Killagon Sentence Composing

[Green Bean]

My high functioning autistic son needs some writing help or rather something to work on. He likes to reword sentences or add to stories ala Writing & Rhetoric Fable. I was thinking he might like the Killagon Sentence Composing books, but I have no experience with those nor have I seen them IRL. Any users have some ideas? How do you teach these? Where do you buy them or find good samples? Where do you start? What is the difference between elementary and middle school books?

I tried looking on the publisher's site, but they require signing up for emails to see anything.

[Rosie_0801]

I was only able to get the teachers manual, which I haven't finished reading yet. It does include examples of their techniques and dd found the work easy and enjoyable, but it hasn't transferred to her other writing yet. I don't know if that's because she needs more practice or because she doesn't know when to use them or what. 

From my previous thread when I was asking similar questions, the only difference between the elementary and middle school books was the content, the elementary books lifting from stories more geared towards younger kids, but the skill was the same. So, based on that, it probably doesn't matter which.

I'd be interested to hear if anyone could describe the process of how their kids shifted from these exercises to actually using the skills.

[caffeineandbooks]

I've attempted Killgallon Sentence with a 4th grade "budding engineer" and switched to W&R books 1-3.  I think Killgallon was tough for this kiddo for two reasons.

1. We hadn't done any formal grammar, so he couldn't easily go, "Oh, the model sentence starts with an adverb, so I need to start with an adverb, too."

2. There is no guidance or restriction about what the imitation sentence should be about.  It's essentially creative writing where you imitate the structure of the model sentence but provide your own content, and that was difficult for this particular kiddo.

I found W&R provided more scaffolding - you were rearranging their sentences or substituting synonyms but keeping the same content - and both that kid and my creative type enjoyed it.  I'm planning to try Killgallon with another kid next month, I really like the program, but not for one particular kid.  Hope our experience is useful to you 🙂

[kbutton]

On 12/17/2022 at 10:38 PM, Green Bean said:

My high functioning autistic son needs some writing help or rather something to work on. He likes to reword sentences or add to stories ala Writing & Rhetoric Fable. I was thinking he might like the Killagon Sentence Composing books, but I have no experience with those nor have I seen them IRL. Any users have some ideas? How do you teach these? Where do you buy them or find good samples? Where do you start? What is the difference between elementary and middle school books?

I tried looking on the publisher's site, but they require signing up for emails to see anything.

I think they send the sample and you can unsubscribe--it's not intrusive that I remember.

Some ideas that are more scaffolded than Kilgallon...

https://www.rainbowresource.com/product/007561/Easy-Writing-Teaching-Students-How-to-Write-Complex-Sentence-Structures.html?

I *think* have some version of this book, but I can't find it get the ISBN. This cover is different, but it sounds like the book I have;. https://www.amazon.com/Sentence-Combining-Composing-William-Strong/dp/0070625352?ref_=ast_sto_dp  His other books sound good, but I haven't used them.

Eventually (upper grades), we used a book called https://www.amazon.com/Writers-Options-Lessons-Style-Arrangement/dp/0205533167/ref=sr_1_2?crid=QXUVQT2FGYP4&keywords=the+writer's+options&qid=1672437061&s=books&sprefix=the+writer's+options%2Cstripbooks%2C107&sr=1-2  and finally https://www.amazon.com/Style-Ten-Lessons-Clarity-Grace/dp/0321095170/ref=sr_1_3?crid=2A5ODSC1BN8JJ&keywords=style+and+mechanics+ten+lessons+in+clarity&qid=1672437202&s=books&sprefix=style+and+mechanics+ten+lessons+in+clarity%2Cstripbooks%2C90&sr=1-3 (there are a bunch of editions, so just looked for a used cheap one if you go that route someday).

I found with my ASD son that working at writing from every conceivable angle was helpful while he was spinning his wheels learning to do paragraphs. It sounds like you are headed in a productive direction if you can find compatible resources...good luck!

[Farrar]

We used it for a year or two, but mostly as a jumping off point. One of my kids found it super useful - or, at least, I can see echoes of this technique in his writing because he composing some killer sentences that are really effective and complex that feel like the sort of things he turned out when we used their methods. But it's hard to say exactly how he learned. I find that writing is hard to pinpoint some exact technique or moment that it transforms a student. It's just such little steps and who knows if it's the copywork, the exercises, the workbooks, the creative writing, the essays, the revision, all those books they read, all the books I read aloud... I mean, it's all those things.

[Shoes+Ships+SealingWax]

I agree wholeheartedly with @caffeineandbooks’s synopsis, though my DS enjoyed the series precisely because of the open-endedness that hers struggled with. He found W&R “okay” but overly restrictive. Having a solid grammar background definitely makes discussion of the sentences more valuable - at least parts of a sentence & parts of speech, ideally familiarity with a variety of phrase & clause types. 

Also agree with @Farrar that I think I’ve seen evidence of these exercises cropping up in his other compositions, but with so many components involved in language arts instruction it’s not clearly attributable.