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I have anecdotal evidence for that, and then some. The scenario you describe was happening to A. She was developing acute writing phobia by fourth grade. This extremely verbal, well read, talkative child would have almost nothing to say when presented with a writing assignment or prompt. She would virtually shut down. Her confidence was almost completely eroded. Having a clear road map has been life altering. She's actually relishing her writing assignments and no longer goes around saying "I'm a terrible writer." This is where we were not too long ago. What's most amazing is how quickly things have turned around.
[snip]
Last year in fourth grade there were mostly shoebox type "writing" projects dispersed through the year. There was one big writing project about a U.S. state that was to be done completely at school which ended up a total disaster. The rest were really psuedo-writing with it becoming more of a presentation that didn't really require structured writing (she dressed up and acted out the characters of Sacagawea and Elizabeth Blackwell.)
It got more serious around testing time in the spring when everything was in preparation for the CMTs. It got to the point that this child, who reads and comprehends at about a twelth grade level, was having breakdowns over short answer response questions at the fourth grade level. This shouldn't have happened, but it did.
There were no traditional book reports and I rarely saw drafts going through any type of editing process. There just didn't appear to be a method for teaching writing going on at all. She was overwhelmed and really began to hate anything having to do with writing.
I agree that remediation with the right methods can make a world of difference in a short amount of time, particularly if the child is a good reader. Having a process puts it all together and it just sort of "clicks".
This jibes with Vicky's and Susan's experience.
I'm going to have to go into the writing remediation biz: go into it or invent it. Either one.
the process
8 comments:
Corner your market quickly before someone steals your thunder!
Just check out this seminar for school district staff members:
Sentence X: Teaching Thesis Support in an Academically Diverse Classroom
Are your students ready to move from the simple narrative paragraph to a five paragraph essay? Is it difficult for your students to differentiate between the main idea sentence of a single paragraph and the “controlling idea” of a multi-paragraph essay or short research paper? This workshop will describe a method for teaching essay writing that can be adapted for teaching students who learn in different ways. It will emphasize the visual modality by using attractive graphics as well as emphasize the kinesthetic modality by the use of Power Point and/or pocket charts for sorting. This method is based on the work of William Kerrigan, author of Writing to the Point, a textbook designed for community college students who experience difficulty with essay writing. This workshop includes activities for using Kerrigan’s teaching concept with young writers and with older students as well.
I don't know about the visual modality, graphics and power point stuff but the presenter had me at Writing to the Point.
http://www.montville.net/documents/news/2007-06-04_Summer_Inclusion_Institute_Registration_Form-2007.pdf
This is amazing!!!!
What district is this????
And how the heck did you find that???
wow
Incredible.
I'd love to know how this teacher found Kerrigan.
wow -- that's NJ
You're right: I better hurry.
"Sentence X" is kind of cool, but I prefer X-1-2-3
ah hah
These are SPED people.
SPED people are the only folks still doing direct instruction, small letters.
X-1-2-3 is much better. X is not much without 1, 2, and 3.
What's really hard is Step 3 where you get into the 1.1, 1.2, 1.3 sentences.
It's a demanding technique - more so to teach than to use, I think.
I'm really having to study the book and work with it myself to figure it out.
We're definitely not there yet.
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