What about writing during the reading phase of literature?

[Robin in DFW]

So, when your students are reading a book...say it takes 3 weeks...do you have your student work on a writing program during that time? 

 

I'm wondering if that non-literature-composition phase would be a good time to work on some writing skills.

 

I have Brave Writer's Help for High School (unsure about this, though), a little book called Models for Writers that has short stories/articles with leading questions and short essay assignments for each type of writing (it's used in high school classes as well as college), and I have a number of other reference type guides.

 

OR---do you just let your student work on other stuff during the reading phase and then tackle a writing project at the end?

 

[regentrude]

We do not do a "writing program". My kids write about the literature they read, but obviously can only do so after they have finished the reading. They also write about history, but again, that requires the study of the historical period first before they can research and write about a topic of their choice. So, they write when they have something to write about, but not in between.

That's assigned writing. They both write daily: creative writing, blog posts, stuff like this

[Robin in DFW]

Regentrude~

 

Do you impose the creative or blog writing on them?  Or, do they just do it?  I have a student who will write if there is an assignment, but not just for the heck of it.  He's not into blogs or creative writing.

[regentrude]

Regentrude~

 

Do you impose the creative or blog writing on them?  Or, do they just do it?

 

They do it for fun.

I think that's the reason they are good writers, not anything I taught explicitly.

[KRG]

My son's strength is in writing so he does a separate writing program.  The last two years he used One Year Adventure Novel and One Year Science Fiction and Fantasy.  This year he will be using The Creative Write Level 3.  I also have him write about the Literature he is reading as well as a couple of History research papers and several essays for Science.

[Pretty in Pink]

We use a separate writing program and we do not generally write about literature so the answer to your question is yes, my son does work on writing and literature simultaneously.

[Ellie]

No, I alternate between literature and grammar/composition.

[Lori D.]

So, when your students are reading a book...say it takes 3 weeks...do you have your student work on a writing program during that time? I'm wondering if that non-literature-composition phase would be a good time to work on some writing skills.

 

Yes. That's exactly how -- and why -- we did this.

 

Older DS was not fond of writing, so we had to plug away steadily at some writing each day in addition to literature each day to overcome reluctance. And younger DS has LDs with writing, so again, we had to break writing into very short bites, several a day, and do writing at the same time throughout the year as literature.

 

The combo of the 2 took about 90 minutes a day (approx. 30 for writing and 60 for literature). It also gave us the opportunity to do a wide variety of types of writing including real life writing -- not just writing literary analysis essays about literature.

 

BEST of luck in finding what works best for your family! :) Warmly, Lori D.

[mom31257]

I do some of both types with literature. Dd is going to use a couple of Progeny Press guides with some of her selections this year. There are some discussion questions that I will probably make more lengthy writing assignments while reading the book. With other books, I'll have her write something at the end. She is also doing an advanced modification of an IEW theme book simply because I'm leading the class at a co-op and she has friends in it.

[Robin in DFW]

Yes. That's exactly how -- and why -- we did this.

 

Older DS was not fond of writing, so we had to plug away steadily at some writing each day in addition to literature each day to overcome reluctance. And younger DS has LDs with writing, so again, we had to break writing into very short bites, several a day, and do writing at the same time throughout the year as literature.

 

The combo of the 2 took about 90 minutes a day (approx. 30 for writing and 60 for literature). It also gave us the opportunity to do a wide variety of types of writing including real life writing -- not just writing literary analysis essays about literature.

 

BEST of luck in finding what works best for your family! :) Warmly, Lori D.

 

Lori...do you mind if I ask what writing looked like at your house?  Did you use anything in particular?

 

I have several things I can use, but none of them completely knock my socks off!

 

 

[1Togo]

In our house, we work on writing, and we read.  None of our children have been natural writers, so they have needed explicit writing instruction.  You mentioned Bravewriter's "Help for High School."  It teaches essays with documentation and can be completed in 3-4 months.  If you are looking for materials to teach introductory lit analysis, "Windows to the World" from IEW is very good.  It takes a semester.  Both of these take about 45 minutes per day and will lay a foundation for your student to write about the subjects they are studying.  From there you could teach advanced lit analysis, other types of essay forms, and/or creative writing.  The handbooks you mention probably have models.

[rdj2027]

I end explicit writing instruction in 8th grade with the exception of a short excursion into writing for the SAT and job applications.  They will do a year long research paper in 11th or 12th grade but that has more to do with teaching how to organize and process information over a long time than teaching writing.

 

When they reads literature they write after they are done reading but they annotate and take notes while they read.  They still have to write in other subjects.

[Robin in DFW]

I appreciate all the responses.

 

Hoping to hear from others!

[Lori D.]

Lori...do you mind if I ask what writing looked like at your house?  Did you use anything in particular?

 

I have several things I can use, but none of them completely knock my socks off!

