Transition to Original Writing

[hollyhock]

SWB has said, and I agree, that most kids aren't capable of producing original writing until they are older (late middle school/high school). But is it common for kids to struggle with the transition? My oldest son has done a lot of narration, outlining and rewriting from outlines. Now, when we are ready to move past those and begin learning to write essays, he's having a lot of trouble. I can't really nail down the problem either, but it seems like no matter what the topic is, he just doesn't have enough to say about it. His rewrites were beautiful so I really did not see this coming at all and I don't know what to do about it.

 

Is it too much all at once to learn the structure of an essay while trying to come up with content as well? Is he just not ready? Or is there something else I should be doing?

 

Or does this all sound normal?

 

Poor, guinea pig, oldest child. :P For the record, we started with The Lively Art of Writing (which I thought would be straight-forward) and now we're trying Jump In as a step back.

 

Thank you for any help.

[Haiku]

My dd was writing original content when she was 8 years old. She loved to write reports, for fun, and they were actually well written. I disagree with SWB that younger kids can't generate their own content.

 

On the other hand, my son is nearly 13 and struggles mightily with writing. (His creative writing is fine, but expository writing is painful for him.) No amount of copywork, dictation, narration, and outlining has taught him to write. He needs explicit, explicit instruction on how to come up with content, how to arrange and organize it, how to relate various pieces of information to one another, etc.

 

So, yes, I think for some kids, generating their own content is tough.

 

My personal opinion is that you need to teach structure and content together. Schools may go too far in the direction of just having kids writewritewrite without teaching the mechanics, forms, and structure well enough, but I think that TWTM style of writing goes too far in the direction of copy/imitate/don't generate. The "classical" method of writing may have worked better in another time, when written communication wasn't as commonplace and vital as it is now, but it didn't work out very well for either of my kids.

 

My advice is to meet your kid where he is and not worry about what any other (supposedly more knowledgeable) person thinks you should do (this is not a slam at SWB--I mean any person). No one who writes any sort of curriculum has ever met your specific child, so none of them are qualified to tell you what your child should be able to do. This has been a hard-won lesson for me.

 

If Jump In is working, then rejoice that you've found something that works and move on from there. :)

 

Disclaimer: I think SWB gives excellent advice for kids for whom her particular style resonates. My intention is not to criticize her.

[hollyhock]

You are right. Even though I really like SWB's writing philosophy and have followed it for many years, I still need to work with my kids where they are and figure out what they need. For this kid, probably I should have had him writing original paragraphs possibly last year and this year. For example, I could have given him a descriptive passage to outline and rewrite, then had him write his own, so that he was doing both. And maybe that's what Writing with Skill does. Perhaps I should have had him do that. But you know, hindsight.

 

I wouldn't say he's a struggling writer. When he was very young he HATED any type of creative writing but in the last couple years he's done much better with it. He wrote a weekly family newspaper for a while and there wasn't much wrong with it. So that makes me wonder why he's having issues now. Maybe it's because it's for school and not for fun. Anyway, for now we're going to keep trucking with Jump In. We're only finishing the first chapter so it's hard to tell if it's working yet.

 

Tara, what are you using with your son for writing?

 

It's nice to hear what other people do with kids like this.

[Haiku]

Tara, what are you using with your son for writing?

 

Well, my son has dyslexia, so we were using a writing program specifically for kids with learning challenges called Writing Skills. We jumped ship a few weeks before Christmas because it was boring boring boring and, although it offered a lot of instruction in forms, it offered no help in style, so my son's writing was totally uninspired and every sentence began with "It has" or "There are" or something similar.

 

I looked at approximately every writing curriculum available in the Milky Way galaxy and decided to give WriteShop a try. We finished the first lesson last week, and the piece my son turned out was a big step up from his previous work. It wasn't genius, by an stretch, and I am sure some would say it is too simplistic for a seventh grader, but if there was that much improvement after just one lesson (each lesson lasts two weeks), I'm optimistic about how it will go over the long haul.

