Is 150 words supposed to be painful at this stage?

[Wee Pip]

We're working through WWS this year. I think what SWB has written and is setting out to accomplish here is brilliant. My child might think otherwise. The young 7th grader hit the writing assignment that tasked her with writing between 150-300 words using the list of items from Alexander the Great's life. It. was. painful. 45 mins of writing, counting, begging to stop, more writing, more counting, more begging... We finally landed on 131 words, and we'd reached a crescendo of crying, so I said to finish it tomorrow. She started with a topic that was too narrow, and got 98 words. So I insisted she broaden her topic. So she is essentially writing this assignment somewhat backwards - she wrote her narrow topic, but is gradually adding more topic in to get more words. Also, her use of time words was very repetitious (then, then, then...). Not sure whether to even address this when our first problem seems bigger. When asked, she says she has no problem coming up with words to write; the problem is that the physical act of writing those words is a tough task. I'm making her handwrite these things, because I know that physical writing is tough for her and I'm trying to make it easier for her through practice. I'm hoping that this is just the shock of the first assignment, but that she'll gradually settle in and handle 150 words without a problem. Anyone else have this problem? Have you successfully resolved it, or any suggestions?

[Hedgehogs4]

I would have her type it directly--there are word-count features on word processing programs that count for you. Also, I would consider it more of an estimate. Figure out approximately how many pages 150 words is and think of it in terms of needing to fill this much space on a page, double-spaced. I think it would be less intimidating that way.

 

SWB is extremely precise in her language and directions, which I love, but for a kid who is a perfectionist, this can be paralyzing, focusing more on the explicitness of the task to be done rather than the quality of the end product.

[Serenade]

I have a 7th grade boy, and writing is about his least favorite activity, too. We are only beginning with WWS, but we've had, um, a few issues so far, too. My main focus with him right now is getting words on paper that more or less follow what the assignment says to do. I'm not shooting for perfection, by any means, and if 131 words mostly did the job, I would let it go.

 

My son had an assignment earlier in the week that really wasn't up to snuff. Instead of having him write it again (which is what I wanted to do), I went over what he did wrong, pointing out some of SWB's notes. I was pleasantly surprised when the next assignment was so much better. Sometimes I think we just have to let things go, so that we don't turn writing into the most dreaded assignment ever because mom is so picky!

 

As far as the handwriting goes, handwriting was laborious for my son for many years. It just started getting easier for him last year. When handwriting became easier, I noticed his writing assignments improved markedly, too.

[Wee Pip]

Typing would be much easier for her (she doesn't type well, either, but prefers it to writing). However, I wonder how to make the physical act of writing easier for her. I was hoping to overcome the physical writing issue by writing :lol: She does very little handwriting in other subjects (a sentence here, a few sentences there) so I wonder how to come up with the perfect blend of handwriting and writing. I don't want to turn it into handwriting practice (i.e, I'm not going for neatness at all!) I just want her to be able to physically write. I know copywork is an option, but that has never gone well when we do it (I think writing from her brain is easier than copying someone else's writing).

 

I sometimes think that her physical writing issue stems from years of writing assignments on the computer, and from not having to physically write 150 words on a sheet of paper, kwim? So I'm torn on this.

[Cosmos]

We're working through WWS this year. I think what SWB has written and is setting out to accomplish here is brilliant. My child might think otherwise. The young 7th grader hit the writing assignment that tasked her with writing between 150-300 words using the list of items from Alexander the Great's life. It. was. painful. 45 mins of writing, counting, begging to stop, more writing, more counting, more begging... We finally landed on 131 words, and we'd reached a crescendo of crying, so I said to finish it tomorrow. She started with a topic that was too narrow, and got 98 words. So I insisted she broaden her topic. So she is essentially writing this assignment somewhat backwards - she wrote her narrow topic, but is gradually adding more topic in to get more words. Also, her use of time words was very repetitious (then, then, then...). Not sure whether to even address this when our first problem seems bigger. When asked, she says she has no problem coming up with words to write; the problem is that the physical act of writing those words is a tough task. I'm making her handwrite these things, because I know that physical writing is tough for her and I'm trying to make it easier for her through practice. I'm hoping that this is just the shock of the first assignment, but that she'll gradually settle in and handle 150 words without a problem. Anyone else have this problem? Have you successfully resolved it, or any suggestions?

