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Writing HELP...? Suggestions? Am I on to something?


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WWE does not seem to be working for my son. I love the idea, A LOT. However, he is in tears usually when we finish and it seems to take him a long time to remember the dictation. We are on the end of level 2. He is having to remember longer and longer dictation, he is not so great at spelling so I get the feeling he already feels defeated before starting.

 

I have started (this week) trying to implement narration across the curriculum and I have been subscribing to the Bravewriter Lifestyle, not doing everything but just choosing what works that day. For instance, today he wrote about changing a leaky faucet, he had just done it for Cub Scouts.

 

I am just worried it won't be "enough". However, I tried IEW and just didn't like it, it felt way too formulaic for me. We did WWE, which I really like but it just doesn't seem to be working (like today, my son said, I like this writing way more)....referring to writing about changing a leaky faucet.

 

I suppose I feel like writing should just be more natural not so forced.

 

Thoughts? Suggestions...? Wisdom? Am I on to something here? I have been researching a lot about Charlotte Mason style writings, anyone have any suggestions. I have Writing Strands which I am not completely opposed to I am just starting to feel that there isn't a CURRICULUM --- it's the actual WRITING. Sometimes it's nice to just write and maybe right now that should be the focus....?

 

So, maybe just narrations, copywork, a few STUDIED dictations, journal -- freewrite, pen pals?

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I think for an 8 yo to write about things like Cub Scout experiences is perfectly normal and acceptable, and that doing that with narrations, dictation etc... is just fine.

 

For dictation, I'd stick with passages where he knows most of the words, and then explicitly teach the new words and then do the dictation.

 

You can do a formal writing curriculum later on. I find it's easier after they've mastered about a thousand spelling words.

 

Your plan sounds good and reasonable to me.

 

Merry :-)

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I am just starting to feel that there isn't a CURRICULUM --- it's the actual WRITING. Sometimes it's nice to just write and maybe right now that should be the focus....?

 

:iagree: :iagree:

 

 

I read a quote once that said "For reading, we read. For writing, we write." Oh how true I think this is.

 

I find it works great to give my kids writing 'opportunities' where they can write about whatever they want to instead of structuring their every writing moment. We start our mornings twice a week with a free writing time where they are working on stories of their choice. This is where they get to put into practice the skills learned in their LA programs but they find it enjoyable because they are choosing the content and genre.

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I think you're on the right track. :) I have an 8 year old also. I find that he does need the continued practice of WWE narrations. We had stopped around week 20 in WWE2 last year and switched over to IEW SWI-A during the summer (beginning of our school year). He did very well with IEW, and it helped get him over that terrified-of-spelling-wrong issue. He is now willing to put pen to paper and write an entire paragraph! He used to freak out over one original sentence. :tongue_smilie: He didn't really have much problem with dictation in WWE, except that he needed help spelling the words. Anyway, fast forward to today... *I* got stuck on IEW's unit 3 (retelling a story). We did the first one fine, but then the next one just plain confused me, so I decided to do other things and come back to unit 4 at the end of the school year. I realized my son needed to practice narrations again after he got frustrated trying to tell me what happened to another boy at hockey who broke his leg... He finally said, "I just can't summarize it!" That made me chuckle. So I pulled WWE back out, and we're now finishing it - just the narrations, not the dictation. We're also doing more writing in R&S English 4 (doing about half the lesson written), and then sometimes I get some story paper or a notebooking page from History Scribe (I picked them up super cheap one time) and have him write about something he read in history or science. I'll tell him to draw a picture and write 2-3 sentences. I have also done that with an experience. After Disney World, I told him to draw a picture and write about something he enjoyed at Disney. He did very well writing about his favorite ride - Star Tours. And actually, that reminds me that I should have him write about his overnight Cub Scout trip to the USS Alabama last weekend. I know he loves going on that ship and would probably write about it pretty easily. :D

 

So yeah, I'm mixing it up and mainly making sure he's writing *something* every week. I don't think they have to be learning to write essays in 3rd grade. ;) I think the main thing is to get them comfortable with the idea of writing at this age, especially for writing phobic kids. I've seen huge growth in my son's writing this year. Last year, when asked to fill in a blank like: The teacher said, "______". He would freak out and break down crying. Seriously. :blink: This year, he's able to handle that stuff so much better, though he might be a bit of a smart alack. Yesterday, he was supposed to write 4 sentences using "this", "that", "these", and "those", based on a picture in his English book. He wrote the following: What is this? What is that? What are these? What are those? :lol: But hey, at least he wasn't in tears!!! I'll take those. They were grammatically correct and technically could be about that picture. :D

 

My son would freak out over free writing at this point, and he has trouble writing stories. He needs concrete things to write about. But there are so many things we can find to write about. I still think SWB's ideas have a lot of merit. I'm just altering the dictation thing, since the spelling freaks the kid out. We do dictation in our spelling program, using spelling words. And really, he has never had any trouble holding a thought in his head. His roadblock to putting words on paper isn't remembering them. It's spelling them. And that has been worked out, for the most part (by getting further in his spelling program, writing rough drafts in PEN and remembering that words don't have to ALL be spelled correctly in a rough draft, and using Mom as a human dictionary if needed).

