Writing for a child far behind

[mycalling]

I am hopelessly lost here without some guidance. My DSD came to live with us a year ago and she is now 10 1/2yo. I hs'ed her all last school year and found her handwriting is that her sentence composition makes little sense with most words misspelled.

 

Right now, I have planned a phonics/spelling program (SWR, maybe WRTR), hands-on phonics/spelling activities for her to do on her own, sentence building rods for her to make sentences and I to help her correct them before she copies them to paper, copy work 2x wk, dictation 1x, and basic vocab 1x.

 

Is this enough? I feel like she accomplished nothing last year and I need to go back to basics (phonics, sentence forming, copy work) but she's almost 11. I was thinking about having her do a simple story writing program for the creative aspects, but I know she's currently not capable of articulating her thoughts on paper. How else can I get her there? Does she need an actually writing program at this point? If so, what would work for someone her age with her abilities?

[TracyR]

You could try the Writing With Ease program or Writing Tales. My oldest had a horrible time writing down even her thoughts. It wasn't until we bought Writing Tales 1 has she finally made some real progress in writing. Those two programs I could recommend for a struggling writer.

[periwinkle]

Eps books carries a series that I have used with my reluctant writers...it is very basic, but provides a good solid foundation. It was written with remedial students in mind; however, it is NOT creative writing. If you want to do that, you could have her write and illustrate short stories for fun (maybe use WIN's Seven Sentence Story?)

 

Writing Skills

[summer]

WTM does not recommend doing creative writing until older.

 

I would highly recommend "The Paragraph Book" I did not use it with my older children, but now that I have seen it, I definitely definitely plan to use it with my younger children when they are older.

 

http://www.epsbooks.com/dynamic/catalog/series.asp?seriesonly=2671M

 

I think you will love it too. It is by EPS.

[LanaTron]

WWE can help you pinpoint what the problem is, and tells you how to correct it. I had purchased it to use with my 1st and 3rd graders, but now that I have read it, I am also going to do some remediating of my 7th and 5th graders this year, and with WWE I know exactly which skills to start with.

[Lori D.]

Hi Jessi!

I have a son with learning issues (mild dyslexia, some mild impusivity and distractability issues, and he is a highly visual-spatial learner). He struggles with the logical/abstract concepts of math, with spelling, handwriting, and with the writing process of getting thoughts onto paper -- he can think of good things to say when he dictates to me, but he struggles to get it onto paper by himself; he also has poor handwriting, and just cannot write in cursive, even after several years of practice -- each letter is like having to copy an art figure for him. I say all that just so you'll know that my suggestions come from a specific set of experiences that may or may not match up with yours. : )

 

 

TESTING

I'd really recommend getting DSD tested to make sure you're not dealing with some learning issues. It would be very helpful if you can rule out vision testing, vision tracking testing, visual processing, dyslexia, dysgraphia (a specific problem with writing), etc. Some areas of the country have good free testing through the public school system. Otherwise, you may have to pay quite a lot to have some thorough testing done, but it is really worth it to *know*, as it really helps you know what types of curriculae will best help your child.

 

 

WRITING

 

1. Typing

Consider getting DSD proficient in typing. It is easier for my son to type than to laboriously struggle with pen and paper, and therefore, I get more writing out of him (and less wailing!). Seeing words on the screen helps him see that a word is misspelled when he wouldn't see that at all on paper -- and he can sometimes fix his own spelling (he uses Spell Check).

