Suggestions, please: 9th grader struggles to write a paragraph, much less an essay.

[Christy B]

My dd has always, always, always struggled with writing (and I don't just mean composition, although that's primarily what I'm discussing -- even the physical act of writing seems problematic for her).

 

We have used anything, everything, and nothing, and the results seem about the same. She responded marginally better to IEW than to other programs, but it wasn't like we suddenly had a major breakthrough.

 

She was enrolled in a Christian school for 8th grade where she wrote exactly one research paper for science, and that was it, for the entire year.

 

We are currently trying to use CLP's Applications of Grammar (Book 3). I think the writing instruction is outstanding, but dd claims it is way to complicated (I admit, it's rather wordy, which appeals to me, but maybe it's overkill for her). I try to have her do one writing assignment for every three to four chapters of LLfLOTR (a far cry from the one or two assignments PER chapter recommended) and it is a major event to get her to write one paragraph.

 

I dug out our old "Write More" writing prompt program and started it up again today (the program consists of a fun brainstorm activity, a journal prompt, and then a creative writing prompt). She can manage two or three sentences in a ten minute timed writing session. I'm going to keep this up, with the idea that writing -- any writing -- is better and more helpful than no writing.

 

I. Am. Desperate.

 

Obviously, something HAS to be done. Our plans are to use dual enrollment and then a transfer program with our local community college, so it is possible that she won't *have* to take the SAT (some of her friends have used this approach with great success) but I don't want that to be our only option, simply because she can not write (she is very, very bright; there are no learning issues with input -- only output). But unless something changes, I think it would be utterly pointless for her to take the SAT. I doubt she could even pass the local EOG writing tests.

 

I have several ideas, any or none of which may be reasonable:

 

1. Use Applications of Grammar and ONLY Applications of Grammar, and quit trying to force writing in other subjects. Literally hold her hand and help her through each and every assignment.

 

2. Write in other subjects, and DROP the writing instruction in Applications of Grammar, use a good handbook to learn "on the job" as writing assignments come up in other subjects.

 

3. Try a different program, such as Jensen's Format Writing.

 

4. Use an IEW themed writing program (perhaps the Life Science, since she is studying biology this year, science is her favorite subject, and IEW seems to be the one approach that has been helpful to her).

 

I do know that the more independently she can work, the better -- writing is my "thing" and we have major battles of will in this subject. I would LOVE a program that does the teaching and allows me to be the coach.

 

An outsourced class is not an option for this school year, but will be high on my list for next school year. I just need something to get us through the rest of this year, and if she can write a GOOD paragraph and a DECENT essay at the end of the year I will be ecstatic.

 

Yes, I know I have asked this before. Yes, I have searched and read the old threads. Please be kind and humor me, it feels like a fresh crisis, even if it isn't.

[Faithr]

Here are my suggestions: drop applications of grammar, don't have any canned writing right now. Instead have her write in her subjects. That will give her a topic to write about, it will consolidate learning for her and there will be precise information required of her in those subjects. That takes a lot of pressure off!

 

Each day give her a question from one subject, for ex. history. Have her write a short essay answer. It's got to have simply an introductory sentence, three supporting sentences and a conclusion. On Fridays instead of having to write from a subject have her do a free write. This is from Julie Bogart's Brave Writer. In a free write you put the timer on for 10 minutes and the only requirement is she has to write. It can be about anything at all. It can be stream of consciousness. She can write out the words of a song, whatever! It doesn't matter the only rule is her pencil needs to keep moving forming words! This exercise really frees up writer's block. After a couple weeks of doing this, words will start coming more easily. Oh, don't worry about spelling or grammar at all.

 

Writing lots of short essays will give her confidence in her writing. Once she's conquered that she can tackle harder stuff. The free write just focuses on putting thoughts on paper, it strips writing down to its unadorned core. This will help her feel like a writer. Free writes did wonders for my kids. They hated them at first but after a couple months of free write Fridays, my kids who hated writing would start a story and then run off to spend the next couple of hours finishing what they had started!

[Christy B]

Here are my suggestions: drop applications of grammar, don't have any canned writing right now. Instead have her write in her subjects. That will give her a topic to write about, it will consolidate learning for her and there will be precise information required of her in those subjects. That takes a lot of pressure off!

 

Each day give her a question from one subject, for ex. history. Have her write a short essay answer. It's got to have simply an introductory sentence, three supporting sentences and a conclusion. On Fridays instead of having to write from a subject have her do a free write. This is from Julie Bogart's Brave Writer. In a free write you put the timer on for 10 minutes and the only requirement is she has to write. It can be about anything at all. It can be stream of consciousness. She can write out the words of a song, whatever! It doesn't matter the only rule is her pencil needs to keep moving forming words! This exercise really frees up writer's block. After a couple weeks of doing this, words will start coming more easily. Oh, don't worry about spelling or grammar at all.

