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Writing. Help, please!


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I cannot figure out what to use for DS1.  He is almost 12, advanced in many areas, but writing is not one of them.

He went to private school for K-5, where they did a little writing instruction, mainly the 5 paragraph essay kind of thing.

 

We are using Writing & Rhetoric Narrative 1, which we like, and will probably still continue to use, however I feel like we need something a little more step-by-step in terms of mechanics.

We are also dabbling in Sentence Composing for Elementary, which we also like, but, again, I feel like we need something else. 

Today in History Odyssey, he was asked to write a few paragraphs on a topic, and his eyes glazed over and he nearly had a fit.  

 

He is a box-checky kind of kid, Aspie, literal, does not think writing is fun.  He has a very low frustration tolerance.  I think a self contained workbook might be the best presentation.  

 

I was looking at Essentials in Writing, Sadlier Oxford Writing Workshop, the EPS Writing Skills or Paragraph book series.  I also have on hand, EM 6 trait writing (ehhh) and Paragraph Writing Made Easy.  He uses and enjoys Hake (7) for grammar, but we are not using the writing.  Neither of us liked it.  

 

Suggestions anyone??

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DD is working through WWS1 along with level 2 of History Odyssey, and the outlining skills from WWS have really carried over into her HO work, so that's what I would recommend. They really seem to build on each other very nicely.

 

The one caveat I would note is that sometimes the two line up so that she has a lot of writing to do in a week. In that case, sometimes we just discuss how she'd write the essay for WWS, but I don't actually have her write it.

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Yes, IEW, sounds perfect for him. I am a very literal person at times (math degree), and I found that it really helped me to understand writing and actually feel that I could teach it. I would recommend Student Intensive B which would come with an overview DVD for you.

 

Here's a short description of each unit. As you will see, most of it is rewriting/summarizing material.

 

Units 1 and 2 teach a student how to make Key Word Outlines (KWO) from a source document, how to verbally tell back the information using only the KWO, and then how to rewrite the information in their own words using the KWO.

Unit 3 is about stories (summarizing or retelling given stories basing each paragraph on literary elements of the original)

Unit 4 and 6 are report type writings (using one or mulitple sources)

Unit 5 is more creative writing using a picture or series of pictures to tell a story

Unit 7 is creative writing from their own thoughts and feelings

Unit 8 is essay writing

Unit 9 is literary critique

 

Throughout the program the student is learning how to include a variety of types of sentences, a variety of types of strong words to make sentences more interesting, topic sentences, etc.

 

Each assignment has an actual checklist of what should be include in each paragraph of the assignment.

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