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Elizabeth
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Real Learning
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| Posted: April 08 2005 at 7:56am | IP Logged
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Over the years, I have shared with you the struggles of my second child, Christian. He'll be thirteen in just a couple of weeks. He was a very late reader (around 11) and he still really struggles with both handwriting and spelling. We recently did a reading assessment with him at Let's Go Learn. I was delighted to find that he now reads on the mid-tenth grade level  . His phonics scores were all as high as they could be. His spelling score fell off the bottom of the chart  . Two years ago, when he was last tested, his handwriting was so poor it was barely legible. We've used Handwriting without Tears with some success and his handwriting has improved but it's still a real trial for him. If you cmbine the pain of handwriting with the fact that he really can't spell the simplest of words, all of Julie's writing ideas are so difficult to impletment, unless, of course, I write for him. I do that often. My problem, though, is that despite the fact that he narrates orally with great ease and skill, he has almost no opportunity to practice capitalization, punctuation, paragraphing and all those other skills of writing which come into pllay when one actually writes. So...what to do? What to require? He has indicated that he wants to do Sonlight 6 next year. I thought about just reading down the booklist and doing the Bravewriter Lifestyle prompts with him. Then, I 'd have to dig up dictation and copywork myself. Or, I could loosely use Sonlight's LA. My problem is that I don't know how much to require--how much to push and how much to bear the burden for him...
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Elizabeth Foss is no longer a member of this forum. Discussions now reflect the current management & are not necessarily expressions of her book, *Real Learning*, her current work, or her philosophy. (posted by E. Foss, Jan 2011)
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Karen E.
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| Posted: April 08 2005 at 8:26am | IP Logged
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Elizabeth wrote:
| My problem, though, is that despite the fact that he narrates orally with great ease and skill, he has almost no opportunity to practice capitalization, punctuation, paragraphing and all those other skills of writing which come into pllay when one actually writes. |
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Elizabeth,
Could you focus on those skills for awhile by having him keyboard for practice?
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God bless,
Karen E.
mom to three on earth, and several souls in God's care
Visit my blog, with its shockingly clever title, "Karen Edmisten."
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alicegunther
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| Posted: April 08 2005 at 10:25am | IP Logged
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Dear Elizabeth,
I really like Karen's keyboarding suggestion. My shaky speller blossomed when she started to see the zig-zagged spellcheck marks under the words as she typed them in to the computer.
You have already come so far with Christian--what a blessing to have him test on the tenth grade level. If I were you, I would continue to type his narrations for him, but perhaps ask him to write at least the first few sentences of each narration on his own. This would enable him to practice handrwriting, spelling, and punctuation without feeling overwhelmed. I began doing this with one of the girls last year, and it really seemed to help.
By the way, I can't think of anything better than the consistent use of the Bravewriter Lifestyle prompts. They have been a big hit around here.
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Love, Alice
mother of seven!
      
Cottage Blessings
Brew yourself a cup of tea, and come for a visit!
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Lissa
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| Posted: April 08 2005 at 12:02pm | IP Logged
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I third the keyboarding advice. In fact, I'd DROP any spelling/grammar/writing stuff and focus on just plain typing until he can type easily enough not to have to think about it. As soon as his fingers can keep up with his brain, you can go back to the Bravewriter prompts or whatever else you want him to work on. Maybe if he isn't worrying about spelling, punctuation, and composition while keyboarding, he'll gain confidence as a typist and will come fairly rapidly to a point where the physical aspect of writing is automatic and doesn't interfere with the mental aspects.
The only elective my mother required me to take in high school was typing. I was furious about it! Boring boring boring--PLUS the class was at the same time as the creative writing elective, which is where I really wanted to be! About five years ago I suddenly remembered this, and I sent my mom a thank-you card--because that typing class did WAY more for my development as a writer than the creative writing class would have. Before I could type, I was always starting stories and never finishing them because my wrist hurt. Once I could type, there was nothing physical to hold me back, and I wrote like a little madwoman.
Kate likes the Jumpstart Typing cd-rom. I've heard many good things about Mavis Beacon but haven't seen it in person. Would Christian respond well to "hey, no spelling or narration for the next few weeks--all I want you to do today is learn to type"?
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Lissa
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Leonie
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| Posted: April 08 2005 at 6:38pm | IP Logged
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Elizabeth,
Ruth Beechick often writes about doing things for a season in our homeschools.
