How many writing assignments do you assign each week?

[Melissa B]

How many assignments do you assign each week? And at what age?

 

I am trying to wade through history, science, literature, writing, Latin and French writing assignments. And trying to keep in mind the writing involved in math and language arts. We seem to be heavy on writing assignments this year.

 

So, how many do you assign on a weekly basis?

[sweetbaby]

My younger children (3rd and 4th) have written narrations in history and science through notebooking and they also have written narrations in literature. As for writing, we use Rod and Staff so it's included. We notebook at least once a week and the english is daily.

 

My oldest has writing in literature, his writing course, and history. He also has weekly writing assignments on news articles in history that are researched.

[rafiki]

.

[Colleen in NS]

How many assignments do you assign each week? And at what age?

 

I am trying to wade through history, science, literature, writing, Latin and French writing assignments. And trying to keep in mind the writing involved in math and language arts. We seem to be heavy on writing assignments this year.

 

So, how many do you assign on a weekly basis?

 

I feel like I'm always experimenting with this, but here is my current plan..

 

5th grader: one science and one history outline (one level outlines), one narration each in science, history, and literature (currently this is a paragraph per narration, maybe 1/4 to 1/3 page?). A letter every couple of weeks or so. Occasionally a writing lesson assignment from R&S, but I try to do as much of R&S orally as possible, unless I see a clear reason to have him write out the writing assignment. Dictation of a 25-30 word paragraph, twice a week. Then there is math problems, or fill-in-the-blanks of Latin or vocab..

 

1st grader: dictation every day, currently 3-5 word sentences. I write her narrations for her, and these are two history, two science, and one literature. Dictation of 10 spelling words per day and a 30 word test on Thursdays. A letter every couple of weeks. Occasional copying from FLL.

[love2read]

I was just finishing up my 6th graders plans when I read your post. Here is the first quarter plus a little more that shows her main writing assignments. There will be occasional paragraphs for science and history but for the most part they are included under either IEW or part of a book analysis. The kids gradually work up to this starting in grade 2 or 3 and at this level they would spend at least 30 minutes/day writing thoughtful paragraphs or essays. Some days would involve an hour of writing and some days no writing. I used an * color to indicate those assignments which follow a format (outline or chart) of some sort to differentiate those that may involve more creative writing or require just the organize of the student's thoughts. By fourth grade they have already done at least one IEW workshop and are expected to apply what they have learned. I usually do oral questioning for other subjects

 

*Week 1-2 IEW (note taking, short compositions)

 

Week 3-4 Daybooks (average one paragraph a day plus some short answers over the week)

 

*Week 5 book analysis

 

*Week 6 report on an artist using IEW techniques

 

Week 7-10 Daybooks (average one paragraph a day plus some short answers over the week)

 

*Week 11 book analysis

 

Week 12-13 Writers Craft (short answers to discussion questions, one long original essay each week)

[Wendy in ME]

The plan for 6th grade is the Classical Writing Homer A assignment for the week along with a written narration through notebooking for history, science, and literature.

[Melissa B]

Thank you for all of the responses so far!!

 

Does this seem reasonable per week for a dd 10 (nearing 11) who is a good writer?

 

1 notebook-like page for history

1 notebook-like page for science

2 outlines for history

1 writing assignment (Classical Writing or Thompson's)

1 narration (or writing assignment) for literature

daily copywork (in French or Latin)

[mcconnellboys]

For fifth grade, this year, my son is doing a science outline per week; one or two history outlines per week; one science and one history report per week. He sometimes will also be doing book reports for literature and his writing for language arts varies from day to day and week to week. Last week, he made notes in a writer's notebook that he will use to write a papter this upcoming week, for instance.

[Colleen in NS]

Thank you for all of the responses so far!!

 

Does this seem reasonable per week for a dd 10 (nearing 11) who is a good writer?

 

1 notebook-like page for history

1 notebook-like page for science

2 outlines for history

1 writing assignment (Classical Writing or Thompson's)

1 narration (or writing assignment) for literature

daily copywork (in French or Latin)

 

In my completely inexperienced opinion, it seems good to me. What about including English dictation a time or two per week, to continue hearing and imitating good writing for another year or two?

[Melissa B]

Thanks Colleen! She does do dictation once per week with Classical Writing. The only dictations I have ever been consistent with are those in First Language Lessons and the one per week with Classical Writing.

[Academy of Jedi Arts]

Here is dd7's norm for a week- it can sometimes be a little more or less.

 

a 1-2 page paper for writing

anywhere from 10-25 essay type questions

a mini-book or some other kind of project-based writing

 

Melissa, your assignments look good to me :D

[Homeschooling6]

Wow! You all are making me think (AGAIN:D) I was planning on for our 1st Semester

 

• 1 outline for history per week
  
• 1 outline for science per week
  
• 1 Copywork (since he can't spell) per week
  
• R&S writing assignments

For 2nd Semester I was going to add to the above with some narration/writing from history, science and readers.

 

Back to my WTM book :glare:

 

Although my son isn't a good writer. He's getting better but still not a 'good' writer.

[8filltheheart]

Thank you for all of the responses so far!!

 

Does this seem reasonable per week for a dd 10 (nearing 11) who is a good writer?

 

1 notebook-like page for history

1 notebook-like page for science

2 outlines for history

1 writing assignment (Classical Writing or Thompson's)

1 narration (or writing assignment) for literature

daily copywork (in French or Latin)

 

 

It is significantly more than I expect from my kids. My kids only write on paper/week until high school. The assignments vary across curriculum (history, science, lit).

[Peela]

To some extent I assign according to the child's capacity- so my happy writer has always received more and longer writing assignments than my reluctant writer.

My kids don't write for every subject every day or even every week. I pick 3 or 4 longer assignments a week for them and I vary the subjects they are related to. We cover a lot orally. Both do short answers etc for some subjects, some copywork, dictation or other shorter assignments daily.

My ds12 usually does two pieces of writing a day- 4 days a week- one copywork or dictation, 3 days a week- longer assignments. Dd14 does a similar amount but probably more like 4 longer assignments a week.

 

When younger, my ds12 could only manage a very small amount of writing a day. It has only been this year he could manage a page.