing a story.
2. They can help students practice their penmanship.
3. They can help students work on specific areas of writing. For example, you could give the students a lesson on similes and metaphors, and then ask students to write a response to a prompt and include their own similes and metaphors.
4. They can help students practice writing on a consistent basis. An essay can take a long time to outline and write, and younger students might not even be ready to write essays yet. Prompts are a quick and easy writing assignment. It’s a fun way for students to reinforce grammar and punctuation rules and learn to spell new words.
5. They can spark a young writer’s imagination. Several of my students have wanted to continue working on their stories after the 15-minute timer went off. When they came to the next class, their short response to a writing prompt had turned into a several pages long story.

If you subscribe to the email newsletter, you’ll receive my free eBook, 31 Best Writing Prompts. These are prompts I’ve tested in the classroom that will get young students excited about writing. I recommend this guide for older elementary and middle school students. I’d love to hear if you’ve used it yet with your students.

Have any questions about using writing prompts or any additional strategies to share? Let me know in the comments.

On the Bookshelf: Inkwell Scholars Book Recommendation

One of my favorite books as a kid was The Mysteries of Harris Burdick by Chris Van Allsburg. I loved flipping through the pages and letting the gorgeous, mysterious illustrations spark ideas for my own stories. Van Allsburg is the author and illustrator of Jumangi and The Polar Express. 

Here’s the blurb about the book from Wikipedia: “[The Mysteries of Harris Burdick] consists of a series of images, ostensibly created by Harris Burdick, a man who has mysteriously disappeared. Each image is accompanied by a title and a single line of text, which encourage readers to create their own stories. Many famous writers have tried to put their own twists on the pictures.”

This book would make an excellent additional collection of pictorial writing prompts. You can check it out for free here on Archive and here’s a link to the book on Amazon.

God bless and happy reading and writing!

P. S. If you’re looking for writing prompts for older students (high school or college age), check out these exercises I’ve collected here and here on my website nicolebianchi.com.

The post How to Spark Young Writers’ Imaginations with Writing Prompts appeared first on Inkwell Scholars.

Greetings! I’m excited to announce the official relaunch of Inkwell Scholars.

Back when I was a college student and recent homeschool grad, I started Inkwell Scholars as a writing tutoring business. For over a decade, I taught classes and tutored elementary school, middle school, and high school students from homeschool groups, public schools, and several of the top private schools in New York.

I also shared educational resources on the Inkwell Scholars website and YouTube channel. 

But I decided to take a short hiatus in 2015 when I switched my focus to building a website for professional writers. You can visit that website here: https://nicolebianchi.com. 

Well, that hiatus ended up being much longer than I expected. It’s now 2023, I work with clients at a digital marketing agency that I started with two of my brothers, and the email list for nicolebianchi.com has grown to over 6,000 subscribers.

But I have finally returned to Inkwell Scholars, and I’m excited to dedicate my time to turning it into a comprehensive resource for young writers.

Over the past few months, I’ve worked on redesigning the website and creating brand new writing guides.

Don’t miss the free video resources on this page where I share all of the educational videos I made when teaching my own students.

Here’s what I have planned for the future of Inkwell Scholars and the newsletter:

Nonfiction Writing Resources for Kids

From my teaching experience, I learned strategies and techniques for how to teach writing to young students, how to adapt teaching methods to different personalities and skill sets, and how to turn writing instruction into a school subject that children will love. 

I’m looking forward to sharing these resources with you here in the email newsletter and also on the website. 

Recently, I put together a complete guide on how to teach memoir writing to young students. In this guide, I share the exact worksheets, grading rubric, and more that I used in the classroom and 1-on-1 with my tutoring students. You can check it out here. 

Fiction Writing Resources for Kids

I’ve loved to write fiction ever since I was a little kid, but back then there weren’t many resources to guide me in how to plot a powerful story, write believable characters, etc. When I grew up, I discovered many wonderful resources written for adults. They were a huge help as I wrote short stories (you can read several of my short stories here) and also completed my first novel. I’d love to take what I’ve learned and make storytelling resources for kids who want to write their own books too.

So, if you’re teaching a young budding author, this website is the place for you.

I’ll also be sharing a peek behind the scenes at my writing process and my journey to indie-publish my first novel, as well as tips for kids on how to tell their own powerful stories. 

Book Recommendations for Kids

As I mentioned above, I’ve loved to write ever since I was a kid, and I learned a lot from reading well-written stories. As I share in my video on close reading, one of the best ways to improve as a writer is to read great literature. 

