Jump to content

Menu

capable but reluctant writer - ideas please?


Recommended Posts

My daughter (9) doesn't follow any set curricula in her studies. This just doesn't suit her. She needs novelty and flexibility and would be stifled by a 'by-the-book' method.

It gets quite challenging trying to come up with new ways to engage and stimulate her in some areas, writing in particular. With writing, she needs to see a purpose (eg for a competition) or it needs to be a 'game'.

 

When she writes, she's really quite capable, but she rarely chooses to write and when she does it isn't of any great length.

 

I'm hoping you folks may have some great ideas of activities or games that promote writing. I'm not really talking about the subskills of spelling, grammar, punctuation etc. It's about  having the interest and drive to really create something complete.

 

She loves things like the game Balderdash and I've adapted this concept to make a game with images. These sorts of games engage her, but they don't result in anything of significant length.

 

Any thoughts or ideas to help us out of our rut??

 

Am I expecting too much?? Is a great paragraph or two enough? Should I be satisfied with quality over quantity?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

She sounds like my son. We haven't had any good luck with any writing curriculum or language arts curriculum. We have had to wing it every time (I even formatted the Lively Art of Writing workbook thinking that he would use it but no, he didn't in the end). The only things that worked here were activities that were highly meaningful to him and using writing outlets where he could integrate his love of math and other subjects. He started blogging independently around 8 or 9 years of age. Nothing spectacular. Just jokes (a few lines), silly stories (about 3 paragraphs), and short independent reviews and reports of all the literature and math he was devouring.

 

He still needs a lot of help with style and voice but at least blogging provided an outlet for him to discover that he could write and could enjoy it. She might enjoy setting up her own blog and the nice thing is you can make the free ones private if you are uncomfortable with online identity etc.

Edited by quark
  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

My younger boy has always been motivated by counting words and keeping a graph.  Now he is into counting words within a set period of time to see if he can learn to write faster.  For him, objective tracking of progress was and still is key.

 

Ruth in NZ

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

The single thing that jump started DD's writing the most was Neopets. I suspect any other fandom that has outlets for writing would work the same, but Neopets was great in that they have a lot of outlets for fans to enter writing of their own and it is competitive as to what gets published. (while also providing a lot of filtering and editing. You don't get slash in any official Neopets website or the longstanding fan sites, so it was a really, really safe fandom for me to turn her loose on as a fairly young child). DD got a lot of rejections, but she's also been published on site several times, and has improved her writing as a result.

 

The second thing that worked here was blogging. For DD, that's mostly about snakes, but really, any topic will work. There's something about writing for publication that makes it more real-even if the only hits on the blog are from parents and grandparents. In DD's case, she's been able to connect with several science bloggers so she's gotten mentoring in that regard.

 

Finally, DD got to a level in science (and, to a lesser degree in math, because AOPS has contributed here as well) where she had to write and summarize effectively. I don't think her biology mentor would consider herself a writing tutor, but she has probably done more to get DD to write effectively than anyone else, and when DD started working on learning to write formal essays for the SAT, she pretty quickly caught on to that style because she'd had to learn that formal writing for other purposes first.

 

We've never used a writing curriculum that worked. Even the writing stuff in MCT tended to fall flat with her. She needed a reason to write, to improve, and to develop.

Edited by dmmetler
  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks for your replies.

There are some great ideas that I'll definitely follow up.

 

The key is that the writing needs a true purpose and a real audience - a blog sounds ideal. I'd need to introduce the idea to her so that it doesn't feel overwhelming or a chore. There's another pre-req - fun. So, we're looking for writing tasks that are fun, with a true purpose and a real audience. Easy, right??

 

My daughter is not competitive, but I always encourage her to enter competitions - clear purpose, an audience that isn't just me and often there are criteria such as word length or a due date.

 

Fandoms are a great idea too, but like you dmmetler, I'm a bit wary of just letting her loose. I've encouraged fan-fiction but if I suggest something it can seem like 'work' and I really want my daughter to enjoy the writing process. If it feels like a chore, it's all over red rover.

Actually, everything you've said, dmmetler, really resonates. Our passion here is chickens, though. Keep the snakes away!

 

Neopets - wow, that's a blast from the past. My older girls (22 and 19) used to play that many moons ago.

 

A couple of questions:

 

- what is tincture of time?  I googled it, and came up with an odd list of things that didn't seem quite relevant.

 

- I don't have BraveWriter, but I have heard of it. Is partnership writing a bit like writing tandem stories? We've done that and it is was reasonably successful. We took turns writing a paragraph. One reason it worked was that there was no planning or any sense of investment in the overall project, as you don't know where it's headed.

