CAP Fable-- writing help

[LAmom]

My 4th grader has been doing Fable this year.  We are at the part where he is to write his own fable.  This has proven to be extremely difficult for him.  There are a few helps--like what is the moral, who are your characters.  But then he is suppose to write the whole story out on his own.  He is not showing that he can do this.  I don't know how to help him.  Yikes.  Any suggestions?  Did you child struggle with this part at all?  I did recently buy Treasured Conversations so maybe stop a bit with Fable and move over to that for a bit?

 

 

[TheAttachedMama]

We haven't used Fable.   We are getting ready to start it in the spring.  BUT, you might take a look at "The Most Wonderful Writing Lesson" book.   I would try those lessons for a few weeks and then re-visit the fable assignment. 

 

TC is a wonderful program.   So you might want to use it later.  However, I don't think the lessons in Treasured Conversations would help you to write a fable necessarily.    I see TC as more a help for 1) writing strong sentences/parts of speech identification (part 1), and 2) Outlining and Topic sentence paragraphs (part 2).  

[sbgrace]

I stopped Fable and completed The Most Wonderful Writing Lessons linked in the post above. CAP isn't good at teaching the how of almost anything imo. The Most Wonderful will teach him how to write a good narrative. CAP can then be used as excellent practice and some fine tuning type instruction.

[8filltheheart]

Since you already own TC, I would read through the second section and decide if you think it would help. (You could do the 2nd section w/o completing the first.  They are not really sequential, but the first section does focus on developing stronger sentences.)   I have never seen CAP or The Most Wonderful Writing Lessons, so I really can't comment.   Maybe Rose (Chrysalis Academy) or someone else that has used both could help answer the question.

 

[Monica_in_Switzerland]

I have not used The Most Wonderful... As linked above, but I did purchase it and read through the entire book over the last two days. It is so, so, so good! Very explicit instruction for writing, with a focus and lessons to cover each aspect of narrative writing one at a time, then put them all together. I'm not going to quote the table of contents (see free kindle sample for that) but it isolates and builds skills like:

- strong beginnings

- vivid detail

- suspense

- main event/climax

Etc.

 

I also own Fable, and when I look at the very first Fable assignment (rewrite lion and mouse using mouse and spider) it is clear that Fable needs to come AFTER something like TMW or else it will just be a. Workbook full of uninteresting weak writing.

[Monica_in_Switzerland]

Just realized The Most Wonderful author has a website!

 

http://empoweringwriters.ca/improving-student-writing/teaching-narrative-writing/introduction-narrative-writing/

[pitterpatter]

Since there's a lot of talk about "The Most Wonderful Writing Lesson Ever," I thought I'd mention that you can get the eBook 50% off via Scholastic Teacher Express right now. $6.17 after the APRIL50 code. I'm not sure whether this one ever goes a dollar. Anyone know?

 

http://teacherexpress.scholastic.com/the-most-wonderful-writing-lessons-ever-mkt641

[SparklyUnicorn]

You could try scribing for him and see if he can do the assignment.  It's hard to put that all together and he might be overwhelmed. 

 

But I have to say that's one criticism I have with CAP.  Not much actual writing instruction.  There is a big leap from telling back a story to writing your own story. 

[Chrysalis Academy]

I agree, we skipped that part of Fable - at the time, it was way too much.  I think working through TC - the first two sections - is an excellent next move.  Just skip that last Fable lesson, and work through the first two parts of TC.  The second part helps a kid figure out how to figure  out what they want to say, create an outline, and write from the outline.  It gives them the tools they need to do something like that Fable assignment.  Then you could go back to it, or you could just move on to Narrative 1.  I'm not convinced that creating a whole story from scratch is developmentally appropriate for most 3rd graders.  If they want to, great.  But if they don't want to, or struggle with it, it just means they aren't ready. Or maybe they aren't wired to do that type of creative writing assignment.  Either way, I wouldn't force it.

[rimk3]

We are on lesson 8 of Fable and completed section one of TC before starting Fable.  I found the skills built in TC to be very helpful during Fable.  I'm sure if we had done the second section of TC, we would have found those skills useful as well.  The beauty of TC is that is gave my son and myself a common language to use again and again in other writing.  I agree with Rose, don't do that lesson right now and work through TC, at least section one, possibly section two.  We have not hit any super challenging spots in Fable yet, but when/if we do, my plan is to go back to TC.  Otherwise we will go back to TC after Fable, before Narrative.  

 

Also, there have been times in Fable where I scribed for my son.  Usually, those times required more original writing.  For my goals, it is more important for me that he is thinking through what he wants to say and can get the words out, (that he can paint a picture in the reader's mind), than for him to actually write the words.  He is transitioning to writing on his own and does the summaries.  He's in 3rd grade, btw, and I hope to have to do less scribing by the end of 4th.

 

If it were my son and having part one of TC under our belts, I would first let my son sit with it for a few days.  I would ask him to think about a lesson or moral he wants to write about and the characters, the setting.  When we did the lesson where he had to write his own story about a time in his life that illustrated "it's foolish to be greedy,"  I gave him a couple days to think about a time.  Having to come up with the moral and characters and then write about what happens with description and dialogue can be overwhelming.  Now, some kids will have a hard time coming up with their own moral, characters, and setting.  I think it is fine to offer suggestions or help them get started.  Maybe they need to start with the characters before the moral?  Or maybe some children will need the moral given to them.  That's okay too.  Once my son had a moral and some characters, then what we learned from TC would really help us.  So, he wants to use a monkey.  "Is it a young monkey, old monkey?"  Then start describing the monkey and what the monkey is doing, where the monkey is doing this using the socratic conversation we learned in TC.  

 

[LAmom]

Thank you everyone for your helpful input!  I will do TC section 2 and then go from there.  I may buy the Most Wonderful Writing... also since it is on sale.  ;)

[SparklyUnicorn]

I agree, we skipped that part of Fable - at the time, it was way too much.  I think working through TC - the first two sections - is an excellent next move.  Just skip that last Fable lesson, and work through the first two parts of TC.  The second part helps a kid figure out how to figure  out what they want to say, create an outline, and write from the outline.  It gives them the tools they need to do something like that Fable assignment.  Then you could go back to it, or you could just move on to Narrative 1.  I'm not convinced that creating a whole story from scratch is developmentally appropriate for most 3rd graders.  If they want to, great.  But if they don't want to, or struggle with it, it just means they aren't ready. Or maybe they aren't wired to do that type of creative writing assignment.  Either way, I wouldn't force it.

 

I did too.  My son was so excited by the idea, but when he went to try to do it, oh man he broke down.  Poor kid. And I was willing to scribe for him. 

 

Oh well.  I didn't think it was a hill to die on so we just skipped it.

[Chrysalis Academy]

I did too.  My son was so excited by the idea, but when he went to try to do it, oh man he broke down.  Poor kid. And I was willing to scribe for him. 

 

Oh well.  I didn't think it was a hill to die on so we just skipped it.

 

That's exactly how it went down here, too.  It actually traumatized Morgan enough that she didn't want to do Narrative! I'm hoping she gets over it and wants to do it next year, but if not no biggie.