How much help rewriting fable in WR

[lgliser]

We are in the first lesson of fables and they're supposed to rewrite the fable of The Mouse and the Lion using the ant as the strong character.  So like, the Mouse and the Ant.  

 

How much help/guidance am I supposed to give?  I see that they put the original fable right above the lines where they're supposed to write their own version.  Is that so they can follow the same sequence... almost copying, but just putting it into their own words?

 

The kids have never written a story before.  They've been over things like commas and quotations, but are not even close to being experts, so they'd need help with that for sure.  Am I supposed to look over their shoulders and correct/help as they go, or just correct things like that after it's all done?

 

Should we just do it aloud, together?  The other hitch is that I'm doing this with triplets.  So I could see doing it aloud one on one and trying to foster each one's creativity, but I think doing it all together would be tough... combining everyone's ideas.

 

Help!

[desertflower]

I'll be following for ideas too.

 

We did lesson 1 together orally over dinner.  Everyone had a blast.  I just wrote down everyone's answers.  Mine is a different situation because I don't have 3 of the same age. 

 

I think that's the approach I'm taking with this book because I want this to be fun.  Probably not the correct way, but every household is different.  :) 

 

I'm hoping that my oldest will write stories on his own.  I plant the seeds, and we will see what happens.  Lol 

 

 

[BrittanyM]

My 7 year old and I just did this lesson. I walked her through the fable and asked her questions to help her think through the story. Once I'd walked her through the first half she was able to finish pretty easily by herself.

 

 

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[lgliser]

 

 

I think that's the approach I'm taking with this book because I want this to be fun.  Probably not the correct way, but every household is different.   :) 

 

I was kind of thinking the same thing.  And I think my kids would have more fun doing it together, at least at first or until they get the hang of it.

 

Hopefully more people will chime in :)

[Targhee]

Check the K8 Writing subforum. There was a thread just for W&R.

 

I helped my son a lot in the brain storming process. He chose major things (animals, conflict) from some suggestions I offered. Then he wrote on his own.

 

I think this early assignment is probably a formative assessment for the public school teacher to gauge where his pupils are at before proceeding. You could think this assignment in the same way. Give your student help when needed and note to yourself what your goals are for the year in improving their writing ability.

[lgliser]

 

 

Check the K8 Writing subforum. There was a thread just for W&R.

 

Woa.  How have I been here for 3 years and not realized there are subforums.....???

[Roadrunner]

I used to have my kids brainstorm orally and develop a plotline. Once they had a general idea about what they wanted to say, I would set them loose to write a draft. We revised together the following day to improve sentence structure and grammar.

[Clear Creek]

At that age I just help as they write on their own and only expect them to do what they know as far as spelling, capitalization, punctuation, etc. W&R doesn't start revising until book 5, so I don't correct what they write. They read and I enjoy :)

[lgliser]

 

 

 

At that age I just help as they write on their own and only expect them to do what they know as far as spelling, capitalization, punctuation, etc. W&R doesn't start revising until book 5, so I don't correct what they write. They read and I enjoy  :)

 

 

​So they wrote their stories today.  I decided to just let them at it so I could get a basic idea of where they're at.  I was actually pleasantly surprised with their creativity.  

 

Two of my kids did a good job remembering to capitalize things and they remembered how to do quotations, etc.  Their sister did not so as well!  She did not capitalize a single sentence and she forgot 90% of periods!  LOL

 

So based on what you said about expecting them to do what they know, should I have her rewrite it with the corrections?  And when you say that WR has you do revisions in book 5, do you mean more like revisions that make the story flow more?  Or any revisions at all, including punctuation, spelling, etc?

[luuknam]

​So they wrote their stories today.  I decided to just let them at it so I could get a basic idea of where they're at.  I was actually pleasantly surprised with their creativity.  

 

Two of my kids did a good job remembering to capitalize things and they remembered how to do quotations, etc.  Their sister did not so as well!  She did not capitalize a single sentence and she forgot 90% of periods!  LOL

 

So based on what you said about expecting them to do what they know, should I have her rewrite it with the corrections?  And when you say that WR has you do revisions in book 5, do you mean more like revisions that make the story flow more?  Or any revisions at all, including punctuation, spelling, etc?

 

I wouldn't do a complete rewrite - I would however hand it back to her and ask her to add periods and capital letters (if you let them write in pencil, this should be easy, but even in pen it'd be possible to cross out lowercase letters and add uppercase).

 

And I was going to suggest that for older 4th graders you'd just let them do it without looking over their shoulder, but it sounds like you chose to do that already.

[Clear Creek]

I wouldn't do a complete rewrite - I would however hand it back to her and ask her to add periods and capital letters (if you let them write in pencil, this should be easy, but even in pen it'd be possible to cross out lowercase letters and add uppercase).

 

And I was going to suggest that for older 4th graders you'd just let them do it without looking over their shoulder, but it sounds like you chose to do that already.

 

:iagree: That's exactly what I would do.

[nature girl]

For my DD, we've started revising by actually trying to find ways to improve the quality of sentences, looking at her sentences one by one to see if we can add descriptions of setting, stronger verbs, adjectives that will help put a picture in the reader's mind, etc. We don't go overboard at all, just treat it as a game. "Hmmm, I'm trying to imagine them. Are they walking in a happy way or a sad way or a sneaky way? What word could we use that's more descriptive than "walk?" What are they seeing while they slink along the path? She has fun with it, and it she's starting to understand how it makes her stories come to life.

[lgliser]

In case y'all are interested, I emailed CAP my question.  Here's their reply:

 

I have taught Writing & Rhetoric for CAP for the past two years and wanted to help you out with some of the questions you had. Really good questions! It seems like you are struggling to find the balance between giving your children support and independence as they begin a new challenging task of writing stories. I struggled with this as a teacher of this text as well but found that students usually experience a learning curve that can be steep at the beginning but that becomes quite natural by the end. I would advise allowing your children to write these stories on their own with little correction at the beginning. The most important thing is that they practice writing a story through imitation as best as they can even if it's pretty far from the mark the first time. Building confidence and enjoyment at this stage is crucial. They will build skills as they go, and do so much more successfully if they enjoy the process.

Typically when I teach this, I read the students an example from the teachers edition before they write. I give as clear instructions as possible and answer any questions they may have before beginning, but focus mostly on encouraging as they write. Then afterwards, we all read our stories aloud and I try to comment on some strengths from each. Eventually you can make some suggestions for improvement or revision (but probably too early in the first lesson).

As for your specific questions about this assignment, the goal is imitation in their own words but following the sequence of the story. It's fine for them to borrow some words from the original story as well. The conceptual understanding that we are looking for is successfully portraying the strong and weak animal.

[reign]

I did Fable with my two older kids last year. For the first story Each girl started by making a story board. Basically drawing scenes from the story in order. This helped them think their stories through. Then they each dictated their stories to me. The next day they read their story and did a little rewriting. by the end of the book they no longer needed to storyboard and were capable of writing everything by themselves. We really enjoyed W&R and are excited to do the next book!

[luuknam]

In case y'all are interested, I emailed CAP my question.  Here's their reply:

 

Glad they replied to you. I would however still hand the work back to the kid who didn't capitalize and use periods and tell her to add those. I make my 5.75yo do that most of the time (to be clear, he's not doing W&R yet) - I definitely would make an almost 10yo do that.

[lgliser]

Oh I agree. She totally knows to punctuate and capitalize!