Writing Advice for VERY reluctant high schooler

I like the Wordsmith series.  Jump In is another option.

Which IEW book/program are you using?  I am currently on lesson 3 with my 9th grade son, using SWI B.  We are going at a relaxed pace.  The DVD lessons are very well-done and a bit humorous at times, which makes it more enjoyable.  They just learned to use more specific verbs instead of some common verbs, which were banned.  We took a little different approach with the previous lesson by spending more time re-writing the fable again with creative touches, liking changing characters and/or the setting.  We did this several years ago with Writing Tales and it made writing more enjoyable.  IEW is format writing and I’m glad we waited until high school, after several years of written narrations.

I have also read Bravewriter’s The Writer’s Jungle, a handbook for parent teachers.  I used some ideas from that.  I recommend it for you.  But I think they offer an independent course for high school.

Yes, keep plugging along.  You could always watch the IEW video lesson again if he needs to grasp the concept better.  The rewrites with Writing Tales were a significant help for my son when transitioning to written narrations.  Then they gradually grew in length and quality.

I am not familiar with Know and Tell, but I have Sonya’s books, including Your Questions Answered: Narration.  It has three possible rubics to use like a checklist for writing assignments with 30 points each for content and style and 40 points for mechanics.  That might help him better know what you expect from him.  As far as oral narrations, they should be required of all school readings, unless a written narration is assigned.  You could write it on your schedule separately and require a set amount of time for it, starting with a short amount of time and gradually increasing.  You can stop after one paragraph or after one page to get his oral narration until he gets better at it.  Aesop fables are good for beginning narrations since they are short, yet complete.  HTH.

Had the same issue here, so…

My suggestion is to either put him in a writing with or without literature co-op class or in an online class. He’s at the age when he’s less likely to put forth as much effort for you as for someone else; it’s good for him to be accountable elsewhere, anyway.

Someone else will get him to accomplish more in this area, plus you have to start thinking about what skills he needs for college and what they want to see, as well.

If you sign him up now, you have several months to pay the class off, whether it’s full English class or just the writing portion, while you do the lit. side.

There’s full English courses at Big River Academy (my son had Wendi Reed, her liked her): https://www.bigriveracademy.com/english

8-week courses for $60 each or full English programs: https://www.lanternenglish.com/englishprogram?fbclid=IwAR3sKJnIzC4t9PcTLI4qqBNpFlHQgKamCq4WlSsq4lLHZCemESSGhrA4L1g

Inspired Scholar (my son used 2 of her classes, inc. The Elegant Essay, named Intro to Essay Writing and I took Lit. Analysis): https://www.inspiredscholar.com/

Write at Home, several options: https://www.writeathome.com/

Bright Ideas Press Academy (too pricey for me, but an option): https://academy.brightideaspress.com/shop/page/2/

I will chime in here with some thoughts. Please remember you get what you pay for…and this advice is free…lol.

First, what can he do and what does he need to learn to do? Are there things that he complains about as hard? For example, does writing out by hand make him complain? Maybe typing will help – because it also allows him to easily edit instead of doing a total rewrite. Does he narrate orally about things he is interested in very well? Ex: If he really loves a movie he watches or a sporting event he participates in can he tell you all about it with all sorts of lovely details (that may bore you to tears by the end of it all because you don’t have the same interest)? If he CAN narrate when he is interested then the difficulty in narrating school readings is more of an interest difficulty. Find more interesting books! I have 10 kids. One son will be 9th grade in the fall and he was a late reader, reluctant writer. This year I have seen him blossom in writing when he gets free rein on the topic for a story or a study. He’s written stories set in the Minecraft world (which bores me to tears, BUT he loves it and so he has poured out interesting, thoughtful stories set in that world). Over time this has translated to being comfortable writing narrations that are more than just a few sentences. Consistency is your friend. Set consistent routines of when to write, how much to write, etc. Hand him a white board or paper and pen to jot down names/things during a reading so he can use it for a memory prompt when he goes to narrate. Passion/interest is the gateway for boys at this age! Or conflict. By conflict, I mean this: when looking for a history narration give a prompt that offers a place for him to argue sides, disagree, compare two people/events, dive into controversy, wrestle with big issues, or try to put himself in the place of a character and decide what he would do.
Ex: Tell me about the Civil War (or WWII or _____ ) from the perspective of a soldier in the Confederate army (or Nazi army). How would the story of the _____ be different if you told it to me from the perspective of a Northerner, someone living out West, a slave, a plantation owner, a Jew, a child in the London bombings, a family left behind on the homefront, a Japanese child near Hiroshima, etc, etc, etc. You get the idea! Help them put on these people and their issues/times/challenges and share their thoughts.
To go with this they need to be reading/listening to/learning about events from several perspectives.

