ShutterBug Posted February 22, 2011 Share Posted February 22, 2011 I spent the day with my sister and nephew today. My nephew is the same ages as ds (8 - 3rd grade). She was telling me about her summer schoolwork plans for him. She wants to focus on mastering addition, subtraction and mulitplication (his school uses Everyday Math and they haven't mastered any of them yet) and then she added in that she'd like to have him read some non-fiction books and write a few reports. I commented that that seemed like a lot of writing for an almost 4th grader and she said that in school right now they're working on 5 paragraph reports/essays. Say what?:confused: Ds is working through WWE 3 & 4 this year along with Paragraph Town. He's doing well with both but my goal for the end of the year was to have him writing well composed single paragraphs. 5 paragraph reports in 3rd grade. Tell me this is too much to expect out of a 3rd grader and to let it go and continue on as I have been! Thanks! Jenn Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thescrappyhomeschooler Posted February 22, 2011 Share Posted February 22, 2011 Who is working on the 5 paragraph reports? The kids? More likely the parents when these ridiculous assignments are sent home as homework. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jean in Newcastle Posted February 22, 2011 Share Posted February 22, 2011 It's ok - really. They work on these things early and it backfires. Slow and steady. . . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Perry Posted February 22, 2011 Share Posted February 22, 2011 she said that in school right now they're working on 5 paragraph reports/essays. They might be, but they aren't doing it well. You're doing just fine. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FaithManor Posted February 22, 2011 Share Posted February 22, 2011 Well, if these essays are anything like the ones in our local 5th grade class (and I've seen a bunch of these from 4-h kids), they contain not one single coherent sentence. The prevailing attitude is one of prestige - "OH our 5th graders write essays! Pat us on the back!" These same kids have never mastered the fine art of writing simple sentences with a modicum of sense, structure, and even a capital letter. In the essays that I've seen, the kids know two things: how many sentences (if that's what you want to call them) to put in each paragraph, and when to indent. That's it! But, it looks like an essay on paper. Do what you know is right for your ds...don't let someone else's arbitrary agenda make you feel panicked. Faith Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jenL Posted February 22, 2011 Share Posted February 22, 2011 As a former 8th grade English teacher, I can tell you that the 5 paragraph essays my students created were carp. All the kids started writing earlier as is your nephew, but it's not being taught well, so many of the children are still struggling as 8th graders to write a solid paragraph! I cannot tell you the amount of remedial teaching I had to do before I could even teach them how to write a thesis statement and then an essay to support it. I shudder thinking about it, and this was in a middle-class town with plenty of money going into the schools. Slow & steady... do not falter. Your child will be a better writer in the long run. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jen+4dc Posted February 22, 2011 Share Posted February 22, 2011 Who is working on the 5 paragraph reports? The kids? More likely the parents when these ridiculous assignments are sent home as homework. :iagree: They might be, but they aren't doing it well. You're doing just fine. :iagree: You MUST master the basics before you can write a 5 paragraph essay well. I'm soooooo glad I'm not doing that homework assignment for, ahem, "with" my kiddos!! Talk about developmentally inappropriate.:001_huh: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LibraryLover Posted February 22, 2011 Share Posted February 22, 2011 (edited) SWB, in fact, speaks to this. Best 3.99 you will ever spend (in this case): http://www.welltrainedmind.com/store/elementary-grades-mp3.html Edited February 22, 2011 by LibraryLover Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Renee in NC Posted February 22, 2011 Share Posted February 22, 2011 I imagine they *are* working on 5 paragraph reports. I wrote my first full report in the 3rd grade years ago. My 1st grader does a ton of writing everyday. Fourth graders in FL and NC are required to write stories with at least 4 paragraphs as the state writing test. However, words on paper does not a good writer make.;) Don't worry about it - you're just taking a different route. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HappyCrazyMama Posted February 22, 2011 Share Posted February 22, 2011 I spent the day with my sister and nephew today. My nephew is the same ages as ds (8 - 3rd grade). She was telling me about her summer schoolwork plans for him. She wants to focus on mastering addition, subtraction and mulitplication (his school uses Everyday Math and they haven't mastered any of them yet) and then she added in that she'd like to have him read some non-fiction books and write a few reports. I commented that that seemed like a lot of writing for an almost 4th grader and she said that in school right now they're working on 5 paragraph reports/essays. Say what?:confused: Ds is working through WWE 3 & 4 this year along with Paragraph Town. He's doing well with both but my goal for the end of the year was to have him writing well composed single paragraphs. 