My aha moment with teaching high school writing to homeschoolers!

Okay. So I had an aha moment. 

I do not use IEW and I do not follow the classical model for writing. 

I follow the model of students writing first sentences (K-2), paragraphs (3-5), then essays (4-8). when they write (I've used Write Source from Great Source for K-6) they learn many different forms: how to writing, cause and effect writing, compare/contrast, descriptive, narrative, poetry... In 7th grade, I wrote my own curriculum that focused first on Show, Don't Tell Writing (lots of printables online for free), then moved into poetry--choosing words on purpose, then into narrative writing where description naturally fits, and then into non-fiction narrative. We end that year with compare/contrast writing. 

This year, we began with summarizing, moved into when to paraphrase, quote, and summarize, and then into a research paper. The research paper was where the waters got muddy. It's an enormous undertaking and I needed to break it down. We started with how to tell what was a good source on the internet and what wasn't (found an awesome presentation on this online!) then chose a topic and evaluated several online sources for info. 

We moved towards writing the research paper, but I still felt like I was treading water a little and that was when my aha moment came!http://www.glencoe.com/.../language_arts/rprw/68rprw.pdf We had started outlining. First phrases and then sentence outline, but I was missing a piece and this it...

In K-8 students learn the forms of writing. Teachers explain when to use this form (and this connection should be also made when they are reading) and the structure of it. Then, in 8th grade they transition... ! 

They must now do 2 thing: 
1. They must be able to write research papers. They must take notes, and then decide what approach is best for the essay (there's a page in that Glencoe book that explains this). Then they outline based on the form they've chosen. For longer papers, you need to combine more than one approach/form ie. for postmodernism, my student is going to begin with a definition, move into a compare/contrast, and end with a cause/effect. 
2. They must read a writing prompt and identify which approach/form is best for that prompt. This is where homeschoolers tend to be weak. We don't want to teach to the test (myself included), but I realized when I started grading my daughter's tests that I have to teach her how to take tests and she does also have to do well on the SAT/ACT because that is what colleges want to see (external validation that she can do fine in college). 

This is huge for me, because I need to make sure that my children can write in all these forms and now I see the big picture of why I'm teaching them how to write all these different ways to begin with!

Writing Progress

Last year, one of Autumn's friends wrote a poem at school that was quite creative and cute.  When I read it, I questioned whether Autumn could write something like that.  This wasn't the pride kind of questioning.  It was the 'is she even able'--'does she know how to write at all'--kind of question.  I've written on this blog that I decided to switch writing curriculums this year.  For Kindergarten, I had used The Writing Spot with the girls.  But, the first grade teacher's guide I had wasn't specific enough in its plans so it seemed overwhelming.  That was why I'd switched two years ago.  After two years of Writing With Ease I had questions like the ones I mentioned earlier.  Is Autumn learning to write?  


She is a creative little girl and my feeling began to grow that she needed a creative curriculum.  So, I went back to the curriculum I'd started with in Kindergarten from Great Source.  I'm starting Autumn with the second grade level, though, because she hasn't been taught formally how to write.  Writing With Ease taught her how to summarize (which she still wasn't very good at after 2 years) and copy good grammar and punctuation.  So, we started school last week and she was so excited to jump into her new writing curriculum, Write Away.  The first three days were getting to know her book.  Yesterday she had her first practice journal writing and I wanted to share it.  Her dad and I were pretty surprised by it.  It reinforced to me that I made the right choice in switching.


*Please note that all spelling, grammar, and punctuation have been typed exactly as she wrote them.


My Practice Journal by Autumn


One day I was doing my spelling, When I felt my chair move.  I thought, "I did not move my chair.  Who did?"  I looked underneath my chair and I saw Eli, my silly brother.  I laughed.  I said "Eli, What are you doing?"  Eli said "I want to be a Gost for Haloween."  I said "Eli, I know you want to be a  gost for Haloween.  Now, get out from under there." (Now jsut to be sure, I was not being mean.  I had to do my spelling you know.)  So Eli, my silly brother, my Three-year-old brother got out.  He had draped a blanket over himself.  But instead of taking it off and going to play he said "O-o-o-o-o." (He was being a ghost.)  At lunch I said Eli "Eli since I know how to sew (for the first time,) I'll make a costume for you.  it will be a ghost one."  the end


Sami is enjoying her writing now too.  My plan is to do copywork (one sentence) and dictation (again 1 sentence) once a week with her like Writing With Ease recommends to supplement her writing curriculum, Write One.  


She dictated this story to me yesterday:


Sami's Story


Pam and Dan Race


Pam and Dan race.  Then they have a picnic.  They have a great time!  They get back to the race.  Go Pam.  Go Dan.  Pam wins.  The End


I'm excited to see my girls develop this year in writing!