 

First of all, did she follow the instructions on selecting a topic? If she follows the directions and includes the right number of main events, in my experience the word counts come out right on target. I don't let my ds start writing until I have approved his planning of the paper. It would be so demoralizing to him to have to do it over or to add more when he thought he was done.

 

Secondly, I find my slow writing son needs to break those assignments into two days at least. For the Alexander assignment, he spent one day just planning his paper (selecting main events and details). Then he probably spent two days writing the paper. If it's a four-paragraph paper, I'd ask him to write two paragraphs each day, for example. (He got faster as the year went on.)

 

I would NOT address her use of time words right now. The rubric says to use time words, and she did. That's all you need to worry about for now.

 

It does get easier. My ds struggled a lot at the beginning, but it got SO much easier. By the end of the year he was writing 400 word papers fairly easily. He can do 200 words in a session fairly easily now. In fact, he started writing a novel this summer, completely of his own accord!

 

I suggest taking your time with the program. If you need to stretch out assignments over a few days, do it. We didn't get through the whole program last year, and we'll be picking it up again right where we left off.

[Lori in MS]

First of all, did she follow the instructions on selecting a topic? If she follows the directions and includes the right number of main events, in my experience the word counts come out right on target. I don't let my ds start writing until I have approved his planning of the paper. It would be so demoralizing to him to have to do it over or to add more when he thought he was done.

 

Secondly, I find my slow writing son needs to break those assignments into two days at least. For the Alexander assignment, he spent one day just planning his paper (selecting main events and details). Then he probably spent two days writing the paper. If it's a four-paragraph paper, I'd ask him to write two paragraphs each day, for example. (He got faster as the year went on.)

 

I would NOT address her use of time words right now. The rubric says to use time words, and she did. That's all you need to worry about for now.

 

It does get easier. My ds struggled a lot at the beginning, but it got SO much easier. By the end of the year he was writing 400 word papers fairly easily. He can do 200 words in a session fairly easily now. In fact, he started writing a novel this summer, completely of his own accord!

 

I suggest taking your time with the program. If you need to stretch out assignments over a few days, do it. We didn't get through the whole program last year, and we'll be picking it up again right where we left off.

 

:iagree:

 

My son is dyslexic and I allow him to take as long as he needs on the writing assignments.

[Wee Pip]

First of all, did she follow the instructions on selecting a topic? If she follows the directions and includes the right number of main events, in my experience the word counts come out right on target. I don't let my ds start writing until I have approved his planning of the paper. It would be so demoralizing to him to have to do it over or to add more when he thought he was done.

 

Secondly, I find my slow writing son needs to break those assignments into two days at least. For the Alexander assignment, he spent one day just planning his paper (selecting main events and details). Then he probably spent two days writing the paper. If it's a four-paragraph paper, I'd ask him to write two paragraphs each day, for example. (He got faster as the year went on.)

 

I would NOT address her use of time words right now. The rubric says to use time words, and she did. That's all you need to worry about for now.

 

It does get easier. My ds struggled a lot at the beginning, but it got SO much easier. By the end of the year he was writing 400 word papers fairly easily. He can do 200 words in a session fairly easily now. In fact, he started writing a novel this summer, completely of his own accord!

 

I suggest taking your time with the program. If you need to stretch out assignments over a few days, do it. We didn't get through the whole program last year, and we'll be picking it up again right where we left off.

