Is my son ready for WWS Level 1?

[kwg]

This is week 7, day 4. He was supposed to write a chronological narrative of a scientific discovery- the information was provided- using time and sequence words and one quote. Also, it was supposed to have background info. He was not in the mood to do it and had already huffed off to his room (lol) but for those that have used it I am wondering, do I continue, make him redo this one......? Writing is his nemesis. He is 10 years old and in fifth grade.

 

 

Johannes Kepler studied heliocentrism which said that the sun was at the center of the solar system. Copernicus said that orbits were perfect circles and Geocentrism said that the earth was the center of the solar system and the Earth had no orbit. Many astronomers still believed Geocentrism. (You'd think they'd know better). Kepler worked as an assistant to Tycho Brache. He helped Brake observe the orbits of the planets. They noticed that mars seemed to go faster and slower at different times. They could not explain this as both thought that orbits were perfect circles (Copernicus). Brache died in 1601 one year after they met. Kepler tried and failed forty times (yikes!). He said " I was almost driven to madness considering and calculating this matter." Four years after Brache died Kepler came up with a law: planets have elliptical orbits and the sun is just a focal point.

[Colleen in NS]

This is week 7, day 4. He was supposed to write a chronological narrative of a scientific discovery- the information was provided- using time and sequence words and one quote. Also, it was supposed to have background info. He was not in the mood to do it and had already huffed off to his room (lol) but for those that have used it I am wondering, do I continue, make him redo this one......? Writing is his nemesis. He is 10 years old and in fifth grade.

 

 

Johannes Kepler studied heliocentrism which said that the sun was at the center of the solar system. Copernicus said that orbits were perfect circles and Geocentrism said that the earth was the center of the solar system and the Earth had no orbit. Many astronomers still believed Geocentrism. (You'd think they'd know better). Kepler worked as an assistant to Tycho Brache. He helped Brake observe the orbits of the planets. They noticed that mars seemed to go faster and slower at different times. They could not explain this as both thought that orbits were perfect circles (Copernicus). Brache died in 1601 one year after they met. Kepler tried and failed forty times (yikes!). He said " I was almost driven to madness considering and calculating this matter." Four years after Brache died Kepler came up with a law: planets have elliptical orbits and the sun is just a focal point.

 

 

As to your question about continuing, I would. His narrative shows me that he has a basic understanding of the assignment. He gave background info., used time and sequence words, and narrated about a discovery. I probably would work with him on editing (and not call it "re-doing" - makes it sound as if he will have to start over, then he might balk even more?). I try to use an "ask, don't tell" approach when I do this with my kids.

 

- For example, I'd ask how he could rearrange the first four sentences to make the background information sequential. If he doesn't understand, suggest putting the first sentence before the one about Kepler being an assistant, and then have him read the rearrangement to see if the background makes more sense. Then he can add in any words that make those four flow more smoothly.

 

- I'd ask if he thinks Geocentrism is someone's name. The way he worded that and capitalized the word makes me think so. I'd ask him to tell me what geocentrism is, and then ask him how he could fix that part to make it clearer. Have him say his revised sentence(s) out loud to you, so he can hear if anything else needs to be clarified.

 

- I'd also ask him why he wrote Copernicus in parentheses, and help him to either incorporate the reason into the sentence somehow or just eliminate that parenthetical element.

 

- I'd ask what Kepler tried and failed forty times, and have him incorporate his answer. It's unclear.

 

- And after those three things, I'd bring attention to correcting grammar/mechanics (that he has learned about so far) and spelling. Correcting grammar will also go a long way towards helping him clarify his thoughts.

 

Then, have him read the whole thing out loud, and fix anything else that isn't clear. My kids often jump in at this point and say, "Oh! What I really mean is...." and they clarify themselves.

 

So anyway, I think he did fulfill the basic assignment; it's just that some of how he expressed his thoughts is unclear. And that's where a back-and-forth dialog with him would help. You ask questions, he thinks and clarifies what he meant, he says revised sentences out loud, and he writes them down.

 

WWS definitely trains a student how to think about elements of writing and how to put them together coherently. It is brain work for the student, so it can result in some huffy days, lol. But it does seem to me that yours understands the basic gist, and just needs some interaction to help clarify his thoughts. Which is what WWE was all about and what WWS builds on, actually; putting thoughts into words/sentences that are logical and make sense.

