Miss Marple Posted January 22, 2009 Share Posted January 22, 2009 He just told me that his freshman comp teacher submitted his name to a committee which offers a writing scholarship. Each freshman comp teacher was asked to submit the name(s) of student(s) who had written an excellent piece. About 100 names were submitted (I think the freshman class at OU is about 3800 - probably not all of those are in freshman comp, though). While the odds are not in his favor to receive this award, it's nice knowing that he isn't a complete writing goof :001_smile: I've been rethinking my philosophy of writing. It was the one subject I felt so insecure about and never felt he was writing at the appropriate level. But when he took concurrent courses, his essays always received A's. So there must be a disconnect somewhere with my expectations and what is actually thought to be a good paper. Funny, I never felt this way about any of the other courses he studied. I think much of my insecurity stems from our participation in a co-op where his writing was always criticized. The person teaching was not a qualified writing instructor, nor even a homeschooling mom who had seen many papers. Rather she enjoyed writing and everyone had told her she was good at it. And being more math/science oriented myself, I was happy to have an "expert" take over that part. I think that experience damaged my ability to interpret the level at which my son should be writing. Has anyone else experienced something like this - papers being criticized by one person, but praised by another? Unfortunately, our co-op has another teacher who has done the same thing to 2 of our older concurrent students. Their moms have called me to ask *how* they should help their kids improve their writing. They don't understand why the co-op teacher is saying, "they simply have no idea of how to write an essay" when their concurrent essays are receiving A's. I'm thinking we have a bit of a problem in our co-op:tongue_smilie: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kareni Posted January 22, 2009 Share Posted January 22, 2009 Congratulations to your son! Brag away .... Regards, Kareni Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beth in SW WA Posted January 22, 2009 Share Posted January 22, 2009 Yes, that is awesome! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brenda in MA Posted January 22, 2009 Share Posted January 22, 2009 (edited) Cynthia, That is wonderful news. I hope your son wins the scholarship. Congrats to you and your son! Brenda Edited January 22, 2009 by Brenda in MA Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jane in NC Posted January 22, 2009 Share Posted January 22, 2009 Cynthia, How exciting for both you and your son! Well done! Jane Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FloridaLisa Posted January 22, 2009 Share Posted January 22, 2009 Congratulations! It's an honor just to be nominated. Really! :D That's an interesting insight into writing through your homeschool years. I was just having lunch with a friend and we discussed how much more writing our kids do than we did in school. Our kids have separate writing classes (in addition to lit and the at-home studies of grammar/vocab). Also, my kids read sooooo much more than I did in high school. They have *time* to read and their history and lit classes use whole books rather than excerpts. Perhaps both the ample and deep reading, together with intense writing classes do have an effect after all! Lisa Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Leonor Posted January 23, 2009 Share Posted January 23, 2009 Congratulations! Thanks for sharing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cheryl B in VA Posted January 23, 2009 Share Posted January 23, 2009 My son is a bright 11th grader and we are outsourcing his main classes. When I read his essays I am amazed at his vocabulary, sentence structure and essay format. Writing comes naturally to him. His APUSH teacher has given him perfect or close to perfect scores on all his essays and wonderful comments. His British Lit teacher returns his papers (and everyone else's in the class) all marked up like they were a rough draft and always requires a rewrite. The papers that I have looked at that she "corrected" have words marked off and suggestions for another word, phrases marked off, etc. To me these corrections are more personal writing preferences than grading the students writing style. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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