Abbeygurl4 Posted November 13, 2012 Share Posted November 13, 2012 Writing instruction has become the BANE of my homeschooling career!! My 22 yo dd was homeschooled. I was pretty new to homeschooling and I never put much emphasis on LA besides reading and spelling. She loved reading and she also liked journaling and dabbling in poetry but we never did any formal writing instruction. No outlining, no book reports and no essays. She is a junior at a good state school pursuing a degree in early childhood education. She has maintained a 3.8 gpa even though she had to learn note taking and composition skills on the fly in college. Then I learned about TWTM and I started reading the forums. I learned about FLL and WWE and WWS and Writing Strands and IEW and BraveWriter and Classical Composition and a myriad of other programs. I began to plan and plot and worry .... My ds, 13, will be the end of me. I've used IEW, WS, WWS and he fights it ALL the way. He's got a great voice and tremendous vocabulary and will type out a 2 or 3 page paper on anything having to do with Japan. But if I ask for a report on something he's read or a book report or a compare and contrast it's like pulling teeth. When we did IEW he could NOT follow along with the SWI dvd even though I did it along side him and stopped the dvd when he needed more time. He constantly questioned everything Andrew said on the dvds. "Why do I have to have x amount of dress-ups? I know how to use -ly words, what do they want me to do? this doesn't make sense" .... and on and on. I'm tired of tossing and turning all night worrying about how badly I'm ruining his life by not teaching him composition skills. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TippyCanoe Posted November 13, 2012 Share Posted November 13, 2012 nm Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colleen in NS Posted November 13, 2012 Share Posted November 13, 2012 (edited) Writing instruction has become the BANE of my homeschooling career!! My ds, 13, will be the end of me. I've used IEW, WS, WWS and he fights it ALL the way. He's got a great voice and tremendous vocabulary and will type out a 2 or 3 page paper on anything having to do with Japan. But if I ask for a report on something he's read or a book report or a compare and contrast it's like pulling teeth. When we did IEW he could NOT follow along with the SWI dvd even though I did it along side him and stopped the dvd when he needed more time. He constantly questioned everything Andrew said on the dvds. "Why do I have to have x amount of dress-ups? I know how to use -ly words, what do they want me to do? this doesn't make sense" I suggest simplifying down to just using WWS. Don't ask for a book report, don't ask for any kind of persuasive essay (compare/contrast, etc.), nada. Just let him learn the basic building blocks in WWS. These will all come in handy later. And the TM for WWS will help you to teach, while the student book will help him to learn. They are written very clearly. SWB wrote these books for the student to whom writing does not come naturally. And, she has three mostly-grown up boys, so she *gets* boys. :D If you stick with WWS and he starts to understand what to do and what's expected and how he can use the skills he's learning, you could try asking him for an extra, short writing assignment every week or two, in his content-area reading (science/history/literature). You'll see how you can make up assignments, tailored to him, when you dig further in to WWS. Oh, and to answer your original question, I do think it's important to learn composition skills, *esp.* if the student doesn't learn them naturally through reading/discussion/etc.. The ability to reason out and express your thoughts clearly about something is very important in life. Also consider this: Will your son be able and/or willing to learn composition skills "on the fly" later on like your daughter did? No, YOU don't have to teach them - you can hire out this part of teaching if you want. But that's the thing I like about WWS - as SWB said in her promo video about WWS, the TM is her brain, and you can use her brain - essentially, she will be teaching your son. :D And it's cheaper than signing up for classes or hiring a tutor. hth Edited November 13, 2012 by Colleen in NS Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Abbeygurl4 Posted November 13, 2012 Author Share Posted November 13, 2012 Doodler and Colleen, Thank you for the great advice! I am feeling so much better right now! Thank you thank you thank you! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Candid Posted November 14, 2012 Share Posted November 14, 2012 I'd suggest buying and listening to SWB's two talks on teaching writing for middle school and high school. They are both called "A Plan for Teaching Writing." They are available in the WTM store right here and cost $4, instant download! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dbmamaz Posted November 14, 2012 Share Posted November 14, 2012 You could also check out 'bravewriter' - she says she teaches writing like professional writers instead of like educators - for her, helping the child find their authentic voice is more important than any hard and firm rules. i find her very inspiring. she even has some free podcasts on her website somwhere (maybe the blog?) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
1Togo Posted November 14, 2012 Share Posted November 14, 2012 Or, if teaching writing is something you just don't want to do, enroll your son in a Bravewriter course. The teaching and feedback are excellent. We have taken several Bravewriter courses and loved them all. Hand the job over to someone else, mentor if needed, and sleep at night. Bravewriter has options for short courses and semester courses. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Abbeygurl4 Posted November 14, 2012 Author Share Posted November 14, 2012 I'd suggest buying and listening to SWB's two talks on teaching writing for middle school and high school. They are both called "A Plan for Teaching Writing." They are available in the WTM store right here and cost $4, instant download! Thanks, I'll check it out! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Abbeygurl4 Posted November 14, 2012 Author Share Posted November 14, 2012 You could also check out 'bravewriter' - she says she teaches writing like professional writers instead of like educators - for her, helping the child find their authentic voice is more important than any hard and firm rules. i find her very inspiring. she even has some free podcasts on her website somwhere (maybe the blog?) Oh, I was just looking around on the site yesterday and I didn't know she had podcasts. I'll go back and look. Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Abbeygurl4 Posted November 14, 2012 Author Share Posted November 14, 2012 Or, if teaching writing is something you just don't want to do, enroll your son in a Bravewriter course. The teaching and feedback are excellent. We have taken several Bravewriter courses and loved them all. Hand the job over to someone else, mentor if needed, and sleep at night. Bravewriter has options for short courses and semester courses. I was contemplating an online course. Thanks for the review! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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