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Writing woes....didn't push oldest hard on this!! HELP


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I should have started this back in 7th grade in requiring essays from ds. He is now 14 and has no experience on writing essays. We did do IEW SIW B and he did fine but everything fell apart on writing halfway. I want to spend a lot of time this year getting him ready for writing.

 

I have several ideas from a close friend of mine.

 

Start requiring journal work

Bible journal

require a summary for every history, science and Bible lessons.

Use Editor in Chief series

require 2 reports and a research paper each semester

However I am not to do this all at once...

 

I do have the IEW programs (the teacher one) and SWI B and C. I only want to do the structure part.

 

I do feel like there is a missing part of the whole writing. I do plan on implementing SWB's writing format that she discussed at the Midwest convention and in her newest book.

 

However I want to get him ready this year. Spend a lot of time preparing him for this. I know he is not ready for SWB suggestions.

 

Any ideas????

 

Any program that can help me?

 

Would Potter School online writing program be too much??

 

Thanks!!

 

Holly

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My oldest could barely write a decent narration in 7th grade but was writing lovely essays by 11th. That isn't the timeline you are looking for, which I understand. I just mention it partly to give you hope that you still have lots of time, partly to point out that writing skills are supposed to progress through high school. Our kids don't need to have mastered essay writing before 9th grade just as they didn't have to have mastered reading and writing before 1st grade. It develops with maturity, guidance and practice.

 

I've not used any writing programs. I followed SWB's writing advice (though we never did formal outlines) and we read The Lively Art of Writing for developing essays. It is a slim book that packs lots of useful and practical information. My kids moved from narrations to slightly longer research topics to essays to research projects. Even through high school they had to write summaries of topics each week, and one or two essays a month on literature, history or science. The summaries I'd just check for spelling, but the essays always underwent revision and editing.

 

I've heard good things about Bravewriter.com for outside writing instruction. Julie is the name, I think, of the woman who runs the site and she is very encouraging to students and maintains a safe and non-threatening site for teens. My youngest ds did a literature program one year but hasn't done any writing through them.

 

Anyway, I'd just up the writing a bit by requiring a bit more each week. Introduce the essay, talk through the topic and supporting arguments. The

first attempts may not be great, just remember it is a process!

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I think I know what you're going through. I didn't require much of my kids in the way of writing before high school either. Then it seemed, all of a sudden a very formal type of writing was required.

 

What exactly do you think is the struggle for your son? Is it length, or structure, or is the whole thing overwhelming for him?

 

Journaling is a great idea for just getting used to writing a larger quantity regularly. I had my boys write about 1/3-page (typed) summaries or narrations daily, and that helped quite a bit. Really, just writing on anything every day is a big help. Boys esp. often need practice just getting words onto paper.

 

I used this 10-step list to teach my kids to write a 5-paragraph essay when they got to high school. I just printed it for them and told them to follow it. They wrote about simple topics at first, and their "essays" were very short. Following a checklist helped a lot though.

 

After they were comfortable with the whole idea of a multi-paragraph essay, I was able to help them fix up their writing.

 

I really like Fan the Deck. It's for more experienced writers but they have books for all levels in the series. It's inexpensive, easy to use, easy for the kids to understand. I've written more about it here on the forum, just search for it. stackthedeck.com

 

Hope this helps. Perhaps you could elaborate on what you feel is the "missing part" of teaching writing for you, or your son.

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Missing parts:

 

Flow of paragraphs

paragraphs keeping to same basic topic

knowing what the 1st paragraph should be and so on with the 2nd,3rd

 

Flow is the biggie

 

He is a good writer and writes good stories. Structure and flow is his biggest flaw.

 

I will stick with the IEW but I really want more.

 

Holly

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I backpeddled my 9th grader last year, and we did Apologia's Jump In. They have their first chapter on line, so you can look at it and try it out if you think it would help. It took my son's writing from being very difficult to follow to being delightful. He had no idea how to organize his paragraphs and sentences and get it to flow from thought to thought. For us, Jump In did exactly what we needed.

 

https://apologia.securesites.net/store/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=34&products_id=87

 

Click on "Sample Chapter".

 

Jean

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Missing parts:

 

Flow of paragraphs

paragraphs keeping to same basic topic

knowing what the 1st paragraph should be and so on with the 2nd,3rd

 

Flow is the biggie

 

He is a good writer and writes good stories. Structure and flow is his biggest flaw.

 

Start requiring journal work

Bible journal

require a summary for every history, science and Bible lessons.

Use Editor in Chief series

require 2 reports and a research paper each semester

However I am not to do this all at once...

 

I do have the IEW programs (the teacher one) and SWI B and C. I only want to do the structure part.

 

I do feel like there is a missing part of the whole writing. I do plan on implementing SWB's writing format that she discussed at the Midwest convention and in her newest book.

 

FWIW, I do not think any journaling whatsoever or Editor in Chief will help with either structure or flow.

 

IEW should. In addition to SWI, they also have The Elegant Essay and the High School Essay Intensive that might be helpful.

 

Another excellent source that hasn't been mentioned yet is Jensen's Format Writing.

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