Do you do the writing station in AAS? Is it appropriate?

[Ellyndria]

I'm trying to figure out if doing the writing station in AAS is appropriate if you generally subscribe to WWE style of writing (meaning, only doing narration, copywork, and dictation at these ages, not original writing).

 

For those who don't know, there is a section called Writing Station that appears after the Dictation Sentences starting about halfway through AAS3 (Step 14). The writing station has five related words, and you're supposed to make up sentences using those words. It does not specify a specific number of sentences, so they could put them into two or three sentences, or even just one sentence if they wanted. We're on Step 12 now, so I need to deal with this soon.

 

It seems that this would fall under creative writing, and might be too frustrating for a 7.5 year old, second grade boy who is just over halfway through WWE2? Then again, I think that they're already given the words, and they just need to make a sentence around them, maybe it wouldn't be so hard. I thought that perhaps he could narrate the sentences to me, and I could dictate them back to him while he writes them down? Hopefully this wouldn't defeat the purpose of the writing station.

 

 

 

Some more background is needed:

 

He is not exactly a reluctant writer, but more like Vehemently-Opposed-to-Putting-a-Pencil-to-Paper - Ever! When I asked why, he only says that it takes too long. (He, of course, would rather be playing or playing video games.) For what it's worth, he does not have trouble with forming print letters (he is working through HWT cursive this year, so I am still letting him print for dictation, etc), so the "taking too long" bit really isn't related to the mechanics of forming letters, and he has not complained of his hand hurting in well over a year either.

 

We started school again last week, and on Day 2, he had a Major Writing Freakout. Note, I was not asking him to write anything at the time, I was just getting out some lined paper to write his history narration down, when he said he wanted me to use blank paper. I mentioned to him that he would need lined paper when he started to write part of his narration, and this is when the Major Writing Freakout happened. (He hates writing, it takes too long, and what jobs are there that don't need writing because he's not going to get a job where he needs to write, in fact he is never going to get a job at all, and is going to live at home forever!) I said that he wasn't going to have to write his narration for a while yet, but when he did it would probably only be the first sentence and I would write the rest for him. This information did not quell the Major Writing Freakout.

 

I eventually calmed him down, but you see my hesitation in making him do the writing station, even though I think it would be beneficial in some ways.

 

He does do rather well with dictation, however, and doesn't have much trouble remembering the dictation (he does dictation in AAS and WWE), which is why I thought maybe we could do the writing station narration/dictation style.

 

I just hate to skip part of the program, especially as I don't know if that part is going to evolve over the course of the levels (such as when the dictation phrases evolved into dictation sentences). He, of course, hated when he had to do dictation sentences instead of just phrases, but I do think it has been very beneficial, not only for spelling, but also for stamina, as well as making the dictation in WWE fairly easy for him, since by then he had already been doing it in AAS for a while.

 

I think part of the problem is that he expects everything to be easy and not take very long, so actually having everything be easy and not taking very long sort of backfires for him. He needs to be stretched, even if he hates it, because he will not stretch himself. I must also add, that he picks up on things fairly easily, so it's not so much a matter of competence. He just hates having to use his brain (he has said this) and hates having school time interfere with his playing.

 

He does have to learn to deal with writing sometime though, right? So I am left wondering whether the writing station is appropriate right now regardless of his dislikes.

 

Edit: I wanted to add one more thing. Earlier this year, when doing his history narrations, he started trying to make up details that were *not* in the original passages, to make his narrations funny. This makes me think that maybe he would not mind the writing station so much, if I let him make up goofy sentences, which I would.

Edited August 30, 2012 by Ellyndria

[edeemarie]

My son is not fond of writing at all either. I would give him the writing station words and challenge him to write the fewest number of sentences he could using all of the words. Typically he came up with 2 sentences that would include all the words, and sometimes they were very interesting sentences!

 

I don't see it so much as creative writing, but just making sure they understand the meaning and usage of the words.

[4ofus]

I call out the words one at a time & he says & writes the base, then says & adds the suffix. Then he writes a sentence using that word. We do this 5 times. I don't consider it at odds with his writing program (WWE) at all. He doesn't compose a story. He composes a sentence. I think it's useful & it's a part of the lesson that makes him go 'yay'. I tolerate all sorts of silly, funny, gross, boy-style sentences. :) If he's supposed to compose a little story, I've been doing it wrong. :001_huh:

[Tess in the Burbs]

we did it. at first my son didn't like it but eventually we made it fun. the goal was to be as funny as possible. I too tried to make sentences. And honestly, some of the word groups are so specific that it's hard not to figure out a few extra words to combine them. No regrets doing it. If I felt the group was random words I might only pick 2 or 3 instead of all the words to make it easier.

[thegirlwhopaintedtrees]

My DD loves creative writing, so she always ends up writing a story. She also does WWE. WWE doesn't discourage kids who love creative writing to do so, she only says not to force them to do it. Consequently, I let my DD write stories with the Writing Station. It's her favorite part of AAS. However, I love the challenge to use the words in as few sentences as possible and definitely want to pose that challenge to DD:)

[HappyCrazyMama]

I skipped it.

[sleeplessnights]

We use the writing station, and my son really doesn't like to write. Once a week I give him three of the words (usually the three toughest to spell). Then he has to write three sentences, one word per sentence. He scoffed the first time he had to do this, but he has had no problems after that. I'm actually surprised at the sentences he comes up with.

[Kathryn]

My son is not fond of writing at all either. I would give him the writing station words and challenge him to write the fewest number of sentences he could using all of the words. Typically he came up with 2 sentences that would include all the words, and sometimes they were very interesting sentences!

 

I don't see it so much as creative writing, but just making sure they understand the meaning and usage of the words.

 

This is how I plan to do it.

[Ellyndria]

Thanks for the feedback and for reading my long post containing all the thoughts that have been swirling around in my head about this issue.

 

It would be easier if he did like creative writing, then I wouldn't worry, but since he doesn't like writing at all, I might feel like I am forcing him to be creative. (I do think he might like making up silly sentences, though. Maybe.) Although I do like the suggestion that it's not really creative writing, but I'm still not sure.

 

Basically, if the writing station is appropriate, then I want permission to go ahead and make him do it. And if it's not appropriate, then I want someone to tell me that, and give me permission not to do it.

 

*sigh* :tongue_smilie:

[warneral]

I don't think it matters :). You have to pick your battles :)

 

I skipped it

[bpskowski]

What about writing the sentences on the white board and not paper. My ds does that and draws funny little pictures to go with his silly sentences. He hates putting pencil to paper.

[Goldilocks]

I believe that the point of Writing Station is to get them writing so that you can see if they are correctly spelling words that they should know--not just the 5 words that are given, but the other words included in the sentence(s). I found that beneficial when my son was using that level of AAS, but he has a lot of trouble with spelling and was much older than your son (maybe 10 at the time). We have stopped doing writing station because he began stringing the words together with the same very simple words every time (I, and, while my brother...). He thought it was hilarious, but it was wasn't accomplishing the goal.

[boscopup]

I skipped it with my 6-7 year old. He was not ready at the time for anything even resembling creative writing. He would even freak out at finishing the sentence, "The teacher said..." He was terrified that he would spell something wrong, and it just paralyzed him. :tongue_smilie:

 

Now that he's 8, writing is starting to come together. We're happily using IEW (ok, he's still not *happy* at writing time, but he tolerates it :D). He gets a little less scared at writing some original words. He could probably handle the writing station now.