 

Thanks - this is very encouraging and helpful. I tend to be very relaxed, easy going in our homeschool, so not sure when to be hardnosed. Her pick of topic beforehand was not appropriate (she picked the bit about riding the horse) and I knew ahead of time that it would not be enough to fill 150 words. I warned her of this, but she went ahead anyway. So I think the lesson was "how to choose a topic that will give you enough words". Or, I hope she learned that lesson! LOL. Thanks for the reminder to take as much time as we need - nothing says we have to finish 36 weeks in exactly 36 weeks. We could take 1.5 years to finish this and still have a good writing education.

[Mom22ns]

I know you want her to work on handwriting, but gently, WWS is not the way to do it. Let her type her drafts. If you want her to practice handwriting, have her hand write her final draft for you. The tasks of planning and deciding what to write are quite separate from handwriting. Overlapping them with a child who struggles with either part, just turns the whole thing into torture.

 

I'm glad to hear WWS got easier for some. For dd the assignment you are describing was easy. The later parts of the program were much harder.

[Karen in CO]

If she's still having trouble physically writing a page or two at time and has no physical limitations, I'd recommend increasing the writing requirements in every subject. That is the one thing both of my older children have suggested as changes for my youngest (and I incorporated it). They said it was way to easy to get me to back off on the amount of writing by complaining. They both agreed that they actually needed more and not less writing.

[redsquirrel]

Thanks - this is very encouraging and helpful. I tend to be very relaxed, easy going in our homeschool, so not sure when to be hardnosed. Her pick of topic beforehand was not appropriate (she picked the bit about riding the horse) and I knew ahead of time that it would not be enough to fill 150 words. I warned her of this, but she went ahead anyway. So I think the lesson was "how to choose a topic that will give you enough words". Or, I hope she learned that lesson! LOL. Thanks for the reminder to take as much time as we need - nothing says we have to finish 36 weeks in exactly 36 weeks. We could take 1.5 years to finish this and still have a good writing education.

 

We finished WWS1 last year. Oy, the drama! There are MANY things to be learned from WWS. Following directions, picking appropriate topics, making a strong, specific outline before starting to write.... so many things to learn!

 

I think the word count is important. It is something many students will be working under for the rest of their academic career. It forces them to do the right sort of prep work before they begin writing. One of the things my son has learned is that if the writing is that difficult, then he didn't do a great job getting ready to write. I am guessing he will be learning that again in 7th grade.

 

I would not let him start to write the essay until I had read through everything in the teacher's book and assured myself that he had done all the required work and that it was to a high standard. I always went over the rubric with him so that he knew what was being used to judge the work acceptable. We had problems when I got soft about that part. The Marie Antoinette assignment almost killed us. It was my fault. I had accepted a VERY vague outline. I don't know what I was thinking.

 

I have to say that for my son, it hasn't got easier. He can produce more, but it isn't any easier. That said, it isn't harder, lol. Words flow out of him like water if you ask him to tell you a story, but writing is like pulling teeth.

[janainaz]

I agree with the other pp's also, and I would allow her to type it. My son was much more compliant when I told him he could use the computer. He needs to learn anyway, and that is the one part of the process that he seems to enjoy.

 

I let my son choose his topic for his final writing assignment in WWS, and his topic was way too broad. I had to explain several times why he needed to narrow it down, or choose another. It's beneficial for them to learn early on to be very careful in what they choose to write about IMO.

 

Before my ds starts a paper, I also make him read the rubric, so that he knows what needs to be included (or what he needs to pay close attention to). I also ask him to refer to his time and sequence words, and I have him choose 'X' amount, depending on how much he has to write.

 

The last WWS assignment in the book, I gave my ds two weeks to complete. He had to read a few books, and I'd give him a task to complete every day, and it seemed to make the process much easier. In reality, I hope in the future he will start writing assignments early, and learn that he does not need to tackle a big writing assignment all in one or two days.

 

I do not enjoy writing. I do not enjoy TEACHING writing. I'm grateful that my ds is learning valuable writing tools from WWS, but it's still not something either one of us are thrilled to do. I'm not confident in my own writing ability, and there are times that I am probably a bit too hard on my ds. There are other times that I probably miss important opportunities to give him valuable input! But the last thing I want to do is frustrate him. My #1 goal is to give him the tools, and build his confidence in writing.