For writing curriculum, if you love it, use it consistently. It takes a process of regular practice over a long period of time for things to become second nature. If you don’t love it – sell it. You don’t have to have a curriculum, but if you do have one, you need to like it enough to teach it regularly.

Ask your son what he thinks is a reasonable goal. If he regularly writes 1 paragraph (5-9 lines on the page), can the goal be writing 15 lines on a page, then 20/the whole page?

He will also need to learn about writing an essay. A lot of the process is really learning about how to organize information/thoughts, which narration builds so well. But a basic lesson on making an outline for an essay could also be good. Have him read/research one paragraph per day and write it during this essay practice. For example: If he’s writing an essay about the Underground Railroad he may want to make an outline like this:

Opening Paragraph – Get them hooked on the topic.

Body paragraph 1 – What is slavery? How did slaves learn about the underground railroad?

Body paragraph 2 – What are conductors? How did they help?

Body paragraph 3 – What were the risks of running? What was the goal?

Body Paragraph 4 – Famous person related to the Underground RR. Tell a bit about how they relate.

Closing paragraph – Why does it matter? Why was it important? Was it worth the risk?

Good luck! You are at the stage where the student has to buy in to the work of learning. What are your son’s goals? How does writing play into that?

So I would consider having him do some writing (even just once a week) in an ongoing Roblox story or a book about how to play, a guide to Roblox, etc.

Or, in a different option, have him begin researching firefighting/famous fires/history of firefighting/what classes a firefighter takes/EMT training (firefighters have a TON of EMT calls, more than fire calls these days) etc. Just assign a topic and have him learn about it and report back in writing what he learns. This could be an ongoing project, once or twice a week he is assigned a topic to learn about. He takes notes, gathers information, and then types it up for his own notebook of all things firefighting (which he also prints a second copy of anything he writes and turns it in to you).

More free advice 🙂

I never used writing curriculum with my two kids (one graduating, one in 10th) so I can’t comment on that aspect. Our process was suggested in SCM, I think? We simply moved from lots of oral narrations of increasing complexity to simple written narrations to increasing complex written narrations. The narrations increase in complexity largely because the material does, so it’s a fairly natural progression. I did some “canned”essay prompts along the way in that traditional format taught in schools but I noticed (happily) that the narration format itself was (or evolved in to) solid writing skills without much artificial coaxing.  We never did term papers or research papers. We did/do a lot of response to literature types of essays. Reading something and then responding to a prompt or coming up with an aspect of it to write about in an essay.

I had/have both a comfortable and reluctant writer.

I second all the talk of consistency, but I’d add the importance of obedience too. If I ask my child to do something I expect them to do it or suffer the consequences and then still do it. I’m not homeschooling because I have nothing better to do. We have set goals for our children to meet. In order to get there, they must master certain skills. Now, that said, we always paid close attention to strengths and weaknesses and natural inclinations. Most of us have an area we prefer and are better in and that’s usually where we end up career and future wise. So, for example, I didn’t push my liberal arts inclined child to higher maths but I increased my expectation for her in the areas related to her interests and academic focus.

With my son, I have noticed (very generalized statement) that boys mature a little later and figure out their interests and academic focus a little later. In the meantime, it’s all about plugging along with everything until that emerges. In my experience, he does require a lot more reminding of the goals – long term and short term.

I could never afford outside classes and I’m a terrible control freak too so I can’t comment to that experience but a lot of folks applaud that option and there are lots of good choices out there it seems.