 

However, WriteShop starts off focused just on paragraphs, so it may not be where you want to go with your son. If you want him to be writing multi-paragraph pieces, I recommend Writing in English by William Henry Maxwell. It's a vintage book available free from Google Books or inexpensively as a paperback reprint from Amazon. It's what I am using with my dd13 (almost 14), and it covers style and structure very nicely. It's the second book; the first is School Composition, and it's for higher elementary students. Writing in English is for middle/high school.

[Carol in Cal.]

If he writes well from outlines, why not start with helping him come up with outlines himself and then write from those?  Sometimes a little scaffolding is all they need.

Edited January 11, 2016 by Carol in Cal.

[hollyhock]

I have been doing that but he still couldn't come up with enough to put in them. I have since added a step: lots of brainstorming. Today I had him just brainstorm and he filled up a whole page front and back with ideas about his topic. Tomorrow he is going to translate it into an outline so we'll see how that goes, but I think it will help. And, yes, scaffolding! I will be doing that for sure!

Edited January 11, 2016 by hollyhock

[Haiku]

I struggled for a long time to get my daughter to work with outlines. She can do them, but she hates them, so she frequently skipped them or did them poorly. I am old-skool about writing and felt that any good writer absolutely had to use an outline. I finally decided to loosen up a bit and allow her to use a concept map. She loves them, and they have boosted her writing skills even more. She has a lot of fun with them, using colored pencils and illustrating them, etc. She also uses them as a form a brainstorming. She will create a concept map with a basic structure, and then, over several days, add more info as it comes to her or as more connections are made while she mulls over her topic. Although my dd writes well, she did sometimes produce skimpy paragraphs. Concept mapping has definitely helped with this.

 

She told me the other day, "When I write an outline I feel like I have to already know what I want to say. With a concept map I can just have ideas, and then it comes together better when I'm actually writing or typing my paper."

 

Who'da thunkit--writing without an outline!  :svengo:

[hollyhock]

Interesting. I wasn't taught to write with outlines so when I learned about them, I thought they made complete sense. I would have been a much better writer had I known to outline. But I think the brainstorming part is just as important and if a kid is helped more by concept mapping or other things rather than outlining, I don't see a problem with that at all. Whatever works! We all have our preferences.

 

Writing in English looks really good. I love free, downloadable stuff. :)

[Lori D.]

Teaching a co-op class for Lit. & Writing has taught me that:

1. only about 25% of students seem to transition easily -- they are natural writers
(my other observation: about 50% need more time, patience, and help to transition; and about 25% struggle terribly with writing for years)
2. they need tons of scaffolding to come up with original writing
3. they all have very different ways of thinking/brainstorming to come up with ideas of material to write about

Things I have found that seem to help:
- ask the student a bazillion leading questions based on what they have written to help them expand their ideas/material -- this especially helps students as they are writing the rough draft
- give the student a choice of tools for the brainstorming/outlining stage, and allow the student to use what works best for them

I give students 6 different ways of approaching brainstorming/outlining:
- traditional outlines
- mind maps (like Tara the Liberator's student above)
- graphic organizers (3 different types)
- and for students who can only figure out what they want to say by actually writing several paragraphs or several pages, I have some guided questions for them to write answers to, so they don't have to write *as much* before they get a handle on what they want to say, and so there isn't as much of their writing that is "wasted"

I do think Jump In can be a very helpful program for some students, in helping them figure out WHAT to say, and then, how to ORGANIZE their thoughts/writing. Different writing programs will "click" like that for different students.

One other thing that seemed to help our DSs was weekly timed essays from past SAT prompts. We all did one (myself and 2 DSs), and then we'd (gently) discuss afterwards what worked/needed help for each of our essays. That exercise allowed DSs a regular opportunity to write without being graded and without having to go back and do any of the revising/proofing steps of writing, which seemed to free them up to think and write simultaneously.

