jmarchman Posted January 26, 2015 Share Posted January 26, 2015 Hi all, My 12 yo ds has dysgraphia, and it is the kind where it is hard for him to put thoughts on paper. We have been doing Bravewriter with great success. I won't abandon it completely, but I'm needing more guidance or we'll be stuck doing freewrites for months on end (which is what we've been doing since August when I felt like he was ready for the next step beyond just freewriting). I'm looking at CAP Writing and Rhetoric. We'd start with the first book (grade 3/4) Fables. I'm wondering if anyone has any experience with this writing curriculum with a dysgraphic, little bit older student? TIA! Jennifer Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OneStepAtATime Posted January 27, 2015 Share Posted January 27, 2015 Have you considered something very systematic, like IEW coupled with the new Fix-It Grammar? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
merry gardens Posted January 27, 2015 Share Posted January 27, 2015 I have no experience with CAP, but we've used the Progymnasmata approach with a tutor when two of my older children were your son's age. They started with fables. Even though CAP places a lower grade level on writing fables, that seems a perfectly appropriate place to start. Pro-gym builds, so if you are going to use that approach, start at the beginning. One thing that I learned through my children's progym classes that was re-enforced through special needs programs: teach to mastery. The one-on-one tutor gave only two or three corrections a day to their work--and that process kept going until the child produced an "A" quality paper for that lesson. As OneStep suggested above, there's also the Institute for Excellence in Writing. The reading program for dyslexia we use recommended it, and I used it this year for the first time. It really is a very systematic approach for teaching struggling writers how to write, and my dyslexic son produced some of the best writing I've seen from him with IEW. I was just looking through their catalog yesterday and noticed they offer something for high school students that's pro-gym based http://iew.com/search/site/progymnasmata We haven't used that, however the IEW that we've used so far is somewhat reminiscent of the progymnasmata approach: show a student a piece of writing and then teach the child write based off the writing he just read. They mixed in both writing of both stories like fables but also reports. Since your son is 12, I'll mention the only downfall I found to teaching writing through pro-gym: much of the writing techniques used in subjects like history and science is very different from the writing used in fables. Your son may need to have some additional formal teaching on how to write reports. We've also used Bravewriter, but that's an entirely different approach than Progym. We've taken some of Bravewriter online classes--and at one point there was a speech and language pathologist who taught writing. She was excellent and helpful, because she had lots of experience and tips for helping a dysgraphic child to write. If you decide to use CAP with your son, please share how it goes! We finished the IEW material I'd bought for this school year, and now I'm exploring what to do next. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jmarchman Posted January 27, 2015 Author Share Posted January 27, 2015 We were doing IEW and fix-it before his diagnosis. I found Bravewriter during his testing, and daily freewriting for a year (never editing) has been good for his anxiety. Periodically, I would try to take the next step, and we were only successful once, last summer. I think IEW would be good to return to. I also like the look of CAP. Would it be crazy to combine all three?? I'll start another thread... Thanks! Jennifer Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Heathermomster Posted January 28, 2015 Share Posted January 28, 2015 Does your DS type or use a speech to text software like Dragon? Even if he does, expect to walk him through the writing process and scribe for him. Prior to looking at any more writing programs, maybe check out the lecture by Dr. Haynes of the Landmark School. Take notes and apply the process that Haynes suggests to whatever writing program that you are using. IEW provides the pre-writing work that Haynes suggests but with significantly less emphasis. ETA...upon vocabulary and sentence level subroutines that should be mastered to get these kiddos over their word retrieval and sequencing humps. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jmarchman Posted January 28, 2015 Author Share Posted January 28, 2015 Does your DS type or use a speech to text software like Dragon? Even if he does, expect to walk him through the writing process and scribe for him. Prior to looking at any more writing programs, maybe check out the lecture by Dr. Haynes of the Landmark School. Take notes and apply the process that Haynes suggests to whatever writing program that you are using. IEW provides the pre-writing work that Haynes suggests but with significantly less emphasis. He uses Dragon, mostly, which is a relief to both of us. :) I'll take a look at the video. Thanks! Jennifer Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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