Bravewriter and the Keen Observation Exercise

[Nicholas_mom]

Hi,

 

After having Baravewriter sit on the shelf for a year, after reading some it, I decided to try it this year.  So, over the summer I read atleast half of Bravewriter Jungle and I wanted to do some of the exercises described in it.

 

So, we started with the Keen Observation writting exercise with a lemon.  I was surprised how my son just took to the pencil and paper and wrote all his observations without dictating the words to me like we do for written summaries.

 

He seemed to enjoy it.  Now what is my next step?  Do I pick different things for him to jot down words to describe something?  When do we write about the description to a paragraph about the lemon?  Do I use it for the Freewrite exercise?

 

Could you tell me how you went thru this exercise with your kids and how you went to the next step in writing?  Ds is 10 yrs old.

[Farrar]

The Keen Observations exercise has kinda been a flop here.  But I'm...  keen! to retry it again. ;)

 

We do some of the exercises like that as freewrites on our freewriting day.  I think where you take it next is up to you.  There are a lot of elements to Brave Writer.  We do a routine that includes narration, dictation, freewriting and other writing exercises, poetry teas and so forth.  We occasionally use the Arrow for our dictations (though I choose them myself even more often).  We've been doing the Partnership Writing projects.

[Nicholas_mom]

Hi Farrarwilliams,

 

I am so glad you answered but I am disappointed it didn't work for you!  Your enthusiam for Bravewriter is very infectious :)

 

We did start Poetry Teas over a year ago, and that works well but I wanted to do more of Bravewriter without buying anything else from Bravewriter, first.  We do the summary and narrations, but right now he dictates his summary and then we use that as our copywork.

 

Someone on this board recommended to another Mom this Bravewriter class Kidswrite Basic http://www.bravewriter.com/program/online-classes/class-list/kidswrite-basic/ but the cost is too high for us.  But the outline helped the way to go for us but in Bravewriter she doesn't specify how long to do the Keen Observation. 

 

She also doesn't say how she went from Keen Observation jottings to writing about your object.  I wondered if anybody used the Keen Observation and then took it to do a free write on it?  But then that wouldn't be "Freewrite" would it?  because freewrite is just to write about anything and not really worried about "what you are writing about it?"  Is that how you see freewrite?

 

Atleast these ramblings will get me to understand what I need to do with ds and where I want to go with this stuff :001_unsure:

[Farrar]

I think you do these exercises enough and eventually a piece has enough interesting language that you want to revise it and go through the whole revision process she talks about in TWJ. But that hasn't worked or us so far. My boys just turned 9yo and I think the free writes and exercises have been good for them, but haven't produced anything any of us wanted to revise. I think that's because they're youngish still. I've been okay to let observations and so forth be totally process oriented instead of goal oriented.

[Nicholas_mom]

ok -- I get it.  I like what you are saying.  It's helping me to understand Bravewriter just alittle more.  For me, its the baby steps  :)

[ByGrace3]

Totally agree with Farrar. For us BW is still about the pieces-- we haven't taken anything through the revise process yet but I think it is an amazing plan for when we get there. Right now we are doing dictation and copywork via the Arrow,narrations, freewrites, poetry teas, some of the writing projects. Honestly, Partnership Writing is very worth the money as a bridge into the BW lifestyle. The Arrows are very helpful as well.

 

I think as far as implementing BW, the exercises like keen observation, free writes, and all the others, with regular dictation, narration, copy work, all eventually lead to actual writing which in turn gives you material to work with for the revision process which is a big chunk of the BW writing process. So much great stuff there.

[Nicholas_mom]

ok after reading BW a second time, I want to buy Partnership Writing.  Sometimes I think ds could do Faltering Writing based on what Julie says in BW about when they are ready for FW, but I think PW will do just fine :)

[Pen]

You can do free writes on a topic rather than on "anything".   You can let your ds choose the topic if he has ideas, or help him if he needs/wants help.  Once you have several initial free writes (of which the lemon description could be one), you can let your ds choose which one he wants to spend more time developing.   If you search words longship and vikings in learning challenges subforum, I posted some on my son's process with this as a part of a piece (which went on to be one part of a 14 page paper on Vikings) was developed with an online class.

[Cmm]

Ariadne, the projects in partnership writing also work for faltering ownership. :) If your child needs more help, you help more; if they need less, you give them space. It's a flexible program. If the projects appeal to your son, it will work.

[Nicholas_mom]

ok - great!  Even better.