[janainaz]

I have to say that for my son, it hasn't got easier. He can produce more, but it isn't any easier. That said, it isn't harder, lol. Words flow out of him like water if you ask him to tell you a story, but writing is like pulling teeth.

 

This is true for us as well.

[Chrysalis Academy]

I agree with the pp's: don't conflate handwriting practice with the skill of crafting the essay - SWB says in several lectures how important it is to have them focus on only one hard thing at a time.

 

I also break the assignment down over multiple days. We are (almost) finished with the week 7 Kepler assignment. One day was the outline, one day was the rough draft, and one day for a final draft. I realized I did a relly poor job assessing the rough draft and giving feedback, so I'm actually sending her back to the drawing board to address a couple of issues today in generating a final, final draft. I don't know if I'm being too picky, maybe. Teaching writing is very challenging for me - I get how to *do* it, but trying to articulate the steps for a student is really hard, and having the right language to describe, precisely, what is "wrong" with their paper is very hard. I see that something is wrong, but putting that into words she can understand and address is hard.

 

One thing I really noticed on the Alexander the Great lesson, and has continued to be an issue, is that if she doesn't know much/anything about a topic, it is really hard for her to write an essay about it from the notes in the text. I can look at the list of facts about Alex, but immediately my brain fills in all kinds of details, because I *know* the story of the horse, and the Gordian knot, and the other things included. DD didn't, so it was really hard for her to incorporate those facts into her essay. She tended to skip over the details she didn't understand, which did make it hard for her to choose enough items to have a long enough paper. I've started trying to give her more background on the topics, reading or docos or something, before asking her to write about them, and that seems to help. I'm also planning to adapt some of the items to writing about topics we are studying in history or science - use the step-by-step instructions and the rubric in WWS, but pick a topic that we are studying, and thus she is more familiar with from a variety of sources.

 

Anyway, yes: teaching writing is hard! WWS is a great tool, but it's still a big job. I sympathize. :grouphug:

[5LittleMonkeys]

We just did that assignment earlier this week. First, and I don't know if anyone mentioned this yet, the TM instructs you to make sure that your student chooses 4 or 5 bolded events. I bring this up because dd, following the directions in the student book, only chose 2. She said the instructions didn't say how many she had to choose. I had read ahead in my book so I knew that to get the word count she would have to include more topics. If I had not read the TM she wouldn't have been able to get 150 words.

 

Lesson: Make sure you read ahead in your TM. There is information in it that is not given to the student.

 

I also want to say that my dd freaks out when told she has to write a certain number of words. It is almost debilitating. She doesn't look at it like, "oh, I can write between 150 and 300...great, that's a lot of flexibility there". No, she looks at it like, "150! I have to write at least 150 words! I don't think I can do that...I don't even know 150 words...", and it just spirals downwards from there.:glare: So, I told her that we weren't going to count words. I could gauge from her outline approximately how many words her paper would have and just made sure that we had a good outline before she started writing. Afterwards, she did count the words and was really pleased that she went over 150 without nashing of teeth and pulling of hair.

 

This dd also hates the physical act of writing. I scribed the rough draft for her...which was great because she was able to use me as a sounding board as she manipulated sentences, played with word choice, and asked about spelling...and today she will type up the final copy. She is a much better writer when she doesn't have to do the handwriting.

 

Good luck in finding a good balance for your dd.:D

[5LittleMonkeys]

 

One thing I really noticed on the Alexander the Great lesson, and has continued to be an issue, is that if she doesn't know much/anything about a topic, it is really hard for her to write an essay about it from the notes in the text. I can look at the list of facts about Alex, but immediately my brain fills in all kinds of details, because I *know* the story of the horse, and the Gordian knot, and the other things included. DD didn't, so it was really hard for her to incorporate those facts into her essay. She tended to skip over the details she didn't understand, which did make it hard for her to choose enough items to have a long enough paper. I've started trying to give her more background on the topics, reading or docos or something, before asking her to write about them, and that seems to help. I'm also planning to adapt some of the items to writing about topics we are studying in history or science - use the step-by-step instructions and the rubric in WWS, but pick a topic that we are studying, and thus she is more familiar with from a variety of sources.

