I need some advice on how to teach writing skills to an 8th grader. My son has always disliked reading and writing and getting him to write was difficult. On the good side, his reading has taken off and he's making great progress with that. Now we need to get his writing skills up to speed this year. I would like to find a writing program that is concise, covers non-fiction and creative writing, and can improve his writing in one year. He's going to be using a charter high school next year so I need to get him closer, if not at, grade level within a year to meet their expectations. I bought Write Shop for this purpose, but it seems complicated for me to implement. Do you know of any other programs that would do the job? What about those Spectrum workbooks? What if we just worked through those starting with a lower grade and working up? Would that work?
DS is in 6th and having the same problems. I am beginning with how to write a paragraph at a 2nd-4th grade level. Like how to identify the main idea and topic sentence, how to write a topic sentence, supporting details, etc. I figure we'll take it from there, once he can write a solid paragraph. I got a book from the teacher store for $15 that walks you through the paragraph writing process step by step. It's called "Paragraph Writing" by Evan Moor publishing. I figure once he can write a good paragraph, then we can begin writin several paragraphs about the same topic, and then be able to branch out from there.
Two I would suggest looking at are IEW, expensive but good or Jensen's Format writing. I used that one with sd and it really helped her learn how to write different types of paragraphs and essays. It gives them step by step rules to follow and if they do that they will write a very good essay.
I am confused, do you mean actual writing essays and stories or the art of writing, printing and cursive style> Okay and if it is writing content then I think if you did the spectrum books or for that matter, look up online and print pages for writing. For story ideas use story starters--- there are a lot of sites that have them I can look some up for you but try "story starters" in your google search and that should bring you to a ton! We are using LP 9 this year and it will be working with writing as a good part of the year. My ds is a writer , has two books he submited ( more like chapters in size) to fair and got first place award for one! I am planning to help lead a writing class this year in Co op, if the leader can send me the name of the dvd we are going to use I will let you know asap!
A friend of mine (and member here, clumsymom) uses Jump In. It sounds just great, and from what she's told me about it, I think it would fit what you need. HTH!
I recommend IEW also. I use that with my oldest. She loves his style. I use the Student Writing Intensive B. I decided to use it because I got an intro disk from them and watched it one night. My daughter was in the room while I was watching it and said "I like this guy, he totally gets why I hate to write!". Her writing has improved so much. Copywork and good literature are another great approach. But if he dislikes reading, that would probably not interest him.
I also recommend Jump In. I don't remember if it has any creative writing in it, but it does a great job with teaching technical writing.
I'm talking about content-essays & creative writing. He does a so-so job at writing a paragraph or two for a book report but has trouble with essay or long report and creative writing.
And is it because he chooses not to work harder or because he really doesn't get it? MY dd is extremely bright but has a hard time with essays mainly because I did not push the issue in our earlier levels, so I encourage you not to put it off. She knows all the right things to put in it but the creative side of writing is not always there for her. Technically she has the grammar and structure down too. The way I got her to write her essays in High School, and she did a really great job once she had to lol, I had her Tell me about it. I wrote it for her, then I had her write about it, and we rearranged what she wrote... added content. She has had to write 2000 word essays and does it like it is nothing now. Sometimes working a page a day helped her, she would start it up. Save it on the computer and then come back to it to add here and there. Each time she would read it over and edit content herself. Then she turned it in and got an A from the teacher at the private school in 12 grade and I knew I did something right! HA! Just dont try to make your kids sit and write a 300 word essay all at once. Tell them to break it down, to idea sentences first, sort of like with creative writing use a story wheel, or a venn diagram if you are going to compare and contrast something. These are all available online btw. Donna Young has some and there are many other places, teachervision has some you can get but unless you sign up with them officially you only get so many freebie printable. I take my free ones as often as they give them because it is the public school teachers page and I am not one. Jump in or Writing strands would be helpful to get ideas flowing too if you want a work book. But I would just print up a sheet per project. Ill look up the pages if you need them ,the ones I am usin gas well as our Life Pak stuff this year.
I think its a little of both-doesn't get it and doesn't want to try harder to understand it. I loved creative writing and essays. As a kid, I remember writing reports during summer and winter breaks for fun! That's why I'm kinda stumped as to how to teach it to someone like my son.
well, with my oldest I got him interested in reading when he didn't want to by being crazy and getting Captain Underpants and the talking Toilets... For writing try being creative like have him write a commercial, I had ds do power point because he was interested in that, he had to write so many words into it though.. so you could try that sort of thing for one.. to get him interested. It was hard for me to believe anyone didn't like writing cause I am and have been for EVVVEEEEEEEEEEEEER a writer. My oldest has turned out an awesome blog now that he is in college, he was my reluctant learner, didn't want to do it so wasn't going to learn it etc. Now he may actually have some issues with learning but maybe not because Spell Check is his best friend when he writes. That may be a fun idea as well... have your ds start his own blog about things he likes? Then as he gets interested he will find writing essays easier. Also have him blog essays that he does really good on! He can call it his A list or something? Story starters are great, for younger kids it may work with yours, my younger ds 14 used them for a few years but he likes to create his own stories now. This year we will be working on some bigger essays than he has worked on at all, and I know I will be fighting him the whole way because LP has assignments he will be doing regardless of what he wants. I am encouraging my self in this as well as you, I just wanted you to know. My ds is great at writing stories and content that way but I really have not pushed the essays since 6th grade, and here we are in 9th and they will grow big time! So like I said to you work on the creative flows and then work on the information gathering with him, have him copy write things from books for a while, then explain it is time for him to learn to write it in his own words. This is the step by step approach I used with reports for ds last year. It worked for his Geography reports, and he improved. This year however we get to do the 2000 word essays! WEE! but its part of our language arts and History lessons so what can I do? Have to encourage him to do so! HE can do it! ( I think
This isn't a curriculum suggestion, but I thought I would throw the idea out anyway. Have you let him try free writing? Writing was something I completely loathed through my homeschool years. When I went to 9th grade public school, my English teacher had us do free writing, and writing went from my least favorite subject to my most favorite subject. She would set a timer, and you had to write for that certain amount of time. You didn't think about grammar, spelling, or content, rather you just write whatever comes into your head without stopping. This is the one thing that got me past the writer's block. It is easy to adjust this method for an essay, because then you just switch from writing whatever comes into your mind, to whatever comes into your mind about a specific subject. It was very freeing for me to be able to get the ideas out first, and then work on the organization and structure.
Yesterday I decided to tell ds to make a story out of his Spelling Power words. I just thought I'd see where his skills are at this point. I was very surprised to read a decent enough short story. The punctuation was off, but the story itself had a beginning, middle and end. It was better than I thought it'd be plus SHOCK! He wrote it in cursive! OK so now I'm not so panicky. We can work with this!
