5LittleMonkeys Posted February 23, 2011 Share Posted February 23, 2011 I want to help dd put together a mini-office for composition. I think it would help her to have things right in front of her to reference when writing. I was thinking I could include a list of good transition words, a punctuation chart, a proofreading markings chart, a general rubric and maybe some ideas for organizational charts. What else could I include? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rafiki Posted February 23, 2011 Share Posted February 23, 2011 . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kalmia Posted February 23, 2011 Share Posted February 23, 2011 I know Capt Uhura is putting together something like this for her kids. Maybe you can PM her or she'll chime in on the thread. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
5LittleMonkeys Posted February 24, 2011 Author Share Posted February 24, 2011 I'll check out the IEW resource book for ideas, but I was really looking for something that dd could put together on her own. Usually if she creates something she is more likely to remember the information. I'll shoot Capt Uhura a pm too ... thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HeidiKC Posted February 24, 2011 Share Posted February 24, 2011 What a great and fun idea! Thesaurus, of course. But I guess you mean more like stuff she'll put together herself? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Capt_Uhura Posted February 24, 2011 Share Posted February 24, 2011 1TOGO posted on the high school board what her DD is working on. I'll copy it below. http://www.welltrainedmind.com/forums/showthread.php?p=2446211&posted=1#post2446211 1TOGO’s DD’s writing notebook "LOL! This was the scenario in our house for years. Me talking and the students watching my mouth move. I called it the "Peanuts syndrome." We want independent writers, but we tie our students to us with constant repetition of concepts. If we've taught strong verbs, our students should be responsible for reworking their sentences. To help with accountability, we began using an Editing Notebook last year, and I have seen significant improvement. Also, I don't think it's unusual for a paper to take a week or more if you expect a polished piece. However, it sounds like you want your son to take more responsibility for editing. An Editing Notebook is a way to move him in that direction. Buy a college rule, spiral bound notebook with at least 200 pages. Label the first page, Table of Contents, and put a Roman numeral I in the upper right corner. Put the Roman numerals II, III, IV, V, VI, and VII in the upper right corner of the following pages. Then, begin numbering the subsequent pages 1, 2, 3... in the upper right corner. You will only be using the right side of the page of the body pages. Teach your first editing or writing concept, write the concept in the Table of Contents, and put an example on page 1. Teach only one concept at a time and make sure you student understands how to apply that concept before moving on. Sorry for the bold, but this is critical. Listed below is dd's "Table of Contents." Passive Verbs pg. 1 (page numbers are put in a neat column after the red left hand margin line) Vague Verbs pg. 1 Cliche page 1 Synonyms for "Good" pg. 1 Sentence Variety pg. 2 Showing words versus telling, hazy words pg. 2 Words that create a picture pg. 2 Verbs that imply emotion pg. 2 Examples of Perfect Paragraphs pg. 3-4 ROC-It pg. 5 Brainstorming pg. 6-7 Most of the information comes from various writing curriculum that we have used and from books on editing; i.e. IEW - Sentence Variety, LTW - Passive Verbs, Vague Verbs, Cliche, Examples of Perfect Paragraphs - PBW, etc. The Editing Notebook is a good way to corral the information from various curriculum if you change curriculum. Btw, when I taught verbs, I required dd to circle the main verb in every sentence. Then, I worked with her to correct various verb problems. Changing the verbs goes a long way toward improving a piece, and as you can see, she moved on from verbs. Also, when she sits down to write, she must have her Editing Notebook and a dictionary front and center." So far what I have in my DS's notebook is SWB's charts from WWS (I guess I can't way what they are since it isn't published yet). I had bought IEW's student notebook some time ago and have some of the pages in it (strong verbs, adverbs, emotion words). I also have a chart of transitional words and phrases, signal words. Ideally, I think it's best for DC to make these charts. So that is next on my list. When he reads a book, I want him to make note of time sequence words, paragraph connectors, etc and start compiling his own lists. I got the idea from KarenAnne. When her DD reads something and there is a great opener, she adds it to her opener page, for example. I also want to put in some rubrics for writing....have you checked spelling? capitalization at start of a sentence? proper nouns? commas after D,I sentences, etc. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Create Your Ritual Posted February 25, 2011 Share Posted February 25, 2011 This is so helpful to know! Thanks so much for re posting that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
5LittleMonkeys Posted February 25, 2011 Author Share Posted February 25, 2011 1TOGO posted on the high school board what her DD is working on. I'll copy it below. Thank you. I think that, although dd isn't making a notebook, she could incorporate some of these ideas into her mini-office. I think we are going to do a math mini-office too...and maybe one for dd13 for Latin. Hmmmm, I could get carried away with this.:tongue_smilie: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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