WWE4 -- suggestions, helps, tweaks, ideas, whatever

[happypamama]

My fourth grader started WWE4 and is in the second week. I think we need to tweak it a bit, or he's going to be completely miserable by the end. He did very well with WWE3 last year, and I was pleased with the quality of his summaries by the end. He's needing some prompting for the summaries in WWE4 so far, but I think that is mostly just practice needed, and I think those will be fine in a bit. My plan is to finish WWE4 and then do something else -- TC or ELTL maybe -- before starting WWS in sixth grade, I think.

 

Where we need help is with the dictations. I agree that learning to hold the sentences in your head and all is a good skill, but this child is not at all an auditory learner. It just doesn't register with him at all. He does better when I hand him the book and have him study the dictations, although it's still a lot for him to remember. He's a happy writer but not a fast one, although his handwriting is amazingly excellent, and I think by the time he's gotten to the end, he's forgotten the passage. Saying it aloud does not really seem to jog his memory.

 

So, I need suggestions on how we can still achieve the summarizing goals, keep the handwriting practice, and allow for the grammar discussion that the dictations provide, but provide an appropriate challenge, not an overwhelming one. I'm open to any and all ideas.

[Jane Elliot]

My kids are all over the board academically. Some of them struggle; some are pretty bright. But, every one of them has needed me to break up the dictations in WWE 4. Sometimes we do studied dictations, as you do. Other times I simply give the dictations in smaller chunks, bit by bit, and they still make progress doing it this way. Now that I've done WWE 4 with four kids, I've decided this is pretty normal. Hang in there.

[TarynB]

Watch SWB do WWE4 dictation with her son.  Here's part 1 of her video series on it: 

 

Basically, make it easier than the instructions say.  Break it into smaller chunks, repeat more often, provide more support.

 

[Kidlit]

I agree Snowdrop--my elder dd needed more repetitions and "chunking." Those dictations are not simple!

[nrself]

Yep, I agree with all the above.  Even when doing WWE with older students I've needed to do smaller parts, more reps, chunking, etc.  If my student was not an auditory learner like op's, I'd do lots of studied dictations letting him/her look at the sentence first.  

 

Also, be sure to talk about this with your student.  These dictations are hard for everyone.  They are trying to stretch the student's abilities.  Give lots of reminding and lots of praise for what they do get!

[kiwik]

Or just skip WWE4 and go to TC now. Even SWB says 3 levels of WWE are probably enough. Pinned message at top of board.

[happypamama]

Thank you all! These responses made me feel so much better. I'm going to watch that video, but I'll continue to have him study the dictations, and well keep breaking them into smaller chunks.

 

Or just skip WWE4 and go to TC now. Even SWB says 3 levels of WWE are probably enough. Pinned message at top of board.

I did think about that, and I still might. But I think the summarizing is good for him, and if I go on to TC now, then I would need to find something else for next year, because I really think WWS1 will overwhelm him too much, even at half speed, in fifth grade. It was a lot of work for my daughter last year in sixth, much more than one step up from WWE4, and I think it'll be too much for DS1 in fifth.

[Aloha2U]

Sometimes I would recite the most difficult or lengthy passages up to five or seven times, but always with the stipulation that he had to repeat each passage back to me from memory after those 5-7x and before he wrote them down; he would then say them aloud again as he wrote them, whilst I listened in order to immediately prevent errors. The first time I read through a passage, he paid attention to the content but noted sentence breaks (or punctuation). Then with each additional reading he honed in on the key facts or phrases, and then details, until he had it memorized. At that point, he usually attempted to recite it back to me up to three times with little to no aid or prompting, before he began writing.

 

On other occasions when we were pressed for time, I just assigned the passage as copy work, but always with the stipulation that it had to be absolutely error free or we'd do it as dictation after all—during his free time.

 

I just asked my little man for his input on this matter, and here's a tip from him to your son: 

 

"If it's a story passage, try visualizing what's happening as your mother reads it to you. Then, the second time she reads it to you, speak it to yourself in your head. That helps me a lot. It also helps if you close your eyes while visualizing and repeating it. If you're being read a detailed or list passage, try remembering the first section, then the next, and finally the last—in order—until you've got it down."