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Power in Your Hands.  http://writingwithsharonwatson.com/the-power-in-your-hands/

 

My 10th grader is using it. (same author as Jump In for middle schoolers http://writingwithsharonwatson.com/jump-in/) She has a brain full of great ideas, but this helped her focus. Nothing about it made her feel "stupid" or "behind." The teacher's manual was very helpful to me.

 

And if your student's writing is immature or whatever, so what? Meet them where they are, and move on from there. Aim for improvement and they'll get there. Set an impossible standadrd and they could end up frustrated.

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I wish I could answer but I can't b/c I have appreciated drawing the strengths from different writing curricula. 

 

I'm going to say, gently b/c I've been where you are with other subjects, if you've tried 20 curricula, it's probably not that you haven't found a great fit. Do you enjoy teaching this? Is writing something you feel comfortable teaching without a curriculum? I wouldn't; I was a journalism major and taught legal writing but I need the structure of someone who has thought out how the writing process can be broken down into chunks and taught.

 

You mention silly exercises and pointless prompts, and I'm not sure what you mean by that. I've seen those in some curricula and thought that as well. But there are some great programs where the exercises have a lot of merit and build up to producing a solid writer. 

 

 

Lisa

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I can't remember what you've tried. For literary analysis, I am really liking the template in Windows to the World. It has an easy way of coming up with a thesis and then an outline to fill out.

 

Actually, what I would do if I were you is to be a crutch during the prewriting time. Help him break down the question and outline a reply.For example, my son just wrote an essay on Orwell's use of allegory to show the excesses of Stalin's totalitarian regime. I had him fill out an outline that looked like this:

1st paragraph topic sentence:

1st example (with quote, page number)

Commentary of 1st example

2nd example:

Commentary on 2nd example

Clincher sentence

 

For a paper of the Red Scare in the 20s I helped him read the prompt and pick out the 3 subtopics. Then I sent him to brainstorm. Then we came together and I helped him "fill out" what he'd brainstormed and add names and dates. (We are working on the idea of paragraphs having RENNS-reasons, examples, number, names and senses). I am very involved in this at this point.

 

Before he writes, I check his outline. If it's not complete enough, I help hm brainstorm. Some kids need formulas for a while before they can write. Some kids need things modeled again and again and again before it's internalized.

 

Then I edit for style: varied openers, strong words, few passive verbs, etc. I am very involved.

 

My hope is that all this modeling will lead to him being able to do all the steps thoroughly and independently by 11th grade. We'll see.

 

Have you tried sending a sample of his work to something like Write at Home? I just did that and found it very helpful. You might not be as off track as you think.

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I would look up some videos by Andrew Pudewa  (IEW) on you tube.  He really seems to understand boys and writing.  

I like that at the beginning of his teaching in the Student Writing Intensive's he is having them re-write a short story. 

Half the problem is coming up with something to write about for my son and this takes care of that but is still teaching him how to write.

.

He has them use only pens, double space the lines (so they can make editing marks easier).

  No erasing, don't worry about being neat for these drafts and other helpful things that help my son get to the writing part.

The DVD's walk them through the steps as Andrew is teaching a class so you get the idea of what is expected.  

Also I think learning to type is valuable too.  

You are not a failure, this is probably not one of his strengths.        Hang in there.

 

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IEW

 

The improvements and changes in DD's writing seemed to happen overnight.

 

Yes, it is formulaic, but the quick results have motivated DD to keep writing. She went from sounding "baby-ish" to "on level" in just a few lessons. I don't claim that she's now a better writer, but she sure sounds like one, thanks to Andrew Pudewa's tricks. 

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I guess my question would be what kind of writing?

Some people just will never enjoy or do well in literary analysis, or the kind of writing expected in most social sciences.

 

For some it comes naturally. My only gift really is the ability to produce reams of quasi-bs on almost any subject. Give me a general gist, & with a few prompts, & some quotes from some articles, i can argue any position. Euthanasia is great. Euthanasia is terrible. Euthanasia should be carefully gradually implemented. Euthanasia should be banned. I can argue it either way, & I can write either essay & then pick the one that turned out the best or just the one that I had more references for on hand....  I was born to be a policy writer for politicians. "What position is polling better? which way are we going? OK, I can write that up...."  That PoliSci degree fit me to a T. :)

I also did a fair bit of technical writing & I write fiction.

Nobody else in my family is a natural writer. Dh almost failed every English course he ever took. And yet, a few years after getting his science degree he was senior editor & chief writer for an online mining info company. When it came to nitty gritty "just the facts" type of writing, he is more than adept.

