[ High School and Self-Education Board ]
Posted by Laurie4 b on 9:52 Jul 18
In Reply to: A question for those who have ALREADY produced a good writer...how did you do it????? posted by Praisefor3
My oldest is a good writer (9th grade). I agree with Stacey. Some of it may be innate. HOwever, I have a couple kiddos who are dyslexic and my goal for them is to be decent writers. So I have hopes that it can be taught.
He was slow to get handwriting. I had him do keyboarding in first grade. At that point, he was writing reports. I had burnt him out by about 2nd grade. At that point, he also wanted to write by hand. We did Wordsmith Apprentice in 4th or 5th grade. While using that, he said, "I think I am starting to like writing." On his next report, I thought he had plagerized part of it, but it turned out to be original!
That was the last formal writing program we used. He does read a ton of good books. I just require a lot of writing--mostly reports. We also do journal entries. I have taught the 5 paragraph essay--really it's pretty straightforward. I try to think up assignments that go with what we're doing.