Writing..

[Kissy]

Ok my son is in 5th grade. he reads on a 9th grade level and is very good at language arts....but he does not like writing and therefore he doesn't do good at it. Anyone else have this problem? He will drag it out and then turn in a very disjointed paragraph. I can't understand how he can be gifted with reading and get language arts so well but not get writing. It all goes together right? Anyway, if you have experience what did you do? He is writing on a 3/4th grade level I really need to get him up to par, it would be nice if he could his writing where everything else is. Program suggestions?

[Arch at Home]

Have you looked at Brave Writer? It is really good with bringing along reluctant writers.

[chai]

Do you know what makes him reluctant to write?

 

We're using Classical Writing. It's pretty rigorous, but it starts with imitation. The student doesn't need to come up with creative ideas, he starts with retelling a fable and goes from there. I like the way that it slowly adds different ideas for making your writing effective.

[Academy of Jedi Arts]

IEW has totally transformed my reluctant writer's writing. It too starts with imitation. As the stylistic techniques are taught, they are added to a checklist that must be used in each paper. One of my favorite aspects of the program is the banned word list. These are words like go, see, and think that are vague and overused. The student keeps a list of alternative words to use instead. I can also use this across the curriculum, which is another huge plus.

[love2read]

How is he good at language arts? If it's just reading, than he may not truly be gifted at language arts. Do you know if he's a visual-spatial learner? Usually good writers are auditory learners. IEW has worked for all of my learners.

[Kissy]

How is he good at language arts? If it's just reading, than he may not truly be gifted at language arts.

 

I don't know that he is gifted at language arts. He is good as far as he knows the grammar rules can label parts of a sentence and read well, comprehends well, spells really well. His only vice is writing. He hates it..he drags it out for an hour. He complains about doing it. He does a half job and then says here. ;)

 

When you buy IEW do you buy the big package or just the SWI?

[PeterPan]

Sounds to me like he has nothing to say and hence nothing to write. IEW would get him over that hurdle. Has he done any notebooking or narrating in previous years? Do you ever have him write book summaries on a book he picks out? Have you tried the WTM 5th grade history recommendation of having him do sentence outlining of his history text? Then he writes summaries from those outlines. If he likes science better than history, then by all means use a science book. Anything conducive to outlining and retelling will work. He just writes one summary sentence for each paragraph, then uses that outline to retell the source.

 

As far as writing programs, I'd suggest to you Writing Tales 2. IEW is fine too, so whichever suits him better. I assume WT2 has an online sample you can print and try, to see how it works for you.

 

I'm not sure being an auditory learner helps writing. In fact, one of the true auditory sequential learners I know has as dreadful time writing, finds it takes him FOREVER to write, oh my. And his brain doesn't organize writing well, because it's always trying to go sequentially or just in whatever fashion it flows from his mind, rather than being able to see the big picture and rearrange things. No, I would say a verbal/linguistic bent is what makes some people naturally more into writing.

[Desert Rat]

Pleading ignorance here. What does IEW stand for? This sounds like a curriculum I'd like to use for my reluctant writer. We starting 3rd grade and composition is about the only thing he's working on grade level. I'll be following this thread closely in hopes of some great suggestions for Huck.

[Academy of Jedi Arts]

Pleading ignorance here. What does IEW stand for? This sounds like a curriculum I'd like to use for my reluctant writer. We starting 3rd grade and composition is about the only thing he's working on grade level. I'll be following this thread closely in hopes of some great suggestions for Huck.

 

Institute for Excellence in Writing

 

http://www.excellenceinwriting.com/

[love2read]

The SWI alone are enough to get you going. Watch it with him and you'll get the idea of what's going on. It is very effective with kids who don't like to write or who don't know what to write about. We've been using it for about 10 years and I'm still impresed with the results.

[Guest HomeEducatorbyAppointment]

Have you tried Wordsmith Apprentice? my son liked the ideas and cartoons

[BZmom]

My two ds tried IEW last year and said it was boring. So we are trying CW now. I think we will go back to IEW later.

[In The Great White North]

My two ds tried IEW last year and said it was boring. So we are trying CW now. I think we will go back to IEW later.

 

BZmom - Could I ask what ages your ds's are and which levels of IEW and CW you tried?

[Wildiris]

Are you sure your son really reads at the 9th grade level???

 

Just because a child reads, and perhaps reads a lot, does not mean they comprehend what they read nor can they draw out the theme(s) the author is trying to convey. That your son does not like to write should send up a red flag to you that he may not in fact get what he reads, because if he did he'd did get it he'd have quite a lot to say about what he reads. He could discuss and write his observations.

 

I come from the point of view that reading and writing go hand in hand. One reads to write and writes to read.

 

Program suggestion: I'd take a look at developing his reading skills across the board~ non fiction, fiction, poetry and cereal boxes. Compare movies and books~ did the film maker get it right???

 

What kind of writing are you doing anyway????? Perhaps the kind of writing suggestions you've provided are not open ended enough for him to to give a reasonable response.

 

I gave this suggestion out last week, although it is a grade above your son, I'll provide it again since it may help. Look through the site and see if you find additional help.

http://web000.greece.k12.ny.us/instruction/ela/6-12/Essential%20Questions/culture.htm

 

Wildiris

[Kissy]

He loves to read..I haven't said he didn't like to read..that is his passion..I have had to ground him from books before. He can tell me what happens, he just won't write it out. I am thinking I need to work more on how to form a good paper with him..Like how to start the paper and the paragraphs and then how to end it and all the stuff in between..kwim? When he writes he makes things kind of disjointed like he is hurrying and doesn't want to take time to write anything out. I know he is kinda lazy when it comes to writing but I think some of it comes from insecurities about writing. Thanks for that page some of it can be used to make journal entries but rather than topics I think he needs to know more about how to write..I am seriously trying to get up enough money..I think I will buy IEW.

[BZmom]

My dc were age 9 and 11 then. we watched the B level DVD and used A level work for my 9 year old and B level work for my 11 year old.

 

We are using CW AesopB for the 10 year old and Aesop & Homer for older beginners for the 12 year old. We are also using CW grammar books, too.

 

We went through Abeka Grammar, Easy Grammar, some Critical Company books in language art... other years...so now are using CW for both writing and grammar.

[Wildiris]

An inexpensive approach might be to use Four Square Writing.

 

 

http://rainbowresource.com/product/Four+Square+-+Personal+Writing+Coach+Gr.+4-6/031923/1219682780-592915

 

Wildiris

[plimsoll]

My son, 9yo, also reads well beyond his age level. I had a very tough time teaching writing to him before discovering IEW and CW. He's doing really well now.

 

We're currently using IEW's Student Writing Intensive Level A and CW Aesop. CW has a combined Aesop and Homer for Older Begninners, which you might want to use since he's starting a little later.

 

I have found that the grammar and other exercises in CW Aesop A are too easy -- we just skip them, since we do grammar separately. But I plan to use the CW grammar stuff once it catches up to my son's level (starting with Homer).

 

We try to do either CW or IEW every day. Once in a while, we also use SWB's Writing With Ease (WWE). I use this book only for the oral exercises: we read a passage, then my son answers the questions, narrates the summary, etc. This has helped him learn to speak in complete sentences. Depending upon your son, you may be able to move very quickly through these exercise -- we do it about once every two weeks and cover several "weeks" of exercises each time. We use WWE as supplemental exercises to develop oral communication skills rather than writing per se.

 

Another thing to consider: my son does all his composition (except keyword outlines) on the computer. If he had to write it longhand, our life would be much tougher....

[katarzyna]

I would try IEW Student Writing Intensive "B".