beginning written narrations: should they be edited? (4th gr.)

[lorisuewho]

I'm going to attempt to move my son from oral to written narrations.  He is not a strong writer, but he does give excellent narrations.  He can do summary narrations and long ones with all the details.  When he begins to do written narrations, should I be correcting them for punctuation, grammar, and spelling?  It seems like that would be quite discouraging, but on the other hand I have always expected their written exercises to be  correct.

 

What was/is your approach?

[Kfamily]

We handle transitioning from oral to written narrations by having the child write his/her narrations in a composition notebook. I choose one to two very specific points of concentration and include the proofreading/editing marks for only those areas. For example, with a child who needs to remember to begin every sentence with a capital letter and end it with a punctuation mark, I would mark only this until the time where it was corrected or was well under way towards being corrected. At this point, I would choose one or two other areas on which to focus, allowing this to repeat/continue over time. I particularly like to use the notebook approach, because I like to also be sure to write encouraging/complementary comments in it for each narration too. For example, I often write a few words such as "great use of this word" in the margin if my dds had chosen an interesting word and used it correctly. I also might write something at the end of the narration, such as "I really enjoyed your description of the great hall in this narration". I usually keep the edit marks to a minimum and might write a note such as, "Don't forget...words that end in 'y' might need the 'y' changed to an 'I' and 'es' added when made plural". Sometimes, I write a question at the end such as "Why do you think ________did __________?" if I felt that this aspect of the narration needed to be expanded upon more. I don't expect a rewritten narration. I just ask the questions to keep them thinking. I might ask for the editing marks to be corrected on a different day. So, I might just add to her assignment sheet a note for her to correct any errors in any previous narrations. Once they type well and have reached middle school, I choose some written assignments to be essays. These will be worked on longer, edited and typed.

 

I feel like I'm forgetting something, but.... :)

 

 

 

 

 

I wrote a blog post on this topic, if you'd like to read it too...

 

Transitioning from Oral to Written Narrations

Edited June 9, 2016 by Kfamily

[Guest]

I correct spelling right away, so that the child does not begin "seeing" the word in his mind incorrectly. Even in free writing at this point (third grade).

 

Mechanics and grammar I'm a little more of the mind to choose just one or two things to point out verbally--no fixes necessary-- for next time.

[RootAnn]

When I transition them, I write them first and have them copy their narration.

 

I find their narration to be a lot shorter if they are writing vs summarizing orally.

 

And then, personally, no, I don't correct them when they are finally writing them on their own because the skill I am working on isn't spelling or grammar. If you ARE using it as your spelling, handwriting practice, and grammar, then go ahead and correct it.

 

My kids are horrible spellers and some are reluctant writers, so I don't fix their narrations because I want them to just be working on writing what they have in their brain, not worrying about everything else. People with natural spellers and writers might not see why I personally don't insist on perfection.

 

Also, the age of the kid matters. (But, honestly, I still didn't correct Dd#2 and Dd#3's history writing-from-the-outline in SOTW4 this year because we were working on the skill of writing a good summary based on the given outline vs spelling,capitalizing, and punctuation correctly. Ymmv

 

(And on the point of not seeing a word written incorrectly, this is a moot point for almost all if my kids since their visual memory is extremely weak. They can see a word correctly hundreds of times and not remember how it is spelled.)

Edited June 8, 2016 by RootAnn

[Shalott25]

You should go through the writing process.  

 

Free write/get idea downs/brainstorm

Revise (usually good to have some question for him to answer and a writing conference during this stage)

Edit

 

Yes, you should edit with him, but not as he is writing or immediately after.  Teaching him to freely get his ideas down without judgement and to revise should help him feel comfortable writing.  Then finish off with the editing.  An editing prompt sheet would be helpful.  Focus on the areas he has trouble with.  

 

Also, depending on how much he writes, he may not need to revise and to edit every story.  I have my kids journal regularly.  Then, they pick a story or idea or paragraph to revise.  This way they get a lot of practice just writing freely but also have the benefit of getting comfortable with the writing process.

Edited June 9, 2016 by Shalott25

[Guest]

You should go through the writing process.  

 

Free write/get idea downs/brainstorm

Revise (usually good to have some question for him to answer and a writing conference during this stage)

Edit

 

Yes, you should edit with him, but not as he is writing or immediately after.  Teaching him to freely get his ideas down without judgement and to revise should help him feel comfortable writing.  Then finish off with the editing.  An editing prompt sheet would be helpful.  Focus on the areas he has trouble with.  

