If you use or have used OYAN...

[Hoggirl]

What sort of evaluation do you do of the writing assignments that are within each of the lessons? We are early on in this process just completing lesson 7. We are now getting to some lessons which require the student to write a scene. How do you go over these with your student? Do you have them do any rewriting of them? Or do you just talk about them and point out things you like and things that you think could be better?

 

I want to be encouraging and try to provide meaningful feedback. I am trying very hard not to be nitpicky, but I don't want it to be "anything goes" either. Ds is liking this, and I know he is trying hard to do his best, so I don't want to be a beast!

[Hoggirl]

:D

[dcurry]

We purchased OYAN last year. My son is very interested in writing, but then got stuck and couldn't move forward with it. We're planning to pick it back up this year.

 

I think it's important that they enjoy writing. When grading, I think you should always tell him something that you like about what he has written, and then something (one thing) that you think he could improve upon, and then something else you like. That will keep him motivated.

 

There are boxes at the bottom to put his score... it seems like they were things like whether it was complete or not. I'd try to use those. They will eventually be getting input on their writing online.

 

Also, I had put a deadline for the assignments, and told him when I would be grading. So if it wasn't done when I went to grade it, he would get a '0' (or if some was done, maybe a 5/10) for 'complete'. He could always boost the grade some by completing it late, but could never get the full points for it.

 

This curriculum to me seemed to be more to encourage their writing skills. Getting a novel written in a few months is quite a feat for anyone, so you can't really expect perfection. This is just giving them the tools & the practice. I tended to go a little easy on him and hoped to encourage him in his writing ability.

 

However, if your child is really asking for a lot of feedback, then you should probably give him the help he is asking for.

[Sumiller]

My ds16 just completed his first year with this. For grading, I followed the instructions in the teacher guide. If he answered all the questions, I gave him full credit. If his answers addressed the question in a relevant manner, I gave him full credit. If his answers appeared well thought out, again, he got full credit. :D I did this with the expectation that this was his very first attempt at a full length novel and as long as he was putting in his best work and effort, he would receive a good grade.

 

When it came to the writing of paragraphs/scenes, I would read them and we would discuss them. I did just as you mentioned. . .look for the good and point it out and also show areas that might be improved. We did a lot more of this type of discussion during the 2nd half of the year while he was in the actual process of writing each chapter since he asked me to offer critique.

 

The difficult part for me was remembering that this was only his first attempt and that he is not a seasoned writer so I had to go easy and stick to the main problem areas that I noticed; for example, if a character or action seemed out of place or if I, as the reader, didn't get what was going on, I would point it out. My son admitted that some of my confusion reading certain chapters came about because although he had everything worked out in his head it didn't always come out on the pages and he sometimes needed to go back and add more info to clarify something. And once, he had his main characters doing something that just wasn't realistic and when I mentioned it to him, he sheepishly admitted that he just didn't know how to get the action to the next place that it needed to be so he just quickly made something up. I had to tell him that it wouldn't work and he really needed to go back and spend a little more time thinking it through. He ended up coming up with something better that, at least, was feasible. ;)

 

Also, your son will get plenty of great feedback on the forum once he starts writing the actual novel. My son really appreciated the critique/feedback he got from the other student writers.

 

It's been a great experience for my son and he has eagerly requested doing the newest unit (Sci-fi and Fantasy) this coming year.