 

 

 

:iagree:

 

Which is why SWB's (and Peduwa's, whose TWSS program I love as well) first suggestion is to just write across the curricula. WWS and SWI have been developed for teachers who aren't confident enough to do so. I will be glad when SWB gets the WWS Guide written so we can use it as a spine!

Edited August 24, 2012 by 5LittleMonkeys

[Cosmos]

No, she looks at it like, "150! I have to write at least 150 words! I don't think I can do that...I don't even know 150 words...", and it just spirals downwards from there.:glare:

 

The bolded made me laugh. :lol:

[Wee Pip]

One thing I really noticed on the Alexander the Great lesson, and has continued to be an issue, is that if she doesn't know much/anything about a topic, it is really hard for her to write an essay about it from the notes in the text. I can look at the list of facts about Alex, but immediately my brain fills in all kinds of details, because I *know* the story of the horse, and the Gordian knot, and the other things included. DD didn't, so it was really hard for her to incorporate those facts into her essay. She tended to skip over the details she didn't understand, which did make it hard for her to choose enough items to have a long enough paper. I've started trying to give her more background on the topics, reading or docos or something, before asking her to write about them, and that seems to help. I'm also planning to adapt some of the items to writing about topics we are studying in history or science - use the step-by-step instructions and the rubric in WWS, but pick a topic that we are studying, and thus she is more familiar with from a variety of sources.

 

Great suggestions from everyone! Dd 5th gr had this assignment today (she's a day later than her 7th gr sister this week). This is the problem she ran into. She kept saying "I need to research first! There's not enough there!" I finally got her to write from SWB's list exclusively, but I do like the idea of reading some background info to give them more familiarity with the topic. It was funny teaching the same lesson to two different learners:) 7th gr dd started small and minimalist in her topic, which made her short on words. 5th gr dd had trouble selecting a topic from the list, and didn't seem to understand that she was only selecting a few events (even though I kept saying that, it was like she couldn't hear me). I realize Topic Selection is a huge thing to teach!

[Lori D.]

Both our DSs were writing phobic; the younger one additionally has mild LDs in the writing area; writing was excruciating here.

 

No, 150 words is not an unreasonably amount. But yes, it really *is* that painful:

- the physical act of handwriting

- the mental act of thinking what to write

- and figure out which ideas actually fits/don't fit the assignment

- and how to organize it

- the strain of trying to come up with the shortest words possible to reduce possible spelling errors and/or amount of time to have to hold the pencil

- the strain of trying to make it perfect (spelling, grammar, etc.) the first time so you don't have to revise

 

It's too much, and it all ends it tears. Can you tell I have BTDT a LOT!

 

The key for getting output at our house was multiple SHORT bursts of writing interspersed with other work throughout the day, and to take a longer writing assignment (150-300 words) and spread it out over the week. Yes, even at 7th-8th grade level. MULTIPLE (3 sessions) SHORT bursts (no more than 10 minutes at most) SPREAD OUT (3-5 days). Eventually, once the student gains confidence over the process, in several slow steps, you condense the assignment down to fewer days.

 

 

Also, it was critical to couple the multiple-short-bursts-of-writing-spread-out with the IEW idea of starting with a key word outline. A key word outline will *immediately* help you and DD see whether or not the topic is going to be too broad or too narrow and if she has the proper support for the paragraph(s). Also, a key word outline is just a minimal amount of writing, so if it turns out that the student's idea isn't working, the student isn't freaking out about "how much writing they just did for nothing."

