8th grade writing standards

[ktgrok]

A goal this year is to get dyslexic DD13 up to or as close to grade level for writing. She lacks both experience and confidence, but the little she has written has always been good. 

So, what does that look like? And what accommodations, if any, would you suggest for someone with dyslexia in the area of writing? (we are working on getting her up to speed on typing skills, as that will give her spell check at least). 

Where does she need to be at years end? Is being comfortable with a 5 paragraph essay good enough? I'm sure we can get there. I know a research paper is often done in 8th, but I can't figure out how long and indepth that is expected to be. My guess is the idea is to get them used to collecting information and learning to cite sources while writing, and avoid accidental plagiarism. Can we do that in the context of short, 5-7 paragraph length stuff do you think? 

Honestly, my oldest wrote one whole essay in highschool with me, as he was dealing with mental health issues and math and other things took priority, and he still got A's in his college dual enrollment papers, so I'm not of the belief one needs to write a TON all the time to be decent at it. But she isn't him, and doesn't have his confidence, so she will need to write more than that, lol. 

I have a few workbooks/curricula I can use, Jump In and a "How to Write a 5 Paragraph Essay" workbook, but I may just sit with her and work on things without that, like I did him. Just pick a topic and help her work through how to organize and write and rewrite. But I need an idea of where I'm headed to do that. 

[Amoret]

I would just work on building confidence and fluency first, and then turn your focus to form. Give your DD time to practice stringing words together in her mind and getting them down on paper without any pressure to navigate formal essay conventions or worry about thesis statements, topic sentences, and the rest. Assuming that you plan to HS through high school, she has plenty of time to master the skills of the essay and research writing, which are as much about thinking in logical ways as they are about writing. Without the ability to write freely and easily and with confidence, these things will be very challenging. I taught freshman comp the college level for a decade and saw so many kids who struggled just to get words on paper and who had such anxiety about writing because it was SO hard for them. When she is more confident as a writer, then I would plan to work with her on short non-research essays next year (keep the length short and the topics easy so she can focus on the mechanics of the form), then a research writing focus (maybe one 4-6 page research essay/semester and other short non-research writing in 10th, then integrated writing across the curriculum in 11th and 12th.

I would try to make writing as enjoyable as possible and to do some every day (or nearly every day -- maybe 15 or 30 minutes -- something that seems totally manageable for her). 642 things to Write About for kids is fun, but she would probably need write them on a separate sheet of paper or type them because there isn't much space provided. She could also write something like an ultimate guide, journal entries, a zine, a web site, a wiki, or other non-essay genre. Maybe have a goal of a given amount of time for free writing each day and then a larger fun-ish project (which could be revised and polished) per semester.

Edited August 14, 2023 by Amoret

[ktgrok]

14 hours ago, Amoret said:

I would just work on building confidence and fluency first, and then turn your focus to form. Give your DD time to practice stringing words together in her mind and getting them down on paper without any pressure to navigate formal essay conventions or worry about thesis statements, topic sentences, and the rest. Assuming that you plan to HS through high school, she has plenty of time to master the skills of the essay and research writing, which are as much about thinking in logical ways as they are about writing. Without the ability to write freely and easily and with confidence, these things will be very challenging. I taught freshman comp the college level for a decade and saw so many kids who struggled just to get words on paper and who had such anxiety about writing because it was SO hard for them. When she is more confident as a writer, then I would plan to work with her on short non-research essays next year (keep the length short and the topics easy so she can focus on the mechanics of the form), then a research writing focus (maybe one 4-6 page research essay/semester and other short non-research writing in 10th, then integrated writing across the curriculum in 11th and 12th.

I would try to make writing as enjoyable as possible and to do some every day (or nearly every day -- maybe 15 or 30 minutes -- something that seems totally manageable for her). 642 things to Write About for kids is fun, but she would probably need write them on a separate sheet of paper or type them because there isn't much space provided. She could also write something like an ultimate guide, journal entries, a zine, a web site, a wiki, or other non-essay genre. Maybe have a goal of a given amount of time for free writing each day and then a larger fun-ish project (which could be revised and polished) per semester.

