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Courtney
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| Posted: Jan 07 2009 at 10:37pm | IP Logged
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How much writing should I expect an 8yr old (3rd grade) boy to do? He does copywork and dictation. I've seen an improvement overall in the last year in his penmanship. This time last year, he would get very upset at the thought of having to write a sentence. After Christmas, he wrote at least 6 thank you notes with little input from me (some spelling, etc.). I guess I'm wondering what I should be expecting in terms of writing like journaling or short narrations (1-2 sentences). How often? I know our neighbors in 3rd grade (p.s.) are writing reports. I can't imagine that at this point. Any thougts?
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Courtney in Texas
Wife to Mike since 3/94 
Mom to Candace 10/97 ,Christopher 4/00 and Connor 11/11
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Kristie 4
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My 8 year old does a variety of things, but only one a day. He will often do italics/spelling words (from older sister's list for fun/copywork on the computer or on paper/narrate out loud or infrequently on paper.... But he only does one of these activities a day- revolt would happen if he had a pencil in his hand much longer than that! (I learned a little after taking one boy through this stage already.)
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Kristie in Canada
Mom to 3 boys and one spunky princess!!
A Walk in the Woods
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hopalenik
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| Posted: Jan 16 2009 at 11:19am | IP Logged
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I have found Susan Wise Bauers new series on writing to be tremendously helpful.
http://www.amazon.com/Complete-Writer-Writing-Strong-Fundame ntals/dp/193333925X/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1232 125529&sr=8-1
The above link is for the foundation book or general book for grades 1-4. She also has individual (photocopiable within family) workbooks available for grades 1 and 2 and is working on grade 3. The program is light and copywor, narration, dictation dependent. The text provides the clearest explanation of writing and the failure of the modern school pedagogy, that I have ever read. She really is more incisive than Laura Berquist was for me, at least. This program is "light" but progressive and provides extra hints for those children like mine-who crashed and burned with the explanations given by Laura Berquist and Karen Andreola.
Her comments on journaling, went like this-if they journal on their own, great. But don't force them too, if they aren't ready yet....garbage is still garbage even if produced in large amounts. And just making a kid write every day, is for the most part just producing garbage-based on teh papers she reads at William and Mary.
I am following her program with my 9 yo dd, and 7 1/2 yo twins. The twins are doing grade 1 and the 9 yo grade 2. For the twins it is narration, and copywork. For the 9 yo it is narration, copywork-dictation from previous days copywork, and then narration-dictation. It is helping. My oldest reads very well but is behind when it comes to putting things down on paper. I am now forcing her to write a paragraph about something every week but on a daily basis we do the 5 minutes from the Complete writing program. I am only forcing her to write a paragraph because we have an assigned social worker who hates homeschooling....(social worker is due to my son's transplant-required by law).
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Holly
Mom to dd 10, twins dd and ds (transplant as baby that failed 05/09, permanent dialysis patient) 8 , dd 5 and dd 3 1/2 and dd in Feb 2009. 2 I hope to meet in heaven.
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Rachel May
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| Posted: Jan 16 2009 at 12:54pm | IP Logged
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Here's a window into our schoolroom:
In 3rd grade in a single subject we would do a 4 day cycle:
1. Read
2. Narrate while I type
3. Copy into notebook
4. Illustrate
In grammar there was supposed to have been studied dictations 1-2x/week, but we had a lot of trouble with it. I think that when the next child hits 3rd, I will have her do the same copywork for 3 days, and then do a dictation on the fourth day for a while.
I'm not sure if Holly is talking about composing or physically writing with a pencil, but I have been told that it is **important to be sure that boys do physical writing every day.**
In 3rd the boys did very little composing (as opposed to narrating), but they do it every day this year. They have had to learn the skill of processing information and then giving a summary or putting it into their own words.
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My boys have found that by separating the narrating/composing from the actual writing, they have an easier time sitting down to the task of putting pencil to paper, and so they are more inclined to compose well.
Also, and I do not know if you have this problem, but I have been slack in grading their writing assignments. I have not held a high standard for penmanship. Neither have I checked their compositions against the rubrics provided. Instead I have just sort of said, "Yeah, this seems ok. It's better than their work used to be." So while I have progression, I'm not sure they are working up to their potential or to what is age appropriate. That is something I've had on my list to improve this semester.
I hope that helps.
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Rachel
Thomas and Anthony (10), Maria (8), Charles (6), Cecilia (5), James (3), and Joseph (1)
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Courtney
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| Posted: Jan 20 2009 at 10:08pm | IP Logged
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Thanks, Rachel, Hollie and Kristi for your suggestions. Last week I saw a real change. We are doing a co-op this year. In one of ds's classes, he had to write down something about a rainforest animal. He picked the flying lemur. We read through a book about them and he wrote down simple facts. I then helped him put those facts in some kind of order and make them into full sentences. He was so motivated by this, I was in shock! His co-op teacher told me he read it to the class. I now know he can, it's just motivating him. I agree that it's important for him to have the pencil to the paper every day in some form or fashion, but I don't think I can expect him to compose and write every day at this age.
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Courtney in Texas
Wife to Mike since 3/94
Mom to Candace 10/97,Christopher 4/00 and Connor 11/11
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4Real Forums : Language Arts Come Alive
Topic: Writing questions again!