 

 

A writing assignment like the one you described at our house would have looked something like this:

 

DAY 1

 

1. Go over the assignment for understanding/expectations

(a checklist of what you expect can be very helpful for the student)

 

This is the critical time to help the student understand the scope of the assignment so he/she can ration out her energy to match the needs of the assignment. For example: a 150-word assignment is about 10-12 sentences (each about 8-12 words long). That roughly translates to either:

 

- two 5-sentence paragraphs (1 = topic sentence 2 = support detail 3 = support detail 4 = support detail 5 = concluding sentence)

 

- OR, three paragraphs (2-3 sentence intro, 6-8 sentence body, 2-3 sentence conclusion)

 

2. Brainstorm for the writing assignment / Make keyword outline

(you are helping the student learn how to think about what to write, and how to structure the writing -- some students figure this process out quickly; others, you may need to hand-hold here for months/years -- every student's timetable for mental development here is different)

 

This will take more than 10 minutes -- it may take two different shorter sessions during the day -- BUT, the up-side is that it doesn't involve tons of actual writing. Try having the student write on a whiteboard rather than paper. Sometimes it helped if *I* jotted down key words/phrases all over the whiteboard as DSs were brainstorming, and then we'd discuss what fit for the assignment, and then DS and I would together determine what number to write by each key word/phrase to indicate what # of sentence that would be in the final piece of writing. Then DS would write out the keyword outline on paper (or type up on the computer) from the whiteboard.

 

DAY 2-3

In short bursts of writing, student turns a few key word/phrases at a sitting into complete sentences (average of 8-12 words long).

 

DAY 4

Revision. Then Final Copy Do this together. Discuss. I found it was better to have had the students TYPE their sentences from day 2-3 double-spaced, print out, and then we could hand-write in revisions, additions, changes, deletions, etc. Student types in revisions; prints; together go over it for a final edit (increasingly over time you get them to do the proofing); make final corrections; print.

 

 

Here's a sample schedule to start with:

 

DAY 1:

session 1 = together = brainstorm

session 2 = together = key word outline

session 3 = together = structure of paper (i.e., how many paragraphs, and how many sentences in each)

 

DAY 2

session 1 (10 min) = solo = turn first FOUR key word/phrases into complete sentences

session 2 (10 min) = solo = turn middle FOUR key word/phrases into complete sentences

session 3 (10 min) = solo = turn final FOUR key word/phrases into complete sentences

 

DAY 3

session 1 = together = revise, add/subtract

session 2 (10 min) = solo = start typing up paper with revisions

session 3 (10 min) = solo = finish typing up paper with revisions

 

DAY 4

session 1 = together = edit

session 2 = (10 min) = solo = make final editing corrections; print

session 3 = (10 min) together = together = conference about the paper and how the writing process went

 

 

As the student gains more confidence (after a few months of this), slowly condense the writing schedule to fewer but longer writing sessions in the day:

 

DAY 1:

session 1 = together = go over assignment / brainstorm

session 2 = solo = key word outline / structure of paper

 

DAY 2:

session 1 = solo = start turning key word/phrases into complete sentences (on computer)

session 2 = solo = finish turning key word/phrases into complete sentences

 

DAY 3

session 1 = together = revise, add/subtract -- solo = make revisions (on computer)

session 2 = together = final edit -- solo = make final editing corrections; print

 

ON ANOTHER DAY (after you've graded the paper)

together = conference about the paper and how the writing process went

 

 

EVENTUALLY as your individual student is ready:

 

DAY 1:

session 1 = together = go over assignment -- solo = brainstorm / key word outline / structure of paper

session 2 = solo = write

 

DAY 2:

session 1 = together = revise, add/subtract -- solo = make revisions (on computer)

session 2 = together = final edit -- solo = make final editing corrections; print

 

 

Patience and perseverance in this tough area with your student! Wishing you both the very BEST of luck! Warmest regards, Lori D.

[Lori D.]