So I also will be sharing recommendations of my favorite books from my childhood: books that are beautifully written and teach valuable life lessons. 

I hope all of these resources will help you. Make sure to sign up to the newsletter to get these resources delivered right in your inbox. God bless and happy writing!

Psalm 45:1, “My heart is stirred by a noble theme  as I recite my verses for the king; my tongue is the pen of a skillful writer.”

The post Relaunching Inkwell Scholars appeared first on Inkwell Scholars.

You’ve read all of their books and may have even tried to imitate their style. Wouldn’t you love it if you could converse with them and get their feedback on how you could improve your writing?

In 1956, C. S. Lewis did just that for a young fan.

The British author of the beloved Chronicles of Narnia series received countless letters from children all around the world. He was careful to respond to each one. A collection of some of these responses can be found in the slim volume Letters to Children.

Among them are several of his letters to Joan, a young girl who wrote to him from the United States. She sent her first letter to Lewis in 1954. Their correspondence lasted over twenty years.

In one letter, Lewis outlined for Joan his five rules for writing well. Though the letter is now sixty years old, Lewis’s rules are still relevant for writers today.

Read the full article over at my new blog to discover C. S. Lewis’s five rules and how we can use them to improve our own writing.

The post 5 Rules for Writing Well: C. S. Lewis’s Letter to a Young Writer appeared first on Inkwell Scholars.

This mindset is rooted in a single concept: we have the capability to improve ourselves for the better if we are willing to put in the hard work. With perseverance and determination, we can make ourselves smarter and develop skills we never knew we had. Carol Dweck (a researcher at Stanford University) coined the term “growth mindset” to describe this way of thinking. It is essential to long-term success.

Contrast the growth mindset to the fixed mindset. The latter believes that people can’t change, that we have fixed traits. Either you’re smart or you’re not. Either you’re talented or you’re not. Life is a constant competition to prove how much intelligence one was dealt at birth, to appear talented at all costs.

Those with the fixed mindset try to coast by on their natural talent since working too hard would call into question their ability. Once a class seems too difficult, they believe that there really isn’t anything they can do about it. Someone with the fixed mindset might say, “I’m just not a math person” when struggling through a math class. He or she will eventually run away from the challenge out of a fear of failure.

The growth mindset, on the other hand, embraces difficult situations. Those with the growth mindset believe that our brains are like a muscle, and if we challenge and exercise them, they will grow. It is possible to improve our abilities and expand our minds. It is possible to seek out new ways to learn. It is possible to overcome obstacles if we want our goals badly enough.

Where others would believe they had failed, those with the growth mindset would instead see an opportunity to learn what doesn’t work and try again. The only time we fail according to the growth mindset is when we quit. As Thomas Edison once famously observed, “I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.” Similarly, he also once stated, “Many of life’s failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.”

Of course, this doesn’t mean that everyone can become a Mozart or a Leonardo da Vinci or even a Thomas Edison. But it does mean that we never know what we are capable of unless we roll up our sleeves and are willing to put in as many hours as are necessary in order to achieve our goals.

Even if you embrace the growth mindset in most situations, it is easy to fall into the fixed mindset trap in the face of fear and laziness. The steady voice rises in our head, “Don’t ask that question – everyone in the class will think you’re stupid. Why are you still trying to solve this problem? You obviously aren’t smart enough. Why are you working so hard? Wouldn’t it be so much easier just to stay in your comfort zone?”

Nurturing the growth mindset is critically important in order to drown out that voice and to sustain motivation for the projects we are working on even on those days when we become discouraged and overwhelmed.

Here are ten essential steps to follow to develop a mindset of success:

1. Think positively.
2. See obstacles as learning opportunities.
3. Refuse to quit.
4. Try a different strategy if you’re having trouble grasping a concept or solving a problem.
5. Don’t compare yourself with others except to learn from their mistakes and be inspired by their successes.
6. See criticism as constructive.
7. Set realistic goals for yourself.
8. Emphasize hard work and effort over talent.
9. Never stop learning.
10. Work passionately.

Those who embrace the growth mindset understand that becoming a successful student is not just about adopting techniques and strategies that will help push your GPA a little higher. It’s about learning how to learn so you can quickly teach yourself any skill in the real world. It’s about finding the methods that will allow you to use your time more efficiently so you can always deliver your best possible work.

If you master the strategies necessary to study effectively, refuse to accept the belief that intelligence is fixed, and commit to working wholeheartedly on your projects, you will be well equipped to succeed in whatever career or endeavor you decide to pursue and to take advantage of any opportunities that arise that give you the chance to change the world.