Thank you! She is the one concerned that she isn't writing essays yet, after finding out her significantly younger cousin writes them in public school. I did explain that we don't do things they way they do in public school - that earlier isn't better, etc. 

But you do relieve my mind a bit. I think we will start with paragraphs - sometimes about a topic we are learning about  and sometimes about something fun - she draws a lot of characters and I know she has created backstory for them. I'm thinking of having her write character sketches for them.  Then once she is comfortable writing a paragraph, then work on essays. I truly think she will do just fine if she can get her confidence up, and get past her perfectionist tendency to freeze and give up if it isn't perfect. 

 

[kirstenhill]

With my middle two kids, we did a fair number of literary essays in 8th, but mostly because they were aiming to head to public school in 9th, and I knew from oldest DD's experience in 9th that they were expected to already have some familiarity both with how to write a 5 paragraph essay and how to do basic literary analysis.  I don't think I did a super great job teaching the analysis part - DS16 said he did his first paper "totally wrong" in terms of the analysis, and had to redo it.  I tried to do a better job with DS14, but I am not sure I did.  His last essay for me in 8th, turned out to be more of an argumentative paper on a moral idea "inspired" by the book he read, rather than an analysis of the book.  Whoops! But it was late May and he and I both were too tired of it all to have him write another paper. 

I think if I weren't prepping my kids for public school during 8th grade, I would worry less about the literary analysis and more about 5 paragraph essays in a variety of styles and maybe a short research assignment. 

My youngest is dyslexic and is so behind in writing compared to where my other kids were at the start of 6th grade.  I want to work more on using tools like speech to text, but every time he tries that, he rambles and rambles - more like how he "talks" rather than like how he should write.  When he types or hand writes, the quality of the sentences is so much better, but it is a painfully slow process to get 1 paragraph written.   He aspires to attend public school in 9th like older siblings, but right now it is sort of hard to imagine, mostly because of his writing skills, so we have to work hard on that in middle school for sure!

Edited August 14, 2023 by kirstenhill

[Amoret]

1 hour ago, ktgrok said:

I think we will start with paragraphs - sometimes about a topic we are learning about  and sometimes about something fun - she draws a lot of characters and I know she has created backstory for them.

I think this is a great idea -- paragraphs are just like essays in miniature with a topic sentence (becomes the intro and thesis), supporting details (becomes the body paragraphs) and clincher (becomes the conclusion). If she feels behind, maybe you can rebrand them as "micro essays" instead of paragraphs, which sounds more sophisticated 😀 . They are also manageable for someone with perfectionist tendencies. If your DD was heading to school for 9th, I would say that you should focus exclusively on the essay form, but you have time, which is great.

[Shoes+Ships+SealingWax]

23 hours ago, Amoret said:

I think this is a great idea -- paragraphs are just like essays in miniature with a topic sentence (becomes the intro and thesis), supporting details (becomes the body paragraphs) and clincher (becomes the conclusion). If she feels behind, maybe you can rebrand them as "micro essays" instead of paragraphs, which sounds more sophisticated 😀 . 

You could also include simplified MLA formatting instruction with typed paragraphs, which will help her writing look more formal / sophisticated while also teaching essay conventions she’ll need familiarity with. 
 

ETA: I found this link helpful in thinking about how to introduce MLA, building up formatting requirements over time. You can ignore the grade levels or tweak them as desired.

 https://fw.unitymg.com/media/38/0104-00016938-01-res-mla_and_writing_expectations_by_grade_level.pdf

Edited August 15, 2023 by Shoes+Ships+SealingWax

[ktgrok]

6 hours ago, Shoes+Ships+SealingWax said:

You could also include simplified MLA formatting instruction with typed paragraphs, which will help her writing look more formal / sophisticated while also teaching essay conventions she’ll need familiarity with. 
 

ETA: I found this link helpful in thinking about how to introduce MLA, building up formatting requirements over time. You can ignore the grade levels or tweak them as desired.

 https://fw.unitymg.com/media/38/0104-00016938-01-res-mla_and_writing_expectations_by_grade_level.pdf

Thank you!

[ktgrok]

So as I'm going through stuff I found some samples that I think show she CAN write...she just needs some confidence. The one on notebook paper was part of an assignment to write about something she might do in the living room. The other was rewriting sentences.