Writing stamina, dyslexia, and state requirements.

[AimeeM]

CAP W&R is boring DD14 (dyslexic; 2E) to tears. 

While it takes her much, much longer to write than it takes the average high schooler, she's actually a sincerely great "writer". She writes great essays, amazing narratives, and great fiction. 

It just takes her a LOT longer. Her stamina for writing is close to nil :( 

Legally, I'm required to teach composition this year. 

Realistically, though, there is no way that I can require writing from her in other subjects AND do a specific "composition" program. I know because I've been trying to do just that. It only ends with her feeling defeated and none of her work is of normal quality. 

 

Is there something out there that can serve as a guide FOR ME, that I can use to informally teach composition WHILE she writes across the curriculum? I need something with handholding ;)

[chiguirre]

I think you could make all of her composition assignments be cross-curricular. When T has a paper to do for the WTMA Expository Writing class or her Landry lit class that has an open topic, I try to make them do double duty by having her write about a history topic that fits the requirements. I don't see any reason to overload a student if they can learn two subjects with one paper.

 

ETA: This might require tweaking the composition assignments. I haven't used the curriculum you're using, but I'd switch to a more generic composition program if I had to in order to have more flexible assignments. Warriner's might be a good resource that would allow you to be flexible while giving lots of help on composition elements if you need it. It's really cheap used on Amazon.

[EKS]

A good place to start might be the book Engaging Ideas.  Its target audience is college instructors, but his ideas can easily be used with high school students as well.  Reading this book (and the related book The Allyn & Bacon Guide to Writing) has transformed the way I teach writing.

 

Another resource that may be helpful is Grading with a Purple Crayon.

[MyLittleBears]

IEW Teaching writing structure and style might answer your needs. The videos are intended for the parent to teach to the child using pretty much anything from your other subjects. You could even use their student writing intensive program which is directed toward the student but replace the handouts with things she is already studying from science, history, or whatever. Does she know how to type? Dyslexic kids seem to have a harder time with pencil/paper writing. Typing frees them up to focus on writing rather than the "mechanics" of writing.

[AimeeM]

IEW Teaching writing structure and style might answer your needs. The videos are intended for the parent to teach to the child using pretty much anything from your other subjects. You could even use their student writing intensive program which is directed toward the student but replace the handouts with things she is already studying from science, history, or whatever. Does she know how to type? Dyslexic kids seem to have a harder time with pencil/paper writing. Typing frees them up to focus on writing rather than the "mechanics" of writing.

Typing is more difficult for her than writing, actually. She really detests anything DVD or computer based. Weirdo, lol.

 

We tried the SWI and it definitely didn't work for her.

I have NOT, however, tried the TWSS. Thanks for the reminder - I'll go check it out again.

 

Thing is, for her - the stamina. She actually appears to have good form and a good handle on the different types of essays... it's more the sheer amount of writing that is overwhelming for her.

[MyLittleBears]

There is a program maybe several programs that changes speech into text. Perhaps she may have better luck w/this. Dragon speak naturally rings a bell. I scribe for my dyslexic ds. We do IEW through coop and writing out for him what he says. It really frees up his mind to think out his answers. Then we go back and revise his work.  It amazes me sometimes the kind of work he produce just by removing the struggle of physical writing. You may want to cross post this thread over to the learning challenges board. The ladies there are VERY helpful. :)

[RootAnn]

Engaging Ideas is a fabulous book, but I'm not sure it'll hold your hand enough for what you are looking for.

 

I would probably do something to have her working on composition  using a tape recorder, DragonSpeak, or scribing for her to get her ideas down.

 

Separately, I'd have her doing copywork (or dictation) to build her writing stamina. I would let her pick the copywork so she's at least copying stuff that she's interested in. I'd have her always on the lookout for stuff she wants to copy for herself. My eldest would pick country music lyrics, probably, or names of songs/albums/artists/year for a list. DD#2 would probably pick beautiful description passages or short passages from horror stories (! :huh: ). DD#3 would probably start with fact book passages about her favorite stuff - snakes, butterflies, or penguins. They'd each have a (commonplace) book.

 

My sister had one filled with quotations from people or passages from the books she'd read.

[Guest Jdavmae]

Have you tried speech to text? Using the dictation feature on any apple product in either the notes or pages app can be very freeing and remarkably accurate. My son then sends his dictated writing to a word document and then he uses cowriter (a word prediction software that can read the text a loud to him) to proofread and revise. I believe that building her stamina through adapted keyboarding and/or assistive technology will be faster and less painful then drilling her handwriting, at least this is true with dysgraphia. Be thankful she has "good form and a good handle of the different types of essays"! I know she is "required" to do more writing and you are feeling stressed by helping her to meet that requirement ( I completely understand!) but maybe focusing on finding a way for her to increase her written output will ease the stress...the other thing is to find a reason for her to increase her written output...a small, writing group or creating an imaginary world through writing with a friend, Nanomowri ( the November writing challenge.) There is an unjournaling book which has exercises that were interesting and challenging enough, without being overwhelming. We found those to be helpful in terms of just facing the blank page. Just Breathe. It will be fine.

[prairiewindmomma]

If she can organize material, dictate opening and closing sentences and otherwise has skills in being able to frame up a composition....then I'd look at speech to text software. Dragonspeak, Siri, whatever she prefers can do the secretarial work of transcription.

