amo_mea_filiis. Posted October 3, 2011 Share Posted October 3, 2011 Dd has to write a paragraph comparing the invention of the printing press with the internet and their impact on communication. A paragraph, 4-5 sentences, not a page long or pages long, just one simple paragraph. She can't do it. :glare: She's been in regular PS for 5 years. Doing what?!?! I'm over it now. I will go help her write this paragraph. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Parrothead Posted October 3, 2011 Share Posted October 3, 2011 It is still extremely difficult for my dd to write a simple paragraph without lots of help and prompts. We've been working through CW for 3 years now. At some point I expect the light bulb to flicker then shine, but now we just muddle through as best we can. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Xanadu Posted October 3, 2011 Share Posted October 3, 2011 I took my dyslexic son out of PS at the start of 5th grade. He couldn't write a sentence. He seriously couldn't get one complete sentence written down without help.......and what he could write was illegible. (TBH this was why we finally decided to bring him home and lose the IEP he had since pre-K) Over the past year he's worked very hard and found some success with graphic paragraph planning (think 5 boxes, Topic in middle with 1 detailing sentence around it in each of the other boxes) and he is now up to 3-4 grammatically incorrect sentences that kinda make sense and need heavy revision for "flow". I too am waiting for the lightbulb to go off.....untill then we do alot of narration and copywork...and work on typing lessons on the computer which is easier for him than handwriting (dysgraphia). It is still a battle and that 1 paragraph can take several hours to complete without help. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
regentrude Posted October 3, 2011 Share Posted October 3, 2011 What do you mean by "can't"? Truly "can't", or "won't"? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
amo_mea_filiis. Posted October 3, 2011 Author Share Posted October 3, 2011 I would say that this is a can't. She has no idea what the first sentence should be, how to take her notes and make new sentences, or anything else that may help with this assignment. I'm looking forward to helping her get where she should be, but very upset that I left her in school all these years knowing something wasn't going right. I'm also a little scared that she's already in 5th grade! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sheryl Posted October 3, 2011 Share Posted October 3, 2011 It sounds like you may have to help a bit. Can you physically write out an outline as long as she supplies you with the info? Many kids just don't like the task of writing. I'd ask her to brain storm first. Jointly make the outline...very general as it's only 1 paragraph long. Guide her. Encourage her. Is she decent with parts of speech? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aubrey Posted October 3, 2011 Share Posted October 3, 2011 I would say that this is a can't. She has no idea what the first sentence should be, how to take her notes and make new sentences, or anything else that may help with this assignment. I'm looking forward to helping her get where she should be, but very upset that I left her in school all these years knowing something wasn't going right. I'm also a little scared that she's already in 5th grade! I don't think this sounds abnormal for that age. Granted, my experience is w/ ps kids & primarily w/ ESL/low-achieving kids high school to college, but still...I seem to remember being taught paragraph-writing from 3rd to 5th g in ps. This was MY easy subject, so I got it early on, but I think it was normal for kids to "get it" from about 5th to 7th, to varying degrees. I think a lot of the "I can't" & not knowing what to put for the first para is fear, not true incapacity. My ds (5th, always hs'd) will say the same things. Sometimes he does it, sometimes not. Sometimes he produces...um...subpar material, other times he amazes me. I'd teach her the skill but not worry about where she is. :grouphug: She might be just fine, but even if she's not, her skills/growth could be hampered if she "reads" your opinion of where she is, kwim? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
twoforjoy Posted October 3, 2011 Share Posted October 3, 2011 I would say that this is a can't. She has no idea what the first sentence should be, how to take her notes and make new sentences, or anything else that may help with this assignment. What part of the process seems to get her stuck? Is it coming up with ideas, or putting those ideas words, or getting those words out in a way that she's happy with? If you could pinpoint that, it might help. I cannot watch my husband write. It is painful. It can take him an hour to write a single paragraph. For him, he is okay with coming up with ideas, he's okay with putting the ideas into words, but he just cannot figure out how to put those words down on the page in a way that pleases him. He will agonize over every single sentence, in a first draft. I just leave the room. When I get stuck writing, it's usually at the point of putting my ideas into words. I have a vague idea of what I want to say, but it's so unformed that I can really articulate it at all. Once I have a more solid idea and some sense of how to say it, though, I can knock out pages really, really quickly. Honestly, too, I think that topic stinks. Well, it's not a terrible topic, but that's a ton to cover in one paragraph. Books have been written about the impact the printing press has had on communication, and other books on the impact the internet has had on communication. Asking students to compare the two and describe their impact on communication in a single paragraph is, IMO, a bad assignment. It's just far, far too much for one paragraph. I'd get stuck, too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Twilight Woods Posted October 3, 2011 Share Posted October 3, 2011 for my DD if it's "creative writing" she can write a book no problems.......if it's a paragraph/report on a specific topic with research....I have to help at this point. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Haiku Posted October 3, 2011 Share Posted October 3, 2011 Dd has to write a paragraph comparing the invention of the printing press with the internet and their impact on communication. A paragraph, 4-5 sentences, not a page long or pages long, just one simple paragraph. I don't think I could do that. That's way too much information to condense into one paragraph of 4-5 sentences. I think it's a bad assignment. Tara Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cosmos Posted October 3, 2011 Share Posted October 3, 2011 I don't think I could do that. That's way too much information to condense into one paragraph of 4-5 sentences. I think it's a bad assignment. Tara I agree, unless the assignment was a simple summary of another article on the same subject. If, however, she's expected to sift through numerous resources, as well as draw on her own personal experience, to formulate a thesis and illustrate it with details, well, that's way more than my ds could have done in 5th grade. That's not just "writing a paragraph". It's a whole boatload of skills crammed into one deceptively simple-looking assignment. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
amo_mea_filiis. Posted October 3, 2011 Author Share Posted October 3, 2011 You're all right that it's a bad assignment. The teacher apparently mis-wrote. It should be about 3 paragraphs. Now with proper instructions in hand, I will help her. She has a lot of problems creating original thoughts. You can see that the words are in her head, but she can't really get them out without scripting. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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