My dd is the same. Ask her to summarize a science research article, or explain the current understanding of a scientific principle, and she's fine. Ask her a generic question like 'how are women impacted by the criminal justice system' and she completely freezes. Literary analysis is even worse, even though she's an avid fiction reader. She is quite sure literary analysis is just 'making stuff up'. 

There's a point where I think you have to pull back & decide where this kid is going & what they want to do & what they need to do to get there.  If there is a style of writing that he's more suited to, work on that.  I'd drop the literary stuff. I'd have them read the books, read what others say about them, listen to lectures about the work & why it's relevant - so they know. But I wouldn't have them write about it.

I would teach the essay mechanically - esp the one that you need for standardized exams etc..  Outline or visual theme organizers - whatever works better but break it down into boring mechanics. A sentence that says this. Then another sentence explaining it and an example.

Reading lots of other essays in the style that's required helps because they can then get a bit of an ear for it & copy the structure.

& I'd focus more energy on reading, logic, thinking, vocabulary, grammar & give the forced writing a rest.

 

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Bravewriter online courses.

 

My high schooler wrote like a 3rd grader last year - super smart math kid that couldn't write physically or put language together well to dictate a paragraph.

 

We started with the family course - Kidswriter Basic last spring. This fall he has done Kidswriter Intermediate and now doing Expository Essay. His writing isn't nearly as good as the other kids in the class, but it is improving with every assignment, and it's tremendously improved from a few months ago. I've come alongside and helped him manage his time for when to do the writing assignments, but I've tried to leave all the critique to the instructors. It's expensive and it's working!

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I feel your pain, Robin. I never found any single program that was the magic pill here, either. The one thing that helped us most was actual regular weekly writing, rather than a program or a resource.

 

Don't get me wrong -- the programs were very helpful in giving us tips and ideas of how to approach the writing, or what parts of the writing were important and how to break it down. But you can get all that info in various ways online -- Owl at Purdue website, for example.

 

What was most helpful here is VERY similar to what freesia said:

 

… I helped him read the prompt and pick out the 3 subtopics. Then I sent him to brainstorm. Then we came together and I helped him "fill out" what he'd brainstormed … I am very involved in this at this point… Before he writes, I check his outline. If it's not complete enough, I help hm brainstorm. Some kids need formulas for a while before they can write. Some kids need things modeled again and again and again before it's internalized.

 

… I am really liking the template in Windows to the World. It has an easy way of coming up with a thesis and then an outline to fill out… I had him fill out an outline that looked like this:

1st paragraph topic sentence:
1st example (with quote, page number)
Commentary of 1st example
2nd example:
Commentary on 2nd example
Clincher sentence

 

Heavy, guided, involvement in every step of the process; over the years you slowly can start stepping back more and more (think: slow to learn how to ride a bike; needs training wheels for a long time, needs lots of running alongside once the training wheels come off). In addition, I'm finding with my co-op students that handing out a rubric and checklist of what needs to happen also helps.

 

And what kicked us into learning how to write was regular weekly practice. And the more we practiced, the better we got. We did timed essays from past SAT prompts. And we slowly worked our way up in expectations, adding one new element, and practicing it for a few weeks or months, and then adding another element. We did that all through high school.

 

For waayy too much detail (LOL) on how we did some of these things, and for links to resources, check out "Can we discuss apathetic writers and college prep" -- my post is #3, and includes links to past threads in how I broke down the weekly essay writing, and also a sample of the rubric I made for my co-op class.

 

BEST of luck! Warmly, Lori D.

 

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1, 2, and 3 on your list didn't work for us either. Essentials in Writing made a huge difference here. I see that the videos didn't work out that well for you though. I figure, they're only 3-5 minutes long--we really didn't mind them and I appreciated that he modeled the thought process, how to change one's mind, deal with mistakes, revise etc... He breaks the process down into very doable parts, which is what we needed--and now my kids know the process well enough that they can apply it to speech-writing this year, so I think the 3 years we used it paid off. 

 

If that hadn't worked for us though, I was going to try Writing Skills by Diana Hanbury King next--have you looked at that? That one is supposed to be good for kids with dyslexia, so I'm guessing that means it will be incremental and break things down--and that's something that can work for any kind of struggling writer.

 

Hope you find something good for you!

 

 

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I'm really liking They Say, I Say: The Moves that Matter in Academic Writing by Gerald Graff and Cathly Birkenstein that DD is doing this fall. SWB listed it as a recommendation on her most recent writing resources update. Used copies are available dirt-cheap if you go with an older edition (we're using the 2nd edition).

 

DD grumbles about it but does grudgingly admit that it has been helpful.