 

Thanks, everyone, for your ideas. I really appreciate it!

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

There are three distinct issues here, and you may want to separate them.

 

One is composition--composing coherent, well-written pieces.

One is mechanics--spelling, punctuation, grammar

One is engaging with material in such a way that you want to write about it.

 

The last one can be encouraged by discussion science, history, literature, and current events, and by wide reading, both individually and together (reading aloud) about a wide variety of topics, including fiction and poetry.  That enhances general knowledge, picques kids' interest in various topics, and gives examples of excellent and engaging wording to emulate.

 

The second, IMO, should not be allowed to be a stumbling block for the other two.  That means that if you have a reluctant writer, forcing them to proofread and recopy everything they write will incent them to write short, boring pieces with easy to spell words.  Using a good spelling program and/or Editor in Chief, as well as a grammar program, should be separated from the composition end of writing for reluctant writers.

 

Composition can start verbally.  You model it.  You discuss a topic and then summarize your discussion.  Gradually you shift over to asking her to summarize it, and then later on to write a summary paragraph about it.  You ask her to dictate a story to you, or when she makes up a story you say, "That's really good, wait, let me write it down."  You make up progressive stories in the car (you say a sentence, she says a sentence).  You start a journal together about some topic you both like (online or written) such as nature walks or cats or whatever.  Basically you gradually encourage her to be more and more verbal, to compose more and more material (fiction and nonfiction), and to start to write it down.  You don't correct it for spelling just yet. 

 

Then you move on to editing it for content and flow.  You start by doing this yourself.  If you're writing a letter you ask her for another word for 'travelled' so that your letter will be less boring because you don't use the same word over and over.  You read a book together and then write a summary of it, and then revise it with her.

 

These are ways to scaffold to more and better composition.

 

 

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

- I don't have BraveWriter, but I have heard of it. Is partnership writing a bit like writing tandem stories? We've done that and it is was reasonably successful. We took turns writing a paragraph. One reason it worked was that there was no planning or any sense of investment in the overall project, as you don't know where it's headed.

Partnership writing is the name of one of the stages that is outlined in the Bravewriter... curriculum? I'm not even sure what to call it, but if you scroll down it is described here: http://www.bravewriter.com/getting-started-with-brave-writer. The PDF called "Partnership Writing" is mostly focused on 10 1-month projects for that stage. I find my daughter needs a lot of help with these, but they are good jumping off points... like the island chain / continent one reminds me a bit of creating the backstory for a fantasy world -- what are the different countries, how did they get their borders, where would the cities be. It's good for talking about (e.g., you put your city away from all the rivers, how do they get their water?). My daughter is just starting on this one now.

Edited by tm919
  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks Carol. That all makes lots of sense.

What you've described comes close to what I'd call the Literacy Cycle: modelled -> shared -> guided -> independent.      The idea being that you don't expect a child to just jump in and independently be able to do something. It's a gradual process that starts with modelling and, with time, less and less scaffolding and adult input is needed.

 

Thinking about the three distinct issues you listed - it's all about the third.....and building up to more volume in the first.

Our mechanics are fine and I learnt a while back that any spark of enthusiasm is extinguished if I jump in to correct something like spelling or grammar or punctuation. Those things can be cleaned up later, if necessary, but if the spark is gone there will be no 'later'.

 

Thanks tm919 for the BraveWriter link. I've had a look through the website and I'm finding it very difficult to ascertain which level we'd use if we opted for this program. My daughter seems to have characteristics from several of the stages. Although she doesn't write often and she doesn't write anything of great volume, when she does write something it is generally quite good. I just need to work out how to engage her better. I'll seriously consider BraveWriter. Thanks for your input. Much appreciated.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

We're a Bravewriter family. My son is/was similar in that he has many words inside him and likes to share, but doesn't want to write anything down if he's not invested in it. When he was smaller, he'd have major meltdowns over being asked to write formulaic materials or stuff he felt boring or pointless. Bravewriter helped tremendously. However, we started with The Writer's Jungle. At the time her leveled guides (Partnership Writing, etc) didn't exist yet anyway, and what I really needed was a guide for *me* on how to guide him. TWJ provided that. Since then, I've purchased some of the leveled guides, but they haven't worked well for us...largely because many of the projects were not stuff he wanted to do, but also because like you discribe, he didn't fit well into the writing stages Julie identifies. I might recommend that before you buy TWJ, poke around on the Bravewriter blog and see if her ideas resonate with you. And if they do, buy it on HSBC, where it's cheaper. :)

Edited by jar7709
  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

 Share

×
×
  • Create New...