3rd Grade Writing According to WTM

[knitgrl]

In planning for next year, I want to make sure I'm not leaving things out. Dd writes neatly, but is reluctant to do a lot of it in one sitting. Right now, I can have her copy an 8-10 word sentence without her complaining too much about it.

 

It looks like she should be doing a literature narration 1-2x/week and writing it down. I think we'll start with trying to get her to copy longer sections of her narration and gradually move into dictating it. The same principles would apply to history narrations as well. She does copy her narrations for history (up to ten words of it), but she would cut them short if she knew she was going to have to write all of it.

 

We use ELTL, so there is copywork there. Because the dictations in AAS are only one sentence, I was thinking about using Dictation Day by Day to build on that.

 

So, at the minimum, she should be doing two narrations, and three dictations a week, right?

 

Any clarifications or suggestions would be appreciated. TIA!

 

 

[2_girls_mommy]

I will say, we didn't do that much. We did 1-2 history narrations a week plus dictation once a week with spelling tests, and did writing assignments which included a lot of copywork with our grammar/writing program (Rod and Staff.) As for literature narrations, we rarely did them in writing, maybe once a month if that much back then. We did the pen pal letters and science and history notebooks ala WTM at that age. 

[MerryAtHope]

I would just have her copy part of it to start and gradually help her to be able to write more. 

 

Is she up to lesson 14 in AAS 3 yet? That lesson introduces a new element, the Writing Station, where kids write sentences using a given list of words. I found that was a good scaffolding kind of exercise to help kids move from dictation to doing more outside writing.

[knitgrl]

We just finished lesson 5, so it's good to know that is coming up. I'm trying to navigate between striving for high standards and working with the kid in front of me.

[Milknhoney]

I remember I tried to make my ds start copying out his history narrations in grade 3. That was a big mistake. They are still not ready for that much writing at that age. Lots of tears and anguish over that. I don't know what ELTL is, but if there's writing, then between that and AAS you probably are still doing enough. 

 

We bought the junior notebooking journal for Apologia Science that year, and he did write out his narrations there. There isn't space for anything long, and he loves science so he was more motivated there than in history. So between that and AAS, that was his writing. I think I had even dropped WWE that year. Oh yes, that was also the year I introduced cursive. So he did have his handwriting workbook too.

[jgrabuskie]

It's so true, 3rd grade, especially for boys, may be too early for writing. My DS8 will be a 3/4th grader in August. I pushed last year (because all his public school buddies were writing) and the result was a failure, anxiety, and frustration. I am not pushing writing this year.

 

As I was checking out different writing programs, such as the Write Foundation, they started with entry level sentences for ages 9-11, then sentences to paragraphs 12-14; paragraphs 14-16, and essay writing 16-18. I have raised this topic before and received answers that boys don't really begin writing till age 11. Many other writing programs begin at 4th grade which is 9-10yrs

 

I am not going to worry, but keep my focus on the foundation of good writing and on modeling good writing. To do this I do what a lot of homeschoolers do, learn grammar from a rule perspective and a fix it perspective. Practice making sentences orally or by dictation, copy work, etc. I also do writing assignments with DS like friendly letters, narratives, and such by modeling or acting as scribe and coach on a white board. We first do a brainstorm, take a picture. Begin writing our draft. Then we edit. Sometimes we write a clean copy and other times we say "get the idea." My goal is to build his confidence for putting sentences together, brainstorming and paragraph organization to the point where he is doing more than I am.

[knitgrl]

As I was checking out different writing programs, such as the Write Foundation, they started with entry level sentences for ages 9-11, then sentences to paragraphs 12-14; paragraphs 14-16, and essay writing 16-18. I have raised this topic before and received answers that boys don't really begin writing till age 11. Many other writing programs begin at 4th grade which is 9-10yrs

 

Thank you for this. It is very reassuring. I know she'll be able to write at some point, perhaps it will be in 4th grade when I plan on having her start learning how to type. ;-)

[carriede]

Thanks for bringing this up! The replies are helping this mama too.