unmotivated writers

I’d let them choose their own topics. And despite what the state likes, I’d vary the assignments and not dwell constantly on the 3 paragraph form. If the state wants them to learn it, they’ll be far more likely to if they get a break from it.

And I’d aim for correct form rather than lengthy paragraphs.

Good luck-

Jane,
What means of expression are your kids currently using - pen/pencil, computer, AlphaSmart, Dana? I have found great success after facilitating keyboarding with some fun activities with some tools built into MicroSoft Word.
There’s an excellent article on Richard Wanderman’s website, www.ldresources.org , called, “How Computers change the writing process for people with learning disabilities,” which I can’t recommend highly enough.
Many students find written expression challenging for a number of reasons - poor spelling skills, difficulty putting thoughts to paper, difficulty sequencing ideas, organizing ideas, etc. etc. When they are able to manipulate their ideas, easily spell check, receive synonym support, easily correct and edit their work AND use the readability statistics in Word, student’s written expression improves. This requires teacher instruction of course.
The use of the Readability Statistics alone has been incredibly motivating to the students with whom I work. They rush to improve their grade levels after they have checked their “score.”

How bad is their writing?

Two of my favorite resources are Charlotte Morgan’s _When They Can’t WRite_ from York Press (http://www.yorkpress.com) which starts from the ground up (nouns and verbs, including exploring abstract vs. concrete and some of the more confusing aspects of verbs) and moving towards good sentences and then paragraphs. It’s all laid out — lesson plans are a breeze :)

Diana King’s WRiting Skills for the Adolescent is full of ideas and examples of good structured activities to develop writing skills, including ways to help kids with writing and langauge issues deal with the organizational aspects of writing. You can get it from (among other places) REading and Language Arts Centers (http://www.rlac.com)

Let’s try making those links linkable:

http://www.yorkpress..com

http://www.rlac.com

Hi, when I have reluctant writers and/or poor writers, I do group writing. This allows you to model the correct format with their participation. They can pick the topic or style and you can also use this for shorter pieces of your choosing. You give them an instruction, viz. let’s write a topic sentence. Choose a person or go around the room with each student adding a sentence. (I do it on a large chart paper pad.) You structure it as much as you need to. When they get interested, the story may run away from them. You may have to make a story map first or suggest what is missing in the sequence or where the story needs gaps filled in. If they get stuck you can say something like, “OK, our characters are stuck in a cave. Give me a sentence to tell us how they get out of the cave.” Then when they have finished a paragraph, they proofread and revise. First you ask for capitalization and punctuation errors. Then try to get them to improve the vocab (have them use a thesaurus) and sentence structure. My guys have written several “fractured fairy tales and a gory parody of an adventure story with ridiculous super heroes. It became a vocabulary contest, with each student trying to improve the other’s writing. It’s a lot of fun. I usually save story writing for Fridays and use the technique for writing a sample of smaller writing assignments such as letters or single paragraph essays. Then they have to write their own.

Good luck.
Fern

KILL THEM.

My district purchased books about a program called Developing A Writing System (DWP) by Sharon Heil. My 6th gr LD English class fell for it immediately. The first day I taught the program, I didn’t assign anything, but with in a class period or two I had students bring in samples of writing they had assigned themselves. It has to do with numbers and colorcoding. Very Visual!!! I highly recommend it.

Jennifer, can you give any more information on the program you mentioned, Developing A Writing System? I have 6th grade boys who think writing is a form of torture! Thanks!
Jenn

Jennifer, do you mind posting the publisher for that writing program you mentioned, as any web site or mailing/e-mail address you have? I did several searches on the internet and in Amazon and Barnes and Noble but couldn’t find it. Thanks a lot!

Jenn

It doesn’t have a publisher or anything (Maybe a conference hand-out). I will contact someone in my district to get the information. It is very good, though. I hope you will get a chance to use it.

The website to order the DWP book

http://webpages.charter.net/srheil

Best Wishes!! I had lots of success:)