WWYD with this child and her writing??

[AvasMom]

My up and coming 8th grader is going to find herself locked in a room with a pencil and paper one day VERY soon. In my quest to get her brother up to grade level in reading, I neglected her writing last year and she has gotten ridiculously lazy. We're talking zero punctuation whatsoever. Gross spelling errors. No spaces between words at times!!!!!!! I mean come ON! :glare: The child, bless her heart, tends to be lazy about schoolwork but this is going to give me a stroke soon. How do I nip these atrocious habits before next school year (and her essay writing co-op class!!!) starts??? I'm having her do Writing Strands but now I'm thinking I need to borrow ds's WWE3 that I have for next year and make girlfriend do some good old dictation until she is in her right mind again. I'm open to suggestions of what else I can do. Anyone used "Fix It" by IEW or Daily Paragraph Editing? I was thinking that would also help bring her attention to these details again.

[wapiti]

In addition to all your excellent ideas, I might consider having her type at least some of the time, or maybe even most of the time, especially anything on the longer side. How's her handwriting? I'd want to keep it up to speed for the longer term, but I'd also allow typing (without the spell checker, etc.). The errors might be even more clear.

 

Any work lacking in the most basic punctuation, spaces, etc. needs to be re-done to your satisfaction ;). (easy for me to say - I'm not the one who has to do the enforcement, and I can't even get them to clean up the family room :lol:, but you're right, come on, she's an eighth grader). Unless she's misunderstanding something, or having a vision issue, then perhaps it is a work ethic issue. If for some reason the cause is unclear, perhaps being harder on her will result in the cause becoming clearer.

 

If it's not done right, I'd give it back with the errors noted in red, to be fixed, and re-written by hand, if that might be an incentive to improve quicker, though it might be interesting to try the typing (certainly easier for her to go back and correct - hmm... maybe save the typing for longer stuff). I'd try to conquer this this obstacle all by itself before tackling other issues. Dictation and editing sound like a fine plan.

 

that's my two cents - good luck :)

[AvasMom]

Great ideas! Thanks! Yeah, its definitely a work ethic issue which is what makes it so maddening.

[Carol in Cal.]

Editor in Chief.

Copywork.

Try to find a solution that motivates her without making your life miserable. That probably means no dictation, I'm thinking, unless you have an asbestos suit.

[AvasMom]

Not a fan of dictation I take it? lol! Ds does it, hates it, but learns soooo much from doing it that it's worth duct taping him to a chair and putting up with death rays shooting out his eyes. lol! I haven't done it with the girl because she was in PS for 4th, 5th, and 6th grade. (and was SO much better at writing before those years...*sigh*)

[Luckymama]

I just noticed your summer signature line---love it :lol:

[AvasMom]

I just noticed your summer signature line---love it :lol:

 

Someone finally noticed it! Yay!!! :D:tongue_smilie:

[Stacie Leigh]

Have her do something that someone other than mom will see! Make her join a writing group or take a class away from home where the embarrassment factor will kick in, lol! An opportunity like that could help her develop a little interest in a job well done. Just make sure, if you go that way, that it's well within her skill set so she can really rise to the occasion and gain some confidence and momentum and not want to throw in the towel right away, kwim? :)