Struggling with the physical act of handwriting is a very separate skill and processed very differently in the body/brain than what is required to think/write/spell/organize a paper.

 

I suggest that thinking of what to write is NOT the time to practice handwriting -- it will most likely just shut down the creative/thinking process of writing. I'd suggest practicing/strengthing handwriting in other ways that don't require thinking of what to write -- what about copywork, or better yet, learn calligraphy and have her do some beautiful framable works?

 

We had some good success with our DS with mild LDs in writing by doing a daily, 10 minute session of Callirobics. BEST of luck in finding what works for your DD! Warmly, Lori D.

[elegantlion]

We had the same issue. Ds is a only verbose in speech, not on paper. I did not push word counts if he completed other aspects of the assignment. We finished 1/2 of WWS last year. This year I am considering word count, but he's an older student.

 

For the physical act of writing, have you considered drawing instruction? My son's handwriting got better, although it's still not great, when we added drawing instruction. We're also doing Japanese and writing hiragana has made his English writing much better.

[lewelma]

Yes, WWS1's expectation of word count was difficult for my 6th grader. I did what others have said

1) we read up over the weekend on the topic so that SWB's notes made sense

2) I required a detailed outline that I would check over

3) We compacted 2 days so that ds had 2 days to doing the writing

 

We also found that WWS got harder as we moved along, requiring longer essays. Most weeks required 2 full hours of writing if not more.

 

As for handwriting, I would suggest you let her type each week's essays and then for handwriting practice, have her copy them over by hand over the following week. Don't have her do 2 difficult things at once.

 

Ruth in NZ

[Colleen in NS]

When asked, she says she has no problem coming up with words to write; the problem is that the physical act of writing those words is a tough task. I'm making her handwrite these things, because I know that physical writing is tough for her and I'm trying to make it easier for her through practice.

 

Lesson: Make sure you read ahead in your TM. There is information in it that is not given to the student.

 

:iagree: I have found that the student book and the teacher book supply more than enough info. to meet the required assignments.

 

Struggling with the physical act of handwriting is a very separate skill and processed very differently in the body/brain than what is required to think/write/spell/organize a paper.

 

I suggest that thinking of what to write is NOT the time to practice handwriting -- it will most likely just shut down the creative/thinking process of writing.

 

:iagree: Separate WWS (the composition lesson) from whatever you use for handwriting practice.

[Wee Pip]

We had the same issue. Ds is a only verbose in speech, not on paper. I did not push word counts if he completed other aspects of the assignment. We finished 1/2 of WWS last year. This year I am considering word count, but he's an older student.

 

For the physical act of writing, have you considered drawing instruction? My son's handwriting got better, although it's still not great, when we added drawing instruction. We're also doing Japanese and writing hiragana has made his English writing much better.

 

Yes re: drawing instruction - I am loading her up with art and drawing this year (her request). She loves art/drawing but is very sloppy with these, too, which leaves me scratching my head. Anyhow, great idea! I noticed that her physical grip on the pencil improved after some time of crafting (crochet, sewing, making bracelets). She had a big problem with letter reversals, but those are coming around now, too. I'm making her do cursive and she is working on fixing her print in hopes that I will drop cursive :) So its cooperative learning.

 

Lori - thanks for typing up all of that, I know that takes time, so thank you! I will be printing that out to help me plan these assignments better.

 

And thanks to everyone else for chiming in. Ruth, I always find your writing and science threads very thought provoking and follow them with interest!

[TheApprentice]

Ds (7th grader) is going to do this assignment tomorrow.:001_smile: Writing is his least favorite thing, but I tell him that he should be able to put down 150 words in less than 45 minutes. He had to write a biography on Louis IV for History Odyssey 2 and he was concerned about his word count. I told him to write his opening paragraph and the second paragraph and then we'll count the words. He had 146. He wasn't finished. He had a sense of relief that he could accomplish a 150 word paper. He'll be 12 at the end of Sept. so he is a young 7th grader, but I do expect him to write this length of paper without any drama.