5 paragraph reports in 3rd grade. Tell me this is too much to expect out of a 3rd grader and to let it go and continue on as I have been! Thanks! Jenn See what I bolded? That could mean anything! :001_huh: This is too much to expect out of a third grader, let it go and continue on as you have been. :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alpidarkomama Posted February 22, 2011 Share Posted February 22, 2011 It's ok - really. They work on these things early and it backfires. Slow and steady. . . :iagree: I think slowly and thoroughly is SO much better. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
talexand Posted February 22, 2011 Share Posted February 22, 2011 My kids are in school part time. They do start writing early in public school. That being said, I have a funny story about when we started homeschooling part time. The third grade teacher was pretty much against the arrangement. She assumed my ds was not going to learn outside of school. She didn't think I could teach because I am not a certified teacher. I set forth on the homeschooling and we started history with early history. I asked ds to write a 5 paragraph essay about a topic of his choice - the wooly mamoth. He researched, outlined his essay, wrote a first draft and refined to a final report, even drew a great cover picture. He took it to school to show it to his teacher and her jaw dropped! It was clearly his work because he was so eager to tell her all that he had done and learned. I was new to homeschooling and had no idea that 3rd graders don't write 5 paragraph essays! Well, she never bothered us again. Now she thinks that homeschooling is great, but only for us. All others will fail but I am some kind of exception to her rule which she is sticking to. Oh well, change starts small. By the way, my second son still had trouble with capital letters and periods in 3rd grade. One paragraph was all I could get out of him and that was often a struggle. He was a bit behind on his punctuation but pretty typical for his writing. I had him journal over the summer and we worked on puctuation. It helped. I do know there were a few kids in the class that could write lengthy reports quite well at this stage. He just wasn't one of them. Your friend's son may be just fine writing 5 paragraph essays. If he is, then he is ahead. I wouldn't compare. You are fine. Now in fourth grade second ds is taking the state writing test and is required to write two pages of imaginative writing. This takes place over the course of a week. Its evaluated with the 6 trait method. Only about 50% of the students in our state meet expectations on this test. At our school it is about 80%. The school puts a lot of effort in getting the kids at this level but its real. They do good work. Ds has made huge improvements this year, especially in how much he enjoys writing. That seems to be the biggest hurdle. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stacy in NJ Posted February 22, 2011 Share Posted February 22, 2011 your plan. SWB knows what she's talking about.:D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
justamouse Posted February 22, 2011 Share Posted February 22, 2011 It's ok - really. They work on these things early and it backfires. Slow and steady. . . What Jean said. It's sad, though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aggie Posted February 22, 2011 Share Posted February 22, 2011 My sister teaches 2nd grade at the local ps. She gets SO aggravated that her students can't write a one page report on an animal or country by February. One page. No paragraphs. She's not taught about sentences, subjects, predicates or paragraphs. I've tried to tell her that she might as well teach calculus, too.:lol: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tree House Academy Posted February 22, 2011 Share Posted February 22, 2011 The beauty of homeschooling is working at the pace and level of your individual child. In that 3rd grade class, some kids will write a beautiful 5 paragraph essay while others will write a mix of run on sentences, followed by fragments, in a completely incoherent paragraph divided into 5 sections with indentions. Others will scribble haphazardly on the paper and turn it in because a. it was too hard or b. they didn't care or c. both. No...I would much rather meet my son where he is and form that solid foundation for him to build on than to push him to meet some ridiculous standard only to see his education full of holes, gaps, and failures. No thanks. (FWIW, my degree is in English with a focus in writing and I wrote my first really good paper in 7th grade). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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