out-of-the box ideas for 10th grade composition

[JennyD]

My DS15 is a competent but deeply unenthusiastic writer.  My goal for this year is to increase the volume and frequency of his writing -- I just want him to write more.

We are going to study Shakespeare for literature and I will assign him a couple of papers for that, and we are going to do AP Human Geography at home so there will be some writing there, too.  But I'm looking for shorter, less formal writing assignments that he can do more frequently.  Maybe some of the NY Times writing contests/prompts?  We've used the 826 National books (Stem to Story, Don't Forget to Write (for elementary and secondary grades)) very successfully in earlier years -- I'd love to find more resources along those lines.  

Ideas?

 

 

 

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Edited November 24, 2023 by 000000000

[Lori D.]

If it's a competent writer, what is the need to *increase* the writing output? A few longer papers to go with your AP and lit. sounds fine. Rather than manufacture meaningless and needless writing assignments, what about looking more closely at what his potential post-high school path may be, and gear a few writing assignments to prep for that?

A few real-life writing ideas:
- resume & cover letter
- business letter (a letter of... thanks, request, commendation, complaint, etc.)
- oral presentation with slideshow (frequent requirement in many college classes these days, and a skill often needed at career jobs)
- "email etiquette" -- formal email with attachment, as one would write to contact a hiring manager, boss, or college professor
- blog article or news article -- in some workplace jobs, ability to contribute to a company newsletter is a bonus skill
- personal essay for scholarship or college application

What about letters to the editor or "op-ed" pieces on topics he has a personal interest in? 

But, if you really feel regular short pieces of writing are needed, what about honing thinking/argumentative writing skills once a week through having you BOTH pick an old SAT essay prompt** to write about? ( It is often far more engaging for an unenthusiastic writer if you are both doing it and can discuss together. 😉 ) You could focus on different aspects of essay structure each time, and gently critique each other's essay. If occasionally a topic is of high interest, take time to research more and turn a short 5-paragraph essay into a longer, researched piece of writing.

** scroll down this linked page to the "SAT Prompts" clickable link, which opens up links to past SAT prompts from 2006-2015.

[Farrar]

I would definitely not do WWS or They Say, I Say for something like this as they're both the opposite of informal writing, but I like Lori's ideas. You could do one of those old Brave Writer 30 days things where you freewrite on a prompt for a set time each day and then choose one at the end to revise. There are those "642 Things to Write About..." style books (they have them in a variety of totally random numbers) so if you just want a ton of writing prompts, those are actually a pretty good bet. You could also get one of those Norton Readers that have the essays and the essay prompts together with some instruction. A little more formal, but it's easy to pull from them.

[Cecropia]

My rising 11th grader worked through The Ode Less Travelled by Stephen Fry last year.  It explores different meter, rhyme, and poetry forms with writing exercises in each chapter.  The book is engaging and the "rules" for the exercises are pretty clear and structured -- good for left-brained types, like my kid.  He generated quite a variety of poems by the end.

Side note:  Some of the content delves into sexual matters in a pretty vulgar way.  I had to edit that out.

[J-rap]

I like the idea above of instead of focusing on more, focus on practical things that he will likely have to do in the future:  resumes and cover letters, business letters, college essays, etc.

Another idea is to try a different angle and do a course in journalism.  Perhaps that kind of writing will feel different and appeal to him more?  I learned my best writing skills in high school journalism.

[wendyroo]

My ninth grader is a competent but unenthusiastic writer. One of my goals for him is to get better at is writing and supporting a thesis.

 One thing he is doing next year is reading through A Short Guide to Writing about Film. (They have short guides in the series to writing about art, music, history, etc. ) He is going to choose short Pixar or student films (5ish minutes) to practice writing some of forms they discuss. 

[ScoutTN]

7 minutes ago, wendyroo said:

My ninth grader is a competent but unenthusiastic writer. One of my goals for him is to get better at is writing and supporting a thesis.