 

 

Robin, I was in the exact same boat -- never could find any one program that was IT, so I ended up using parts of a number of things throughout high school. Each year, I had an aspect of writing that was the focus, and then we did what we could using a variety of materials.

 

 

Writing was the one area I never felt happy about, and I spent a lot of time wondering if I just should have outsourced... I was concerned esp. that I had not adequately prepared DSs for being able to write in real life. BUT... both DSs (even younger DS with mild LDs in writing!) did very well in the Writing 101 and 102 classes their first years at the Community College -- both got all As, and that was with tough teachers! Older DS also challenged himself by taking the 102 as an Honors course and really got a lot out of it. Younger DS learned how to schedule himself, to be diligent, and surprised everyone, himself included, with a fabulous short story for a narrative assignment. He's always going to need a little extra help with proof-editing due to the struggles with spelling and just not noticing things like punctuation and capitalization, but he is a good thinker and he has learned how to get that down on paper.

 

Between that, and then this summer when I was going through a lot of the old school work and seeing  we really DID do more writing than I remembered -- I feel much better about what we did for writing in high school. I think being in the midst of the process did not give me a very clear perspective of what we were accomplishing -- it just seemed so slow and agonizing. I  just know I was always vaguely dissatisfied -- probably because I never had a solid, single program to work from for mental security. LOL.

 

 

SWB's Writing programs came out too late for us to try them, but those look interesting. Also never got around to looking at The Elegant Essay or The Lively Art of Writing, which both are recommended a lot for high school. I looked at Write Shop, but it was broken down into too many choppy bits for us (I have a whole-to-parts, big-picture thinker -- which makes most writing programs difficult to adapt, as most are written by and for parts-to-whole thinkers).

 

Anyways below is a lot of what we did for writing, and what was helpful.BEST of luck! Warmly, Lori D.

 

Programs

- Jump In = did all except the creative writing unit; substituted timed essays from prompts for their free writing

- Windows to the World = literary analysis essay chapter (most specific/clearest instruction I've seen!)

- Jensen's Format Writing = practical applications, and, business writing chapters

- Stack the Deck = chapters on purpose/audience; writing process; describing; business letters; persuading; comparing; intros and conclusions

- Put That in Writing = just the explanation section in the chapters on: narrative, process paragraph, comparison, cause & effect, analogy, defend a position, character analysis

- Wordsmith Craftsman = part 1 -- used some of the assignment ideas: outlining, personal letters, business letters, summaries

 

Resources

- OWL at Purdue -- writing instruction, assignments, tips, etc.

- The Five Paragraph Essay  Wizard -- simple instruction on writing essays

- Writing in College -- helpful short article by University of Chicago profs. Williams & McEnerney on differences between high school and college writing to give you a clear goal for moving towards in your writing

 

Specific Things We Found Useful

- use IEW key word outlines

 

- making assignments clear/specific, with rubric/list of very specific expectations, from Marcia Somerville's seminar on writing

 

- write weekly timed essays from past SAT prompts (Online Writing Math website) -- helped get over reluctance to write through having to write regularly, knowing it would not be graded  and that I was doing it too; and really encouraged how to think of what to say and how to organize your writing; also allowed us to focus on one aspect of writing at a time (hook; use of specific examples for support; sentence of explanation (commentary); conclusion; etc.)

 

- how to write a "reader response"; see Tullia's posts in this thread: if you're frustrated with discussing history and literature with a high school student...

 

- research papers; tip on "commentary" sentence of a paragraph -- in this past post of mine in the thread sigh... writing... sigh... help, I linked a number of other resources and threads/posts that were extremely helpful to me -- especially Nan's and SWB's thoughts on doing the research paper (4th paragraph); Nan's tip on that sentence of explanation (also called "commentary") in the thread "Wow, I think I fixed my son's writing!" linked at the bottom.

 

- essay writing -- this thread came too late for me, but has wonderful explanations by 8FilltheHeart (posts #33, #34) on essay writing -- it is a GREAT thread throughout: Bringing Karen's mention of essay writing to a new thread.

[Robin in DFW]

Lori...thanks for taking the time...

 

I feel much like you about the writing programs...nothing really rocks my world.

 

My son is also a whole to parts person...he needs to know where he's headed before he can tackle getting there.

 

I will look at your links.  I think I just need to be reminded that we are doing fine and there is no magic program.

 

 

[Lori D.]

 I think I just need to be reminded that we are doing fine and there is no magic program.

 

 

Alas, no... And as you can see, I did an awful lot of "cobbling". BUT, I posted those big long introductory paragraphs just so you can feel hope that even if there's no ONE program out there for you, there are lots of good "bites" out there as you need them, and as long as you keep plugging away at it, you'll be fine. :) Wishing you every SUCCESS in writing this year, and all through high school! :) Warmest regards, Lori