10 y/o 5th grader who doesn't love to write independently...

[NanceXToo]

My 10 y/o dd is in 5th grade. She reads at an 8th grade reading level. But she doesn't love to write independently and has always required a decent amount of handholding for her writing assignments. She's JUST starting to get better at it recently this year, though.

 

For this assignment, she had to write her own "legend" after reading a selection of North American Indian legends. It had to pertain to a "natural phenomenon." I didn't tell her how long it had to be.

 

I already helped her fix a couple of run on sentences (she does tend to repeat mistakes when it comes to that, no matter how often I tell her, and I'm not sure she FULLY understands how to recognize a run on sentence).

 

But other than that, and especially content wise, writing style, length, level of detail, vocabulary, etc., where do you think she stands for her age/grade level? Does she seem on track for her age/grade?

 

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How Tornadoes Came To Be

 

It was a hot day outside, and the two Indian gods (brothers) were visiting Earth. On Earth they saw a golden apple. The oldest brother said, "I'm the oldest, I get it!"

 

Then the youngest said, "I'm tired of not getting things. I get it! Now don't say no or you'll regret it!"

 

"What are you going to do about it," said the oldest brother, taking a huge bite out of the apple.

 

"That's it!" the youngest screamed! He clenched his fists, tilted his head up high and yelled "I HATE YOU!"

 

"Whatever, I can live with that!" snickered the oldest.

 

"No, you can't. Say bye-bye!"

 

"Wait! What are you doing?!?!" The oldest yelled, for winds were getting strong. It was getting hot then cold, hot then cold, hot then cold. In the distance, the oldest brother saw something coming fast and it was swirling. Could this be? Could this young man really have caused the tornado?" the oldest thought. But that was his last thought because the tornado was an inch from his face. It sucked him up then disappeared and the oldest brother is in every tornado, and tornadoes only happen when the youngest gets mad.

 

After: The youngest brother took seeds out of the apple and planted them, and that's what he sold, ate for snacks, and fed the animals.

 

The End.