Modifying Writing Projects

[hiddenjewel]

My dd13 is about 3/4 of the way through the CW Older Beginner workbook so I am familiar with how Homer works. But I need some insight on how to handle Day 1 and the writing projects for dd12 who is just starting Homer A. (She has not used Aesop.) She is a very literal thinker. She is not a strong writer. She balks at putting things in her own words. (I think this is because she is not good at it so I am hoping that the oral retelling practice will help that.) I plan on skipping the literary analysis on Day 1 because I have other skills that need more focus right now.

My day one looks like this:

Read narrative
Dd retells narrative in her own words
Pick vocab words (starting week 5)
Teach any new material from core
Divide into scenes (starting week 5)
Do Theon's chart for each scene (starting week 4)

Days 2-4 are right on track for where she is at. They will be a challenge but in a good way. Her writing skill level is probably closer to Aesop. My biggest concern is the length of the narratives and completing Theon's for all the scenes. Dd13 found it quite tedious and her writing skill level was definitely ready for it.

One thought I am having is just to have her do days 1-4 but not do the writing project. But I don't totally like that option either. I don't want to NOT do something just because it is a struggle. Some struggle is good, but knowing when it is too much is what I am trying to determine right now. I don't know if using just a portion of the narrative for the writing project would work.

What I hope to accomplish is for dd to be able to comfortably retell passages in her own words and to have the tools taught in Days 2-4. We have time to work on her writing being more polished in future years.

Thanks.

[Lene Mahler Jaqua]

You sound like you are in tune with the issues.

Yes, there is merit to focusing where she needs it, and the first issue is to organize her thoughts. I agree, lots of narration (orally) is the key to organizing thoughts. I do recommend, also, without frustrating her, to gently steer her narration. I know some narration philosophies believe in just letting the child speak in whatever order it comes to him or her, but if you have organizational issues, guidance is appropriate.

I would suggest focusing on days 1 - 4, and as far as the writing of the scenes, just have her write about one scene, do the others orally, and then have her do, perhaps one writing project, but stretch it gently over two or three weeks.

She needs a sense that she can do this, and as such you need to help her organize her thoughts so well that by the time she is ready to write, her thoughts are completely clear and ready to do so, so she can focus on the mechanics of writing. Also, I hope she is typing on the computer. So many kids hate pencil and paper. That aspect is just an additional task, so make it easier on her, if she doesn't like paper, to work on a word processor. Let her do some of the typing, and then you take dictation and type what she says when she tires. This is a 'bridge' solution and it is one to be weaned off of, but we start small and we aim for success. As such we provide supports where the kid gets discouraged until we have empowered them. Half the battle is in her mind, convincing her that she is in fact good at this... the other half the battle is chopping the difficult tasks into smal chunks that can be chewed and swallowed easily.

Let me know if this helps, or if I can try to suggest ideas for something elses.

Anything I said, if it is not helpful, please discard.

Lene

[hiddenjewel]

"Half the battle is in her mind, convincing her that she is in fact good at this... the other half the battle is chopping the difficult tasks into smal chunks that can be chewed and swallowed easily."

I think this is indeed the key to our situation.

Thanks much. I was already planning on working through a lot of it with her to accomplish just what you have stated about her confidence level.

Would it work to have her just rewrite one scene per project until she gets comfortable and then add additional scenes? Or would it be better to have her rewrite one scene a week until the project is completed? My concern with that would be that she would tire of working with the same material for so long.

[Lene Mahler Jaqua]

If she tires of doing the same WP for weeks, then just have her work on different WPs every week, only pick a different aspect of the WP to work on each week. There is no law that says she has to finish a WP per week. The goal is to teach her to write, and if that is best done, for a season, by selecting parts of assignments so be it.

Lene