And then doing the laborious multi-page papers, we would break it into small "bites", and tackle just 1 paragraph at a sitting -- or sometimes several sittings -- and then do the next paragraph. Breaking the big paper into many days of just small bites at a time seemed to also free up DSs to be more wordy and have more to say, when they knew they "only"had to flesh out one paragraph at a time,

 I encourage patience and scaffolding, and letting your student "blossom" into solid creative solo writing output in their own unique timetable. ? BEST of luck in finding what works best in making that transition in your student's writing! Warmest regards, Lori D.

Edited November 8, 2018 by Lori D.

[Alte Veste Academy]

I have been doing that but he still couldn't come up with enough to put in them. I have since added a step: lots of brainstorming. Today I had him just brainstorm and he filled up a whole page front and back with ideas about his topic. Tomorrow he is going to translate it into an outline so we'll see how that goes, but I think it will help. And, yes, scaffolding! I will be doing that for sure!

I bought my kids Inspiration software a couple of years ago. We LOVE it. It allows you to brainstorm a concept map that transforms into an outline at the click of a button. It's like magic! So great for my visual kids.

 

http://www.inspiration.com/Inspiration

Edited January 12, 2016 by Alte Veste Academy

[Chrysalis Academy]

I think that the transition to having something interesting and worthwhile to say is pretty common, even for "natural" writers.  My dd is a great writer and teaching writing has been pretty easy, but she has been working through this same issue! We started with Lively Art of Writing and very scaffolded essays in 7th grade.  It just takes a lot of time, and a lot of discussion.  My dd need(ed) to be able to work out what she thinks verbally first, so having a lively discussion about a topic first has really helped her.  The other thing that really helped was BW's Kidswrite Intermediate class.  She did that at the beginning of this year (8th), and it gave her a lot of good techniques she can draw on for figuring out what she thinks about a topic.She has transitioned over the past few months from needing a lot of discussion to come up with a thesis and main points to being able to sit down with a few tools and do it on her own.  I definitely recommend that class. It's only 6 weeks long, and not a heavy load of writing, but the thinking tools she learned were really awesome.

[Haiku]

I keep hearing about how awesome the BraveWriter classes are, but they are just so. darn. expensive.

[Lori D.]

I keep hearing about how awesome the BraveWriter classes are, but they are just so. darn. expensive.

 

But, man, if paying that much for a course that lays the foundation for being able to think of what to write and how to brainstorm for a middle schooler so that they have good "writing footing" for high school… I would have paid it if the class had been around when our DSs were middle school/young high school...

 

Shoot, I'm wishing *I* could take the course and learn some techniques that I could use to help my co-op class students!  :laugh:

Edited January 12, 2016 by Lori D.

[Chrysalis Academy]

I keep hearing about how awesome the BraveWriter classes are, but they are just so. darn. expensive.

 

I felt the same way, and for awhile the cost was simply prohibitive. But when our financial situation improved, I went for it, and I found it well worth it.  I'm really stingy about spending money on classes! Most I won't even look at, because I'm not convinced I can't do as well at home, or with free DE, but this class was really worth it.

[hollyhock]

That Bravewriter class is expensive, but it says that the exercises are included in the Help for High School book, which is much cheaper and also includes the Expository Essay stuff. 

 

Looking back over all the replies, I think the biggest problem was my expectations. Like the intro for the Kids Intermediate class says, you can teach the essay format in 2 minutes on the back of a napkin, but it takes a whole lot longer to actually come up with things to put in the format! I think that is exactly the problem we're having.

 

So now I need to figure out what to do about that. Lots of discussion and scaffolding or perhaps a curriculum designed for this. We'll see.

[Alte Veste Academy]

That Bravewriter class is expensive, but it says that the exercises are included in the Help for High School book, which is much cheaper and also includes the Expository Essay stuff. 