 

 

2. IEW key word outlining

Ideas from Andrew Pudewa's IEW (Institute for Excellence in Writing) key word outlining technique were helpful to us; specifically:

- making an outline helped our son organize his thinking

- breaking the writing process down over the course of a week makes writing a paragraph very do-able:

Day 1 - begin key-word outline from an already written paragraph (or from own thoughts) (outline for 5 sentences: topic sentence; 3 supporting sentences; concluding sentence)

Day 2 - finish key word outline; begin writing a complete sentence from the 5 key-word sentence outlines

Day 3 - finish writing the sentences

Day 4 - "dress up", revise, add to/edit, proof the paragraph

Day 5 - write out or type up a finished copy of the paragraph

 

 

3. Write a Lot, BUT in Short Bites Scattered Throughout a Day

The more writing you can have the child do, the better -- BUT:

- write in several SHORT bursts throughout the day, 1-3 sentences (eventually working up to more) in a sitting

- intersperse a short burst of writing with one or more non-writing activities

- for longer writing

- do different types of writing throughout a day: do a "free write" or journal entry; work on the next page or step in your writing program; work on a paragraph for a book report, history/science/art/etc. paragraph; together, work on a story or a poster or other writing project of personal interest to the student -- or try one of the writing games in Peggy Kaye's book "Games for Writing" or "Games for Learning"

 

 

4. Daily "Free Writing" or Journal Entry

Start by only requiring 1-2 sentences, each with 3-5 words. Work up to more and longer sentences. Don't correct this at all -- free writing is to practice thinking about what to write, and actually getting it out of your head onto paper. Make sure the child understands this is not graded or corrected so the child can relax. If the child asks how to spell anything (or every word!) tell them, so they can let go of worrying about spelling. Later on, as the child is beginning to make progress in spelling, I still tell the child, but I will either break it down by syllable, saying the syllable and spelling it, or say the sound of each letter and the child says the letter as he writes it.

 

 

Writing Prompts for "Free Writing" or Journal Entries:

- Creative Writing Prompts = http://creativewritingprompts.com/

- Can Teach = http://www.canteach.ca/elementary/prompts.html

- Write Source = http://thewritesource.com/topics.htm

- Writing Sparks writing prompts by Jim Cornish = http://www.cdli.ca/CITE/writing_prompts.htm

 

For variety in "free writing" or journal entries, try doing a list rather than sentences (that seems easier to a struggling writer!); Peggy Kaye has some ideas in her books "Games for Writing" and "Games for Learning"; below are some ideas (you can tell I have boys!):

- list of 8 things a witch would put into her brew

- list of 5 things you would take into outerspace with you

- write the titles of 3 books you would want to have on a desert island

- list of 7 things an ogre might eat for breakfast

- write the titles of your 4 all-time favorite movies

- list of 6 super powers you'd like to have

 

 

5. Wordsmith Apprentice

Once the child is getting a measure of confidence and practice in writing, Wordsmith Apprentice is an extremely gentle and enjoyable writing program, with a fun "cub reporter" theme.

 

 

6. Susan Wise Bauer on Writing

Finally, I have no experience with it, but others on this board really recommend Susan Wise Bauer's audiotape on Writing -- sorry, I can't remember the title of it at the moment. I believe it is available through Susan's company Peace Hill Press.

[Lori D.]

PART 2 of post

 

SPELLING

Sounds like you are doing great things with spelling in focusing on the basics. Our experience with our son has been that lots of one-on-one work with spelling helped, but it also seems that "mental maturity" was an important component, too -- almost as if we just had to wait for the spelling part of his brain to kick in and start maturing before we started to see some real improvements. At age 12, and then again at age 13 and then at 14, it's almost like something "clicked a notch" for him and each year he was able to grasp the spelling better.

 

Also, be aware that spelling, thinking of what to write, and the physical act of writing are all processed in different parts of the brain, and it is a very difficult thing for a child who struggles with one or more of those areas to do all of them simultaneously. Eventually those different areas of the brain will develop, but you may need to be patient and focus on one aspect at a time -- for example, when the child is initially doing some writing, don't worry about the spelling -- correcting spelling can come at a later time (either later in the day, or later in the week) during the revising/proofing step of the writing process.

 

Simple one-on-one techniques help our son. Every day of the week we would take 5 minutes in the morning AND practice using both one of the tactile methods AND the oral method, and then later in the day we would take another 5-10 minutes to work with the words, either on the whiteboard or do a short dictation.

