Need writing advice for rising 7th Grader

[hhm]

I am desperate for help on what to do with dd's writing next year. FYI, she has used IEW with Fix-it Grammar for the last two years with a private tutor and has always received rave reviews / 'A's. Here are some of my thoughts and concerns and why were are moving on from this particular tutor:

 

- DD completely bombed a grammar placement test that I gave her in Feb. At that point, I took over grammar (now using Hake) and things are coming alone nicely. I recently gave her the same placement test and there was much improvement.

 

- When I asked dd to write a paragraph from a choice of three prompts, I got nothing but big, fat tears. She froze and said there was 'no way' she could write a paragraph on her own. I know that she can do it, but the fact that she THINKS she can't is a huge problem for me.

 

- On the bright side, dd is a wonderful creative writer. She uses both varied sentence structure and interesting word choices - not to mention lots of humor!

 

Even though writing is not my strong suit, I would like to work with her next year. I need a better idea of where she is and we also need some flexibility due to travel plans. 

 

I'm considering using The Paragraph Book Series along with Kilgallon Sentence / Paragraph Composing. I will also have her do outlines, summaries in content subjects to keep those skills fresh. My goal is to have her begin either WWS1 or Bravewriter online classes the next year. 

 

I guess I have a couple of questions here:

 

1) Does next year's plan look good for remediation when a student is blocked and can't write a paragraph on cue?

 

2) Realizing that WWS and Bravewriter are at different ends of the spectrum, what are some signs to look for next year to determine which will work better with dd's style? She became overly dependent on IEW's structure and I want to be sure to nurture her creativity while ensuring that she learns how to write a 5 paragraph essay! :lol:  Is WWS too similar to IEW?

 

Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

 

 

 

[ByGrace3]

Not a whole lot of help, but I am curious what your child bombed on the grammar test...My ds is using Fix IT and my older dd currently uses Analytical Grammar but I was considering switching her to Fix It as well...

 

As for writing, my dd did WWS 1 this year for 6th (online with WTMA). I really loved WWS, but we are going to take a year off to tune up the skills she learned from WWS 1 this year before we move onto WWS 2. I personally don't think WWS is like IEW at all...IEW strikes me as incredibly formulaic...which for a struggling writer might be helpful, but for a creative writer is incredibly stifling. 

 

We are using a  mix of BW Faltering Ownership and some mom made stuff based on WWS style writing for 7th...They are different ends of the spectrum, but I find that I like parts of each and incorporate both. 

[hhm]

ByGrace3, thank you for responding.

 

I pulled out the old placement test that I gave dd and see that she missed quite an impressive variety of items - plural forms of nouns, finding the subject and verb (yup!), past participles, possessive nouns and several other usage type questions. 

 

I think that Fix-it! (and IEW for that matter) are both fine programs; however, they did not fit my dd's learning style. She needs constant review and Hake provides that. If your dc have a firm grasp of grammar, then Fix-it! is a great way to reinforce those skills. Unfortunately, my dd was in B&M school through 3rd grade and the next three years were spent using programs that I now know didn't work for her (oh, the guilt!). All this to say that she has always done very well on our required standardized testing so it totally slipped up on me.

 

I'm wondering if WWS will be a good fit for my creative girl who thrives with a tad of structure? I hope that working with her on fundamentals over the next year will help me sort some of this out, but I am open to any and all suggestions / advice! 

[ByGrace3]

 

I'm wondering if WWS will be a good fit for my creative girl who thrives with a tad of structure? I hope that working with her on fundamentals over the next year will help me sort some of this out, but I am open to any and all suggestions / advice!

Well, my dd is incredibly creative, but she also is a perfectionist and rule follower so she likes the structure of WWS. I didn't find it stifling at all.

[kbutton]

I think that WWS is a good choice for someone who needs structure and ideas for what to say. I would make sure that if she likes to write creatively, you build in some breaks for doing that. If she still finds writing without WWS structure difficult, then it sounds like she has a problem that no program created--it's just difficult for her for some reason. In our home, that translated into an actual language disability that has been hidden for a long time (my son could compensate with logic in other areas, but not in writing). I don't think WWS is going to create or exacerbate a problem with depending on too much structure because it's repeated practice with the student taking over more control each time. It's also exactly the kind of thing a writer has to do independently later, like take notes from a source, form those notes into a coherent focus, etc. Over time, the student has more responsibility for locating and using the source, taking notes, etc. At first, it's all in the book for the student to use.

 

However...I think WWS is very different from writing from a prompt. I think her troubles with writing from a prompt can be from lack of specific training and/or a personal issue. For instance, I really didn't like or know how to write from a prompt when I was in school because I felt like it was both untruthful (inauthentic) and annoying to just be a windbag about some random subject. It could be that I was always given stinky prompts though. 

 

If she is being given meaningful prompts about things that are useful things for her to say, and she still can't do it, then I would be more worried. If she can do that, but she can't respond to a different kind of prompt, she probably needs some help in being a windbag or in forming pointless opinions on paper in order to get the job done.  :lol: It helps a lot in college, lol! I really did need someone to tell me that's okay to read into things or make stuff up. That's what other people did, and I didn't know. Obviously, some substantive questions will have substantive answers, but so much of what I was asked to do was "respond" to something and put myself into it. I needed to know it was okay to not give a fig if I could say something about it anyway.

 

It could also just be that she needs help organizing thoughts, including things like narrowing down thoughts or expanding on thoughts. So much of writing at her age is "what does this person making me write want to hear?" 

[hhm]

kbutton, thank you so much for your detailed response. I especially appreciate the information on how WWS progresses! 

[mamaraby]

Granted, this is from my son, but I would take the placement test with a grain of salt. Middle school brains, ime, are holey. My ds on one of the tests in Hake6 this past school year said that Germany was a verb. I asked him to show me how you Germany. We've all had a good laugh about that one.

 

This kid has had grammar all the way through so he should know it by now. If Hake seems to be a good fit, then by all means continue. On the other hand, if it starts to maybe feel like it isn't working either, I'm of the opinion that taking a year off from grammar is not, perhaps, the end of the world.

 

My perfectionist, needs structure sort of writer bombed with BW. It prompted tears and made him more reluctant. Ds found WWS challenging, but his writing definitely improved significantly by the end of the year. WWS provided the necessary scaffolding so that he could be more confident in expressing his thoughts without being overly formulaic. I liked that it had scaffolding for me, too. Ds and I are a lot alike, lol.

 

We're going to move on to WWS2 for 7th and are going to add in CW1 for some variety.

[hhm]

Granted, this is from my son, but I would take the placement test with a grain of salt. Middle school brains, ime, are holey. My ds on one of the tests in Hake6 this past school year said that Germany was a verb. I asked him to show me how you Germany. We've all had a good laugh about that one.

 

Haha! Yes, they do have 'holey' brains at this stage!!  And thanks - I am feeling so much better about WWS.