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My 4th grader has never had a writing curriculum...


mama2cntrykids
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I'm not sure where to start writing with him. He has (what I suspect) to be dysgraphia and he really has a hard time organizing thoughts enough to put them on paper.

 

I don't have the slightest idea where to start with him. He hates the physical act of writing and getting him to write more than three sentences is awful. Never mind them being complete thoughts or anything.

 

He's been dx'd with PDD-NOS when he was four, but he's leaning more towards Asperger's.

 

Any ideas on where to start? I feel like it's going to be a battle no matter what we do, which I don't want b/c it's a battle with him period most days.

 

Please help me!

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yes, typing is a good idea. i got bravewriter's the writers jungle and really like the gentle approach she suggested. my 4th grader is just starting to be able to write. well, we're taking a break to focus on LoE . . . but i'll get back to Bravewriter soon

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I highly recommend doing dictation and lots of oral narration for a few years. That's what I did with both my sons. My older son has AS, but is a natural writer. He is a senior this year. When he was younger he couldn't get words on paper because his thoughts went too fast. Dictation and oral narration helped this.

 

We highly suspect my 15yo as dyslexia. He has struggled with writing too but in a different way. He doesn't have the natural creativity with words and stories like my older son does. Dictation has really helped him with sentence structure, punctuation, vocabulary,etc.... Also, when he orally narrates, I've always made sure he uses complete sentences and retells the reading in the order it happened.

 

Eventually, in 8th or 9th grade, IEW has helped both of them. For my older, more creative with writing son, just using the IEW structures helped. My younger son is benefitting from IEW's structure and style.

 

Hope that helps!!

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I love Bravewriter because my ds loves to write and is creative, but like your ds he has the hardest time getting his thoughts in an organized matter. WWE has been wonderful for that skill. I really have seen him struggle to tell me anything coherent about what we have read or studied (or just experienced in daily life)to being able to summarize and get to the main point quickly. I still give him copywork, but the dictation has really helped him learn to hold words in his head and remember them and then get them onto the paper, or to hold them long enough to tell someone about it in a coherent way. I like the gentle and sequential approach to dictation suggested in the Bravewriter Arrow guides (what the author calls "French dictation ) over the instructions given in WWE. Bravewriter has also helped with the revising/editing process. He likes to write, but sometimes it doesn't make much sense, and he can be pretty stubborn about changing his writing. Freewrites let him just do his thing and yet he knows that as painful as it is once or twice a month we're going to be revising some of his creations. Grammar, spelling, punctuation are perfect but it's the ideas that get all jumbled up. Bravewriter/WWE are my preferred writing team!!

 

I would see no problem at all starting a 4th grader right at the beginning of WWE or at least in WWE2 and moving at a quicker pace than it suggests.

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  • 3 weeks later...

I've been looking at many things for my own special learner over at the Remedia Publishing website. What do you think about Sentence Fun? There are sample pages on a different website (link here.) I liked the look of it, but it's a little too complicated for my boy. If you wanted something simpler (and cheaper) what about some of their other books, like What is a Sentence? I agree that a physical limitation could be improved with typing, especially if you get one of those larger keyboards. If you don't think that would help, then what about something very simple, that involves cutting, gluing, visual perception, and knowing that there is a limit to the writing (ie: write 2 sentences)... if that sounds like it might work, then check this one out: Visual Sequence: Writing Activities. It sure is a challenge knowing where to begin, I hear you!

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Narration and dictation exercises really helped us. It took YEARS for narration to click...and I think every single frustrating day was helpful. I think that understanding the main point of something, and then being able to give supporting detail is helpful. While we were working on narration, we also worked on the fundamental mechanics....Sentences begin with a capital letter and end in punctuation. Sentences contain a subject and a predicate. Once those pieces were in place we were finally able to make some real progress with WWE. (We spent a long time in book 3.) We finally finished WWE4 this past fall, and we've spent the year doing IEW. Having to keyword outline and writing against a checklist has been helpful for ds. We are going to spend another 22 weeks doing IEW, and then we're going to attempt WWS1 again. (We tried when he finished WWE4 and he wasn't ready.)

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Thanks for the suggestions everyone. For now, we're not doing any formal writing. More unschooly ;).

 

Next year, I hope to have more structure with his writing. In the meantime, I will look into dictation (is that where I say a sentance outloud and he writes it??).

 

I've looked at the WWE samples and I think he might buck it if I tried. For LA next year, I plan to do Intermediate Language Lessons, keeping it simple across the board. If he feels too stressed out, it's WAY to hard to teach him. I think CM ideals (with a touch of unschoolish stuff thrown in) next year will do him a lot of good.

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