 

Yep. A while back, I sold my binder copy of The Writer's Jungle to partially finance the purchase of the e-book combo of TWJ and Help for High School. Altogether, they make up her KidsWrite Basic, Intermediate, and Expository Essay classes. When I am ready to spend money on an online class, it will more likely be for LToW or something else that's hardcore (AKA more out of my league as a teacher). LOL

Edited January 12, 2016 by Alte Veste Academy

[lewelma]

With my younger we play a word game I made up - 'The Best.'  We take turns asking the other why something is the best.  "Why is this heater the best?"  "Why is this sofa the best?"  Then the person has to come up with three points in 30 seconds.  fast fast fast.  Then we switch sides.  We do this over and over for about 15 minutes.  It is super fun, and gives kids the confidence to come up with 3 points with confidence.  Over time we make the questions harder "Why is this city the best?" "Which Roman God is the best?" "What is the best dragon in D&D?"etc. 

 

Once my ds was good at that, we moved to "3 points of support" for each paragraph. We would warm up with a bunch of 'the best', pick one we liked, and go for the support.  We try for 3 points for a paragraph in 30 seconds (you do have to build up to this, but you have to be fast fast fast, no time for worrying about being "right") and with 3 paragraphs that is under 2 minutes.  We take turns.  Sometimes you can't find any supporting points and then you know that your main point was no good.  This is a good lesson.

 

Finally, we require "opposition" -- to name the strongest point against our argument and how we would respond. 

 

++++

This is game is built up over time.  Start slow and as they master it you add in the next step.  Because you are moving fast and doing odd or even silly topics, sometimes the answers are really quite funny and we get the giggles. As you get better, it is fun to try to trick the other. "Why is this the best color white for the wall?" Sometimes we are stumped, which tells us something.  We never write these things up.  The goal is simply to gain confidence and speed, and to not be frozen with indecision as to where to start.  Also, the goal is to realize that you don't need the *right* answer, you only need *an* answer with support.  We are fighting perfectionism over here, and this game has helped so much and so quickly.

 

Ruth in NZ

Edited January 12, 2016 by lewelma

[Lori D.]

That Bravewriter class is expensive, but it says that the exercises are included in the Help for High School book, which is much cheaper and also includes the Expository Essay stuff. 

 

THANK you for this! I just went to Homeschool Buyers' Co-op and got a PDF version of Help for High School for $43.45 (print version is $79). This looks like it will be VERY helpful for me in approaching teaching writing in my co-op class. Thanks again! :)

[Lori D.]

With my younger we play a word game I made up - 'The Best.'  ...

 

Ruth, this is awesome! Your game will be making an appearance in my Lit. & Writing co-op class up here in the States this semester! :D

Edited January 12, 2016 by Lori D.

[Chrysalis Academy]

Yep. A while back, I sold my binder copy of The Writer's Jungle to partially finance the purchase of the e-book combo of TWJ and Help for High School. Altogether, they make up her KidsWrite Basic, Intermediate, and Expository Essay classes. When I am ready to spend money on an online class, it will more likely be for LToW or something else that's hardcore (AKA more out of my league as a teacher). LOL

 

I hear that. I actually own Help for High School, but looking at the exercises, I knew they were out of my league as a teacher - I didn't think I would do them justice. And I'm probably right about that. Know thyself, huh?  ;)  :D   I'm great at teaching basic essay writing, but that touchy-feely stuff? I tend to give it short shrift. And it's really important.

 

I keep forgetting to mention, though, that Help for High School does include the content for Kidswrite Intermediate (Part 1) and Expository Essay (Part 2). So I'm very glad you mentioned it.

Edited January 12, 2016 by Chrysalis Academy

[hollyhock]

Rose, could you elaborate on that? What types of exercises are you talking about that you feel were out of your league? I would like to get a better "feel" for this program. Thanks!

