Writing curriculum that works well with ADHD kids?

[ElaineJ]

My dd who turns 9 this month is very much a visual-spatial learner (with low verbal comprehension) who has recently been diagnosed with ADHD. We will be doing a mix of 3rd and 4th grade subject levels in the fall, and I am trying to revise my plan for writing instruction to meet more of her learning needs. Any suggestions for writing materials (or just teaching ideas) that work well with ADHD students? Thanks!

Elaine

[Maverick_Mom]

The Writing Skills series worked very well for us. It takes you step by step (baby steps) through the writing process. The lessons are short and often involve more thinking than writing. Some grammar is included as well. It covers all types of expository writing (descriptive, narrative, persuasive, etc.).

[LittleIzumi]

I was looking at Essentials in Writing for my ADD girl. Video lessons are always a plus. I'm going instead with a combo of tweaked English for the Thoughtful Child and BraveWriter ideas for 2nd grade.

[Maverick_Mom]

I was looking at Essentials in Writing for my ADD girl. Video lessons are always a plus. I'm going instead with a combo of tweaked English for the Thoughtful Child and BraveWriter ideas for 2nd grade.

 

I've been looking at BraveWriter, too. We did two years of Writing Skills, and we're ready for something else; we may return to it in a year or so, but for now we need a change.

[Closeacademy]

Writing Strands has been working well with my dd who really struggles. She is afraid to write. She is afraid that she will spell words wrong or that her ideas won't be any good. We've really struggled with this and Writing Strands has been good. :001_smile:

[Momofeat]

For my dd with ADHD, IEW in a group setting did the trick. There was interesting discussion in class, and she was very motivated to complete her assignments. She was older than your dd, though--6th grade, I think. Before that, we had a constant struggle.

[ChrissySC]

It depends if the child is medicated or learning behavioral modification.

 

Yet, anything that is step-by-step, such as Write with the Best and Writing Strands - even Winning with Writing - will prove to be more successful than something that is more abstract and less direction led.

 

Chunking works great. I always put in front of them only what I want to be completed. If the page has instructions for the entire week, do not hand it to them. Hand them only the instruction set and tools needed for the first day of writing.

 

Do not be general. Be specific. Being to abstract leaves time to find something else where focus can be directed. This means that a 15 minute assignment will turn into a 15 hour assignment. LOL

 

ETA: Of course, I did not list every writing resource! I doubt that I could, but I did think of WriteShop too after I hit the button to post. :D

Edited August 3, 2012 by ChrissySC

[Hunter]

Step Up to Writing is the most visual program, and was specifically designed for remedial students.

 

But if you are into homeschooling for the long haul the 2 most important issues are:

 

#1. That you like the curriculum and feel confident about teaching it.

#2. Slow and steady, and go as far back as necessary, to cover the basics. Forget about grade level expectations and start a student below where you think they are, so they can start out confident. And often we are shocked to find that might even still be too high.

 

When it comes to skills, if a student isn't able to handle a volume of work, they are placed too high. Ellie talked in a Saxon thread about slow students needing MORE practice not less.

 

I tutor LD and ESL adult students. I don't teach writing, until I have covered Spalding handwriting intensively, and have taught some basic sentence composition, and have had them do some copywork from McGuffey Eclectic Readers.

 

Then I use Climbing to Good English, which is a very inexpensive open-and-go Amish workbook series. I like the handwritten letter lessons especially, and have the student redo those lessons over and over. With most students I will only be completing levels 2-5, and then after that completing any individual preparation for their specific goals. I am becoming more and more convinced of the need to stay in levels 2-5 as long as necessary, and to repeat the composition exercises over and over and over.

[ElaineJ]

Thanks, everyone! I really appreciate all the good ideas.I'll check into these and I'd love to hear from others, too.

I'm glad to hear that several of you recommend Writing Strands, as I have actually already used that with my oldest son. I didn't think it would be very effective for my daughter, but I guess it does break everything down into small steps, which is good. It isn't very visual, though?

Thanks again,

Elaine

[Hunter]

Thanks, everyone! I really appreciate all the good ideas.I'll check into these and I'd love to hear from others, too.

I'm glad to hear that several of you recommend Writing Strands, as I have actually already used that with my oldest son. I didn't think it would be very effective for my daughter, but I guess it does break everything down into small steps, which is good. It isn't very visual, though?

Thanks again,

Elaine

 

You might not need everything to be visual, even though that is a strength of hers. And sometimes you might only need to study a visual curriculum to learn some basic tricks you can use to tweak and supplement another curriculum that you like better in general that suits your teaching style.

[MerryAtHope]

Take a look at Essentials in Writing. That has worked the best of any we've tried here. I like the short video segments that focus on one skill at a time and have the students practice that skill. For longer papers, he did a great job of breaking it down into individual pieces for the student. Here's my review.

