High School Writing Plan (goal: strong non-fiction writer)

[Brad S]

One of our biggest challenges in high school will be writing (and public speaking).  I’m struggling with how to pull off 9th grade writing.  In my assessment, DS is very inconsistent in his writing.  Sometimes, especially with fiction, he’s written some excellent material; other times, I don’t think it’s particularly good.  DS isn’t interested in more creative writing classes or assignments, and I don’t see a need to push it.  Our goal is to develop a strong non-fiction writer, including in social sciences, natural sciences, and literary analysis.  Right now, our plan to start 9^th grade will be to use the text by Skwire Writing With a Thesis: A Rhetoric and Reader, 11^th edition. I think that the presentation will resonate with DS, although I’m not sure about the assignments.  Has anyone used Skwire and have suggestions on implementation?

 

I had planned to finish the second half of IEW SWI-C over summer, which DS started in the summer before 8^th grade, but then DS decided to attend a bricks and mortar school.  While I think it was an excellent class, I’m really not sure about the level of writing – the school really wanted to foster independence, which has benefits, but not for getting a good sense of where DS’s writing is for going back to homeschooling!  We had planned on using Winifred Horner’s Rhetoric in the Classical Tradition cover to cover as the main text for 8^th grade, and we’ll consider it as a supplement for additional examples or as an alternative for topics if Skwire doesn’t go well. I also purchased Killgallon Paragraphs for High School: A Sentence-Composing Approach, but I’m not sure we’ll use it at all.  FYI, one of our readings in our WTM-type history and literature readings will be Aristotle’s Rhetoric.

 

A little more background on DS’s previous work on writing.  Besides the bricks and mortar school last year, which is a bit of a black box, DS has had some outside classes on creative and non-fiction writing.  He read Weston A Rulebook for Arguments in 7^th grade, which went over well, and Strunk and White The Elements of Style, in 6^th grade, which DS thought was very valuable.  DS went through about half to 2/3 of WWS1 in 5^th or 6^th, and really did not like it.  He’s more of a whole-to-parts person, and the presentation seemed too parts-to-whole for him (good material though). We tried an earlier version of LToW; the whole-to-parts approach was a better fit, but at least the earlier version didn’t make us want to try again.  DS doesn’t really need more grammar instruction, as it’s very solid; the uncommon issue on a writing assignment is almost always a typo left due to not proofreading (more attention to proofreading could use improvement). 

 

Other material for 9^th grade and later: We’ll also use John Bean’s Engaging Ideas: The Professor's Guide to Integrating Writing, Critical Thinking, and Active Learning in the Classroom to integrate writing into other courses in 9^th grade and later.  Really nice text.  In 10^th grade, we’ll probably use They Say, I Say, either with or without the readings (are the readings necessary?), although we may select certain styles as I’ve heard there’s a lot of repetition in the book.  If DS continues to lean toward the natural sciences or social sciences, They Say, I Say would seem to fit nicely.  An alternate text, which I also have, would be Thomas Kane's The New Oxford Guide to Writing, recommended in WTM pp.468-476. Finally, we might use Corbett Classical Rhetoric for the Modern Student in 11^th (WTM recommended for 10^th in but Ruth in NZ [lewelma] recommended for 11^th, and she’s wonderfully thorough and ambitious. Also, They Say, I Say, seems to fit better with DS’s other planned courses in 10^th).

 

I’ll also probably look for someone with experience in teaching writing to get some periodic outside feedback and recommendations to the extent funds allow.  What am I missing?  Are there some good assignments to use when the texts don’t seem to work?  Thanks!