What age to start writing skills

[homefree3]

My DS7.5 has been consuming books for the last 3 years and now reads at high school level. I have not held him back. This year we decided to try PS. His new 3rd grade teacher just informed me that he will be in the top 3rd grade reading group and that he will need to work on writing skills. She thinks he might have too many ideas to capture them all at once on paper.

 

I am wondering if I should have been working more on writing skills. He is working in HWT and has good hand writing. He just wants to read and absorb more knowledge. I discuss books with him and have been happy with his progress. Should I start asking him to write summaries of books?

 

I skipped the writing assignments in MCT island. I planned to start writing assignments in MCT town this year. His new 3rd grade teacher was surprised when he started explaining prep. phrases to the class. She told him that they would only cover nouns and verbs this year. I really believed MCT when he said children need to understand what makes a good sentence before they can write one.

 

After all this rambling (sorry) I just want to know if I should have had my ds complete more writing assignments. Do you think my plan to do the writing assignments in MCT town will be enough?

 

Thanks Terri

[Kathy G]

IMO children should understand what makes a good sentence before we expect them to write well.

 

My children all have had trouble getting their thoughts on to paper fast enough. I have one who types instead. I have another who dictates it then goes back and writes it out. Food for thought. It has helped them not to lost their train of thought.

 

I don't know the answer about MCT being enough. We use some MCT but we also do some Wordsmith and other writing assignments outside of MCT.

 

Kathy

[homefree3]

I just quickly took a look at Wordsmith. I am wondering about the suggested grade of 4th-6th. My son turns 8yrs old in December. Do you think it is too early?

 

 

I will try dication this week and see what happens. Thanks for the advice!

 

Terri

Edited September 17, 2012 by homefree3

[psychmom]

IMHO public schools push writing far too early. They also seem to push quantity over quality. If he's reading that well, it's likely he won't have any significant difficulty writing. If he can narrate, he is likely ahead of the curve. In other words, don't sweat it!:001_smile:

[lewelma]

I'm guessing you are looking at asynchrony in action. And in my experience, learning to write when you have so much to say is setting up a very frustrating experience. What I mean is don't expect writing skills to be as easy to develop as his reading skills.

 

In my experience, writing comes easier to kids that learn to read *while* developing writing skills. If you are reading The Cat in the Hat, and you are writing a 5 sentence story about a cat maybe even in a hat, the 2 language arts skills are synergistic. Plus they can spell all the words they want to use, and remember what they want to say because their sentences are so short. Kids often like to write at the level they read -- they are using their books as models for what to expect of themselves. My children have found writing to be extremely frustrating, because they want to write a story of the level of Moby Dick not 5 sentences on their cat. Or they want to write about the electroloysis of water in to Hydrogen and Oxygen rather than how to make a bananna smoothie. Perhaps your ds will be different than mine, but just understand that gifted kids often find writing to be incredibly difficult because they simply cannot write what they want to say. And my kids at least have felt like failures because they think that their writing sounds so babyish. Their expectations are just too high for themselves.

 

Here is an example of my ds(8)'s writing. I finally had to ask him to quit on this piece because he was finding it so frustrating. He could only write 1 or 2 sentences per day because it was excruciating to get his knowledge down on paper. He was having trouble telling where the sentences were because they were complex, he was having trouble organizing his thoughts because the topic was so complicated, he was having trouble spelling the words (even when I told him how), and he was having trouble remembering what he wanted to say because it was long and involved. Overall, just too hard.

 

New Mexico's Carlsbad and Lechuguilla caves are some of the most beautiful and enormous caves in the world. How these caves got so big has for years presented scientists with a mystery. Because carbonic acid is a very weak acid, it could not excavate as large a cave as this. Although water usually excavates the most magnificent caves, there is no entrance or exit for water to flow through this cave network. In addition the geometric crystals of gypsum would have long ago been dissolved by dripping water.

 

Really? Third grade? Crafting these sentences was TOUGH! Analysing their grammar would be impossible for him. But to write more simply just embarrasses him.

 

So, be patient if your ds struggles. And get out some third grade readers to have him use as models for what his writing could look like. Remind him that he will NOT be able to write at the level of his books. Tell him that these authors worked for 10 years to develop the skill. Finally, give him lots of love and all of your patience.

 

Good Luck,

 

Ruth in NZ

Edited September 17, 2012 by lewelma

[homefree3]

Ruth thank you for this eye opener. My son's casual conversation has words that I have trouble spelling. I had not considered the issues you mentioned. I will discuss 3rd grade level books with him as a standard for writing. Any recommendation on a specific book or series?

 

Thanks Terri

[lewelma]

I will discuss 3rd grade level books with him as a standard for writing. Any recommendation on a specific book or series?

 

Does your library have readers? Does his classroom have 3rd grade readers?" If so, ask him to bring home a variety both fiction and non-fiction. Read them together and focus on the positive, not the babyishness of the writing. What makes the writing clear? How long are the sentences? Where are the subjects? What kind of descriptive words or stylistic features does he like? and how can he imitate them? If it is fiction, what is the story arc? Remind him that this is just a starting point and that his writing will develop rapidly if he starts at an appropriate level.

 

Ruth in NZ

[Truscifi]

We use MCT Town and Writing Strands 3 for ds8. He also wants to write at a level similar to what he reads (and how he speaks), but doesn't know how to spell all the words, etc. Having the very simple step by step assignments in WS has helped him realize that it is okay to write at a simpler level for now.

[Kathy G]

I just quickly took a look at Wordsmith. I am wondering about the suggested grade of 4th-6th. My son turns 8yrs old in December. Do you think it is too early?

i

 

 

I think it depends on the child. One of mine was ready at age 8(maybe before). I have another age 7 now- not a chance she will be ready by 8!

[boscopup]

IMHO public schools push writing far too early. They also seem to push quantity over quality. If he's reading that well, it's likely he won't have any significant difficulty writing. If he can narrate, he is likely ahead of the curve. In other words, don't sweat it!:001_smile:

 

:iagree:

 

I didn't go beyond copywork and dictation until this year at age 8. We're doing IEW now, and he's finally ready to write a little bit. My son's biggest roadblock is his perfectionism. He has big words to use in his long sentences (from reading good literature), but he can't spell those big words. They are not 3rd grade level spelling words! He freaks out and won't write if he doesn't know how to spell something. We're getting better, and I act as human dictionary and have him write rough drafts in pen. Today, I had him write an open ended assignment on something he liked on our recent Disney trip. He drew a picture of the Star Tours shuttle, then he wrote 3 sentences about the ride. I'd written down some words like â€Hollywood Studios†on the board for spelling reference. He misspelled â€favorite†in his work, but figured out â€spy†on his own. I'm thrilled that he wrote completely out of thin air! He couldn't do this at all last year.