60-day returns • free shipping on USA orders $129+
Need help with Language Arts planning
- This topic has 5 replies, 5 voices, and was last updated 10 years, 9 months ago by
.
Viewing 6 posts - 1 through 6 (of 6 total)
- Posts
Language Arts has always been my strong suit, but it is not for my ds10. According to the curriculum guide, he should be halfway through Spelling Wisdom and beginning written narration. However, he is not ready for either of them. Nothing we have tried for spelling, including AAS, has worked. I can’t give him spelling lists based on what he misspells when he writes because he will not write independently. Last year we tried regular writing prompts but made little headway. We started Dianne Craft’s writing 8s exercise but lost momentum and dropped it. His handwriting was improving, but I didn’t see any progress on getting his thoughts on paper. Maybe we didn’t do it long enough. I will be continuing copywork and having him do more oral narrations. I am considering a keyboarding program. Any other suggestions on how to proceed?
TIA,
Karen
ETA: This is for fifth grade.
What about copywork. Have you tried that? Maybe he isn’t ready to put his thoughts on paper yet. I would focus on good oral narrations for now and have him put someone else’s thoughts on paper (copywork). He will get there eventually. Copywork done with attention to copying absolutely correctly is good for spelling, capitalization, and punctuation.
Hang in there!
Have you tried Bravewriter? We have had great success with it here. Maybe sign up for the daily emails, or read through the blog and try a couple of ideas and see how it goes? My kids have yet to balk at a BW idea. They find them fun and forget that they are being asked to write. Off the top of my head, some of the favorite activities to date…pick an item and describe it to me (in writing), if I can guess it in the first try they get a nickle. If I can’t guess, they have to add some more details and the “cash reward” goes down. The kids LOVE this! They also like writing when we each contribute a sentence and take turns. It takes the creative pressure off. It’s hard to come up with an idea for an entire story, but if they only have to think one sentence at a time, it’s easier.
Money talks here and I am not above bribing. LOL I will give pennies for each detail or a tough word that they looked up to spell, etc. The promise of attaching “value” to their writing has really worked here. We don’t offer money for every project, by any means, but they never know which ones *might* have a reward, so it’s really improved the effort they put forth.
I also do pretty much all the assignements with my kids. If they are writing, I’m writing.
You might also try to gently start that transition by having him narrate orally while you type or write what he is saying; then when he is getting close to the end and has only one or two sentences left, slide the paper over to him and have him write just that last sentence or two. As he gets comfortable with that much, you can slide the paper his direction a little sooner and a little sooner . . .
Baby steps.
And yes, teaching him to type might be a good way to help eliminate a potentially frustrating obstacle in his communication skills.
Thanks for all of your suggestions. @HSMAMA, I have plenty of writing prompts collected from all over. But I like your suggestion of “buddy writing” with him. Why didn’t I think of that? And I have paid him for neat handwriting and paying attention to detail in his copywork, so maybe that will work, too.
@Sonya, I like your idea of his dictating to me and only writing the last sentence or two.
Thanks again,
Karen
My understanding is that dysgraphia (that really poor handwriting) is often present with other LDs such as dyslexia or ADHD. It might be time to look at identification as needed.
I have spent the last year remediating dyslexia (hit a wall at 4th grade reading / very poor speller) and significant dysgraphia (extremely poor handwriting) with my 11 yo, and significant dyslexia (non-reader at the beginning of the year) with mild dysgraphia and ADHD-hyperactive with my 8yo. Whew. We have a few more years to go, but so much progress was made this year that I’m glad that I stepped away from our CM-focused LA/Reading program to get the intensive Orton-Gillingham reading/spelling instruction that they both needed. My 11yo can now write a narration (with an extra step) and read at grade level, and my 8yo can almost read at grade level and can do copywork without tears.
Until your son’s handwriting improves, it is going to be extremely difficult for him to get his thoughts on paper.
Copywork with my extremely dysgraphic kid was not a good tool. This child could not “see” the concepts in the copywork since so much of his energy was focused on forming each letter. The combination of his significant dysgraphia and mild dyslexia was so bad that he couldn’t even “see” each word that needed to be copied. Now that we have remediated this problem to a degree, he can do copywork with some success. He is not at a point that he could complete the selections in Spelling Wisdom from dictation, but he’s almost there.
He has not had much success with learning to type, but he is still working on learning that skill. The fine motor issues that prevent him from developing a legible handwriting combined with the directional issues related to dyslexia make it difficult to learn to type.
At the recommendation of the testers that formally ID’d him, he uses Dragon Naturally Speaking. He can speak his narrations as the computer types it for him with this tool. This has been awesome for increasing his independence and confidence. I have gradually increased his written output by using the sentences that he has created and read it to him to re-write. Not exactly CM “correct” but this extra step (having his oral narrations written by either the computer or me) has really improved the quality that gets on paper. Otherwise, he is still very much at the “George W. was a man ” W. because writing Washington was way too long, and “was a man” because that is all he had left in him after George. Honestly, it would probably be written george because capitals are optional.
The extensive use of oral narrations has improved his writing more than anything else. Not pushing the physical aspect of writing has allowed him to really develop the ability to create an oral composition that is spectacular. The process of getting words on paper is going to take bit longer than expected, but in reality that is a non-issue.
FWIW, Dragon Naturally Speaking is an appropriate accommondation in college for severly dysgraphic kids with the proper documentation of a writing disability.
Keep up the writing 8! That process helped us too, but it took a full year to see it “stick”.
HTH
Viewing 6 posts - 1 through 6 (of 6 total)
- The topic ‘Need help with Language Arts planning’ is closed to new replies.