[kwg]

Thank you so much! That went better than I could have hoped. He was fine with all the dialogue and the final product was better. We will keep plugging along. I really like WWS; I just feel so out of my depth.

[Colleen in NS]

Thank you so much! That went better than I could have hoped. He was fine with all the dialogue and the final product was better. We will keep plugging along. I really like WWS; I just feel so out of my depth.

I'm glad that helped! I bet he probably was relieved that you could talk him through his thoughts so that he could make his thoughts known. It's sort of a relief when one can do that!

 

I feel out of my depth, too, but I love it. I just try to remember to rephrase what I want to tell my kids, into questions that will lead them to the answers. That way, they own it AND learn the skills.

[daisychics]

I'm glad that helped! I bet he probably was relieved that you could talk him through his thoughts so that he could make his thoughts known. It's sort of a relief when one can do that!

 

I feel out of my depth, too, but I love it. I just try to remember to rephrase what I want to tell my kids, into questions that will lead them to the answers. That way, they own it AND learn the skills.

 

This is what I wish I could do for my son. "talk him through his thoughts so that he could make his thoughts known". How do you do that? :confused1: I'm looking into Write Guide (they haven't called me back yet, booo!) lol.

We are on Week 14 and I've been procrastinating (help). I keep saying, "let's do it tomorrow."

[Colleen in NS]

This is what I wish I could do for my son. "talk him through his thoughts so that he could make his thoughts known". How do you do that? :confused1: I'm looking into Write Guide (they haven't called me back yet, booo!) lol.

We are on Week 14 and I've been procrastinating (help). I keep saying, "let's do it tomorrow."

 

When I said about talking the student through thoughts, what I really meant was figuring out the right questions to ask so that the student sorts out his thoughts. I tend to want to jump in with answers when my kids are frustrated about expressing something or when I point out that something is unclear due to grammar errors, but that's not helpful. So I think about the answer, and form a question (that many times simply has to do with a mistake in grammatical structure or a wrong part of speech for a particular word) to steer them on the right path. I was hoping that my post above illustrated that, but let me know if you need further clarification.

 

Specifically with WWS assignments - this book gives exact instructions to the student, so if my students missed following an instruction, I also ask, "So, what did the instructions say again?" And if they are giving me an answer designed to put me off, I say, "Go read it aloud to me - maybe we can figure out if you missed something." And then I let them discover their mistake. I find many times if they do this, they can carry on with the assignment, because THEY now know what is expected and how to do it.

 

This morning my daughter was doing a copia exercise in WWS 2, and she was very frustrated. I went through the whole, "read the instructions out loud to me" bit. Then she said she still didn't understand, so I broke it down further in my mind, "Oh, she doesn't remember what a prepositional phrase is." So I said, "Find a preposition in the sentence." "What's that???" "Recite your preposition list out loud, then." (she knows what that is) "Oh wait, it's 'of'." "Good. Now what noun is right after 'of'?" "'Terror'" "Good. Now what's the prepositional phrase?" "Oh, 'of terror'!" "OK, now make that into an adjective that describes the noun - what noun is being described by 'of terror'?" "Thrill. So....'terrified'?" "Yes. Make that describe 'thrill'." "Terrified thrill." "YES!! Write it down and finish the sentence!!!!!"

 

It probably sounds tedious, but this is the kind of teaching I have gleaned from all the years of using FLL, WWE, and WWS, and it has worked beautifully for helping my kids learn to think for themselves and confidently come up with answers without me telling them or without me leaving them hanging, not having a clue what to do. And, if one of my kids is just having a day when he/she doesn't feel like thinking things through in the assignment (in whatever subject), I start that questioning process and sometimes they finish the questioning process themselves because (1) they don't want to listen to me do the drill and (2) the process is getting ingrained in them and I believe they know it helps even if they don't feel like it. :D

[Susie in CA]

A lot of this will depend on you child. I have one who hates 'talking things through'. However, he is the one who needs the most guidance. What I do with him is I usually pick two things to talk about in his writing. One will be about a requirement like inserting a quote. Often he just doesn't do this. I will ask questions about quotes to use, where could it go. He will then add it. The second thing I address usually has to do with grammar, spelling, punctuation or formatting. He can't handle more than two things from me. We just keep plugging along like this.

 

Fwitw, he can handle more input from other teachers and mentors just not from Mom. :-)