 

1. Tactile Spelling Practice

- Sand/Cornmeal -- child spells the word correctly by saying each letter aloud while using fingertip to write the letter in a tray of cornmeal or fine sand.

- Fingertip on Tabletop -- child spells the word correctly by saying each letter aloud while using fingertip to write the letter each letter BIG (using whole arm) on a tabletop.

- Whiteboard Write/Unwrite -- child writes the word by saying each letter aloud while using a colored marker on a whiteboard, then immediately repeats, but "unwrites" the word lettery by letter in order by tracing over each letter with a fingertip while saying the letter.

- Clay Snakes -- child spells the word correctly by saying each letter aloud while rolling clay into snakes and using each snake to form that letter.

- Physical Letters -- child spells the word correctly by saying each letter aloud while using letters (magnetic, foam, letter tiles, etc.) to spell out the word physically.

 

 

2. Oral practice

(from Andrew Pudewa seminar on spelling and from his IEW Phonetic Zoo)

Spelling is a very sequential activity -- to spell a word correctly not only requires the correct letters, but the correct letters placed in a correct sequence. As a result, VSL, dyslexic and non-sequential thinking children struggle with spelling. Looking at a word and writing it for practice doesn't really help these children, as they often see all the letters, but don't see the sequence. To practice sequencing a word for spelling, spell it out loud, as the brain is forced to hear the spelling sequence one letter at a time.

 

We do oral practice of spelling words this way: I say the word slowly and correctly (and if its a long word, then I say it a second time by syllable), I spell the word correctly, then toss a beanie toy to my son. Then he says the word and spells it correctly back to me, and tosses me the beanie toy. If he makes a mistake it's *critical* to immediately correct him by me spelling the word correctly aloud to him several times and then having him spell it aloud again to me correctly so that the wrong spelling won't imprint on his brain. At the beginning of the week, have the spelling list where the child can refer to it while they are spelling -- the point at the beginning of the week is correct sequence, and if it takes both looking at the word WHILE hearing it or saying it, then that's fine. Eventually, the child won't have to look, the child will be able to just hear the sequence and repeat it. Later in the week, try saying the word and have the child spell it first and toss to you, and then you spell it back to them and toss back to them. (The tossing part helps keep him focused knowing his turn is coming up -- based on the idea "Toss It" from Carol Barnier's book, "How to Get Your Kid Off the Refrigerator and onto Learning".)

 

 

3. Whiteboard Practice

2-3 times a week at the beginning of the week, we use the whiteboard to practice spelling words in a variety of ways:

 

- Root words and endings/prefixes -- ex: write a list of endings in a column in one color, then write one of the spelling words in a different color; tell a "story" that when it comes to adding an ending, such as the vowel at the beginning of the ending can jump over 1 consonant and make the vowel say it's long sound, so you have to add a 2nd consonant to keep the vowel from jumping over (ex: hop --> hopping). Or, vowels will "fight" if they sit next to each other, so that's why you have to drop the "e" at the end of those words, and then let the vowel at the beginning of the ending do the job of the "e". (ex: hope --> hoping)

 

- Syllables and syllable rules

 

- Vowel patterns (use one color for consonants, another for the vowel pattern to make it really stand out)

 

- Homophone practice -- practice by making 2 columns (see below), with the vowel patterns in a different color than the consonants to make them stand out, say and draw a little story to help visualize the difference between the 2 spellings (ex: draw the "a" in "meat" like a heart and say "I love MEAT"; then draw 2 little stick figures by "meet" and say "It takes 2 people to meet, and there are 2 "e"s in MEET.)

-ea-______-ee-

meat_____meet

feat______feat

read______reed

 

 

4. Dictation

(idea from Stevenson Blue Spelling Manual, a very visual way to teach vowel patterns)

This helps practice simultaneous spelling/thinking/writing -- which are 3 separte skills, processed in 3 different parts of the brain. To start, do 3 very short sentences, with just 1 spelling word in it: "(child's name) ran FAST." or "I went LAST." Have any words the child is unfamiliar with on a whiteboard handy where she can see it. What you're working on here is spelling the spelling words in the context of writing. Eventually you'll work up to 5-6 longer sentences, each with 2-3 spelling words in them.