[almondbutterandjelly]

Have you looked at Seton's Composition book?  It's straightforward, includes all the important things to know, but isn't gobs and gobs of writing.  I'm using it for my 9th grade dd who hates to write.  It gets the job done, and she's learning good stuff like don't write in the first or second person on formal essays (she likes to make little comments like she's advertising her topic.  "Don't you think?  You'll love it!")  It hits all the major stuff.

 

http://www.setonbooks.com/viewone.php?ToView=P-EN08-22

[Lori D.]

I never was able to find anything that was a good fit for us for writing, esp. in the high school years. I ended up using bits and pieces of various programs -- the tidbits that were helpful for us -- and then doing our own assignments.

 

Sounds like your DD is already a good writer -- great essays and amazing creative writing (fiction). :hurray:  Writing across the curriculum sounds like it would be the way to go for assignments, to allow her to continue to practice and flourish with her strong natural writing abilities.

 

Since you are required to teach Composition this year, what about using something like the OWL at Purdue website for your "teaching curriculum", and together you and DD can just work your way through the short informational articles, and put the info into practice in your own assignments — that is at a university level, but it's so clear, I've used their info in a modified form with my high school Lit. & Comp. co-op students. Or, if that is too much at this stage, check out the free series of instructional articles at either of these websites: ABCs of the Writing Process, or, Principles of Composition, and use their articles as the basis for teaching Composition this year. :)

 

For assignments, I would focus on quality, not quantity. Shoot for assignments that:

- work in the different areas of writing (descriptive, narrative, expository, persuasive)

- are of different lengths (single paragraph, 3-paragraph, 5-paragraph, multi-page)

- and include a variety of assignment types

 

For types of assignments for a Composition class, go for what will most help DD overall:

* research paper with citation

* science lab reports

* reader response (answering a prompt question/discussion question on a work of literature)

* literary analysis essay (compare/contrast; analyze a character or literary element; explain a key quote; show a theme at work…)

* persuasive essay

* compare/contrast essay

* process essay (steps of how to do something)

* a speech, or an oral presentation with visual aid or power point

* business types of writing (cover letter, resume, letter of appreciation or complaint, memo or meeting report…)

* a newspaper article or informative newsletter submission

* an editorial, opinion piece, letter to the editor, or other persuasive writing 

 

For multi-page papers, schedule however much time it takes -- for example, my DS with "stealth dyslexia" and LDs in spelling and writing needed 8 weeks to produce a 3-page paper with three citations in 9th grade.

 

I *really* would work with your DD on getting her comfortable with typing -- maybe start with the voice-text recognition software as above posters suggestion. But typing and use of a computer is an absolute must:

- for this year: typing speeds up the writing process, when it comes to the steps of revising and proofing -- instead of having to re-write the entire essay by hand in order to make changes and fix errors

- in high school, required for any homework or papers for outsourced classes or dual enrollment

- in college, not only typed, but usually submitted by uploading through a special class website

- in life / on the job -- basic computer skills needed everywhere for many applications

 

Fortunately, you have lots of time -- you have the four years of high school to transition slowly, gently, into learning to type and use computers, and to get comfortable/familiar with these skills. :)

 

BEST of luck in your Composition adventures! Warmest regards, Lori D.

[brehon]

Aimee, you mentioned that typing is more difficult than writing for your dd. Is it the physical act of typing that is difficult (i.e., using her fingers to strike the keys) or is it that most typing programs now utilize computers that is the issue? Could your dd learn to type/type her papers on a typewriter? This would remove the computer/DVD aspect that she doesn't like. The Goodwill stores and other thrift stores always seem to have typewriters for sale.

 

Lori's correct that your dd will need to become more comfortable with computers/typing at some point. And, of course, I realize the point might not be right now. The voice-to-text software could be a really good and gentle way to introduce this. I've used Purdue's OWL professionally and it was an easy and fairly painless way to help me help several of my colleagues to learn to write their patient care reports better.

[MerryAtHope]

I had a similar situation, only I had a poor writer who could put out very little writing (needed 30 minutes to write a paragraph that would be full of errors, needed lots of time to brainstorm and figure out how to organize ideas etc...)

 

I agree with teaching across the curriculum, and often used a topic from another subject for our compositions. I'd also encourage you to check your goals. Work with her where she's at--don't make it your goal to "finish a curriculum" or follow a pre-set schedule. Our high school English credits were "lit and composition" and here that meant 30 minutes for reading time, and 30 minutes for writing. Let her work at her pace. If she does a paragraph a day and then needs to re-write a few times and it takes her a month or more to finish a 1-2 page paper--so what? Help her develop her speed, stamina, and skills from where she is right now. Make it doable--keep it in bite-sized chunks.

 

Speech to text is a great help to my youngest--she actually uses her Kindle Fire (there's a microphone in the email function, and you can specify punctuation and new paragraphs etc...)  She'll do her rough draft that way, then email it to the computer for editing or she'll print it out.

 

Has she tried a typing program to learn how to keyboard? It's hard to write until keyboarding is more automatic. Typing Instructor Deluxe was helpful for my kids. 

 

It's worth it to keep working on the writing even in small bits--you'll be amazed how much she grows and changes over her high school years and how much these little bits of work will pay off.