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JSchaaf
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| Posted: May 08 2008 at 3:42pm | IP Logged
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My dd (8) wrote this today, long hand and then asked me to type and print it out:
The Secret Castle
Charles And Anna were reading. Rose and William were reading too. Stephen and Kathleen were playing by the brook. Kathleen was makeing mud pies, and Stephen was wadeing. Charles looked up and saw that Stephen and Kathleen were playing. safely so he went inside to get a cookie. he came out saw that Stephen an Kathleen were stll playing Safely then he looked more crafely saw that Stephen was splaching Kathleen! Anna looked up form her reading an saw waht was Going on Stephen she called stop splaching Kathleen. then Rose sugted the all of them tace a waak in the woods. the others agdeed. they all loved the woods. Will asked were whre they going? Charles ansred that they woued just expleie, a bit then go home. Charles put them all in this ordr Charles Anna rose Will Stephen and Kathleen and a Baskit Anna had Grabbed with some food in it for a Picnic.
as They walked Throutgh The woods. Charles ponted out the kinds of birds an bugs, Then rose asked Did you breg a map? will peked over Anna. No he ansrd oh dear said Kathleen Are we lost? Stephen asked I thik so Charles said
As you can see, it is full of errors. First question-is this ok for an 8 yo? Should I panic that she has no spelling and grammar skills? Next, how should I go about helping her learn from her work? I thought about printing out a copy with correct spelling, etc. and letting her compare the two. Good idea?? Bad idea? Any better ideas?
Thanks!
Jennifer
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lapazfarm
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| Posted: May 08 2008 at 3:53pm | IP Logged
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Cute story, very age appropriate writing. Celebrate!!!
My humble opinion is that if you try to correct every mistake in a piece of creative writing, you run the risk of squelching the creativity aspect.
One thing you can do is for each piece of creative writing she generates, choose ONE thing to have her go back and correct. Leave everything else as is.
On the next piece, before she begins, remind her of the thing you went over on the last piece and ask her to watch out for that as she writes. When she is done writing, choose a different thing to correct. Leave everything else alone.
Repeat the process with each piece she generates.
Eventually you will have addressed everything, just on different pieces, so it isn't overwhelming.
It works well for us!
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Theresa
us-schooling in beautiful Fairbanks, Alaska.
LaPaz Home Learning
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mom3aut1not
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| Posted: May 08 2008 at 4:03pm | IP Logged
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Jennifer,
I only wish my son could do that! <sigh>
Here's my $.02, fwiw.
If she were my child, I would emphasize that we always do at *least* two drafts and start working on correcting things for the next draft. I would work with her, looking for errors and gently reminding her of things she may have learned but not applied. (Errors that are the results of rules not yet learned might or might not be corrected at this point. It would depend on the child.)
I would not be surprised at her making errors. She is a very young writer, and the process of writing an error-free work is a complicated one. Treat it as a first draft -- the ideas are there, but the mechanics need some cleaning up. I would take a while going over it. Cover one type of error at a time -- spelling one day, capitalization the next, and so on. Another alternative is to thoroughly cover a few sentences at a time. When the final and corrected copy is done, I would make a big deal of it -- pretty paper or showing if off to grandparents or something.
I would also stress that it is okay to make errors as long as you can correct them or, in other areas of life, learn from them.
She is still very young. Don't get stressed; you are her mom-teacher for the *long* haul. Not everything must be accomplished right now. Teaching her is a journey. Try to enjoy it with her -- even if you are appalled with her first draft. <g>
In Christ,
Deborah
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folklaur
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| Posted: May 08 2008 at 4:21pm | IP Logged
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I think it is great!
IMO, if you feel you have to do something, I would go the route of just one thing corrected...but in actuality, when my kids "creative write" - I just let them have at it. I don't want to do anything to make them not want to do it. They get enough writing "assignments" that have to be "up to par" so to speak. If this was not an assignment, and was "just for fun" or because she just thought it up and did it, I wouldn't mess with it. As long as she keeps getting exposed to well written stories in print and as read alouds, along with her other LA work, she'll get it. If you start turning something she is doing for fun, into work that has to be done a certain way, she may feel it is easier to just NOT do it to begin with.
I do have an 18dd who had lousy grammar & spelling at that age, and now writes some pretty nifty short (and not-so-short) stories.
But! that is just my opinion so feel perfectly free to disregard! 
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KackyK
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| Posted: May 08 2008 at 8:44pm | IP Logged
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I have used their creative writing goofups as my spelling lists. I don't buy any sort of spelling program. What we have done in the past (I have let this slip the last few weeks, okay, since Christmas when I was under the weather with first trimester baby sickness) is I give them a new list of 10-15 words each...depends on the age of the child. But I make the list up using words I have discovered them misspelling. This way I know the words truly are relevant to them as they obviously know what they mean since I've seen them use them. Anyways, then they just copy them 3 times a day for 4 days, then we test on Friday...then Monday comes and they get a new list. This really worked for my oldest dd who is now in the 7th grade. She rarely misspells anything nowadays. And she taught herself how to read at 4, so phonics never ever stuck with her...so you can imagine the number of her errors at age 8 too!
Otherwise, I have always just left the creative writing papers alone. I must admit, one time I tried to encourage a second draft and with very gentle suggestions (this was with my oldest dd and I think she was about 7 or 8) and she was devastated...took her a couple of weeks to get back to just writing for fun and not hiding it from me. 
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KackyK
Mom to 8 - 3 dd, 5ds & 4 babes in heaven
Beginning With the Assumption
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4Real Forums : Language Arts Come Alive
Topic: How to correct creative writing??