[Alte Veste Academy]

I hear that. I actually own Help for High School, but looking at the exercises, I knew they were out of my league as a teacher - I didn't think I would do them justice. And I'm probably right about that. Know thyself, huh?  ;)  :D   I'm great at teaching basic essay writing, but that touchy-feely stuff? I tend to give it short shrift. And it's really important.

 

I keep forgetting to mention, though, that Help for High School does include the content for Kidswrite Intermediate (Part 1) and Expository Essay (Part 2). So I'm very glad you mentioned it.

 

LOL Yeah, uh, you should see me with upper level science. I just want to bribe DH with lots of baked goods and make him teach/facilitate it all. :lol:

Edited January 12, 2016 by Alte Veste Academy

[Alte Veste Academy]

Am I nuts or was HfHS written to the student? Pretty sure it was. Haven't looked at it since I read it and thought it was a great purchase. :D

Edited January 12, 2016 by Alte Veste Academy

[Chrysalis Academy]

AVA, yes, it's written to the student.  I suspected that my student wouldn't have necessarily done the exercises to the same depth on her own, though, as she did for a teacher in an online class setting, and it also gave her the benefit of getting feedback and reading other students' papers, and seeing the feedback the received, too.  As the first experience of writing for someone other than mom, it was great.

 

Erin, when I'm back where I have access to the TOC, I can elaborate more. But what I remember were various guided freewriting exercises that focused on developing ideas, and some different POV exercises working with a topic chosen by the student which eventually led to the development of a thesis and suppporting points.  I'm not so big on exercises that don't feel at first glance like they are leading to a piece of output, but these exercises were super valuable. Like I said, I can elaborate more when I get back to my office.

 

 

[Angie in VA]

I bought my kids Inspiration software a couple of years ago. We LOVE it. It allows you to brainstorm a concept map that transforms into an outline at the click of a button. It's like magic! So great for my visual kids.

 

http://www.inspiration.com/Inspiration

 

Thanks for this link. 

 

*Taking notes*

[Chrysalis Academy]

Ok, so Help for High School:  Part 1 - Preparation for Essay Writing corresponds to the Kidswrite Intermediate class. There are 5 exercises, covered over the first 5 weeks, and in the 6th week they develop the piece they've been working on into a full essay.  

 

Part 1 - Musical Language - word association exercises, in two parts, zeroing in on the use of descriptive language to enhance an idea

Part 2 - Powerful Associations - more word association stuff. I can't remember what the final assignment was, but Shannon wrote a long story

Part 3 - Keen Observation of an idea - this is where they chose a topic, did freewriting/brainstorming, developed a thesis, and wrote an intro paragraph

Part 4 - (Telling the True Truth in the book) - the class did a paraphrasing exercises here - they had to go online and find some quotes that supported their thesis, and then practice paraphrasing them. This was a challenging and good exercise

Part 5 - (Collage Writing in the book ) - they did a Telling the Truth exercise where they did a freewrite, polished it into a paragraph, narrowed it into a single sentence, then a single word that encapsulated their idea. Kind of an exercise in reverse-engineering a thesis. She's used this technique a lot since then in her own essays.

Part 6 - (Incubation & Brooding) - She took the exercise from Week 5 and developed it into a full essay

 

So they did more in the class than there is in the book, I think. I remember when I looked at the book it felt really light - one of the reasons I was uncomfortable using it on my own - but they really fleshed it out in the class. It felt like a good but not at all overwhelming amount of work, they turned in and received feedback on two assignments each week, but most of them were short, or not fully polished material. 

 

I'm happy to answer any other question about that class. Shannon has been writing essays since then, going through the different types of essays in Writing With a Thesis. I think she will do the Expository Essay class at the end of the year, though. Again, when I look at the content in the book, I think she already knows how to do that stuff, but if the Kidswrite class is any indication, she will learn tools and get feedback that are different from what she's learning from me. So I really see the value.  And I love that these classes aren't a huge time commitment - just 6 weeks - because I do have other content that I want to cover with her, and didn't want to give up the whole year to an outside class.