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I'm really liking They Say, I Say: The Moves that Matter in Academic Writing by Gerald Graff and Cathly Birkenstein that DD is doing this fall. SWB listed it as a recommendation on her most recent writing resources update. Used copies are available dirt-cheap if you go with an older edition (we're using the 2nd edition).

 

Yes, this. And go for the 3rd edition. (I have 3 different versions and appreciate the chapters they added to the 3rd edition.) If you want more readings to work with, you could additionally get one of the used, older editions with readings for a few pennies plus shipping. 

 

This book is great for teaching writing, but it also teaches reading comprehension and critical thinking, which in turn helps with writing.

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I wanted to add to my recommendation of Power in Your Hands earlier in this thread...

 

http://www.amazon.com/How-Write-Clearly-Meaning-Approach/dp/0880620269 has been absolutely amazing for both my "natural" writer and my "writer who needs help."

 

IEW was an abysmal failure for my "natural" writer. She hated it so much that she actually stopped writing for over a year- until she read the book above ("How to write clearly...") and that re-ignited her spark.

 

I also use separate programs for writing itself, grammar, spelling, and mechanics. All of my girls have been at such different places in each area that it was frustrating to try to keep on track with "10th grade, Day 42", KWIM?

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3 ONLY CHILDREN---do you have a resource that helped you come up with your process?

 

This year I decided to focus on writing.  Like you I have tried different programs.  

1)  Journal writing - using a notebook I have him write for a certain amount of time every day.  I set a timer and he can write whatever he wants during that time.  I don't look at what he wrote and told him that I will never grade it.  He keeps a binder clip at the top of the notebook, as a way of keeping it "secret."  This seems to be helping to  free him from worrying about following all the "rules" and give him practice on just putting his thoughts down on paper.  Every couple of weeks I up the time a little ( I started with 8 minutes)

 

2) Jump In - We are working very slowly on the first assignment of writing an opinion paper.   I like the way they break it  down.

First you always brainstorm before you write.   This is a step that I think is very important and one that needed to be stressed. 

We use a whiteboard and put down the reasons/ thoughts for his opinion - just a list really, doesn't have to be complete sentences.

We pick 3 of the strongest reasons. Then we brain storm again, one reason at a time.  Reason #1  and again make a list of his thoughts about this reason.

Then we take those thoughts and turn them into sentences.  The idea is that each reason will eventually become a paragraph.

After that we come up with an opening paragraph - something that will catch the readers attention - ask a question, state a fact, tell a short story...

Conclusion paragraph is next - a few sentences that sum it all up.  

 

3) IEW - I have SWI-B -  I pulled that out again and we reviewed the Keyword Outlining process.  Very helpful in my opinion.

Read a short story /fable and then  go back over it one sentence at a time,  pick out the 3 main words that will help you to remember the essence of the sentence.  In other words so that you can retell it, in your own words.   Number each sentence and pick out the keywords for each one to the end of the story. So #1 refers to the first sentence - write your 3 words  - it helps to look for the noun and the verb.   At the end of making the keyword list, Andrew instructs them to look at the 3 keywords, think of a sentence to say and then look up and say them back to your teacher.   He then has then write these sentences following the rules of double spacing all lines so that they can edit them later.  This method is helpful as he is learning how to "dress up" sentences, as Andrew teaches, but he is not having to come up with what to write about at the same time.    Plus I think it is helpful  for them to be reading good stories / literature to get a feel for how it is done.  It makes sense, beginning artists often start by trying to paint a copy of masterpieces.

 

4)  The Lively Art of Writing - Had some very helpful chapters about  what an essay is and how to think about what to write.  This is an very inexpensive little book. 

 

   I can also tell you that I think really what is working this year, is that he is more mature and finally ready to write.   So it is not always a matter of finding the "right" program as just working with him at the stage he is at.     Don't worry it will happen. 

 

 

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Well, I'm not crazy about some of what you tried so you're not alone. IEW is okay and can be a fit but it's overall too formulaic. Writing Strands bombed in my house and Jensen's Format Writing is way too fomatty for me. 

 

Have you looked at SWB's Writing with Skill? We are using Writing with Skiill 3 this year and I'm kinda kicking myself that I've waited this long to try it. There are no silly exercises or pointless prompts.  The writing examples used are excellent top quality pieces.  It incorporates some exercises to play with words and word order as well as 3- and 4-step outlines to learn how to analyze writing examples. 

 

The student text is written TO the student. Very well done and not pedantic.  The instructor guide has everything you need as it incorporates what you need from the student text. So, no need to juggle 3 different books to teach! (CW which I love, but). Because of how well it's laid out, it is very easy to implement and is pick up and go.  That gets high honor in my house! It's as good as getting the science curriculum that comes with a box of every single supply needed for the experiments!