 One thing he is doing next year is reading through A Short Guide to Writing about Film. (They have short guides in the series to writing about art, music, history, etc. ) He is going to choose short Pixar or student films (5ish minutes) to practice writing some of forms they discuss. 

This sounds fun!

[JennyD]

Thanks for all the great suggestions.  I really appreciate it.

I want DS to write more because he needs to build writing fluency.  He understands the basics of composition and can write decently well for his grade level, but it just takes him far too long.  So the idea this year is to just practice getting words on a page, over and over again.  Then in 11th grade we will return to more structured composition work.

Farrar, this past year he did part of your GPS African and Asian history program.  Having to write out all those questions was such good practice for him -- I could really see the improvement over the course of the year - and some of the longer writing assignments were very successful as well.  But oy, he was so balky and slow, and we had a LOT of "this is not a complete answer, let's discuss and you can try again" along the way.  

 

[royspeed]

18 hours ago, JennyD said:

He understands the basics of composition and can write decently well for his grade level, but it just takes him far too long.  So the idea this year is to just practice getting words on a page, over and over again.  Then in 11th grade we will return to more structured composition work.

In some kids' minds, writing creates a kind of mental logjam, because they're trying to do two things at the same time:

• figuring out what they want to say — coming up with their content, their points, ideas, examples;
• composing clear sentences & paragraphs — drafting, wordsmithing their content.

When we ask kids to "just practice getting words on a page," we may be repeating the logjam, over and over. Many parents believe that the way kids learn to write is by doing a LOT of it — an essay a week, or maybe every other week. But when students are struggling with such demands, we need a deeper understanding of both the reasons for those struggles (the problem) and the approaches likely to loosen the logjam & alleviate the suffering (solutions).

Such kids need a writing process that does two things. First, an efficient process separates the tasks bulleted above (coming up with content; wordsmithing the content) into discrete stages — a thinking stage & a drafting stage. Second, a sound process provides high-grade, easy-to-use writing tools for each stage.

To be clear: The struggle is created by 1) the inadvertent commingling of these stages, and 2) the paucity of the writing & thinking tools we give our students. (Many writing teachers still require Roman numeral outlines.) And as each stage becomes easier, the student's overall speed may increase dramatically.

For the thinking stage, many students benefit from mindmapping...

Edited July 6, 2023 by royspeed
clarity

[JennyD]

Thanks for your thoughts, Roy.  I completely agree with you about the importance of thinking (and discussing, and mindmapping, and brainstorming, and freewriting, and discussing some more!) before putting pen to paper, and I do tons of that with my kids.  We also spend a lot of time rewriting and polishing, after drafting.

But DS15 needs to work on the second part of the writing process -- the "park your butt in a chair and make the words in your head appear on a page" part, and I firmly believe that that simply requires more practice.  Whoever suggested journalism upthread was on the right track, I think, even though obviously in a homeschool situation we wouldn't have the pressure of external short deadlines.   (I found this collection of intriguing-looking resources, in case anyone else is interested.)

 

 

Edited July 6, 2023 by JennyD

[royspeed]

49 minutes ago, JennyD said:

I completely agree with you about the importance of thinking (and discussing, and mindmapping, and brainstorming, and freewriting, and discussing some more!) before putting pen to paper, and I do tons of that with my kids. 

If you don't mind my asking, what is the "product" of this stage?

In your process, in other words, at the point where your student parks his butt in a chair and makes the words appear..., is there a roadmap to the first draft that he has in hand and is staring at?

[JennyD]

41 minutes ago, royspeed said:

 is there a roadmap to the first draft that he has in hand and is staring at?

Yes, of course.   And if he is just writing out short answers to questions, say, then we have almost always discussed the material first.   

Just to clarify, I don't think that DS actually has any kind of major hangup about writing, and I am pleased with the progress he has made so far.  What I am looking for are age-appropriate resources for short, frequent writing practice.