[hollyhock]

I just thought I would update this thread and let you know that I think I found a solution. I took a closer look at School Composition by Maxwell (and its follow-up, Writing in English) and started my son on the first one.

 

Each lesson gives a model, a discussion of the model, then has the student write one of his own similar to the model. We've only done two lessons but so far the writing he's produced is MUCH better than what he was giving me with Lively Art or Jump In. This seems to be exactly what I was looking for to transition him to original writing.

 

We're going to finish the school year with this, then either pick up essay-writing again in fall, or do Writing in English.

 

Thank you for all the discussion and suggestions!

Edited January 21, 2016 by hollyhock

[JadeOrchidSong]

I am looking at School Composition again now. Ds11 is not doing well with IEWLevel B and I need to find another writing for him.

Does ds continue to make good progress with this program?

Edited February 15, 2016 by JadeOrchidSong

[Tsuga]

My dd was writing original content when she was 8 years old. She loved to write reports, for fun, and they were actually well written. I disagree with SWB that younger kids can't generate their own content.

 

 

I think there's a huge difference between "you shouldn't expect this" and "this is simply impossible". I felt that the edition of TWTM I read contained a lot of common-sense milestone advice along the lines of, "this is probably unrealistic for most kids".

 

I would agree with SWB that most kids are not going to produce decent original writing beyond formulaic autobiographical essays (e.g. "Honk! Splash! Go! These were the sounds of my summer vacation. That's right, I'm on swim team! I belong to X swim team and if you want to hear more about it, read on!") before about 11-12.

 

Impossible? No. Worth spending time on for kids that don't spontaneously start doing it? No.

 

To OP: I think some people really take forever to crystallize their conceptual thought into words. I don't think this is a sign of intelligence or lack thereof. I suspect such people are great at taking their thoughts and applying them in different ways. But the struggle is real. There is a lot of great advice on this thread.

[hollyhock]

I am looking at School Composition again now. Ds11 is not doing well with IEWLevel B and I need to find another writing for him.

Does ds continue to make good progress with this program?

 

Yes, he is still doing well with School Composition. He's written some really lovely multi-paragraph compositions. They aren't all like that but I would say overall I am very pleased with the gap this book is filling. Right now, my plan is to move on to Wordsmith Craftsman for 9th.

[freesia]

One thing that really helped my ds was a technique that Amy from Attune-up used. She had the kids write an outline of questions for each paragraph. So their topic sentence would the I of the outline, then the A, B,C etc would be a question about that topic sentence. I think that really helped him learn to flesh out his outline.

[Cleopatra]

 

 

Is it too much all at once to learn the structure of an essay while trying to come up with content as well? Is he just not ready? Or is there something else I should be doing?

 

 

 

The writing program my dd used (Classical Writing) did not require the student to generate original content early on, instead working with structure within well-written models.  In hindsight, I think it was a brilliant method; the student is looking at both structure and content right from the beginning without being expected to generate it.  First, the student works with manipulating words, then sentences, and can use all their energies for this purpose.  Next they begin writing précis of the model, continuing to examine the structure of each.  The program is focussed, but the student is often only dealing with one or two concepts at a time.   By looking at the structure of good writing, from the very beginning, it really helps the student progress. Along with the writing portion, there is a literature component where the student is required to tackle some heavy-duty literature, but again in a way that is not overwhelming, exposing them to great ideas along with the writing.  Without the student knowing it, these ideas can transition to their writing.

 

(My dd just told me her writing program didn't require her to write a completely original essay until about grade 10.  However all the tools were in place, so when she had to, it wasn't overwhelming.)

