Suggestions for a struggling writer? (7th gr.)

[Sue G in PA]

Here is the scoop: My dd11 has always hated writing. The mere thought of putting a pen to paper to write anything drives her to tears. She always puts it off until last (although I tell her to just get it over with first). This year she has been using IEW's Anc. Hist. Based Writing lessons and has done relatively well...for the most part. She gets the key word outline, can re-write the paragraph based on that and although she has a hard time w/ the "dress-ups"...can turn out a decent paragraph. She can also put together a decent paragraph narration from history or science w/out any problems. It's the "other" stuff she has problems with. ANy time she is asked to come up w/ something from scratch...an original...she is reduced to tears. Today for LL7 her assignment was to write topic sentences for various topics using different interesting "attention grabbers". We talked about it, she understood the assignment but just sat there staring at her paper saying, "I can't do this. It's too hard". I tried to help her, gave her some suggestions, etc. No dice.

 

My question is this: How do I help her with this? My dh suggested daily journaling and I like that idea. Just having her write for a set period of time w/out worrying about somebody "checking" her work. Just writing. Putting thoughts on paper. Any other ideas to help her get over this "mental block" she seems to have re: writing? TIA

[Kim in SouthGa]

My 11 ds was the same way. Two things have really helped him this year: Writing Trails in American History, and Friday Freewrites. It sounds like the Friday Freewrites might be what she needs. Basically, you set the timer and let her write for the entire time, even if she is just writing "I hate to write, I hate to write..over and over (which my son did the first time!). I started with 5 minutes, then up to 8, now at 10. He writes really weird stories-science fiction meets Rambo stuff. But it has helped him get past the pen to paper thing. You can read more about FFs on the Bravewriter website (can't think of the web address, but you can google it).

hth

[Carol in Cal.]

That's something that not all parents require--sWB talks about her brother not having anything interesting to write about in his journal, which had been a college freshman English class requirement and was very difficult for him. So that is the first thing--realize that not everyone even thinks that learning to write creatively is a key skill. If she has mastered non-fiction writing such as summaries and outlines, and key mechanics skills like writing a good paragraph, you might just continue to provide her with subject area writing and teach her other forms and mechanics and let the creative side go.

 

If you really want to pursue it, though, I think that it might be good to use either Writer's Jungle or one of those writing programs that explicitly teaches about fiction writing (like "Learn to Write the Novel Way" or that adventure novel writing program recently featured on the high school board). Still, my feeling for LWNW and the other program is that they are geared more toward getting someone to write who mostly likes to read and only wants to write fiction. WJ is much more general--it teaches how to write more engagingly in non-fiction as well as fiction writing.

[Peela]

I agree with the idea of Freewrites. I have a reluctant writer ds12, and freewriting really freed him up.

The other thing that really works for him is imitative writing. At the moment he is rewriting a Greek myth in his own words once a week. Often, for a reluctant writer, being able to come up with content while struggling with the mechanics of writing, is still an issue, and if the content is well known- like a Greek myth we have just read and he is familiar with- he can perform fairly well. For that reason, Imitation in Writing programs and Classical Writing have been good for him in the past too, wheras Writing Strands is a total flop because he has to think too much!

[Sue G in PA]

I agree with the idea of Freewrites. I have a reluctant writer ds12, and freewriting really freed him up.

The other thing that really works for him is imitative writing. At the moment he is rewriting a Greek myth in his own words once a week. Often, for a reluctant writer, being able to come up with content while struggling with the mechanics of writing, is still an issue, and if the content is well known- like a Greek myth we have just read and he is familiar with- he can perform fairly well. For that reason, Imitation in Writing programs and Classical Writing have been good for him in the past too, wheras Writing Strands is a total flop because he has to think too much!

 

I have WT2 for my ds9 to use next year. Do you think this would be too easy for my dd11? I want to challenge her, but not overwhelm her. IEW's Anc. Hist. Based Writing lessons seem to be "okay" for her, but I do think she's getting bored w/ Anc. Hist topics. Perhaps I could use WT2 w/ her...leaving out the grammar stuff that would certainly be much too easy? Next year, my plan is to have her use Jump In!