Follow up on Lux and Veritas' post: what is lacking in your student's writing?

[Laura Corin]

Writing was the most common reply to L&V's question about what subject you would have spent more time on. What skills do you think your students lack or lacked?

 

Many thanks

 

Laura

[Sasharowan]

For my oldest: it is the butt in chair and pencil to paper skill he lacks. LOL, at 12, he was assigned a 100 word paragraph about an animal and given a week to do it. He was done by Wed. with complete sentences, properly spelled (thanks to spell check) and punctuated and minimal whining. I fell over in shock.

 

Formy 1st and 2nd grader, I am not making the mistake of yielding to the whining. They will write.

[8filltheheart]

I don't think we lacked writing assignments or instruction. I do think I should have (and will in the future) required more "pressured" writing.....as in time limits. Too often I give essay tests and just let them work until they finish. With my oldest I did assign a 25 minute essay every Friday, but they were more along the lines of the SAT type questions (from Regents Essay Questions http://www2.gsu.edu/~wwwrtp/topics.htm) vs. an examination type question. I think a timed lit ana question per week would be good practice.

[Beth in Central TX]

I think a timed lit ana question per week would be good practice.

 

I'm not sure I could do this though. At what age would you start this? I was thinking high school, but based upon the writing threads that I've recently read, that may be too late.

 

Thanks!

[8filltheheart]

Well, it isn't something I would worry about before high school, but I am rather relaxed about things compared to others. I also don't do very much lit ana prior to high school.....so it would be rather difficult for them to write a timed essay on the topic. ;)

 

My focus on writing prior to high school is quality of construction of argument, sentence structure, and agreement.

 

Sorry if that doesn't help much.

[Michelle in MO]

writing, which has been somewhat ameliorated by an online writing tutorial. For my oldest (again) SAT and ACT-style essay writing, which I should try to work on again this summer.

 

For my youngest (11), transitions in sentences and sentence variety. Her latest report on Ben Franklin had every sentence starting with "Ben Franklin did . . . " etc. We have to work on that a bit! :rolleyes:

[cajun.classical]

I don't think we lacked writing assignments or instruction. I do think I should have (and will in the future) required more "pressured" writing.....as in time limits. Too often I give essay tests and just let them work until they finish. With my oldest I did assign a 25 minute essay every Friday, but they were more along the lines of the SAT type questions (from Regents Essay Questions http://www2.gsu.edu/~wwwrtp/topics.htm) vs. an examination type question. I think a timed lit ana question per week would be good practice.

 

Let me second that suggestion. I taught High School and College Literature and we did lots of timed essays. I even taught classes on how to effectively write an in-class timed essay. When I've taught formerly homeschooled kids, that was one of the areas that they were weak in. They were generally given as much time as needed for assignments at home. It was sometimes tough to get them to think about the clock when doing an assignment. It's a skill for sure. I wouldn't worry about introducing in-class essays before High School, but I would keep an eye on the clock when they are doing other assignments. Learning to manage time is an important skill and quite critical for success in college.

[Laura Corin]

It's a skill for sure. I wouldn't worry about introducing in-class essays before High School, but I would keep an eye on the clock when they are doing other assignments. Learning to manage time is an important skill and quite critical for success in college.

 

Calvin just did UK standardised testing, which included one short piece of writing (craft an advertisement for a new toy) and one longer (write a story from a story board). I was wondering how he would do with a time limit, but he was fine. I'll try to keep him doing regular, timed, age-appropriate assignments.

 

Laura

[Halftime Hope]

My eldest has language related LDs so I won't even go into his continuing struggles.

 

My second student has been called a "natural writer," but I hate that term--she has worked as hard as I have to write as well as she does. As far as outside evaluations of her writing, I had her in a sixth grade writing class at a co-op, then in seventh grade a TOG 3 (unit study) class taught by a journalism major who is reputed to be a great writing coach. She wrote at the top of her class of 12, which included several 11th graders. (I did not think that her writing was that great, but she did put effort and heart into her papers.) After several years at home, including working through Wordsmith Craftsman, she is now in a pre-AP english class where her avg is nearly perfect and in Torrey Academy Inklings in which her papers routinely get As and A-s. Currently, her papers are still lacking in sentence complexity and variety, appropriate and varied vocab, and in correct usage of prepositions. I have her in these classes, because she is willing for me to look at her papers and make suggestions, but having me *grade* her papers is more than she is able to stand. :) No doubt, the teachers there are much more diplomatic and inspiring, as well. :D

 

I am finding that if I point out and underline things, such as "this paragraph has several punctuation errors," "you have used the word 'repetition' six times in three paragraphs", "this construction is awkward," or if I read something she has written aloud to her, she is able to correct her work. I'm trying to nudge her toward seeing her own mistakes and help her learn to revise and edit without my help. We have a way to go, but she is making progress.

 

There are three themes that I come back to in working with my three students:

 

1) organization

2) speed -- get something down on paper fast

3) be humble enough and patient enough to revise and edit. There is *always* room for improvement.

 

I hope something there helps.

 

Valerie

[Laura Corin]

When people say they would concentrate more on 'writing', it's sometimes hard to know exactly what they mean.

 

Laura

[frogpond1]

because they aren't getting a variety of writing teachers. I know I have my own strengths and style even with the Progymn. and I just wonder how they would respond to a different teacher teaching the same materials.

[Nan in Mass]

Even once we'd done typing, this was hard. It is a whirlpool that is difficult to break out of. It takes so long to write anything that you can't write enough to get faster at writing. I'm not sure what breaks a child out of this whirlpool, but once they are out, things are much easier. At that point, they can actually write enough to practise and improve.

 

The list method of organizing/brainstorming taught in Writing Strands works pretty well for my children. So do the "formulas" for different kinds of writing that it teaches.

 

Mine had major problems with the sort of funnel structure of introductions, and also with how to elaborate and add details. They had no trouble coming up with main points, but didn't know what sorts of things to add as details. They also had trouble with the idea of audience. But you already know this, so what is the point of writing it all out? We had to work on the idea of showing off what you know, and how to write generalizations as lead-ins. This requires writing totally assinign (guess I've never written or seen that word before GRIN) things like, "Cars are very useful to us in modern life."

 

At some point, mine had problems following the instructions in Writing Strands, which they managed to deliberately mangle and passively resist. We're working on Format Writing, as a break.

 

Mine will finish up with CC composition classes, because I'm really shaky about teaching writing.

 

I didn't push the writing until my older one was older. His writing improved tons after he was about 16, and I'm really glad I didn't push too hard before that. Short and often was a good strategy until he grew up a bit.

 

-Nan