 

 

5. Copywork

Very helpful for a child who struggles with both spelling and writing. Have the child dictate a sentence or two to you (maybe for a letter to grandma, or for a history narrative, or as part of a story, etc.). You write it out, and then have the child copy it. This practices: physically holding a pencil and strengthening muscles; unconsciously seeing correct spelling; unconsciously seeing correct handwriting, margins, spacing, etc.; unconsciously seeing correct punctuation/capitalization. And it helps a child who struggles with writing see real progress -- doing just 1-2 sentences a day and adding onto a letter or a paragraph, a child will have a whole paragraph or two by the end of each week!

 

 

6. Megawords

Once your DSD has that basic foundation of spelling down in a year or two, I *highly* recommend adding in Megawords as a spelling supplement. Megawords has been extremely helpful for our son, in teaching vowel patterns and syllabication rules to help break a longer word into smaller syllable chunks for spelling attack.

 

 

 

 

If you have any other questions or thoughts on spelling/writing, please post back! Good for you in undertaking to be this child's one-on-one tutor -- that alone is one of THE most helpful things you could do to help her "catch up." BEST of luck! Warmest regards, Lori D.

[mycalling]

Thank you to those who gave the EPS recommendations. I like the paragraph writing book, especially how it gives vocabulary options. I think those would help her. I'll keep checking out their products, and WWE also. I started to check WWE out earlier so it's good to hear it might help her...that thread is intimidatingly long!

 

Lori, these are two (1, 2) other threads I started about her LA abilities. Your son sounds exactly like my dsd. I'm copying your posts to my LA document and will definitely be using many of your ideas with her. I really like the idea of the bean bag toss to spell words aloud. This is something she can do on her own also.

 

As you can tell by my sig, I have my hands full and they are about to get fuller. I think I've maxed out how much I can handle one-on-one with her. I'm sure some of these ideas can be adapted to do with her brother (they are on the same level for everything LA except reading). I might have to come up with a list of things they need to do together during lesson time. They would both benefit.

 

As for typing, at the end of our last school cycle, I was having her type everything after she had written and "editted" it so she could see her mistakes easier. This is where I finally saw how bad her sentence structure is. I was always focused on her handwriting and spelling errors in her written work. I'll definitely keep this up next school cycle, having her type without writing first.

[stacey05]

My children are behind in writing and I am going to try CQLA this year for language arts, which includes step by step writing instruction.

[Guest]

what is CQLA?

[Bula Mama]

I'm wondering how her reading is???? Is it just spelling she's behind in or is she a delayed reader as well. Can she put thoughts together orally?

 

My 10yo ds is somewhat dyselxic with perceptual motor difficulties and is a delayed reader so is also a very delayed speller.

 

The combination that's been working wonders for us lately is kind of a hodge podge of small things each day. We do either a 1/2 or full page in Phonics Pathways (we didn't start at the beginning of the book but picked up where I felt he needed reinforcement to start), read from Pathway Readers, copywork and we'll start dictation soon. I'm going to use Writing With Ease with my small one so I've looked through the 'Complete Writer' book which is the spine of the series and really, really like her approach of teaching how to write.

 

Basically you get children to narrate back to you about something you've read to them, you write it out for them and for an older dc they then copy at least part of what you've written.

 

If her problem is mostly spelling issues I'd really recommend Sequential Spelling. It's something that I'm just beginning with my ds but I've heard rave reviews from people with dyslexic dc or just upper elementary grade dc who aren't spelling well. It teaches how words are built so they can spell more difficult words faster than in many other programs.

