Guest Posted December 18, 2013 Share Posted December 18, 2013 http://eps.schoolspecialty.com/products/details.cfm?series=2561M Writing SKills on the EPS Books website. Very good stuff and easy to use. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stripe Posted December 18, 2013 Share Posted December 18, 2013 I just wanted to thank everyone for making this thread so meaty and informative! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mommyfaithe Posted December 20, 2013 Author Share Posted December 20, 2013 Yeah, I have 10,000 different books for writing (insecurity, book hoarding issues, etc..) and there are several with that sort of assignment. They call that paragraph writing, but many of the exercises are leading up to that skill, not so much that they are expecting top quality paragraphs right off the bat. Lol!! Almost ALL of my teaching books, other than LiPing Ma's Mathematics, are for LA and writing ...part of my book hoardiness. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mommyfaithe Posted December 22, 2013 Author Share Posted December 22, 2013 http://eps.schoolspecialty.com/products/details.cfm?series=2561M Writing SKills on the EPS Books website. Very good stuff and easy to use. Oy! I have these on my shelf! Gah! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
readinmom Posted December 31, 2013 Share Posted December 31, 2013 If you have worked on writing, I really wouldn't worry about it. Common Core has changed the focus of writing in ps. You can go on the Smarter Balanced website and look at the practice tests. Help your kids learn these terms and have them use them when talking about their writing: thesis statement fact vs. opinion supporting statement textual evidence hook, thesis, conclusion tone, diction, style, author's purpose or argument, audience Read the op/ed section of the newspaper, and short articles from good magazines. Have them write a summary sentence for each chunk of the article. They can write a rebuttal to the op/ed piece. Most of all, don't worry. Please pm me if you have any questions! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NASDAQ Posted December 31, 2013 Share Posted December 31, 2013 I have Step Up to Writing for middle grades, if you want to know what's in it. Hard to get a copy on the secondary market. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NASDAQ Posted December 31, 2013 Share Posted December 31, 2013 Also, we wrote a lot more in school because we had to. My daughter reads Canute and the Sea and narrates what happens. I had 32 children in my second grade class. The teacher couldn't very well go from child to child listening to narration. She had to find some method of evaluation that was written. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mommyfaithe Posted December 31, 2013 Author Share Posted December 31, 2013 Still working on avoiding sending them to the public school, but determined to gt them up to snuff in their writing skills. So far, we are working on different types of paragraphs and they are getting it, and producing some god ones! Yay!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hunter Posted December 31, 2013 Share Posted December 31, 2013 Still working on avoiding sending them to the public school, but determined to gt them up to snuff in their writing skills. So far, we are working on different types of paragraphs and they are getting it, and producing some god ones! Yay!! Good luck! :grouphug: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Another Lynn Posted December 31, 2013 Share Posted December 31, 2013 Still working on avoiding sending them to the public school, but determined to gt them up to snuff in their writing skills. So far, we are working on different types of paragraphs and they are getting it, and producing some god ones! Yay!! Faithe, that is great on both counts! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
happycc Posted January 23, 2014 Share Posted January 23, 2014 When my first set of kids started public school when the oldest was 10yrs old he was really behind in writing or at least the quantity of it. He was dying but the school worked with him and he is 19 yrs old and can write a several page paper now. There was definitely a struggle and I am not going to lie. They used the 4 Square Method. I bought a few books on this recently to help my daughter who seems to be extremely challenged with writing. We are suffering our way through The Writing Tales right now. She is a fourth grader 10yrs old) and still can't seem to identify what a full sentence is. It drives me bananas. We go over this over and over and her speech is fragmented as well. Definitely some kind of learning disorder or of some sort just don;t know. It would not be fair to you or your child(ren) to do a crash course in writing. That is a lot of stress. Yes, schools were big on journaling but now with Common Core, things will be different. If you really insist on a crash course here are some recommendations: Week 1) Just read a lot of nonfiction and have them narrate it back a lot. Good content. Make sure they know what a full sentence is with proper punctuation. Meanwhile make sure they can type fast (typing program) and that their handwriting skills are strong (good pincer grasp-pinching stuff up with tweezers, strong muscles with squeezing a ball, good core (need a strong core to hold upper body up) for large amounts of time at the table and writing. I have found homeschoolers tend to homeschool everywhere lying in bed, prone on the floor etc. Their bodies just were not prepared for all the chair and table sitting upright for that many hours a day. My kids were so so tired at the end of the day at first. They get use to it. Week 2) Teach them how to do the hamburger thing for paragraphs. Main topic sentence, body and then conclusion --4-5 sentences is about a paragraph Week 3) Then slowly move to two paragraphs, then 3 paragraphs (the details supporting the main topic sentence) Week 4) work on Intro paragraphs and conclusion paragraphs Week 5) Then you mesh the into and conclusions with the 3 paragraphs That is about 5 weeks of daily work. Do it everyday. Make sure everything they write and answer in full sentences at all times. The best way to do this is with a good history book so they have something interesting to write about. I am so sorry you are being put in a position to make such a decision. It is a huge transition. Socially, please prepare them of school kids /recess behavior and slang and curse words. My kids were in a state of shock with the cursing and sexual words being passed around on the school yard. They were teased and bullied for not knowing the middle finger in 3rd grade or derogatory terms for homesexual meant etc. They are still angry at me now for "not preparing them well enough" of crazy school life. They were more angry and suffered great PTSD about that than being behind academically in some areas. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mytwomonkeys Posted January 23, 2014 Share Posted January 23, 2014 In middle school I was taught the ABC 123 method. I've taught it to both of my children. It was a good starting place to write paragraphs and papers in the context of what public schools want at this age. My daughter can write a 5 paragraph paper with an allotted amount of time about a specific topic using this method (necessary for FCAT here). Here is a link for the paragraph (and other link available for 5 paragraph): http://specialchildren.about.com/od/learningissues/ht/paragraph.htm Otherwise, graphic organizers are used a lot in PS and would be helpful in preparing for next year. http://www.eduplace.com/graphicorganizer/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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