tests well, but doesn't see errors in writing

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  • cms
    Member

    Any suggestions for 12 yo who scores beyond high school level in Iowa Basics in the grammar section (word usage, subject/verb agreements, punctuation, capitalization, etc.), but misses those things repeatedly in her own writing? She reads LOTS (nonfiction, light fiction and classics) and loves to write stories, newspapers, etc., but doesn’t get how to correct punctuation, spelling, capitalization in her own writing. We’ve done some traditional workbook materials and did a semester long series on parts of speech last year which didn’t sink in AT ALL! Not sure if it’s just because I haven’t expected excellence or been consistent with narrations (oral or written) or if we should be using another method. I would like to ditch the formal grammar completely and just use something like Bravewriter to encourage the writing portion, paragraph development, essay types, etc. because I don’t want to stifle the interest in that. But I want to be sure that there is emphasis on revision as well? I would prefer just teaching them how to revise their own writing since they seem to ‘get’ how to pick out the mistakes in other people’s writing…..

    pslively
    Participant

    You might want to take a look at Meaningful Composition.  It sounds like it might fit what you are looking for.  We have only done the first level, which might be a lower level than what you need, but it did include all the things you mentioned.  If you want to work strictly on looking for mistakes in writing, you could look at Fix It! by IEW or Editor in Chief.    I have not used Bravewriter, but I have heard good things about it.

    Bookworm
    Participant

    Do you have Learning Grammar Through Writing?  This might help you.  At fijrst, you would just take her writing and note RIGHT where she made the mistake, the rule number in LGTW.  Then, later, I would just note off to the side of the line a rule number and my student had to hunt for it.  Then later, I’d write numbers of rules in the margins and they’d have to hunt through the whole composition.  If you don’t want to purchase anything else, you could make up a simple guide yourself to go with her most common mistakes.  Take a composition, show her one error, write down the problem and assign it a number, go on, make up a list when you are done, then next time she has to look herself when you mark  “1” next to a beginning of a sentence that is not capitalized, and she has to look up the rule on the list, correct it. 

    4myboys
    Participant

    Love that idea, Bookworm!

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