Writing programs, not fiction oriented

[laundrycrisis]

DS1 (8.5) is dysgraphic - not just handwriting (he can type) but the entire process of creating written language. I am always checking out writing programs to see if I might find one that looks like a great fit to help him do some actual writing (and not just read or talk about doing it). I have noticed that a lot of the programs assign kids tasks of writing fiction. I have a problem with that. I despise writing fiction, and I don't believe it is an essential skill.

 

My father was a newspaper reporter and headline writer. I became an engineer in a capacity that required a lot of business writing, and then later worked as a technical writer. For both of us, there was a lot of professional writing, but no fiction.

 

Whenever I was assigned a fiction writing task in high school, I just skipped the assignment because to me it was pointless and painful. Then I never needed to do it even once in college, or afterward. I will not force our kids through fiction writing exercises. I don't believe they are necessary. If they want to write stories, great ! But if they don't, I would like to stick with learning to write sentences, paragraphs, book reports, subject matter reports, essays and research papers...no fiction required.

 

Is there an elementary writing program that does not lean toward fiction ? I get the impression that the program authors think that getting to make up stories makes it FUN for the kid. Maybe it does, unless you are a kid who hates to have to make anything up. People like me, and I suspect like DS1, only write to convey information, ask questions or share thoughts. I don't want to use a program that is 50-75% fiction exercises that I will just skip. All this story-writing business is annoying. Is there one that keeps the focus on non-fiction writing ?

 

Thanks !

[boscopup]

Writing With Ease

 

Also, listen to SWB's lecture on teaching writing in the elementary years. She doesn't believe kids should be forced into creative writing at that stage.

 

ETA: Just saw you're already using WWE in your sig. Nevermind then! Is that not working for you?

[laundrycrisis]

I am using WWE. He is an 8.5 yo 3rd grader. He is just now starting to get comfortable with writing sentences. He is in WWE1 but is steaming through it. We do one week a day. I have him do one of the copywork assignments with a pencil and the other in a word processor so he gets to practice both handwriting and typing. The narration parts are helping him learn to pay attention when he listens and narrate back to me. But this isn't giving him enough practice in composing his own sentences. I want him to catch up to grade level. I want him to be able to write two paragraphs by the end of this academic year. He knows this and wants to get there. He says he has the paragraphs in his head when he learns about something. I need to help him get words out of his head.

 

I am also using Writing Skills A. I will continue with both the WWE series and the Writing Skills series. They are both good practice. I am looking for something to add that has daily fun exercises or prompts to get writing flowing without worry about it being correct. It's not that I don't think correct is important - but right now, that concern is holding him back.

 

I would like to find something that prompts him to write about something, not to make up a fictional story. Some of the assignments that start a story and ask him to add more are okay, like the Remedia workbooks we are also using, but the ones that ask for fiction and give him nothing to start with are too hard.

 

I think I would like another report-writing workbook. I have one by Remedia already. It has non-fiction reports about a topic for him to read, and then walks him through answering some key questions about the report, putting those answers into complete sentences, and organizing them into a short synopsis of the report. It's practice in finding key information and writing your own paragraph from it. I would like to find a program with more of that sort of work.

[Momling]

I totally understand. It's like asking kids to draw fractals instead of teaching arithmetic skills. It's cool... it's just not going to get your child where you want him to go.

 

It might be a little advanced right now, but you might consider Killgallon's "Sentence Composing for Elementary School". It focuses on improving sentence construction by having kids imitate sentences. It might just relieve your child from needing to 'create' language from scratch.

 

For paragraph level writing, you could try EPS "The Paragraph Book" which is a formulaic approach to paragraph organization. Again, it's very tightly organized and supported...

[K&Rs Mom]

I would like to find something that prompts him to write about something, not to make up a fictional story. Some of the assignments that start a story and ask him to add more are okay, like the Remedia workbooks we are also using, but the ones that ask for fiction and give him nothing to start with are too hard.

 

 

What about journaling prompts, like here? They're mostly opinion-based (though not all), so he wouldn't have to do research on a topic, but it's a little more relevant/concrete than making up a story and having to think of characters. It's not workbook form, but would be easy to just pick one each day and write them all in one notebook. That way he can flip back and see his progress over time.

[bnrmom]

All Things Fun and Fascinating has the kids work through outlining from non fiction selections (as far as I can tell - I haven't read through the whole book yet).

[KathyBC]

All Things Fun and Fascinating has the kids work through outlining from non fiction selections (as far as I can tell - I haven't read through the whole book yet).

 

That's what I was thinking, too.