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Showing results for tags 'essay'.
Found 8 results
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I was wondering if there is such a thing as a curriculum that has the students writing an 5 paragraph essay each week? I was thinking of doing this with my freshman next year, but why reinvent the wheel? If someone else has already come up with an actual curric for this, that's one thing off my list. I know the IEW topical books are almost one a week, but the topic books don't sound that interesting to my ds. Ideas? Thanks!!! -
Having a hard time here. We have tried many so different writing programs, and nothing seems *right*. My main issue is that these programs break writing down into such small chunks that my kids (who love to write) don't get enough actual writing each day. We are not really interested in brainstorming, outlining, filling out graphic organizers, dictation, etc. etc. etc. All these activities are great, but they really distract us from actually writing. (BTW, it's not to say that we don't employ these tools, but we already have enough resources that encourage them.) I do love the meatier portions of Fishman's Creative Writer (we are only in Level 1), where he identifies one element and instructs students to practice that element by writing 500 words. I am looking for something similar, but for essay / formal writing; something that requires a lot of writing... perhaps 500 words or more per assignment, then revisions after that. I am looking for something that requires students to write from within, ie communicate their own thoughts and opinions rather than summarize someone else's. I have started to wonder if perhaps I need to advance our programs (we are in 6th and 7th), but I see the same things in the higher-grade programs. Is it me? Am I just not "getting it?" -
How did you use AAW1? I was skimming through it and noticed it only has 4 essay assignments. Is that enough? Did you supplement with additional writing exercises?
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Why I came across this article I will never know but it is a good reminder for applicants about finding the line between using an application essay to share about your self, your life, your passions, and your struggles and when it all just becomes TMI. Based on some of the comments in the article this could easily result in a homeschooling article titled "How CPS ended up on my doorstep thanks to a concerned college admissions officer." From the NYT--Naked Confessions of the College Bound: Oversharing in Admissions Essays
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The New York times had an interesting article today on college admissions essays, their value, and approaches that students use: http://www.nytimes.c...-the-crowd.html Interesting stuff, including four actual submitted essays.
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Can anyone give me a good recommendation for a quick and easy way to teach my daughter how to write an essay? Her SATs are coming up soon and I have failed miserably in providing her with a proper writing program. On her PSATs she scored in the 99th percentile in both reading and writing, but she didn't have to write an essay for the PSATs. She is freaking out and so am I. She has been doing college level work in all of her subjects for some time now, she just seems allergic to writing. She used to keep a blog and wrote well. I think she is just afraid of writing because she feels like she doesn't know how to do it "properly". We need something that we can do in a few month's time. Please I am looking for any recommendations and what has worked or not worked for others. Thanks and God bless! :) P.S. I've ordered Fairview's Guide to Composition and Essay Writing, but I don't have any idea if this is a good program or if it will work within our time constraints. It just sounded good. I also have the entire WriteShop program put away somewhere, but I am pretty sure it will not work within our time constraints. I may start my up-and-coming ninth grader with this program next year.
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In one fell swoop he has gone from only being able to write reports to being able to write persuasive papers with a thesis! Not that he is writing perfect papers now GRIN, but the rest of the problems are more minor ones that I know how to fix. I am so relieved! He has always had plenty of ideas, he just couldn't get them organized enough for his papers to work. I made him stick to this format for his body paragraphs and it worked! http://www.welltrainedmind.com/forums/showthread.php?p=1662037#poststop Just posting in case someone has a similar problem... -Nan -
My kids all wrote history research papers this year, and I was feeling pretty good about them. My brother teaches at a pretty prestigious university and I asked him if he would read over them - he has taught freshman writing classes before. He says that they all write well, but that they need to spend less time spouting out information that they have researched and more time linking it with ideas of their own, and need to work on cross reseaching (linking their history ideas w/ whatever comes into their own theories, like human psychology, anthropology...etc.) I asked him if they were as good as he would expect of incoming freshman, and he said not were he teaches, although he's definitely seen worse. So, I get what he is saying and what we need to work on next year, but I'm trying to figure out if the work they produced this year is developmentally appropriate. Should 10th graders already be able to do what he is describing, or is a research paper, with a self developed thesis, that is well researched, grammatically correct, well written (with a good flow and able to hold interest) right where they should be? I have absolutely no idea how to grade them. I know they are a lot better than anything they produced last year. Thanks for any ideas.
