As I have stated before, I am not the best writer..... My kids are taking a IEW class in our local co-op. I am the assistant in the class, not so sure what the heck I am doing but I am trying. I worked really hard with my kids in the class and want them to learn writing and be better than me. Anyway, we got the papers back today and the kids got a C and a B. It just about killed me. I am trying sooo hard and so are they. When we marked the "subject" sentence it was wrong. She talked about the noun being in this spot and the verb being in that spot, so it makes the sentence not the subject sentence. urgh I don't understand..... Now, I feel like how can I continue this program. I wanted to do the continuation of it for next year but I feel like a idiot. I don't want to fail my kids and on days like this I wonder if they would get a better education if I sent them back. I know I sound like a whiner and there is nothing I hate more. But really..... what do I do????? I did pray about it today but I am starting to wonder. I know we all get discouraged but is there a time we should hang up our hat. Sometime our best intentions don't always turn out to be the best. I don't want that to be my kids education.
Hugs to you! We all go through it. Most of us didn't major in every subject our kids take. Maybe if you just got a bit of a different perspective on it. If you look at yourself as a student, learning right along with your kids, then maybe you can give yourself a bit more grace. You can do it....and be so thankful that you are in a co-op for writing. My kids are thankfully able to take speech this semester with some other kids. I certainly would not consider myself well versed in the art of public speaking, but with the help of co-op I am learning right along with them. Hope this helps.
If you are the assistant, isn't it the teacher who hasn't gotten the concept across? But, on a more practical note, there are a lot of successful people who can't identify "subject" sentences. I'm not even familiar with that terminology. I assume it's the same as the topic sentence. I often skip that with my kids, because I don't get it either. As long as they understand what they read, does it really matter unless they become an English major. If it really concerns you, maybe you can find someone who can tutor you kids in this area. They are still young, they might get it over time.
As a former English teacher, I can honestly say that teaching writing is one of the hardest things to do. Personally, I think it's because bad writing is taught in the elementary years; that becomes then something that has to be overcome in the upper years. I found Igniting Your Writing on Currclick, and I love it. It teaches writing precisely how I think it should be taught from the get-go. It starts with the most basic property: the sentence. They give you something simple: "He went to the store." Then, they have you go through and use more colorful words to create a better, more precise sentence. They encourage you to be as silly as you'd like, so that helps make it more fun: "The purple-haired boy hopped on his kangaroo to the pet food store." They have you jazz up the original sentence three different ways to see how your word choices affect a sentence. You can then encourage your kids to fill out the sentence with even more info by adding clauses: "After he fed his pink elephant, the purple-haired boy...." After your kids have the idea of making a good sentence down, they start to learn how to put sentences together--- again, though, this is done in very short doses. They're presented with 6-7 simple sentences that are somewhat humorous and learn to condense them down to 2-3 sentences. The program builds in this manner. Unfortunately, the way most programs work is just to throw a student into whole paragraphs. It's as though the foundation of it all- the sentence- isn't of value. That's what ends up making for poor writing, in my opinion. So, I'd strongly recommend looking at this particular program if you're wanting to build on a strong foundation toward solid writing skills. It does what so many programs fail to do, and it might make learning to write more palatable for all of you.
We got IYW just a week ago, and so far we are doing well with it. We are just finishedeating expanding the original sentence by adding on the silly parts. DS is having a good time with it. I recommend trying it. By the way, sorry for hijacking the thread, but, Shelley, how many times a week would you recommend doing lessons for a 4th grader?
In my personal opinion, "creative writers" are born, not made. If they're meant to be creative writers, there's nothing you can do to stop them, and if they aren't, you can't really teach them to be. So I focus on "practical" writing skills: sentences, paragraphs, letters (both friendly and business), reports, essays, newspaper-type articles... things that have a definite structure that *can* be taught. If they're going to use what they learn to make up stories, poems, plays, etc., that's entirely up to them...
IYW does seem to be more centered on the creative facets of writing. As we have only used a few lessons, though, I can not say how much basic skills will be covered. What do you use/suggest for the basic skills, Lindina?
Hate to say this, but I think that's really something you have to gauge by the individual. Sorry! We'll do one lesson a few times a week [when our schedule's not all wonky--- which it always seems to be these days!]. What I really like about this program is that, although you're allowed to make the sentences silly, it's all about teaching structure and learning to make sentences precise. I usually have mine do 2 sentences that are a little silly and then we try to do a 'serious' sentence as well. I just think it's critical to learn to work from forming a strong sentence to forming strings of strong sentences to strong paragraphs and then to strong essays. One of the reasons I don't like most writing curricula is that they focus so much on creative writing assignments [as Lindina pointed out] when, unless your child is going into a field like journalism, that type of writing won't be of any value to them in the workplace or in higher education. This particular program lets your child be a bit silly, but what they're actually learning in terms of structure is something of value in terms of solid writing. I'd just see how your child progresses with the lessons. If it seems they've nailed down the lesson, then try moving on to the next. Since the lessons build on each other, you'll be able to see if they really did get the idea or if you'll need to backtrack a step and spend some more practice time on it.
Thanks - right now we are doing one lesson over about 2 days, just taking it nice and slow since he doesn't really enjoy writing... yet.
Hmmm Having done IEW with a friend last year, I am even confused about finding the subject the way you were told. Are you watching the student DVDs together or is someone listening to the parent ones and teaching from that? IEW is designed to work by identifying 3 key words per sentence, then rewriting the same paragraph using those keywords and adding "dress-ups" to it (strong verbs, -ly adverbs, who/which clauses, etc.). I would classify myself as a terrible writer, but the kids and I were able to do this. I do not ever recall finding the subject. We used "the _____ pen" to find adjectives, verbs were found using "I ______" (if you do it, it's a verb). Our 6th graders were moving on to the part where they read a factual paper, found the 2-3 words in the first and last sentences that matched to be the keywords for each paragraph instead of each sentence, but still don't recall finding any subjects. Of course, it has been a year. Am I confusing you more? I hope not! Please feel free to ask me any follow up questions. Jennifer, mom of 5 daughters 4, 8, 11, 12, and 21
Yes, we have done that. But, now we are getting to the report writing and/or the non fiction. You have to number the sentences. urgh..... I am having a hard time with that. I know the last one was vss...... for very short sentence. I am finding it confusing. I wanted to use the structure and style for next year. But, I don't catch the things that this teacher does. I feel like I can't keep up. I know my kids aren't going to be writing a book. But, I want them to be able to breeze through a essay. Any suggestions...... What are you using this year?
IEW's structure is meant to be a tool to develop better writing. It's not meant to be rules to write by forever. It's just a tool to help them identify what makes writing interesting. I also think that its ok for kids to get B's and C's if they are doing their best. The grading system for IEW is not forgiving; it is based solely on following the rules and meeting the requirements on the checklist. So, a C doesn't mean that the report was not well written.
Ah, yes! Since IEW can be used over and over we stopped where we felt the girls' comfort levels were. We continue to use the things we learned as we write in school, but until the 12 and 11 yo master the report writing we won't go on. As I read the IEW material, it seemed like that was his recommendation. Thankfully, my best friend (whom we did the class with) has three daughters the same age/grade as my middle three and they were all obviously struggling with their new skills. We read books for history and science, write a report and then read it aloud to each other (since all 3 are reading different books). We are in the process of remodeling our house and the manual is buried at the moment (that room is getting unearthed tomorrow!) or I would see exactly what it said about the vss. In fact, we are having home ec tomorrow to clean up the area so I can vacuum up all the dust that is aggravating my allergies. Another advantage of homeschooling, home ec days. Jennifer