Can you have a season of copywork or typing , every now and then? Drop ( all or some) other things for a week or so and focus then regroup.
Beechick suggests this method for spelling, handwriting and grammar.
Leonie in Sydney
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Faith
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| Posted: April 09 2005 at 7:06am | IP Logged
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Hi Elizabeth,
My Will is very similiar to your Christian. He has the same exact problems with hadnwriting and spelling and a real aborrence to writing. May I share with you what I am doing? It may help.
1) Spelling: I use Phonics Pathways. This is very similiar to Sequential Spelling except not quite as laid out.
2) Will does his own independent writing on the computer. He uses the spellchecker extensively. Then after he does his best with the spell checker, either his father or I edit. We get the words like "mite" for "might". Then we reinforce the spelling lessons: "Remember? This "might" uses the three letter long i spelling." I even asked Julie if freewriting can be done on the computer and she said it was okay!
3) I have not been doing copywork/dictation with him this year. Instead I discovered reading comprehension workbooks. I use the Seton ones. This has helped him enormously even though it goes against every fiber of my being because it is not CM in anyway. How it helps him: It gives him concrete questions to answer. There is not a blank piece of paper to fill. Instead there are a few lines to write in answer to a specific question. He can go back into the text and copy many of the words for his answer. This little bit of indepedence has helped his confidence so much. He doesn't have to get anxious and feel helpless. He doesn't have to wait for mom to help. He can do 90% of it on his own. After he has written his answer in a complete sentence, I check and catch any spelling mistakes and again orally reinforce spelling rules. I make him rewrite the misspelled words. I also make him rewrite words that are not legible. I check his capitalization and punctuation, which has vastly improved since starting this method with him.
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cathhomeschool
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| Posted: April 09 2005 at 7:33am | IP Logged
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Like Alice's girls, my boys don't like seeing the red zigzags in Word! I think that this is part of why Zachary's spelling has improved. He likes to type in his own narrations, even though it takes forever. (We dropped typing lessons not long after beginning and desperately NEED to go back to them!) When he sees the "red," he will usually erase the word and try a variety of spellings. If he still can't figure it out he right clicks to see what Word recommends. Nicholas does the same.
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Janette (4 boys - 22, 21, 15, 14)
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juliecinci
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| Posted: April 10 2005 at 4:04pm | IP Logged
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Hi Elizabeth.
I've been out of town at a homeschool conference, as a matter of fact, so all of this is fresh in my mind. Sorry I couldn't get to you sooner.
Typing is a great way to go (and be sure to use spellcheck - it teaches so much) for someone with dysgraphia or any other struggle with handwriting.
But I also know that by sixteen, he'll need legible handwriting and spelling for his SAT/ACT timed essay test. I have a couple of ideas for you.
Have you ever used the French or reverse dictation formats I talked about in chapter one? French-style dictation limits the words that he has to write but requires the same kind of attentiveness for spelling. You can choose to isolate particularly tricky words like their, there and they're. Or you can feature words that require capitals. Using the same passage twice or three times means you can gradually increase the number of words that he must write while reading the passage along as you dictate it to him if you do it over a week's time, a bit each day.
Also be sure to start with small passages so that he doesn't wear out. The work should feel only mildly challenging. He should mostly feel competent.
Using reverse dictation, you can choose to focus exclusively on the punctuation without requiring any handwriting at all.
Also, let him pick the copywork. Ask him to choose from these types of punctuation:
straight prose (a couple of sentences that end in periods)
dialog
sentences ending in question marks or exclamation points
commas (sentences that make use of some commas)
Rotate through them and let him help you find passages from books he enjoys reading. If he picks the passages, he'll first be looking through the book for the right punctuation to highlight in his copywork or dictation and then he'll have the chance to produce it.
Rotate through the kinds of writing in this order: copying a passage over during week one, then the next week doing some French-style dictation, then the next week do a passage as reverse dictation and then the fourth week, do a shorter passage as full dictation (perhaps picking one of the ones he already did in one of the other weeks).
Keep it very short and always check in with him to make sure he isn't suffering. Rub his shoulders and give lots of encouragement. I like to pay pennies for successes (each correct word or punctuation mark) in reverse dictation, but you could do the same for his copywork and dictation too. Don't make a big deal out of mistakes at all. Focus on what he gets right.
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Julie
Homeschooling five for fourteen years
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4Real Forums : Language Arts Come Alive
Topic: Reluctant writers