 

You might want to read 8FillTheHeart's posts on how she teaches writing, as that might give you some good ideas as well:

 

http://forums.welltr...thread/��(posts #33 and #34)

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His roadblock to putting words on paper isn't remembering them. It's spelling them. And that has been worked out, for the most part (by getting further in his spelling program, writing rough drafts in PEN and remembering that words don't have to ALL be spelled correctly in a rough draft, and using Mom as a human dictionary if needed).

 

 

 

 

This is my son's issue, it isn't the dictation itself really it's the remembering of all the words that he needs to spell. I have tried writing them all out for him but I get the feeling he feels even more defeated with that....I am going to press on. :) Thank you for your helpfulness.

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So, maybe just narrations, copywork, a few STUDIED dictations, journal -- freewrite, pen pals?

 

 

This is exactly what we are going to be doing. I have been re-reading TWTM (I have the 1st edition) and I feel as if I have made things too complicated. My kids need to work on narrations and I found a cute little free download from currclick to use http://www.currclick.com/product/68311/Peter-and-Polly-In-Winter?term=Peter+winter.

 

I also stumbled upon this download from SWB explaining exactly what skills are needed at certain levels and it gave me a great idea of exactly what is needed in our schooling http://www.welltrainedmind.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/writing-overview-expanded.pdf.

 

So my plan for the rest of this year is to work on narrations through the currclick book (and also through history and science) and then use my own writing plan. I am going to pick a passage (probably a pargraph or so) from a book my son enjoys and use it as copywork. The next day I will "change" some things in the passage and see if he can spot the errors (he needs practice editing and I think this will help with grammar and spelling also). The next day I will use the passage for dictation. This way he will already be familiar with any new words and I won't have to worry about him melting because he spelled a word wrong (at least that is my hope:).

 

I love the idea of PenPal writing since my son loves the creative writing aspect of writing. I may also begin doing smaller "reports" for science and history. I have the book Comprehensive Composition that I will use as a guide for this. I may wait until next year to do that part-not sure yet.

 

I hope this all makes sense (I have only had 1 cup of coffee)! Just know you are not alone in struggling with the writing issue. I want my kids to have a solid foundation and I don't want to force them to write just for the sake of writing without proper instruction. Some day we will get there:)

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I am on a similar journey, with a few differences. I actually don't think lots of free writing is that helpful at this age (unless your dc is absolutely writing phobic). I feel like requiring children to write a lot before they have a solid knowledge base of what excellent writing looks like, before they have mastered grammar and spelling, and before they can physically tolerate lots of writing just doesn't make sense. Children definitely form habits- phrases, wording, and syntax they get used to- and I really want most of my dc's writing habits to come from imitating quality writing (copywork/dictation). SWB, CM, CCH, and most others that have influenced the classical homeschool community all advocate waiting on specific writing instruction (in theory at least), yet so many people who use these methods (myself included) feel like we need to supplement with a writing program or else our children will end up behind. It's simply not true! What formal writing program did many of history's most celebrated author's have? Also, perhaps forcing writing too soon is what causes phobia/dislike in the first place. Anyway, I'll get off my soapbox. I just finally feel like I've found my footing (for now at least) in regards to writing instruction. I think you are definitely "on to something" :001_smile:.

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Well, I was coming on to start a similar topic! ;) We took a break from WWE 2 about 2 weeks ago because it was causing unnecessary stress and tears. I began to realize that my dd is not a reluctant writer and I was killing her love of writing by stressing her out over difficult vocabulary and details. She is not a detail person, and often struggled comprehending the narrations. The actual narrating part she always did fine. The dictations were a little longer than I thought helpful at this time and I was breaking them up so much I was getting frustrated. I shouldn't have been because it is fine to do that, but we were both stressed over it so I decided to take a break. The last two weeks have been amazing! I am simply floored by how much freedom and joyful our day is just by eliminating one stressful 15/20 minute activity.

 

Last week I used the WWE text and we did it from our read alouds. We also did narrations in history and science. This week we are doing narrations from history and science, and we ran across Haikus in history and decided to play around with that. I gave her a quick lesson on the basics of Haiku, taught her how to "choose a topic", "brainstorm some ideas to include", and then helped her write a haiku. She loved it! I wrote it out for her, the next day she used it as copywork and illustrated it. The next day she repeated the whole process with very little help from me. Huge success!

 

I do think writing should be natural, and it definitely shouldn't cause tears. I believe in the WTM/WWE way of writing, and I plan to implement it naturally for the rest of this year. If I am comfortable with it, we will continue for third grade as well. I am loving the freedom and the enjoyment dd is now having in writing. I am just so bummed I held on that long... :(

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