more fun with WAC

re: If WAC sweeps the country as I fear it may, we'll have our public schools producing kids who hate writing as much as they hate math, Concerned Parent has this to report:

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