What is your middle school child doing for writing?

[KeriJ]

Sonlight LA.

I really like it.

Are there samples?

Eta: I found them

Edited October 22, 2017 by KeriJ

[mirabillis]

6th - IEW SICC-A then SICC-B

7th - IEW SICC-B (finish) - then unknown

8th - IEW Elegant Essay / Speech Boot Camp (and trying semester of Lively Art of Writing as EE continues to not be my favorite, 2nd child in)

[eternalsummer]

We're doing Classical Writing Diogenes (7th); she's done WWS1 in 4th/5th, then was at a Waldorf charter for 5th and half of 6th, and so didn't get a lot in the way of writing instruction - just freewriting.  

 

It was a bear to start - the Student Guide is a complete waste and very confusing - but now that she's just going through the lessons without the student guide it makes a lot more sense.

[Runningmom80]

My ds is currently saying that he really wants to go to a b&m high school. He’s in 6th grade this year so I’m beginning to introduce academic writing via The Big History Project. He’s really into fiction writing so I just need to harness that enthusiasm and help him with non fiction essays. I plan on using Bravewriter courses and help for high school. Writing is the one thing I haven’t obsessed over, hopefully it all works out!

[GeoKitty]

My 7th grader is taking a writing/ literature class at co-op.

 

We are also going to do EIW 7 ... mostly for the videos, to fill in any gaps, and to help write the research report which she hasn’t done yet. She can churn out a good essay in an hour, so occasionally we do that as well. And she does the writing assignments in WWtW2.

[Amy M]

We're doing Classical Writing Diogenes (7th); she's done WWS1 in 4th/5th, then was at a Waldorf charter for 5th and half of 6th, and so didn't get a lot in the way of writing instruction - just freewriting.  

 

It was a bear to start - the Student Guide is a complete waste and very confusing - but now that she's just going through the lessons without the student guide it makes a lot more sense.

 

Wish I'd read this a week ago, when I bought the student and core guide for my oldest for next year. Any tips? Thanks!

[eternalsummer]

Wish I'd read this a week ago, when I bought the student and core guide for my oldest for next year. Any tips? Thanks!

 

Throw away the student guide or sell it, hah :)

 

The thing is, it tells you every day what bit to do from 5 or 6 different parts, which is okay, but just confusing because the parts are all in order in the main book but the student guide seems to want you to jump around and do a bit of this and then a bit of that every day.

 

I did tell DD not to worry about getting through a whole lesson every day - some of them are very easy and don't take 30 minutes, while others (the writing topic ones especially) take hours.  So I say, either complete a lesson or work for 45 minutes and pick it back up the next day.

 

Also, they want you to do a concurrent grammar but DD is doing Latin and did Barbarian Digrammarian last year and I just don't know that she needs a formal grammar right now, so we are skipping that.  

[quietchapel]

Copywork daily, dictation weekly, journaling weekly, R&S

 

Together do writing from whatever SL LA core we're on

[redsquirrel]

We started Expository Writing at WTMA in 5th grade. He's in 7th and now in Expository 3, using WWS.  For grammar in 5th and 6th we used R&S, but have switched over to Grammar for the Well Trained Mind.  That has been a very positive change for us.

I have always assigned literature to accompany our history cycle (year 3 this year) but this year I decided to try something different. He is taking a one semester class at WTMA called "Socratic Discussion" and I've made an executive decision that it counts as his literature for this semester. He might take it next semester as well. It involves close reading, annotating the text, coming up with discussion questions, providing a written response to at least one of your own proposed discussion questions with examples from the text, and of course, active discussion

 

I do feel a little squeamish about not assigning 'great books' that are historically relevant (and age appropriate) but he really is working hard in his classes and I'm not sure we have the time for any more reading.  I just think it would be stressful and not productive.

[Targhee]

DS is using CAP's Writing & Rhetoric, just finished Chreia and on to Refutation and Confirmation. DS hates writing but he will do W&R. He has ADHD and so organizing and planning ahead in writing are hard; summarizing and outlining are painful. He has an excellent voice and good style, so when we can get the ideas out they sound pretty good. We supplement if he needs more instruction in a particular area. We do W&R 4 days a week and work on other language organization skills on day 5.

 

He does Latin for vocab and grammar. For lit we are doing poems and short stories together. Right now he still needs these pieces separate from writing - I know they will come together later but he'd be on overload if we did that now.

Edited October 28, 2017 by Targhee

[sweetpea3829]

Our formal program is Essentials in Writing.  But I started my eldest two on research essays this year and so that's a huge part of our writing.  They are completing one a month, around a historical topic of their choice.  Complete with timeline, bibliography, the whole nine.  

 

My son is abhorred that I would do such a thing.  "But mom, this takes up ALL of my free time!"  (It doesn't).  Maybe one day he'll thank me?  

[alisoncooks]

Our formal program is Essentials in Writing. But I started my eldest two on research essays this year and so that's a huge part of our writing. They are completing one a month, around a historical topic of their choice. Complete with timeline, bibliography, the whole nine.

 

My son is abhorred that I would do such a thing. "But mom, this takes up ALL of my free time!" (It doesn't). Maybe one day he'll thank me?

Are you following anything (an outline or guide) with this? We use EiW, but I wonder if DD would benefit from a little bit more. She tends to obsessively research items of interest; maybe we could funnel that into something formal for school...

[sweetpea3829]

Are you following anything (an outline or guide) with this? We use EiW, but I wonder if DD would benefit from a little bit more. She tends to obsessively research items of interest; maybe we could funnel that into something formal for school...

 

I'm just following my own thing.  For this year, I wrote up a scaffold for them with sections for taking notes, a section for writing down important dates, a section for writing down sources, and specific paragraph sections.  

 

Then, for their specific topic, I'm writing up specific questions they should be thinking about while researching.  These are the things I want your essay to address.  As they progress in their research abilities, I will remove more and more of the scaffold until they are thinking on their own and able to complete this process from start to finish.  

 

I hadn't planned on doing this until last minute more or less.  But my eldest two are kind of in a "gap" year for history and I wanted them to be able to explore things of their own interest, but with them being in middle school, I wanted that to have more structure than just, "Here, read all you can about this topic and then tell me about it."  

[rutamattatt]

We have floated around with myyoungest DS when it comes to writing.  He's done IEW, Apologia's Jump In, and this year he is working through Apologia's Writers In Residence.  I have to say he is making the most progress with the WIR this year.  Not sure exactly what has made it the most successful fit for him, but he plugs along without too much complaining (and that's a nice change!).