I am starting to plan out our writing program for both boys next school year that starts in a couple of weeks after all our
day camps are over. I have found a couple of great sites like these for
grammar help,
match sentence games,
helpful writing tips ideas,
online English usage rules... just to name a few. After what 4 or 5 years now.. sorry the time just melts into each other,doesn't it? I am trying a new approach, I really want to make a big improvement in our writing this year. Nailing everything down from spelling to grammar to putting in great vocabulary. The problem is we have done a lot of what's out there and then comes the scheduling of exactly how much time a day we need to studying and work on these things. I almost feel like it needs to be our main subject for a while... but not sure exactly how to put that into a high school credit. So that's the question I am asking you all... HOW would YOU do it? I realize that there isn't a big following on my blog but the peeps I have that check in are AWESOME. Thanks in advance for reading my post and for any helpful hints you can give;)
One cool thing you might try is having the boys create a learning journal. Andy did this one year and he actually really enjoyed it. You have them write about everything they are learning. Their thoughts, their opinions, their feelings. And not just what they are learning at home, but in their extracurriculars as well. Make sure they understand the journals aren't private. They aren't THAT kind of journal. You review them each day or each week and make notes of any major writing snafus they make. You don't correct them in the journal. Oh no, no, no. Instead, you make a note of the writing precept you need to work on and you cover it in some creative way in the FUTURE. Pretty cool way to integrate writing into the rest of curriculum, I think. PLUS, it's like having a portfolio at the end of the year of everything they learned!!
ReplyDeleteI really like that idea!! I am going to try it:) I am up for whatever I can do to get these boys writing at least as good as I can...maybe not YODA writing but LUKE will do! Thanks for the idea!
ReplyDeleteThe best thing I did for my son's writing was getting him to start a blog. Doing it electronically eliminated some of the blockages for us, and once he got into the habit, he writes SOMETHING almost daily without me having to fuss at him. But whether it is a blog or a journal, that doing at least a little something daily or regularly is, I think, the best way to improve writing.
ReplyDeleteYou can see some of my other thoughts/resources on my latest blog post. I guess we are thinking about the same topics these days....
Carol