Kfamily Posted November 11, 2009 Share Posted November 11, 2009 Our piano teacher has many students and each year asks her students (7-12th grade) to submit an essay in a contest held by the NFMC. She allows this to count for their theory homework due each week for the month. The essay must be 500 words or less and typed of course. The topic is "Music...A Key to the Future". I have been looking over the entries from our class last year (the winner and runner-up both in our class) and the published winners all over the U.S. I thought a basic 5 paragraph essay would work but most of the entries, including the winners, have 4 paragraphs or some have 6. I'm trying to figure out how to guide dd with this assignment. We have not started essays yet so I really need to give her a good outline to follow. Last years' winner used first person too. The runner-up had 11 paragraphs. I'm thinking that structure is not crucial here but I want to make the most of this teaching moment. Any ideas? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kfamily Posted November 11, 2009 Author Share Posted November 11, 2009 bump Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TxMama Posted November 11, 2009 Share Posted November 11, 2009 You might not like my answer. :001_huh: Let her write this particular essay any way she wants without interference from mom. My experience is to keep the homeschool-mom-hat on only with assignments originating from you and your curriculum. Let the outside assignments be fully their responsibility! I have seen far too many homeschooling mamas try to help their children when they went to ps highschool or ( gasp!) college by creating outlines and such. Don't do it! Let her fail at this if that is what is going to happen. It'll be OK. Really. Stay uninvolved and she be a better writer because of it. Introduce essay writing in your homeschool after she finishes this assignment. She'll be ready to learn it and will do much better next year with her piano essay. Just my opinion. Best of luck, mama! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
specialmama Posted November 11, 2009 Share Posted November 11, 2009 You might not like my answer. :001_huh: Let her write this particular essay any way she wants without interference from mom. My experience is to keep the homeschool-mom-hat on only with assignments originating from you and your curriculum. Let the outside assignments be fully their responsibility! I have seen far too many homeschooling mamas try to help their children when they went to ps highschool or ( gasp!) college by creating outlines and such. Don't do it! Let her fail at this if that is what is going to happen. It'll be OK. Really. Stay uninvolved and she be a better writer because of it. Introduce essay writing in your homeschool after she finishes this assignment. She'll be ready to learn it and will do much better next year with her piano essay. Just my opinion. Best of luck, mama! I agree to an extent. I think if your child hasn't been exposed to essays, it could be too frustrating for her (depending on the child, of course.) Pehaps you could teach her how to do a 3 paragraph research report on an animal she would like to know more about. You could help her with that report, and then let her loose with the music one. She could transfer what she learned about the animal report (use mind-maps, research from 3 sources, pre-writing, etc.) That's what I would do, anyhow... just to expose her a bit, but using a different topic. I like to teach my kids how to swim. :tongue_smilie: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kfamily Posted November 11, 2009 Author Share Posted November 11, 2009 (edited) Just to clarify...I wouldn't dream of creating her outline on her topic for her but was mostly thinking I would just sit with her one day and go over the basic structure of an essay. I meant a general outline of how to write an essay-not a specific one. I think I like your idea, specialmama, since this would be a good compromise. This way I can teach her a basic format but allow her to do her own writing. I was trying to decide if I should show her the 5-paragraph essay or if there is something else I should show her...? Just clarifying again...I wouldn't show her the winning essays. I am trying to decide what kind of essay they want her to write. I am leaning towards the 5 paragraph essay since this is the one I know best but last years' essays don't seem to follow any particular format at all...hence my confusion as to what to show her how to do. Does that make sense? Edited November 11, 2009 by Kfamily Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
specialmama Posted November 11, 2009 Share Posted November 11, 2009 OH I would show her something else!!! Nothing like comparing yourself to the winning writer :001_huh: ... seriously... let her pour over samples if she wants to... just not from this topic... just my opinion. :001_smile: It will free her to write her own words. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TxMama Posted November 11, 2009 Share Posted November 11, 2009 .I am trying to decide what kind of essay they want her to write. I am leaning towards the 5 paragraph essay since this is the one I know best but last years' essays don't seem to follow any particular format at all...hence my confusion as to what to show her how to do. Does that make sense? Is she asking for your help? If she isn't I wouldn't worry about it one way or the other. IF it were my child and she asked for format questions I would direct her to her piano teacher. Their best resouce for outside assignments is the person issuing the assignment. Help her learn to utilize that resource. I'm guessing from your pp that there isn't a format so it really is a non-issue. Just let her write. Just to clarify so it doesn't look like I just threw my kids to the wolves when they got outside writing assignments. :001_huh: I used these types of opportunities to evaluate my writing curriculum. I stayed uninvolved but you can bet I read the essay after they are done. If I found out that they did reasonably well but needed help addressing format (or whatever) then I knew I needed to add that into our writing curriculum. KWIM? Ok so I did throw them to the wolves but they survived. :lol: This is a easy opportunity to see how your daughter writes. She may bomb, get frustrated, etc. but that is just part of life and I let my kids take those lumps. FWIW, Format Writing by Jenson is good open ended resource for writing essays. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeterPan Posted November 12, 2009 Share Posted November 12, 2009 It might be that part of the reason the essays won was because the students had something to say and said it. After all, this is about content, not format. It's not an english class assignment, lol. When she knows what she wants to say and gets it down, it might flow much better than you think. After all, she's been doing narrations all her life, hasn't she? BTW, 250 words is one page, so we're talking about filling 1-2 pages typed, not a big deal. What writing curriculum have you been using? Maybe she'll do better than you realize? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kfamily Posted November 12, 2009 Author Share Posted November 12, 2009 Thanks OhElizabeth! Your words are so comforting. I shouldn't overthink this...:lol: I will wait and let her get started first! She has been writing narrations all her life. We are using Homer so we are doing even more of that here too. Her writing has really taken off this year so I will wait and see. Thanks!:001_smile: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chloe Posted November 12, 2009 Share Posted November 12, 2009 I don't really have any advice, but I wanted to say that I know how you feel. My ds10 will be testing for his black belt in karate in March. He will have to write a 1000 word essay on how learning karate has benefited him, AND he will have to read it aloud in front of a room full of people. My ds struggles so much with writing. We are still trying to form proper sentences and paragraphs. His writing doesn't flow. He's constantly jumping from one topic to another in his writing, and adding in things that just don't fit. Also, he is incredibly fearful of "looking stupid" with anything he does. He's not shy, just always worried he is going to embarrass himself. He is already stressing about having to read a paper in front of other people, and it's months away. We are working through Paragraph Writing Made Easy, and then we will probably work on writing some 5-paragraph essays. He'll have to write his karate essay on his own, but I am going to do my best to prepare him for the task. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeterPan Posted November 12, 2009 Share Posted November 12, 2009 Chloe, for something like that, I'd help him a bit. What you might do is help him break it into chunks, things he wants to say. Then let him write, on his own, one chunk at a time. So in your brainstorming session, he might realize karate has impacted him in: -personal discipline -overcoming obstacles -setting goals -being on time Then he might have stories that go with each of those and flesh them out. Since he's doing PWME (which we're also doing btw!) and has been doing narrations, he will have no problem getting down things about those points. You're just helping him formulate a logical outline that breaks it down into chunks that he can handle on his own, a bit at a time. And what you might do is allow a week for each point, so it never becomes overwhelming. Then he'll have opening and closing points. In his opening he might tell his story of starting and sticking with it (my guess, 3 paragraphs, hehe). He could talk about his teachers, what he learned from them. Then you have the things he learned from karate itself. And then in his closing he could give personal response. All that's just an example. My dh writes beautiful speeches like that, likes to do it, and they're never the formal, 5 paragraph essay. They more start somewhere and end somewhere, trying to communicate lessons along the way. Something that is read aloud like that has that flexibility. But I'd definitely feel free to help him develop an outline of the things he wants to cover and break it into chunks. That would be overwhelming to my 10yo to do alone, that's for sure, especially with so much on the line, doing it in front of people. Then he can tackle the smaller chunks on his own just fine, just asking you for help or editing when he wants it. Congrats on the black belt. That's quite the accomplishment! :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chloe Posted November 12, 2009 Share Posted November 12, 2009 Thanks, Elizabeth! I love how you have broken it all down into manageable parts! That helps me so much, as writing is a weak area for me as well. Great ideas! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeterPan Posted November 13, 2009 Share Posted November 13, 2009 You're welcome! :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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