Writing program for dx whole-to-parts child

[jetzmama]

IEW has been a great fit for my older kids, but for my 12yo dx ds, it just doesn't work. He needs to see the entire context before writing coherently. The IEW source texts just don't give him enough context to start with, then the KWO's use less context, and he comes up with some pretty wild and very unrelated thoughts from the KWO.  

 

LTW does seem helpful in that he starts with a book (full context) that he can break into pieces, sort the pieces, and pull out a coherent, related paragraph (and paper).  But LTW is so formatted that every paper winds up using the exact same phrases. As a rigid thinker, this is seem as an unbreakable formula.

 

Any suggestions for a writing program that starts with the full context of a book or short story, but is not so formatted?  Or suggestions on escaping the formulaic method?  

 

 

[kbutton]

Are you still looking for answers? I don't always check here, and I missed this totally.

 

My son needs whole-to-parts, and then needs follow-up with parts-to-whole. He actually has a tutor for writing, but I do work on some writing concepts with him. What has helped is a blended approach--working on individual skills while shoring up the big picture stuff. It's starting to come together. A big difficulty is with finding topics that aren't way too big or way too small. If he's interested in something, he has way too much information, and if he's not, he doesn't really stretch to find information.

 

Individual parts--Wordsmith Apprentice, Easy Writing (from Easy Grammar series), sentence combining (like in Easy Grammar), Jump In writing plunges

Big Picture--disassembling other writing with graphic organizers, outlines, etc. (The Reader's Handbook helps with this--I actually ordered it to help him see how writing is assembled, and he was not far into the book when he said it ought to be called a writing handbook), reading about how writing is organized (Michael Clay Thompson Paragraph Town), using Inspiration software (mind-mapping, graphic organizers) for assignments

 

He does some categorizing and re-categorizing (thinking skills) with Shellagh Gallagher's Concept Development book: http://www.rfwp.com/book/concept-development 

 

He uses Jump In as his main curriculum with his tutor.

 

HTH