 

Merry :-)

[Seshet]

ET1 had severe ADHD, and Writing has always been her toughest area because of it. When she was in 3rd or 4th grade, we tried Writing Strands. We only used a few levels, but it really helped her ground herself in the writing process and learn to organize her thoughts on paper. She made huge improvements over the few years she used it. After about 3 levels, though, she got really bored with it, and wanted to try something else.

 

ET2 has severe ADHD and mild Dyslexia. We're using Stack the Deck. It is very incremental & covers all the steps in the writing process. We started it when ET2 was in 2nd grade, because that is when we started a formal Writing program for him. It is working really well, and we plan to continue to use it through the high school levels.

[PeterPan]

I would listen to SWB's talk on writing and think through whether you're wanting narrative (ie. you're still at that thought to word, word to paper stage), or whether you're wanting to move on to structured writing. I actually think therapeutically SWB is *right on* with insisting on kids doing *outlining* before they begin structured writing. The Executive Function Training Workbooks from Linguisystems will give you a way to teach this to connect with your adhd dc. I don't see the point of plowing into simplistic, formulaic writing if they don't have a structure of having something to say and the ability to get it out and then (as they get older, not necessarily right now for your dc) an ability to perceive order and logic in thoughts.

 

EF tends to be behind by 30+% on these kids. I think it's ok to stay at that narrative level until you see the click for outlining before you move on to structured writing. I also think it's ok to diverge and do more types of writing than just straight narrations. For instance writing prompts were VERY useful in our house for a while. Around 3rd, 4th, 5th grade, nuts even into 6th or 7th, they can be just golden. They give the dc a chance to work on overcoming the initiation hurdle and getting thoughts to word, word to paper, without having to worry about content. Many of these kids are exceptionally CREATIVE, and too boring and dry an approach (narrate this same subject every day because I said so, blah blah) just really saps the soul. So spice it up. Zaccaro's organization (Hickory Press??) sells some cool stuff for writing perfect for the age you're at. Anything with writing prompts, just to get in a little bit of writing each day and keep it fun. I think it's important to do narrations, but again spice 'em up. Look at the Mrs. Renz book projects and use some of her forms and projects. You get to the same place but a lot more creatively. Tap into their creativity. Even the How to Report on Books reproducible books are good and a bit more creative. I got Listography and keep meaning to do it with dd. She's a bit old now. You could try it with your dc. Praxis and just how they organize info in their brains is usually a bit screwy in these kids. Things as simple as making lists of 20 animals, 20 names for a dog, etc. etc. can be VERY useful and therapeutic. I got some other cool, more creative books that I found a little late for using with dd. I'd have to go look up the titles on those. We did some short story writing. We did creative retellings of fables (Writing Tales, etc.), emphasis on the creative. Recipe writing.

 

I really don't think there needs to be a rush to structured writing. It needs to be done, but I'm just saying you can sweat it now, trying to make something happen they aren't naturally/developmentally ready to do (push, shove, gotta fit), or you can do other stuff that DOES work, let writing be ENJOYABLE, and come back to structured writing LATER, after you've built a foundation. SWB's writing cd's (inexpensive downloads, highly recommend) will show you that foundation.

 

Even what SWB recommends we spice up. For instance, mercy sakes a days we DON'T sit there outlining history encyclopedias, blech and double blech. We outline hilarious articles on bizarre science topics in Muse magazine. Your dc isn't quite there most likely, but maybe in a few years. We had covered outlining quite a bit, but there's something about doing it *in context* that makes things click. I remember this one where we were doing a simple one level outline for the entire thing. We came to the last paragraph in a section (the article was several pages), and I asked her what the point was of that paragraph and how she would sum it up. She goes "I don't know, it's like they retold everything they had been talking about and told why they had been talking about it." To her it was an exasperating oddity, but do you think she FORGOT what a summarizing paragraph is now? :D She GETS it because she saw it in context, like dictation, like the rest.

 

I've chosen to focus on language now. Virtually all the advice I've gotten from more experienced mothers is that structured writing seems to click around 14-16. If you consider that it is dependent on executive function and is developmental and is typically happening with NT kids around ages 12-14 (junior high), this makes a lot of sense. You add several years to account for the EF delays, and boom you're there.

 

So do as you wish. Those are the issues I identified and why we decided to approach it the way we have. I noticed, and this is not speaking of anyone specifically here on the boards, that sometimes when you teach young or unready kids structure before they have the ability to get out thoughts (thought to word, word to paper) and before they have something to say, it just comes out as short choppy sentences and lots of bad writing. So then you go on this rampage trying to improve the "style" of writing of the kids. I determined to do the opposite, nurturing in her the ability to express, which does not seem to be hindered, and letting the structure and organization, which are more dependent on EF and development, come in when they can.

Edited August 4, 2012 by OhElizabeth