 

Writing lots of short essays will give her confidence in her writing. Once she's conquered that she can tackle harder stuff. The free write just focuses on putting thoughts on paper, it strips writing down to its unadorned core. This will help her feel like a writer. Free writes did wonders for my kids. They hated them at first but after a couple months of free write Fridays, my kids who hated writing would start a story and then run off to spend the next couple of hours finishing what they had started!

 

Wow, that might actually "go over" with her. I haven't looked at the BraveWriter website in ages, but I do remember it was very inspiring. Certainly worth another look and I think your suggestion is brilliant, at least for the rest of this calendar year. You're right, just getting words out and on to paper would be a major accomplishment in and of itself. Then, after a holiday break, maybe we could consider something structured. Thanks!

[Jann in TX]

I just. could. not. get my oldest dd to write ANYTHING after 5th grade. In her Jr high and high school years she completed exactly ONE essay and almost completed a 2 page research paper. The ONE essay she wrote was BEAUTIFUL!

 

She took the placement test for CC this past fall--I 'graduated' her at 19 from our home school even though she was at the 10th grade level in most subjects--she is smart but very RIGHT BRAINED (she is an artist). The CC placement test included a mandatory writing section. She had the classic 'one hour' to write an essay about a subject they gave her. Her score was a 97 out of 100!! I was completely floored! Dd needed to take a composition course for her degree plan so I signed her up. She is doing so well!!! She said the background I gave her (lots of paragraphs) helped her... she might even pull an A out of the course!

 

I tried to have her write in her other subjects--but she was so SLOW at doing anything that every month or so I'd sit down with her and insist that she write a 5-7 sentence paragraph. We used Write Shop for most of the paragraph work and she did part of Jensens Format Writing for her ONE essay.

 

She just changed her major--and only has 1 more course that requires ANY writing (Sociology)...

[Christy B]

That is SO encouraging!!! Thank you for sharing.

[EKS]

Is she able to type reasonably well? If not, this is where I would start. After she is able to do this I would have her do all of her writing on the computer, complete with spelling and grammar checks. Then I would have her do several IEW keyword outline technique paragraphs. Pick things (or write them yourself) that are relevant to what she is studying in history and science. Have her edit these pieces by having the computer read what she's written back to her. She can stop it as she needs to to edit her work. (This is by far the most powerful editing technique my son has ever used. He went from always having some incoherent parts in his written work to having essentially nothing incoherent. He came up with it himself.) Then, if you haven't done it already, I'd use IEW SWI-C and the next one. That way you will have someone other than you giving the instruction.

[Cindy in WA]

I hesitate to suggest another writing program, because I've been much like you trying to get a child to write anything beyond the most BASIC of paragraphs with extremely simple sentences. He also has struggled with the physical aspect of writing and probably is dyslexic/dysgraphic.

 

In an attempt to jump start him, I pulled out the Elegant Essay book from IEW that I used with his older sister. He doesn't love it, but it makes sense. The author does a good job of giving clear instruction with solid examples.

 

Hope this helps. Hang in there, Mom.

Cindy

[Cedarmom]

If she is struggling physically with the act or writing, do you use computer? That opened up a whole new world to my son. Then he could just concentrate on the composition part, and not the physical act of writing. Doing both, was just too overwhelming. You could have her do composition on computer and have seperate handwriting pracitce (copy work) This is what we did. Then, before the SAT, I had him do the practice essays by hand. But by this time he was over the hurdle of not knowing what to write.

 

Another idea is to have her do some writing orally. Have her make a brief outline and then give a speech. This helped my son get the concept that writing really is just written speech. It also teaches them to formulates thier thoughts into words.

 

Have you done copywork and dictation? These are great tools for helping students learn how to keep thoughts in their head and then transfer to paper. If you haven't done dictation, that would be a great place to start.

[Jean in Wisc]

I did not read your post carefully--I'm running out of time here. I just want you to know that my dd wrote her 1st "acceptable" paragraph in 9th grade and went on to get a 4-year scholarship which included her writing an essay--they gave her a computer, a topic, and an hour. They called her essay "smokin' hot."

 

Don't despair yet. :D

 

It seems as though my kids put together the mental skills to write when they get into high school more easily. We did Format Writing, The Lively Art of Writing, and Sentence Composition for High School Students. We dabbled in Warriner's English Composition and Grammar for a high school review of grammar and dipped into Write for College. Her senior year we did a research paper using The Curious Researcher.

 

My ds has really struggled with writing as well. We found that Apologia's Jump In writing program really got him off to a wonderful start in 9th grade. I highly recommend that you check their website and download the 1st chapter for free and see what you think of it. I wish I had had this for my dd. Format Writing was our best purchase of all the high school years for dd.

 

It is not all lost. Just start at the beginning as if you were starting with a new kid--you really do have a new kid because she has never been this old and this advanced in her ability to learn. Start with sentence formation and paragraph 101 if you need to. In my dd's senior year we did the 5 paragraph essay until it started oozing out of her ears. I'd say it was worth it, though!

