Hi~ My 8th grade son is handing in 5th grade quality writing assignments, and refuses to rewrite, edit, THINK. He has difficulty organizing his thoughts and gets very frustrated. Has anyone found a workbook or other tool that helps older kids develop their writing skills through exercises?
He starts high school next year and I’m worried. He does not have an IEP and in all other regards does pretty well, but poor writing at this stage of the game is a major concern. Thanks, lbhmom
Re: 8th grader & writing problems
Thank you for the book recommendations and for the suggestion that he read his work aloud - I hadn’t thought of this. He does have a good ear for all kinds of stuff and I think hearing his work may get his attention.
Re: 8th grader & writing problems
Similar to what Sue suggests: I sit beside a student and ask him what he wants to write about. Then I discuss his answer and help him formulate it into a sentence. Then I re-dictate the sentence back to him, one word or one syllable at a time. If that is impossible, I scribe the sentence down for him, but the re-dictating is much preferable. The I re-read the sentence he has (finally) produced and ask him waht he wants to say next. This is very long, but it really breaks down the thinking process and works wonders with the lost student. A similar approach could easily be used with editing: he reads a sentence, you ask if that is how he wants to say that, then you ask him if there are any words he could add (adjectives, adverbs) or any other ideas he wants to expad on, and so on.
Re: 8th grader & writing problems
I don’t know if he already does this, but it’s easier to revise if you type on a computer, then you don’t have to write the whole paper over when you make changes.
When the writing gets tough, by Charlotte Morgan and WRiting SKills for the Adolescent, by Diana Hanbury King are two of my favorite resources for teaching students to structure their writing and get their ideas out. (Of course, you may have to negotiate with him to do this extra work, since he refuses to rewrite and edit and think… unfortunately, that **is** part of writing.)
Another thing to do is to break down that “rewrite” and “edit” process - if he’s just being instructed to “rewrite” then that oculd be the root of the problem. If you sit with him and just have him read what he has written to you, one sentence at a time, and hear how it sounds, often that helps him ‘hear’ his mistakes and slows down the thought processes.