Co-operation from 5th grader

[NayfiesMama]

Hi There,

So, I'm looking for positive ways to encourage my daughter to dig in and do her homework. Mostly, this is her writing. I've asked her if she'd like me to help her by sitting through and walking through it with her. She's very much into doing it herself. EXCEPT, she doesn't really do the greatest job. We're doing IEW, and while I absolutely love it, I'm at a loss as to how I can positively encourage her to work at it. This is her first year of being 100% homeschooled, so I want her to like it, but yet I want her to grow and stretch.

Any ideas as to how you encourage your children?

[Carol in Cal.]

One was talking about what to write about and what to say.

One was getting her ideas down on paper. There are a lot of formats for this, and some kids respond better to some than to others. Some like graphic organizers, some like outlines, some like a list, and some like freewrites. Unfortunately, my DD liked writing it down perfectly from the very first try and then stopping and never revising it again.

One was revising to make sure that the piece was well-written, cogent, engaging, and well-argued. Again, this was a real hurdle for my DD.

One was checking back with the assignment to make sure that the actual assignment was addressed, not merely ending up being a jumping off point for something that ended up only tangentially related to it.

One was proofreading or editing for grammar, spelling, tense consistency, etc.

So for my DD, I decided to have her proofread work other than her final writing so that I was not criticizing her baby. Same for spelling--we worked on that separately. I had her do prewriting every single day, without polishing all of these into final papers. We had great discussions about books and history and science and Bible without having them always lead to papers. I had her do copywork every single day, to get used to looking very closely at writing and making it perfect. And I enrolled us in a Kidswrite Basic cclass, which gave me an outsider reason to have her accept input on revising her work, and gave her a positive experience with that to hearken back to.

Now in 7th grade she is a well organized thinker and, I think, a very effective and engaging writer.

[love2read]

I had to break writing up into a lot of different little things.
:iagree:
I help mine over and over until I'm sure they understand it completely and are writing well. With a fifth grader that might be 6 or 8 writing assignments. In that case, I don't always have them do a final copy.

[elegantlion]

Hi There,

So, I'm looking for positive ways to encourage my daughter to dig in and do her homework. Mostly, this is her writing. I've asked her if she'd like me to help her by sitting through and walking through it with her. She's very much into doing it herself. EXCEPT, she doesn't really do the greatest job. We're doing IEW, and while I absolutely love it, I'm at a loss as to how I can positively encourage her to work at it. This is her first year of being 100% homeschooled, so I want her to like it, but yet I want her to grow and stretch.

Any ideas as to how you encourage your children?

We are using CW with my 5th grader this year. It is the first year he has done a formal writing program. I encourage the smallest feat. Today we were editing a story he wrote and he added an exclamation point to the end of one sentence. I told him that was perfect, which it was.

What I bolded really stood out to me. I have worked for years to see things from my ds' perspective. What I don't think may be real progress may be growth in his eyes. I've also told him that he will never get good at anything without the willingness to fail before he succeeds. Practice, practice, practice.

IMO, your dd will not get better if you don't allow HER to do the growing. One of the hardest things about homeschooling is allowing our children to fail in order to allow them to grow, academically speaking. I would let her write on her own, that is an achievement in itself. Then to correct I would gently encourage to see her errors and help her find the ways improve them. Let her ideas come out.

I encourage the effort, I don't require perfection. I prep my ds by telling him that as we progress through the year more will be required from him. The baby steps are hard, but we are guiding our children and sometimes that is what is required.

HTH (HUGS)

[Carol in Cal.]

...I did tell DD often how much I respected her as a writer. She has always kind of had a way with words, and composed pretty well.

I try to discuss improvements in her writing or in techniques with her in such as way as to sound very respectful. I often tell her that I'm putting another arrow into her quiver, another tool into her writing toolbos; and that I don't expect her to use all of them all the time, but that I do want her to have the familiarity with them to be able to use them whenever she chooses.

This is how I got her to do graphic organizers, which we both think are pretty darn stupid. Just another tool, dear. Now you have it, and maybe it will come in handy one day. Or not.

[Julie in MN]

I like Carol's idea of breaking it up into small parts. If you "discuss" a small part, then she can move forward to the next part based on that discussion, without going backwards.

One small part might even be taking notes, and you can discuss any missing pieces you see before she even writes. Depends on what she's writing. That works well with history summaries for us.

Also, does your dd type her papers? That requires a lot less work to edit. I can even change the color of some words so ds can edit without me breathing over his shoulder. Today I changed all the words in the wrong tense to green. Other times, I've written little questions in red in between sentences or words that I thought needed help ("I'm not sure who 'him' is here?").

Julie

[OhElizabeth]

In addition to the other great comments, you might ASK her why she's having those feelings about her work. She might not like the models in IEW or might feel stifled by the process. That's not even to say you have to change anything, but sometimes talking about it and acknowledging it helps. Sometimes the thing that is bugging them can be corrected. If she wants more freedom (you said she's actually a good, intuitive writer), she might like to do two drafts, the first straight and the 2nd with more creativity or originality. She might like to park on the unit and do several original writings for a few weeks. She might be feeling pressured or not like the time of day you're doing the writing. So I'd just talk with her and see what she can suggest about what is going on and how to make it better. It might be an issue that is resolveable. It's ok to TWEAK a good program to make it fit your dc. See I notice you said *you* love IEW, not that *she* loves it.

[Lori D.]

1. Break the writing into small "bite size" chunks

This can be something like the IEW suggestion for key word outlining and spreading out the assignment:

day 1 = brainstorm; come up with topic sentence and a few supporting facts/examples
day 2 = any research; write out a key word outline
day 3 = the actual writing; write/"flesh out" from the key word outline
day 4 = "dress up", revise, edit the writing
day 5 = type up, check, hand in the writing assignment

Or, this can be as simple as a short (1 paragraph) assignment spread out in the day:
- morning = go over the assignment so expectations are clear; brainstorm; start writing
- late morning = continue writing; finish writing
- after lunch = "dress up"/revise writing; type up/edit/print out and hand in

Or, do several small chunks of different types of writing in a day:
- morning = daily journal writing or free writing
- late morning = ongoing work on writing for the writing program
- after lunch = ongoing work on writing for a science report, book report, or other school subject writing



2. from the book Writing Aids (and from a lecture on teaching writing by Writing Aids author Marcia Somerville): very specific, very clear expectations that include a check list for the student including:

- exactly what the assignment is
(ex: "Pick 1 of the story ideas from below and write a minimum of 3 pages of a short story narrative; be sure to include:
- a specific setting (time and location)
- specific descriptions that includes 3 of the 5 senses
- dialogue")

- length of assignment
(examples:
- topic sentence, 3 supporting facts/examples and conclusion, each 1-3 sentences long
- minimum of 100 words
- 1-2 paragraphs
- 5 paragraphs
- 3 pages, double spaced, etc.)

- what parts of the writing are due and when
(ex.: outline, due ____; rough draft, due _____; revised draft, due ____; final paper, due _____)

- checklist of what grammar mechanics things the student needs to revise for BEFORE handing it in

[Garga]

Can she type? I HATE to write handwritten, but LOVE to write if I can type. But, I'm a fast typer. Do you think if she could learn to type it would be better?

Of course, if she can't, it could take a long time to learn to type quickly. But, maybe, thinking long term, start practicing typing fast....

Also, writing always stinks the first couple of drafts. (That's why typing is nice--can edit so quickly.)

I agree with the post of breaking it up over a series of days. (Day 1: Brainstorming...etc.) When I have to write a paper I always take many days to do it. Just a little each day. I've never received less than an A on any paper!