My son is in the 7th grade. Historically he has had problems with learning to read, he also has had a hard time in the past with spelling, and learning to write paragraphs, complete sentences for tests…it is all related. Anyway, he has been given a writing project that first of all says ‘grade 8 autobiographical incident’. This is one of the bullets on the explanation page ‘use personal experiences to support generalizations in expository essays’.
Ok,I graduated from college, I don’t think I ever saw such a convoluted sentence, how in the world do 7th graders,much less ones with reading, writing issues make out a thing like this?
I figure I can probably break it down for him, together we can do this. I asked him about it and he told me the teacher said she wanted them to see what it would be like in 8th grade. I guess I can see some value in that idea but perhaps not in the 3rd week of 7th grade. Am I out there or what?
I do plan to see the sp.ed. teacher and see what we can come up with, if it needs modifications or what else we can do.Right now I just opened up a new pack of index cards, we’re doin’ some of this the old way(at least the way I learned in high school).
Any opinions or help?Thanks!
Re: 7th grade writing project
First off, know that you’re not crazy. These assignments can be. School sometimes lacks common sense.
This kind of a writing project, though, is a pretty common one in schools. Kids can’t make sense out of it and all over the country, parents feel just as you do because caring parents end up helping with these silly things.
Expository writing is writing that explains. They’re asking him to write his something that happened to him.
It could go like this.
Learning to ride a bike is usually an interesting experience. Wobbly at first, most people have a fall or two before they get the hang of it. For some people, though, their first ride on a bike was truly memorable. My first ride on a bike is something I’ll never forget.
or
Many people enjoy owning pets. I particularly love my cat. Found as a kitten, my cat has become an important part of my life.
Some people feel their pets are almost like people. I talk to my cat when I’m home alone and think of her like a friend. I know she’s not a person but I couldn’t have better company than she is when I’m home alone.
Good luck.
Re: 7th grade writing project
Sounds like just a fancy way of saying “write an essay about something that happened to you in the past.” By the end of 8th grade, a student entering adolescence might have the intelligence to understand that [“teach to the test”] jargon, but a student just starting 7th probably doesn’t.
My son has similar issues to yours. I have found Web diagrams to be useful and they fit in nicely with Tracy’s brainstorming suggestions and Sara’s learning to ride a bike example.
You draw a spider - a big circle for its body and 5-6 legs coming off the body (make the legs long enough/far part for you to write next to them). Now draw two more spiders; each directly below the first. If you child has vision issues, draw really big and put each spider on a separate page. Whatever works for your child.
In the body of each spider, you write a few words about the topic of the paragraph. Next to each leg (as many legs as he can think of), you have your child brainstorm some supporting details for that topic. If he didn’t have a writing disability I’d say have your child write it, but with our son’s dysgraphia that was just too big a hurdle. At its simplest, it could just be a word or two but our child likes to dictate a complete sentence to me (that kind of saves a step in the process you have to do later anyway). So, for bike riding, you might have:
[the first spider’s “body” says:] Introduce situation
- learning to ride a bike
- six years old
- all my friends already knew how
- hilly neighborhood
- Oakmont, NJ
[the second spider’s “body” says:] Feelings
- frustrated
- scared
- felt like I would always fall off
- embarrased
[the third spider’s “body” says:] events/resolution
- practiced at a flat playground…
- first two tries failed
- skinned my knee on the first try
- dad pushed me faster on the third try
- third try I went halfway across
Typically you will also want to wrap up the essay with a concluding paragraph. With our son, we don’t usually diagram it (he’s got this part down pretty well now) but you might grab a thought from each paragraph like:
- not knowing how to ride a bike was the most frustrating…
- it made me feel…
- now I can…
So having your Web organizational aid ready, you can now sit at the keyboard and let him create a story for you from the ideas you generated on the spiders. (Note: Remember you need a topic sentence for each paragraph. I say to our son “now start with a sentence that describes this spider.” Hopefully he’ll come up with something like (first spider) “I’m going to tell you about the time I learned to ride my bike” (second spider) “I had a lot of strong feelings about this problem,” etc.
There is a software package entirely devoted to an approach like this; collecting brainstorming ideas, representing them graphically; then converting them to outline form. It’s called Inspiration. Our son’s 7th Sp. Ed teacher is going to use it in her classroom this year. I’ve just ordered it, so we’ll see how it goes. We’re going to try using it combined with voice recognition software and see if we can get our child on the road to writing independently.
Best wishes. I hope your child turns into a gifted writer!
Re: 7th grade writing project
Thanks so much for the help. We will be using the spider for sure, he learned about that in 4th grade from his tutor. I understood the direction on the paper I just knew that there was no way he would have, as I understand it, that was probably true of most of the 7th grade. The teacher is working on this in class with small student groups brainstorming, so thankfully this isn’t something sent home that my son and I have to figure out on our own. Maybe this will work after all! I plan to look into inspiration, it sounds like a useful tool. Maybe it would even help my adhd husband working on his master’s program.Thanks again.
Gees Louise! What a “bullet” statement. I will presume that the gen. ed. teacher is being told to align instruction w/ state frameworks. A: Does the gen. ed. teacher know that your son has a disability? B: Have you met w/ the sped teacher this school year? C: Give yourself a pat on the back for being a parent who wants her child to get all he can from school. I am a high school resource teacher and I realize how chaotic the first few weeks of school are. Hopefully the sped teacher has had a chance to meet w/ the gen.ed. teachers and discuss needed modifications for individual students. In Arkansas, the IEP modifications are initialed by the gen. ed. teachers and a copy of the mods are given to each gen. ed. teacher. First things first, try to see what it is that the gen. ed. teacher expects. He/she may want to get a feel for the students’ writing abilities or this may be a major assignment. Give the teacher a call (at school) to meet/greet and then get the particulars of the assignment. Some suggestions for helping your son: Try getting him to “brainstorm” the topic by just listing anything that comes to mind related to being an 8th grader. You can take notes as he talks or he can jot them down (spelling, etc. not impt. at this point). Then begin to place those ideas in categories. Create sentences from his thoughts and organize the sentences into paragraphs. It might even help to invest in a small dry erase board. Use a colorful dry erase marker to jot down ideas, then use different colors to identify related topics by circling related topics with the same color. This can also be done using different colored pens on paper. The visual effect will help your son. You might try doing a paper w/ him, “thinking aloud” so he can “see” the thought process. Your paper could serve as a model for him. Another idea, would be to invite a couple of his buddies over to do the assignment together. Hope this helps.