 

One of the best exercises for generating ideas is reading classics and discussing them.  Their themes and ideas are universal, yet each author is unique in presenting them.  As for organizing ideas, it's not so clear cut.  Yes, you need to be able to generate a basic flow of ideas for understanding, but I think one is always organizing and reorganizing ideas in improving their writing.  My dd just turned 17 (grade 11) and is taking a university English 103 course this semester.  Her writing is absolutely solid but she is still learning to organize her ideas, continually improving her communication of them.  I think this is the same for all students.

 

Where writing instruction goes off the rails is when students are required to learn, and therefore think of, so many different aspects at a time that it can become overwhelming.  When this happens, the student can shut down and nothing goes in.  I really love the one-thing-at-a-time approach of Classical Writing.  We never did brainstorming or webs or games, she just was exposed to good quality writing and whether the student notices or not, they are definitely influenced by it.  

 

My advice?  Don't overwhelm him and try to break it down for him, working on one aspect at a time.  And have tons of discussion ....... again, an excellent way to generate ideas.  Best of luck!

Edited February 15, 2016 by Cleopatra

[nansk]

One thing that really helped my ds was a technique that Amy from Attune-up used. She had the kids write an outline of questions for each paragraph. So their topic sentence would the I of the outline, then the A, B,C etc would be a question about that topic sentence. I think that really helped him learn to flesh out his outline.

Can you give an example of this technique? I did not understand what the questions about the topic sentence would be.

[Kendall]

Here is a link that talks about the topics for invention (brainstorming).  It might give you more ideas for leading him in brainstorming.

 

Lost Tools of Writing shows how to apply these.  I'm sure there are other programs that do, but I can't name them for you.

 

http://rhetoric.byu.edu/Canons/Invention/topics_of_invention/topics.htm

 

 

[freesia]

Can you give an example of this technique? I did not understand what the questions about the topic sentence would be.

ok, off the top of my head it might look like this. Let's say you are comparing the leadership of Reagan, Clinton and George W. Reagan's paragraph outline might look like.

 

I. Reagan showed strong leadership

A. What were his chief leadership qualities?

B. In what situation did he demonstate leadership?which qualities?

B. How did the nation/world respond to this leadership?

C. In what other situation did he demonstrate these qualities?

D. How did the nation/world respond.

E. Was there long term impact from his leadership?

 

Something like that. The end paragraph wouldn't necessarily answer all the questions, but it gets the student thinking about what the paragraph could contain.

[nansk]

ok, off the top of my head it might look like this. ...

 

Something like that. The end paragraph wouldn't necessarily answer all the questions, but it gets the student thinking about what the paragraph could contain.

Got it. Thank you :)

 

[Haiku]

Impossible? No. Worth spending time on for kids that don't spontaneously start doing it? No.

 

Having gone through it with two kids at vastly different skill levels in writing, I disagree. I am very sorry that I didn't have my son writing more original content when he was younger. Basically, I spun my wheels and wasted time focusing on copywork, narration, and dictation when what my son needed was direct, explicit instruction in writing conventions. 

 

I would structure early grades writing much differently if I had it to do again.

[Chrysalis Academy]

Here's another thing to keep in mind: SWB's oft-repeated injunction to not have a student do two new hard things at the same time.  So, if you are having him do original writing, that is new and hard. So let him write about topics he is interested in, and knows a lot about -don't make him write analytical papers about the new topics he is studying.  Let him learn the form on familiar material.  Then, once he is producing original writing with more ease, then add in the next hard thing - writing analytically about new material. If you try to have a kid do both at the same time, they might just freeze write up, even when you think that they could do the parts (i.e. write originally, analyze thoughts) just fine on their own.

 

Ask me how I know? I saw a lot of deer-in-the-headlights looks when we first started essay writing.  This year, working through Writing with a Thesis, I've allowed dd to choose topics she wants to write about, while conforming to the type of essay we are studying.  That has come much more easily.  Now that this is down, the next challenge is to apply the (much stronger) essay writing skills across the curriculum.  But it didn't work to dive right in.