 

I think copywork is also VERY useful for all dc but especially important for those who need to make up for lost time, like someone else said about building foundations. Personally, I would REALLY hesitate about getting her to just write out her own thoughts incorrectly at this point. That's great for a dc who are spelling well but that would only reinforce her bad spelling habits. S.W. Bauer (and I've also read things supporting this by Ruth Beechick and Charlotte Mason) says in WWE that seeing their own misspellings visually reinforces the problem and part of what dc need is to see the correct spelling and usage of words repeatedly. So copywork is excellent here! Plus, it would be something that she could do quite a bit on her own without your constant attention.

 

S.W.B. recommends that you watch the dc write when they're using their own thoughts or in dictation and as soon as they begin to misspell a word you stop them before they see it written incorrectly. Another method I've heard of is to use small sticky notes and to cover up the incorrect word right away. Then when you are finished with the dictation you write the correct spelling on the note so the dc doesn't view the misspelled word again and have the dc copy it.

 

Anyway, just my 2 cents! Hope you find something that works for you!!! I'm sooooo grateful that I've been able to homeschool especially this particular ds who would have labeled himself 'stupid' years ago in a classroom setting. He's actually VERY bright and incredibly creative. He just doesn't fit the mold.

 

I commend you for your committment to try to help this young lady succeed!!!

[melmac]

Lori D. your posts were so helpful to me, I'm not the op but am in a similar situation with my ds 10 and just wanted to say thanks for taking the time to post all that. :)

[allmaya]

I am hopelessly lost here without some guidance. My DSD came to live with us a year ago and she is now 10 1/2yo. I hs'ed her all last school year and found her handwriting is that her sentence composition makes little sense with most words misspelled.

 

Right now, I have planned a phonics/spelling program (SWR, maybe WRTR), hands-on phonics/spelling activities for her to do on her own, sentence building rods for her to make sentences and I to help her correct them before she copies them to paper, copy work 2x wk, dictation 1x, and basic vocab 1x.

 

Is this enough? I feel like she accomplished nothing last year and I need to go back to basics (phonics, sentence forming, copy work) but she's almost 11. I was thinking about having her do a simple story writing program for the creative aspects, but I know she's currently not capable of articulating her thoughts on paper. How else can I get her there? Does she need an actually writing program at this point? If so, what would work for someone her age with her abilities?

 

Time4Writing.com has writing classes for all levels of writers from 2nd to 12th grade. You can place her at any level and the teachers will recommend if she needs to go up or back based on her first 2 weeks of assignments. I took their blog writing course and loved it!

 

Sheryl

[MamaSheep]

WTM does not recommend doing creative writing until older.

 

I would highly recommend "The Paragraph Book" I did not use it with my older children, but now that I have seen it, I definitely definitely plan to use it with my younger children when they are older.

 

http://www.epsbooks.com/dynamic/catalog/series.asp?seriesonly=2671M

 

I think you will love it too. It is by EPS.

 

Eps books carries a series that I have used with my reluctant writers...it is very basic, but provides a good solid foundation. It was written with remedial students in mind; however, it is NOT creative writing. If you want to do that, you could have her write and illustrate short stories for fun (maybe use WIN's Seven Sentence Story?)

 

Writing Skills

 

For The Paragraph Book do you need the teacher's manual too, or just the student book? I'm trying to figure out how to get my Aspie writing, and this sounds like it could be a good lead for us. Also, I see that there are 4 books in the series, do you know how long each book is intended to take? Is this intended to be one book per quarter, or one book per year, or just however long it takes to get through it, or....?

[mycalling]

Just an update on my DsD. She went to PS that year instead of hsing and it was a waste of a year. No help like I had hoped. She is now back hsing for good. She writes stories, long detailed very well thought out stories. Everyone who hears her read her stories think she truly has a future as an author....until you read the way she's written them.

 

Her handwriting is better when she tries. Her spelling is doing better thanks to studying a short passage then testing through dictation. She has been doing Language Mechanic all school year and doing alright with the book, but it doesn't translate into her writing. She does extra work by writing 10 sentences using the lesson she just learned.

 

I'm now focusing on editting. She types her stories and we correct it as she goes. That has done the most good.