First there is pre-writing. "Yes, boys, pre-writing does involve using a pencil."
Pre-writing is note-taking, using graphic organizers and outlining.
I wish I'd known about graphic organizers when NumberOne started writing. Praise the Lord for TOG. They have you teach about them.
Here are a few examples of how we've used them, so far:
- We used the senses chart when he imagined he was Lewis or Clark and discovered a prairie dog.
- The Venn diagram to compare and contrast animals.
- For Fulton's steamboat we used the describing wheel.
- The cluster chart/web we used for a Thomas Jefferson biography.
Yesterday we learned about formal outlining and I had NumberOne write ONE paragraph using notes from the sensing chart to write a journal entry as Lewis or Clark. It helped SOOOOO much. To the point that he said, "(and this is NO exaggeration) This is fun, can we write like this all the time?" I tell you, I almost cried.
The way I explained outlining was by example on our white board. I walked him through each Roman Numeral, Capital letter, numeral and lower case letter. If you are weak in this area, here are some sites that can help.
Educator's desk reference.
The Learning Center Exchange
Every homeschooler that I know in real life has problems with their sons and writing. It's frustrating. It's the thing that can send everyone into tears and make you question if you should really be doing this.
Here's hope! Teach the process one - step - at - a - time. Take a week to teach a step. Start with pre-writing. Let them choose the topic. Most of NumberOne's writing assignments are dictated by TOG, but he loves history, so it's no big deal. But you can have your sons (or daughters) write about video games, airplanes, trains, whatever they are passionate about.
Part two will be about the rough, or first draft.