The post Want to Be Successful? Cultivate the Growth Mindset appeared first on Inkwell Scholars.

Choosing which program to use, however, is not nearly as important as knowing how to keep a to-do list that will not sabotage your productivity. Yes, that’s right. Even though to-do lists are supposed to help us work more efficiently, if they are written up in the wrong way, they can actually end up doing more harm than good. In today’s post, I’m sharing five steps to follow to create a powerful to-do list that will supercharge your productivity. 

This post is an excerpt from my recently released eBook Study Smarter where I share lots more study tips and productivity hacks.

5 Steps to Creating a Powerful Daily To-Do List:

1. Keep it short.

I have the bad habit of writing to-do lists that are a mile long. This means that I become overwhelmed by everything that I need to accomplish, and I end up procrastinating rather than getting down to work. In actuality, your daily to-do list should not be so long that it would be impossible to reasonably complete all of the tasks in twenty-four hours. A good medium is 3 to 5 tasks.

2. Keep multiple to-do lists.

In order to keep your daily to-do list short, you should keep track of your projects and deadlines on a single master list. This is where you write down everything that you need to accomplish. Then every night write up a separate to-do list for the next day, pinpointing which items on your master list are your top priorities.

3. Break projects down into smaller tasks.

Try to be as practical as possible when adding items to your daily to-do list. For example, “write term paper” is very vague and a bit intimidating. It’s easy to fall into the trap of procrastinating over such a task because it seems like it will consume all of your time. Instead, break it down into smaller, more manageable tasks. For example, instead of attempting to write your entire term paper in one day, first just focus on the outline or on the introduction. On your to-do list you could write, “Complete term paper introduction” rather than, “write term paper.”

4. Be as specific as possible.

As we’ve just seen, it’s always best to write down your tasks in the clearest way possible. This is a good method to follow even when you are not breaking a large project into smaller bite-sized steps. Write out all of your tasks as specific actions you can follow. For example, instead of writing “study for math test”, you could write, “Study chapters 3 & 4 in math textbook and review all homework problems”.

5. Rank tasks in order of priority.

Even on your daily to-list, you should organize tasks according to importance and complete them in order. Begin with the items that are your “Most Important Tasks”. You should try to tackle the MITs first thing in the morning before moving on to the other tasks. It becomes more difficult to complete them the longer and longer you put them off.

Ultimately, when to-do lists are used correctly, they help us optimize our organization and prioritization of projects and keep us mindful of upcoming due dates and important appointments and events. This frees up mental space and stops us from wasting time on mundane tasks. Follow the 5-step method to create a powerful daily to-do list that will prevent you from procrastinating and will boost your productivity.

The post 5 Steps to Creating a Powerful Daily To-Do List appeared first on Inkwell Scholars.

As I grew older, I found it more and more difficult to find time to read for pleasure. However, by following a few simple steps, I have managed to average about thirty books a year. This year I have decided to push myself even further, challenging myself to read forty books.

Reading lots of well-written books (both fiction and non-fiction) is one of the best ways to stimulate your brain and make yourself smarter. Aside from all of the useful information you can learn from good books, the very act of reading will strengthen your writing skills, expand your vocabulary, improve your memory, exercise your analytical thinking skills, and sharpen your focus and concentration. Check out this cool video that talks about how reading novels increases intelligence and also improves empathy.

Want to become a prolific reader? Here are the ten steps I follow that have helped me develop a consistent reading habit and consume lots of books each year.

How to Become a Book Reading Machine

1. Read at least 20 pages every day.

This is the single most important step. The reason is this: If you want to read more, reading must become a habit – something you look forward to and prioritize each day, something that becomes a non-negotiable part of your daily routine.

Twenty pages is a reachable daily goal even if you consider yourself a slow reader. It usually takes just half an hour to complete twenty pages, depending on the size of the book. The more consistently you read, the easier and faster it will become for you to complete those twenty pages. If you have time to read more, go for it. If one day you are especially busy and fear you won’t be able to read twenty pages, at least try to fit in a single page. It is better to read something than to skip reading entirely.

2. Make time to read.

“I just don’t have a lot of time to read” should never be an excuse. The problem is not that we don’t have time. It’s that we don’t make time. It means that we are prioritizing other activities over reading. Instead of setting aside free time for TV or computer games or social media, spend a half hour with a good book. There’s a great quote by Groucho Marx that goes, “I find television very educating. Every time somebody turns on the set, I go into the other room and read a book.”