 

We are using Writing with Skill 3 but I would definitely look at Writing with Skill 2 as well.  I feel like we could possibly have started with WWS 2.  Here's a sample of Writing with Skill 2. 

 

I hope you are able to find what you need!

Lisa

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I'm really liking They Say, I Say: The Moves that Matter in Academic Writing by Gerald Graff and Cathly Birkenstein that DD is doing this fall. SWB listed it as a recommendation on her most recent writing resources update. Used copies are available dirt-cheap if you go with an older edition (we're using the 2nd edition).

 

DD grumbles about it but does grudgingly admit that it has been helpful.

 

 

 

nm

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Well, I'm not crazy about some of what you tried so you're not alone. IEW is okay and can be a fit but it's overall too formulaic. Writing Strands bombed in my house and Jensen's Format Writing is way too fomatty for me. 

 

Have you looked at SWB's Writing with Skill? We are using Writing with Skiill 3 this year and I'm kinda kicking myself that I've waited this long to try it. There are no silly exercises or pointless prompts.  The writing examples used are excellent top quality pieces.  It incorporates some exercises to play with words and word order as well as 3- and 4-step outlines to learn how to analyze writing examples. 

 

The student text is written TO the student. Very well done and not pedantic.  The instructor guide has everything you need as it incorporates what you need from the student text. So, no need to juggle 3 different books to teach! (CW which I love, but). Because of how well it's laid out, it is very easy to implement and is pick up and go.  That gets high honor in my house! It's as good as getting the science curriculum that comes with a box of every single supply needed for the experiments!

 

We are using Writing with Skill 3 but I would definitely look at Writing with Skill 2 as well.  I feel like we could possibly have started with WWS 2.  Here's a sample of Writing with Skill 2. 

 

I hope you are able to find what you need!

Lisa

 

 

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Crimson Wife:

 

Do you have any particular way of going through They Say/I Say?  I have this book but don't know how to approach it.

 

My son loves structure and hates dangling assignments. 

 

What I'm doing is having her read sections in the book, then discussing it with her. Later in the week she does the writing assignments. Then I review what she's written and hold a "writer's conference" with her to discuss the feedback. I'm finding it pretty open-and-go.

 

Norton has teacher's resources online that you can request access to if you like.

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I never used Jump In but am using Power in Your Hands (same author) which Rebel Yell mentioned twice above w/ my 10th grade ds.

 

We are going slowly and stopping to edit his work and taking as much time as he needs. I love the author's tone. My ds doesn't have blank paper syndrome, but he needs help. My goal is to outsource writing for him (for several reasons), but we have work to do before I can do that.

 

Funny I happened upon this thread, b/c I have read your rex for writing and made note of them. (((Robin)))

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What age are your students using WWS?

 

Can one jump in to a higher level not having done the previous ones?

 

I just asked a question earlier on the forum about using WWS with an older student.  Sounds like you can start them with WWS 1 and they will get a lot out of it, or in level 2 if you think they already have the skills in WWS 1.  I also have not taught my current tenth grader writing very well, so was planning to use WWS 3 but after looking at it determined she would be overwhelmed and lost. I'm probably going to split the difference and start her with WWS 2.  

 

Writing With Skill looks to me like the most straightforward, effective and easy to use program that I have researched.  I'm using the level 1 with my 13 yo son right now and really like it.

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I just asked a question earlier on the forum about using WWS with an older student.  Sounds like you can start them with WWS 1 and they will get a lot out of it, or in level 2 if you think they already have the skills in WWS 1.  I also have not taught my current tenth grader writing very well, so was planning to use WWS 3 but after looking at it determined she would be overwhelmed and lost. I'm probably going to split the difference and start her with WWS 2.  

 

Writing With Skill looks to me like the most straightforward, effective and easy to use program that I have researched.  I'm using the level 1 with my 13 yo son right now and really like it.

 

You can use this w/ an older student. Look here and here

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What age are your students using WWS?

 

Can one jump in to a higher level not having done the previous ones?

 

I have my 10th grader (15 years old) and another 10th grader using WWS 3.  I'd say it's an excellent fit. 

 

As to your second question, I am finding a few gaps as we jump right into the 3rd level of WWS.  The text has referred back to things taught in the two lower levels which we didn't do.  So far, I've been able to teach it or look it up.  One chapter referred to the topoi and I just googled around to find out what this rhetorical term refers to .  Once I did that, I was able to continue the lesson. 

 

In the best of all worlds, WWS is probably meant to follow the lower levels. But, as I said, so far its a great fit for us this year and so far I've been able to fill any small gaps. 

 

Lisa

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