Is Writing Tales 1 too much for an average 3rd grade boy?

[HappyGrace]

He hasn't done much writing except copywork and some one paragraph "stories."

 

I'm looking for a writing program for him and WT looks perfect except the stories look LONG for rewriting! The physical act of writing isn't hard for him but I don't want him to get frustrated; just want a good experience with writing this year.

 

And is it hard for them to do such long rewrites w/out a Key Word Outline? (older dd did IEW)

[ejadragna]

try letting him write some and do some in Word on the computer...

[HappyGrace]

He is just beginning to learn how to type right now so it may be awhile before he can type that much! :)

[RootAnn]

My boys aren't that old yet, so I don't know. I waited until 4th for my writing-phobic eldest. My loves-to-write-for-fun #2 child could probably do it this upcoming year for 3rd.

 

It starts out very gently. When it ramps up, you can

1) break up the first draft into several days work (do the normal assignment & then spend 10-15 minutes writing each day until it is done)

2) have him dictate the story to you the first few times (or say it into a tape recorder & then rewrite it from his own dictation)

3) have him write the first few sentences himself and then you can write the rest via his dictation, ramping up how much he writes himself each time.

 

I did #1 & #2 with some of the longer pieces in the middle. Number 3 is recommended in the lesson plan book.

 

We're going to do WT2 this fall and it starts out short again but ramps up to some longer stories. I assume we'll have to resort to #1 or #2 for the first one or two really long stories until she gets back into the hang of it. (I let her type the final copy of the last 4 or 5 stories into the computer. It was good typing practice and her stories were just a bit longer than they would have otherwise been if I would have made her recopy them yet another time. She had never typed before this, BTW.)

 

Good luck!

[TracyR]

No , I don't think it would be too difficult. Not at all. You can break up the work , which your supposed to do anyways. You can stretch the writing and revision as long as you need to.

My two oldest had a tough time with writing. The lessons in the book start off easy and it works its way up to more difficult writing.

They had no problems writing the stories for Writing Tales. They actually enjoyed it.

[scrapbabe]

I'm using Imitations in Writing with my 5th grader who hates to write. The passages are much shorter than Writing Tales. But I would say a couple of things. 1. Break it up into days. IIW has the student define vocabulary and a few other things before writing. We do these one day and write another. 2. Help him with the writing if necessary. My son and I go through the KWO together and I write it on the whiteboard. Then he tells me the story back using the KWO (sometimes on a different day) and I write it on the whiteboard too. Then he copies what I wrote. If the passage is long he breaks this up into days as well.

[Penelope]

WT1 TM says that you can make adaptations for the reluctant writer, such as writing down his sentences for him and then having him copy, or dictating them back to him, which BTW is just what you would do with WWE.

 

The models are fairly short and I think the first level is right on for 3rd grade. If you have been using FLL, as we did, or other WTM recommended resources for grammar, you may find most of the program, the parts that don't involve retelling/rewriting, too simple. That was the case here.

[sewpeaceful]

WT1 TM says that you can make adaptations for the reluctant writer, such as writing down his sentences for him and then having him copy, or dictating them back to him, which BTW is just what you would do with WWE.

 

The models are fairly short and I think the first level is right on for 3rd grade. If you have been using FLL, as we did, or other WTM recommended resources for grammar, you may find most of the program, the parts that don't involve retelling/rewriting, too simple. That was the case here.

:iagree:

 

We did WT1 with an average 3rd grade girl. She did fine with the work. I say go for it.

[HappyGrace]

Thanks for the advice! I am going to keep thinking about it. I think he would probably enjoy it, and breaking down the lessons would be easy.

[Jennefer@SSA]

When I asked Amy (the author) about this she strongly suggested waiting until 4th for the majority of boys before beginning WT. She taught this material in co-op for many years and said (and there were certainly exceptions I remember her sharing) that the overwhelming majority of boys do better with that one extra year under their belt. She said it was just uncanny how something tends to unlock in that 4th grade year that allows them to go places with their writing they could not have otherwise gone.

 

This, of course, is my paraphrase of what I remember Amy sharing in a personal email to me when I inquired directly about this subject with her. My apologies to Amy if I mis-represented her views in any way. :tongue_smilie:

 

Fwiw, I decided to follow her advice and wait until 4th grade and was delighted with that choice. Ds10 has had a wonderful year with WT1 and really enjoys it. My advice if you do decide to wait would be to ramp up his writing this year so that when he gets to WT next year he won't be so intimidated by writing a whole page (or two) at a time. Longer dictations, copy work and/or stringing together several of those shorter paragraphs you mentioned would go a long way towards preparing him to be ready for a strong start with WT1.