When reading ability far exceeds writing ability?

[Ann.without.an.e]

I have this boy child who has a fantastic reading comprehension (above level), but his writing ability is quite below level.  He struggles tremendously with writing.  I own EIL Level I and it is recommended for 8th grade (said child's grade). While the reading is perfectly fine for him, the writing will never work.  I have no idea how to get writing to click with this child.  He has used the same program(s) as older dd who is an excellent writer :/  So, do I ditch EIL because he can't write on that level or do I proceed and plan to help him a huge amount?   :confused1:  I will take any thoughts, advice, or experiences.  I am at a loss.

 

 

[JanetC]

Could you describe the issue a bit? Is it a quantity issue or a quality issue? Does he write outside of his curriculum, for example blog or fan fiction, but have troubles with English assignments? If he struggles with a pen, have you tried a keyboard?

 

Some gentler approaches to writing include Brave Writer or doing Charlotte Mason style narrations.

[Julie of KY]

With my son who has tremendous reading and comprehension ability but very poor writing skills I used EIL as a literature guide and a place to go down lots of rabbit trails of learning about the literature. We did lots of discussions about the literature. I wanted to make the writing work, but he just wasn't up to it. We separated out writing as it own distinct subject and tried several things, but Bravewriter is the first thing that has really helped his writing.

[MicheleinMN]

Meet him where he is in his writing ability.  My suggestion is to stop trying to marrying his reading (history/literature) assignments to his writing ones.  If you think WWS 2 (or WWS 1), is what he can handle for writing then use it.  I would probably have him write or give an oral narration for his reading assignments, but his composition and grammar instruction would be at whatever level he could handle.

 

 

HTH

 

[Ann.without.an.e]

Could you describe the issue a bit? Is it a quantity issue or a quality issue? Does he write outside of his curriculum, for example blog or fan fiction, but have troubles with English assignments? If he struggles with a pen, have you tried a keyboard?

 

Some gentler approaches to writing include Brave Writer or doing Charlotte Mason style narrations.

 

 

He struggles with both quality and quantity.  He never writes anything he doesn't have to - no blogs, etc.  No "fun" writing.  That being said, if it is Scientific or fact-based writing he does much better (almost at grade level?).  When it comes to writing in general, creative writing, literature analysis, etc he can't seem to put two thoughts together  :confused1:  

 

He is doing WWS.  I decided last year that though it is younger for him, it might help.  I have just been at a loss with him.   :crying:

[Jilly]

He is doing WWS.  I decided last year that though it is younger for him, it might help.  I have just been at a loss with him.   :crying:

 

How far have you gotten through WWS? My son struggles with writing too, and he worked through WWS 1 last year and is going to continue with the program this year. My son's writing improved immensely with WWS. He also worked through some parts of Bravewriter's Help with Highschool which helped him a little but not as much as WWS. 

[Ann.without.an.e]

How far have you gotten through WWS? My son struggles with writing too, and he worked through WWS 1 last year and is going to continue with the program this year. My son's writing improved immensely with WWS. He also worked through some parts of Bravewriter's Help with Highschool which helped him a little but not as much as WWS. 

 

 

We are only on week 18 of WWS 1 because I picked it up near the end of last year.  He does very well with it.  He has no problem nailing the outlining.  I have considered completing both books and then trying other things.  I also have him enrolled in a Write Shop class.  We'll see :D

[The Girls' Mom]

I would stick with the WWS.  It helped my dd that struggles with writing improve quite a bit.  I've also given up on forcing her to write creatively.  Her mind just doesn't work that way.  She can write beautiful articles and non-fiction research papers, just don't ask her to write a story or analyze a poem.  Instead, we have concentrated on getting the structure of a well written essay down and honed her research paper skills.  For literary analysis, we have focused more on learning the terms and discussing literature orally rather than writing papers about them.  I wouldn't recommend this approach for everyone, but for my daughter and her goals for college, it is what works best.

[Mom22ns]

What about modifying EIL to discussions instead of writing. So, instead of an author profile for each book, he reads the background material and tells you a bit about the author - he can take a few notes if he needs them. You could give him a list of things you want him to know, like born/died, lived where? family? best known works? 2 interesting facts. Then when you get to the main writing prompt for each book, again use it as a discussion started. You can warn him you will do this and to think about it and be prepared to talk about it at a certain time. He should have some ideas, not a fully formed essay. Maybe you could even help him outline his ideas and talk about how you would put them into an essay if a discussion went really well. 

 

Keep working on the writing separately and let the lit reading be a positive experience with lots of discussion and no writing to drag it down. In future years, the writing assignments get longer and more numerous in EIL. Maybe you can gradually add them. So next year he does the author profiles and continues working on WWS2. Then add in a few essays with shortened word counts... gradually build the writing, but keep the reading in the mean time. EIL is cheap enough to be worth it even for light usage.