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Composition/Writing
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What do you ladies use or do for compositon/writing lessons? My son, 11, is doing oral and written narrations, but what about lesson on paragraphs, writing reports, outlining, note taking, elements of poetry?
Thanks!
I might be a bit odd, but I don’t see much need for my kids to do “reports”. Those were invented by elementary teachers. Notetaking is too personal to teach, I think. Paragraphs should come fairly naturally with written narration–all I ever did was point out during written narration where they should stop and make a new paragraph. Outlining is a form of notetaking. I didn’t really teach that either. The one skill I think necessary is the essay form, and the research paper which is really just a big hairy essay with footnotes. 🙂 I don’t teach that until junior high age, and I like Jump In by Apologia for this. We run through that once, and then apply the form to what they do in all their other studies.
I’ve used Institute for Excellence in Writing since my oldest was in second grade. I cannot recommend it enough. I just started my son who is second grade. I am doing everything orally on the white board with him right now. My dd is almost 5th grade and she is an excellent writer because of this program along with doing written narrations. The program is a little pricey, BUT completely worth every penny! It also has a very high resale value, so you are sure to get most of your money back when you are finished with it. They also have an amazing forum where you can ask questions along the way. I learned so much just by getting advice from other moms on that forum. If you are interested in using this, I recommend going to their website and really reading it, and then join the forum and start asking all of your questions there. I do not know what I would have done without IEW. If I had to let go of all my curriculum and could only keep one thing…this would IT!
HTH,
Michelle
I have really come to trust the CM methods for composition – copywork, oral narrations, then written narrations – especially in the early years. I tried IEW and found it to be too tedious….like a plug-in-formula. My son (who is 8) gave this narration orally and I typed it for him. He wrote this for a creative writing piece using Karen Andreola’s Story Starters. I point out the necessities, like indenting when you begin a paragraph, making sure all of your sentences in a paragraph are related, using quotes when someone is saying something, etc., but you really don’t have to spend a lot of money to have a great writer. Wonderful wording comes from hearing great books.
I am adding a program called Write With the Best for my daughter who will be doing ninth grade in the fall because it covers essays of various kinds and uses great writers as examples. But for my 12 and under crowd, CM composition methods ARE enough.
~ Heather
Heather,
Write With the Best looks wonderful. I already bought Classical Writing and really love the depth of it, but honestly it’s a bit intimidating—lots of grammar and teacher and student intensive. We will take it at about 1/2 pace. Are you familar at all with CW? Just wonder how it compares as far as goals of developing a student into a persuasive writer. Thanks! GinaI’ve looked at IEW also, and it looked way too formulaic for me. I have tried Classical Writing but it was just too much for us, at early ages. The kids hated it. I’ve tried Write with the Best. We liked it OK, but did not really come out of it with the essay skills I had hoped for . . . LOL Oh, and I’ve tried Writing Strands, and Writesmith Apprentice, and . . . . It’s not QUITE been ten years of homeschooling, ten writing programs . . . but nearly so! LOL
Glad to know I’m not the only not worring about this till high school. Until then I will keep all your thoughts and ideas and bring them out then. I never learned any of that. And though my spelling is terrible, my sentences, paragraphs and the such are very good. I would keep doing the simple and save the harder for later. Misty
The one skill I think necessary is the essay form, and the research paper which is really just a big hairy essay with footnotes. 🙂 I don’t teach that until junior high age, and I like Jump In by Apologia for this. We run through that once, and then apply the form to what they do in all their other studies.
If my boys are still getting used to written narrations, would you hold off on the Jump In in 7th grade? Should I have them work more on the written narrations first, at least for another 6 months maybe, and then move into Jump In? (I have actually already bought it and it’s sitting on a shelf waiting for me to choose the appropriate time to start it!)
Cindy K, my advice is to stick with the written narrations for awhile. For one thing, you can use the written narrations to assess what skills your kids need to develop. The skills they need to develop may or may not be addressed by a writing program. It’s possible all they need to do at this point is practice getting their ideas on paper. I would let them gain some experience with writing for awhile and go from there, rather than using a writing program now.
I introduced written narrations in the past year with my DD (starting at age 11) and I’m really pleased with how far she progressed over a few months. Now that she has writing experience, I’m finding it rather easy to talk about technical skills with her, such as grammar, punctuation, paragraphs, etc.
To address the original question that included note-taking, I will share what has happened recently. My DD is taking a literature class with students older than herself. The students have to take notes during the class, which came as a surprise to my DD in the first class. But, she was able to take very good notes. I credit the years of narrating, which gave my DD experience listening attentively and pulling out the important and interesting information. (My DD has a desire to learn shorthand after learning her grandmother used shorthand as a young secretary many years ago!) My point is that the CM method of oral narration and written narration of quality literature, even if it seems too easy or too slow-moving, really pays off and offers our children a rich background for later writing.
I agree with Esby–when they can do good paragraphs of written narration and are comfortable with it, then you can start teaching the essay. Work on the basics gradually while they are doing written narrations–making sure their sentences are complete, paragraphs are divided correctly, break any bad habits like starting all the sentences with “and”, all that fun stuff. When they are really comfortable, then it’s time to begin essays.
I also agree that students who are used to listening to or reading a passage with an eye to narrating it written or orally later, just are not going to have a very tough time taking notes. My kids are doing some video college courses from the Teaching Company and they are doing very well–I have no fears for when they go to college. They have the basics down and know how to weed out what is important.
Thank you, Esby and Bookworm. That makes a lot of sense. I suspected that all along but then got “worried” when you said you use Jump In in junior high school, which my boys are starting this year. But I agree – got to get them writing on a more regular basis and longer/multiple good paragraphs before thwoing complete essays at them!
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