 

Also, depending on how much he writes, he may not need to revise and to edit every story.  I have my kids journal regularly.  Then, they pick a story or idea or paragraph to revise.  This way they get a lot of practice just writing freely but also have the benefit of getting comfortable with the writing process.

 

This is a different process than written narrations, which are not at all about the student's ideas.

[lorisuewho]

We handle transitioning from oral to written narrations by having the child write their narrations in a composition notebook. I choose one to two very specific points of concentration and include the proofreading/editing marks for only those areas. For example, with a child who needs to remember to begin every sentence with a capital letter and end it with a punctuation mark, I would mark only this until the time where it was corrected or was well under way towards being corrected. At this point, I would choose one or two other areas on which to focus, allowing this to repeat/continue over time. I particularly like to use the notebook approach, because I like to also be sure to write encouraging/complementary comments in it for each narration too. For example, I often write a few words such as "great use of this word" in the margin if my dds had chosen an interesting word and used it correctly. I also might write something at the end of the narration, such as "I really enjoyed your description of the great hall in this narration". I usually keep the edit marks to a minimum and might write a note such as, "Don't forget...words that end in 'y' might need the 'y' changed to an 'I' and 'es' added when made plural". Sometimes, I write a question at the end such as "Why do you think ________did __________?" if I felt that this aspect of the narration needed to be expanded upon more. I don't expect a rewritten narration. I just ask the questions to keep them thinking. I might ask for the editing marks to be corrected on a different day. So, I might just add to her assignment sheet a note for her to correct any errors in any previous narrations. Once they type well and have reached middle school, I choose some written assignments to be essays. These will be worked on longer, edited and typed.

 

I feel like I'm forgetting something, but.... :)

 

 

 

 

 

I wrote a blog post on this topic, if you'd like to read it too...

 

Transitioning from Oral to Written Narrations

This was such a beautiful and helpful response.  I'm going to check out your blog post next.  I adore the idea of having a notebook that could be "conversational" back and forth to at the very least have my son delve deeper with his thinking if not his writing.  I also really like just focusing on ONE "editing" or grammar item at a time.  The whole process would just be too much to get everything correct I think at this point.

 

I correct spelling right away, so that the child does not begin "seeing" the word in his mind incorrectly. Even in free writing at this point (third grade).

 

Mechanics and grammar I'm a little more of the mind to choose just one or two things to point out verbally--no fixes necessary-- for next time.

I'm going to go with this one or two things to point out verbally.  This makes a lot of sense to me.  Thank you.

 

When I transition them, I write them first and have them copy their narration.

 

I find their narration to be a lot shorter if they are writing vs summarizing orally.

 

And then, personally, no, I don't correct them when they are finally writing them on their own because the skill I am working on isn't spelling or grammar. If you ARE using it as your spelling, handwriting practice, and grammar, then go ahead and correct it.

 

My kids are horrible spellers and some are reluctant writers, so I don't fix their narrations because I want them to just be working on writing what they have in their brain, not worrying about everything else. People with natural spellers and writers might not see why I personally don't insist on perfection.

 

Also, the age of the kid matters. (But, honestly, I still didn't correct Dd#2 and Dd#3's history writing-from-the-outline in SOTW4 this year because we were working on the skill of writing a good summary based on the given outline vs spelling,capitalizing, and punctuation correctly. Ymmv

 

(And on the point of not seeing a word written incorrectly, this is a moot point for almost all if my kids since their visual memory is extremely weak. They can see a word correctly hundreds of times and not remember how it is spelled

I wonder about my children's visual memory also!

 

You should go through the writing process.  

 

Free write/get idea downs/brainstorm

Revise (usually good to have some question for him to answer and a writing conference during this stage)

Edit

 

Yes, you should edit with him, but not as he is writing or immediately after.  Teaching him to freely get his ideas down without judgement and to revise should help him feel comfortable writing.  Then finish off with the editing.  An editing prompt sheet would be helpful.  Focus on the areas he has trouble with.  

 

Also, depending on how much he writes, he may not need to revise and to edit every story.  I have my kids journal regularly.  Then, they pick a story or idea or paragraph to revise.  This way they get a lot of practice just writing freely but also have the benefit of getting comfortable with the writing process.

This is the method I used when I taught the writing process in school, but in this case I'm referring to the child writing written summaries of their readings.