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Composition
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I just finished reading the Narration and Composition sections of the new SCM LA handbook last night. I read that Ms. Mason suggested that you not teach composition as a separate subject when the children are young. I am assuming that she means not doing exercises that would encourage the child to use more descriptive words or use sensory language in their writing. These types of exercises are in pretty much every writing curriculum I have seen for the elementary ages. I’ve seen things like taking the word pencil and adding descriptive words to it ( yellow pencil, fat, yellow pencil, etc.). In the past when I have tried to do these things with my daughter, she has really hated it! So we have just never really finished any writing instruction at this point.
BUT, she (now almost 10 yrs old) has always written “books” after reading something that she really enjoyed. For example, last week she read The Hundred Dresses and then wrote a book of her own that was very much like the book she just read except the names were changed and some of the plot was different. I assume that this is narration of a sort. However, she did it on her own without my asking her to write at all. In the past I had not considered this school work, but now I see the importance of it. It also makes me aware of the importance of her reading good books because she is most likely going to imitate the author’s style of writing. I have noticed that her sentence structure almost always mimics the author of what ever she just read or sometimes what we have read aloud together.
So I guess that the idea is that they will imitate the style of the authors of the books they read, and that the instructions given in writing programs are not needed if the children are imitating good authors? If this is the case, my daughter has already been doing this for about 3 years and I had no idea that it was all that important LOL!
I think when children are young, a lot of imitation goes on, and a lot of good learning. However, I think when they get older – they should work on their own style and less imitation – by then they have absorbed a lot of wonderful writing and will have a fair idea of their own talents – at this point I would encourage less imitation and more individual style.
I am not sure how to help her develop an individual style. What I had planned to do for composition right now was to have her write her favorite part or sequence of events, etc of a chapter of whatever book she is reading at the time, 2 days a week. Since she can so easily write a whole book based on a story she recently read, I thought that using her desire to do that could be a good thing. How is that not the same as narration?
If I were using Writing Strands or IEW, would that not be making her use their style? I am not trying to sound “smarty pants” I am just not sure how to accomplish individual style when narrating… 🙂 I am very open to advice.
I have read several posts on the forum about composition and am not really “sold” on any program at this point in time, so I feel a little frazzled by the whole thing right now. (which is obviously how many of us feel when it comes to teaching writing LOL)
She is too young right now to have indiviudal style I found that my girls starting devleoping their own style as young teens, and now have very different styles in writing. I think what you are planning right now is great and as it should be – and her writing a book based on what she has read is fine and good. I should have clarified I meant young teens, not 5 year olds. I tried IEW but did not like it for the reason you mentioned, and we have used various programs in the high school years, but not followed them verbatim. We used a good grammar and composition handbook in high school and they got instruction from that, and then developed their own style. My BIL who is a English Language Professor in the UK has been very impressed by their writing skill, and the CM approach has a lot to do with that, especially the narrations. So I apologise if I made you think you were doing something wrong, I think you are doing everything right – I just think as they reach the end of middle school and early high school, an encouragement of individual style perhaps should be encouraged. At your daughters age, my girls were also writing their versions of books they read, and that is a great way for them to get a taste of how to write, it was then later on I noticed they would copy the stories in their own writing or use similiar theme and plot, and I tried to make that more individual – I just did a dreadful job of making myself clear in my previous post, so sorry about that. I think if you keep doing what you are doing you will be doing everything you need to. As I say we dabbled with programs, but did not like any except for dabbling with them. We used Write with the Best, and at first I liked it, but now find it too narrow in scope, IEW was too formulaic for us, and so we went back to a good handbood, and used that. The girls did use little bits of Write with the Best, as units from time to time, but i has not been the main focus. A bad habit of mine, thinking I like a program, getting it and then finding I don’t. One program I do like for the Essay is the one by Epi Kardia for high school – but you have a long way to go before you have to worry about that. Hope this explains what I meant better. Linda
Whew…thanks for clarifying and encouraging 🙂 That makes more sense. I also read some last night before bed and found this quote from Philosophy of Education quoted in Karen Andreola’s CM Companion:
“having been brought up so far upon stylists, the pupils are almost certain to have formed a good style; because they have been thrown into the society of many great minds, they will not make a slavish copy of anyone but will shape an individual style out of the wealth of material they possess…”
Andreola also says, “A good writing style is the result of the regular use of narration and whole books over a period of years.”
Oh, and I thougt this was a good idea too….Andreola says to make a sort of check list for your child and put it in the cover of her writing notebook as a reminder. List things for them to be reminded of like (1) Is each sentence complete? (2) Are descriptive words included? I may add things like: (3) Did I begin each sentence with a capital letter? (4) Did I spell everything to the best of my ability?
I also read a little of Ruth Beechick’s book for teaching 4th -8th grades. She compares reading and writing with babies hearing and talking. She says when small children learn to talk they do so by hearing adults speak and imitating them. It takes them about 4 or 5 years to accomplish competent oral language usage. It is the same with reading and writing. Children will need “years of the same kind of dialogue. They must read, and write; read, and write.”
Glad I made more sense second time around lol. I love Ruth Beechick’s books and find her advice very sound. I have not read much Andreola, but what she says also makes perfect sense. I sometimes forget when I post that I have girls nearly finished with school and a lot of you have little ones – so my message needs to be adjusted. Glad you understand. I like the idea of a checklist, little reminders are always a good thing, and helps with things like sentence fragments and run-on sentences which are common when they are younger. One of my daughters was the queen of the run-on sentence and it took a while to help her with that – but patience pays off in the end. Anyway, good luck – after all these years, the girls have a good vocabulary and good knowledge. that is testament to all the excellent books they have read. They now pick up books that are aimed at adults and are able to read them with no problem. One daughter has just finished a wonderful book called George Washington’s Sacred Fire and has thoroughly enjoyed it and understood a lot more because of it. I know a lot of adults who could not read such a book – so again a steady diet of good literature does wonders over the years. Stay on the CM path and you won’t go wrong. Linda
Oh one other thing, I had the girls write something every day once they were able, whether it was a narration, or a letter to a loved one, or a story or copywork – so they got used to it early on and never found it a chore. I did not do much dictation because one of my daughters is special needs and has a weak left side with cerebral palsy, so for her it would have been too difficult to accomplish. It has not held her back, she writes beautifully and the computer is a huge plus for her now. Linda
I would be absolutely thrilled if my child did this. It is important. I wouldn’t let on that I think so though or she might quit!
To write after the form of a great author is to learn from the masters. You don’t need to teach it when they pick it up themselves by doing this. At least that is how I interpret CM on narration and not needing composition lessons.
To write after the form of a great author is to learn from the masters. You don’t need to teach it when they pick it up themselves by doing this. At least that is how I interpret CM on narration and not needing composition lessons. Viewing 8 posts - 1 through 8 (of 8 total)
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