7th/8th grade writing

[silver]

We school year round and my current 7th grader is in week 28 of WWS level 1. It's going OK, in that we're making it through. It's not going well in that he hates it and getting him to do it, even with heavy hand holding, is like pulling teeth. I like the series, but I think that if we do continue, it will need to wait a year or two. I'd say he's a reluctant writer as there are occasional tears involved with every program we've used.

So now I need a writing program to finish out 7th and something for 8th. It can be the same thing, stretched out over time I have for these grades. 

He hates vague assignments, and he doesn't do creative/non-fiction writing. He seems to do well when things are broken down into smaller steps. Anything that requires watching videos (either on his part or mine) is completely out. I need something with clear lessons and assignments--I can't wrap my head around how to teach writing from books that don't include these. It doesn't need to be scripted, though, as long as it has actual lessons.

Help! Teaching this kid to write well is so frustrating that it may be the thing that makes me thrown in the towel for homeschooling.

[hollyhock2]

Maybe take a look at School Composition by Maxwell. It's free, so you can see the whole thing online. My then-8th grade son did it in about half a year, but it can also be used for younger. The assignments are pretty specific - usually you study a model and then write something like it. It's all different types of descriptive, narrative and expository writing, so similar to WWS.

[Soror]

You could do a theme book by IEW, that is laid out by days, and works on similar skills in a somewhat different way. 

I just started Jump In with dd1 and I'm liking it a lot for 7th, it is not laid out as in day 1, day 2 but by Skills and is easy to break down, we do a skill a day except for the longer projects are scheduled as 5 days. I like that it breaks the different kinds of essays into steps. It is a good fit for my dd1 who gets very nervous and needs things that are non-intimidating. It might be a bit light after WWS or it might be a nice break for me to start to enjoy writing.

[silver]

I've looked at some of the theme books before, and didn't like the simplistic models that were used. But that was when I was looking at the younger grades. I'll have to take a look at the upper grade ones and see if there's anything that looks good. We'd be able to work through those without watching the DVDs meant for either the parent or student?

I'll take a look at Maxwell's Composition and Jump In. I'm sure he would like to have something lighter than WWS.