Try to carve out a half hour at the same time every day. It could be during lunch or right before you go to sleep. Usually, nighttime is the best time since you won’t have any other obligations. Alternatively, you could break up your quota of pages across the day: ten pages in the morning when you wake up and ten pages at night before going to sleep.

3. Read in a well-lit and quiet space.

First things first, it is easier to read more when you are not straining your eyes so always make sure that the room is well lighted. If you use a device like an iPad to read eBooks, you can wear a pair of computer glasses that block blue light and minimize digital eye strain and fatigue.

Second, you will be able to read faster in a room that has few distractions. I know that whenever I am reading in a room where someone is watching television, I often end up reading the same sentence over several times. There’s a reason why libraries are quiet and peaceful. This is why I like reading best either early in the morning or late at night. There are not as many people up and about to interrupt you. Try to choose the same place to read every day. That way your brain will associate it with reading, and you will be in reading mode as soon you grab your book.

4. Take your book with you everywhere.

If you’re still finding your day way too busy to fit in reading time or you want to double your reading time, start taking a book with you everywhere. You will be amazed at how much free time you actually have. Snatch some time on the subway (or in the car with an audio book), in the waiting room at the doctor’s office or at the haircutter’s, in line at the store or on your lunch break – really the possibilities are endless!

5. Read several books at the same time.

By reading several books at the same time, I find that I end up finishing more books by the end of the year. However, I have also found that my limit is three books at once, so be careful with this one or you might overwhelm yourself. I usually like to diversify my reading habits by enjoying a nonfiction book and a novel at the same time. It is easiest for me to manage one in the morning and one in the evening.

6. Keep a book list.

By keeping a reading list, I have a constant well of books that I can dip into so I never have to waste time wondering what I should read next. If you set up an account on a website like Goodreads, you can easily add books to your “want to read list.” Every time you hear about a book that sounds interesting or if a friend recommends a book to you, add it to your list. I also like keeping a list of the books I have read during the year and joining a reading challenge. This lets me see my progress and keeps me motivated to keep reading every day.

7. Read books you enjoy.I’m one of those people who absolutely hate abandoning a book, but sometimes a book really isn’t worth finishing. Trying to force myself through a book that I am not enjoying makes me dread my daily reading time and slows down my reading speed. However, I do like to give books a chance: sometimes the first few chapters of a book are incredibly boring but then I reach the action and realize why everyone gave the book a five star review.

Moral of the story: if you are really suffering through a book, don’t be afraid to put it down. If it’s a nonfiction book, you might want to just jump to the chapters that pique your interest. Ultimately, if you want to read more, find books that you love, that are about topics you are interested in, and that you won’t be able to put down.

8. Make friends with fellow book lovers.

Nearly all of my friends are book lovers. Whenever we meet up, we always ask each other what we’ve been reading. We love suggesting books that the other will enjoy, and sometimes even reading the same book together. Motivational speaker Jim Rohn once said, “You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with.” That means: if you want to build a reading habit, surround yourself with other people who understand the importance of reading and whose obsession with reading will rub off on you.

9. Train yourself to read faster.

If you want to read more and you have a very slow natural reading speed, then you should focus on increasing your words per minute. However, reading faster does not necessarily imply speed-reading. In fact, speed-reading is often not the best choice when you are reading a complex text or a novel. See this article that discusses the drawbacks of speed-reading apps and how reading comprehension can suffer.

When I read novels, I never skim. I always like to savor each word the author has chosen and pause at times to ponder the plot or reread a paragraph. However, I can do this without sacrificing too much time because my natural reading speed is quite fast. There are lots of ways to boost your natural reading speed, the most obvious of which is to just read more. As you consume more books, your reading speed naturally increases. You can also try guiding yourself with your finger or a pencil under each line as you read. Another method is to read a book and listen to the audio book at the same time. And, of course, eliminate multitasking while reading and other distractions.

10. Love it.

In the end, reading is not a race. It is not something to be rushed through. Rather, it is something to be enjoyed and loved. When you sit down with a book, you are having a conversation with the author. Books let you peek into the brains of some of the smartest people who ever lived. Savor the moment. Feel the cadence of each word. Take notes in the margins. Let yourself be carried away by the story. Let yourself feel the wonderment of learning something new. The ability to read and have thousands of books at our fingertips is a gift that should not be taken for granted.

The Pew Research Center reported last year that almost a quarter of American adults had not read one single book in 2013. Let’s change the statistics.

The post The 10-Step Guide to Reading More appeared first on Inkwell Scholars.