 

Jean

[Georgia On My Mind]

Last year my 8th grade very bright grand daughter came out of PS and to grandma to be homeschooled. She could not write, even though she was in the gifted program. Her problem with writing prompts was they were not usually on anything she had enough knowledge about to write. I agree that writing across the curriculum is a good strategy. We did Shurley Grammar and like their writing program but before we did the Shurley we had a program called 4-Square which was an excellent way to help her with some format-type writing. We spent 6 weeks in the beginning of last year going over that program and she even used it with the Shurley. It starts with paragraphs (all kinds) and ends with expanding into an 5 paragraph essay. They learn to write topic sentences (thesis statements, how to support, transitions phrases, concluding sentence, hooks, attention grabbers, etc.). This year is much easier and we are mainly writing in subject areas. She has learned to edit her own paragraphs and is writing complex sentences. We have worked extensively on generating writing ideas with brainstorming techniques and she has learned to recognize when she is just "blowing smoke" and not really giving information in subject area. Every student is different. Start where she is now and build on that. She needs confidence that she can do it. Journaling daily oftern helps the block that occurs in students.

 

I hope this information is helpful. The only other thing I would suggest is an excellent program called "Format Writing" which covers all the types of writing she would need to know for HS/College.

[Nan in Mass]

Writing seems to be one of those things with a hump. Before you get over the hump, it is hard to write, so you don't write very much, so you haven't written enough to be good at it. After the hump, you can write fast enough to practise and improve. I forced mine over the hump by focusing on writing for a fall. First he learned to type and use the word processor, and then he wrote (on the computer). I didn't care if it was spelled or punctuated correctly, or if it was well organized; I just wanted to see volume. At the same time, I made him write his Latin excersizes out by hand, so that was another page of writing every day. And he was producing several pages of math excersizes. After he got over the hump, we worked on organization. Only then did we work on technical details. It is practically impossible to teach someone to write if they take an hour to write three sentences. There isn't enough time in the day. I totally sympathize with how frustrating it is. I, too, was pulling my hair out over my middle son's writing, but he managed to do fine on the CC placement test and got an A in CC composition, thereby placing out of it in college. Some of it was practise, and some of it was age.

-Nan

[AnitaMcC]

My dd has always, always, always struggled with writing (and I don't just mean composition, although that's primarily what I'm discussing -- even the physical act of writing seems problematic for her).

 

 

My son struggles with writing... the output of it. He has Asperger Syndrome so his cognitive functions are jumbled at times, but also he has fine moter skill problems. He is a very very very slow writer.

 

He uses a computer for most of his writing. Ds gets way more done using the computer than he does writing by hand. It also helps with his thought process... he types until he gets it all out and then he can go back and move things around or rephrase things.

[Brigid in NC]

IEW seems to be the one approach that has been helpful to her.

 

I do know that the more independently she can work, the better -- writing is my "thing" and we have major battles of will in this subject. I would LOVE a program that does the teaching and allows me to be the coach.

 

Have you tried the IEW DVD's? If IEW has helped, and you are looking for an independent approach, the SWI (Student Writing Intensive) DVD's followed by the SICC (Student Intensive Continuation Course) DVD's might be helpful. We had great success with them. :001_smile:

 

~Brigid

[Christy B]

Thank you, everyone, for your thoughtful and helpful replies. I'm printing out all of your suggestions and will probably end up incorporating a lot of the ideas -- not all at once, of course, but as we make progress and can add bit by bit.

[MamaSheep]

:lurk5:

[wenn]

I was skeptical of IEW but decided to give it a go, we are only 4 lessons in but so far it's working wonderfully for my struggling teen. I'm doing a SWI B/C combo with a small group of kids from our co-op.

[amtmcm]

I do know that the more independently she can work, the better -- writing is my "thing" and we have major battles of will in this subject. I would LOVE a program that does the teaching and allows me to be the coach.

 

 

We used IEW SWI last year and loved it. Andrew Pudewa is an excellent teacher.

 

At the moment we are two weeks into the Middle School - Advanced Essay class with Time4Writing.com and it's going very well. My DD needed feedback from an objective 3rd party and that's exactly what we're getting. The coursework teaches her, I get to coach her through revisions and the teacher gives her a grade and feedback. A+ for making writing instruction easier for mom and daughter while allowing us to keep moving forward instead of getting bogged down in a power struggle.

[Cedarmom]

Another idea is to memorize poetry. Andrew Pudewa gives a lecture on how poetry memorization helps imprint language into our midns. I can't remember the title of the lecture, but it should be at the IEW site.

I mention it because often when we think of teaching writing, we only think of teaching them how to output the skill of writing. But writing is also about input. When we hear and memorize poetry, it teaches us how to use language. That is why memorizing poetry, reading great books, and even learning Latin, are just important to learning writing as the actual skill of composition.