Need writing basics for 15 yo

[momtobpkid]

We attempted to do Write Shop, and he is not ready. He has been doing a ton of healing, as he was so ill for 10 years, and missed so much learning. I thought he was ready for WS, and no, he is not. It was a major battle to get done what we got done from lesson 1. He has a hard time writing sentences that are complete, punctuated correctly, and are interesting. WS focuses more on expanding current writing skills that my son does not have. Like describe an object without "it feels" "it looks". I am hoping that he will be ready for it someday soon so I do not waste that money. We did Easy Grammar Plus for grammar without anything sticking. We also do not have a ton of money to spend.

 

Any ideas of something engaging, that will make this information stick? Something not geared towards lower elementary? Something that does not require a ton out of me, since he HATES me having to teach him?

[MomatHWTK]

Try this:

http://catalog.flatworldknowledge.com/catalog/editions/242

 

And perhaps the worksheets from here:

http://macmillanmh.com/languagearts/2001/teacher/teachres/pdf/Reteach6.pdf

 

Don't forget to check Khan Academy and YouTube as well.

[mktkcb]

I would look at Don Kilgallon's books that work on sentence composing to help with the interesting part. They have 3 different levels, so you could choose where to put him. They are excellent.

 

http://userpages.umbc.edu/~killgall/

http://www.amazon.com/Sentence-Composing-Middle-School-Worktext/dp/0867094192

 

To work on straight editing, you might get an appropriate level of Editor in Chief computer version. Again, you could choose the level that is best, and doing it on the computer might be fun. I think the books are about $15, the computer cds are $26. The Kilgallon is about $20 a workbook.