J&JMom Posted April 27, 2016 Share Posted April 27, 2016 I am at my wits end with my children, my 7th grader more so than my 5th grader. I had them write an essay today after 3 solid weeks of grammar and writing review (after a year of weekly lessons). My oldest's paper of 190 words had 10 grammar mistakes: - Dialogue - not capitalizing the first word after " - Dialogue - not including period before closing " - I - not capitalizing the pronoun 'I' . THREE times! - capitalizing a verb - contractions - misspelling with apostrophe in wrong place ('nt instead of n't) - Twice - 2 run on sentences (no comma after dependent clause, and joining two independent clauses with a comma and not conjunction). UGH!! I think this error rate is unacceptable for a 7th grader. I would accept 2-3 errors for a paper of this length (~ 1-2 per 100 words). We have gone over these rules time and time again. How am I going to send this kid to High School in a year?! We have used IXL grammar medals, Write Source text and workbooks, Brainpop videos, Fix It Grammar, EM Daily Paragraph editing, Editor in Cheif software over the last three years. He does fine on the short assignments, but it doesn't carry over to his own writing. How do make it stick??! I need advice on how to work on this summer other than making him write, proofread, and grammar lessons daily. And this doesn't even address the content issues - just the grammar problems which hurt my eyes every time I read one of his papers. Thanks for listening. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mrs Twain Posted April 27, 2016 Share Posted April 27, 2016 No real advice, but I can empathize with you. I read a paragraph my son wrote today in which he forgot most of the necessary commas. He has been learning this grammar for years, but it still doesn't come out naturally in his writing. Before I told him anything, I had him proofread it, and he found some of the errors. Then I read aloud each sentence that had a mistake, and he found other errors. Maybe it will just take time... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MerryAtHope Posted April 27, 2016 Share Posted April 27, 2016 Put a light pencil X next to each line that has an error--one X for every error. Have him re-read it for his language arts assignment the next day, and see if he can find the errors. Praise for any he can find, and praise if he knows how to fix the error. This may be more of an editing issue than a knowledge issue. No one likes to see those kinds of errors, but it's really not that awful--I'll bet he knows how to fix a lot of those, and was just more focused on the writing/idea/creativity/word-generating aspects than the mechanics, which require one to use a different part of the brain. I find that many kids simply need more time and direction with regard to editing. He'll get there. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
J&JMom Posted April 27, 2016 Author Share Posted April 27, 2016 (edited) Put a light pencil X next to each line that has an error--one X for every error. Have him re-read it for his language arts assignment the next day, and see if he can find the errors. Praise for any he can find, and praise if he knows how to fix the error. This may be more of an editing issue than a knowledge issue. No one likes to see those kinds of errors, but it's really not that awful--I'll bet he knows how to fix a lot of those, and was just more focused on the writing/idea/creativity/word-generating aspects than the mechanics, which require one to use a different part of the brain. I find that many kids simply need more time and direction with regard to editing. He'll get there. What I generally do with the kid's papers is photocopy them-one copy for me and one for them. Then we both edit them and compare our edits. This time, I found the 10 and he only found 7. If only he did that the first time which he never does. I guess I need to go back to being explicit and say: check capitals, yada yada. Crazy to do this with an almost rising 8th grader. Our school year ends in 2 weeks. Edited April 27, 2016 by J&JMom 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mrs Twain Posted April 28, 2016 Share Posted April 28, 2016 Maybe you should tell your son that he will need to do writing throughout the summer because he needs extra practice. Since he is not able to apply his grammar knowledge to his writing assignments, then he is not able to take a summer break this year. I bet he may miraculously improve. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
J&JMom Posted May 4, 2016 Author Share Posted May 4, 2016 Op here. Wanted to follow up with this post. He has since written two more essays, and they keep getting better. I think I put the fear of the Grammar gods into him, and he has been diligently checking his work. Yay! Also, Mrs. Twain, I did mention that he would be doing daily writing in the summer if he didn't get his mind on track before I read your post. Two great minds and all that :) 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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