My professional background is in writing. I have a master’s degree in professional writing and editing and have been a freelance writer for the last six years. I’m currently teaching a creative writing class at a local homeschool co-op. Despite all of this, however, I still use someone else’s writing curriculum for Captain Science (we use Writing Strands). Why? Because sitting down and mapping out the ideal curriculum for me just seems way too intimidating.
Someone on the WTM forums asked what I’d look for in a writing program, so I sat down and made a list of the things I’d like to include:
1. A Grammar Component: Correct grammar and usage is so important and you can’t be an effective writer without it (e.e. cummings not withstanding). I really like the idea of a grammar program like Editor in Chief, which puts grammar in context through identifying mistakes and correcting them by rewriting the paragraph. Sentence diagramming may seem tedious to some children, but dissecting language helps you learn how to use it better, so definitely include sentence diagramming in your grammar curriculum. My ideal writing program would include the grammar component, rather than treating it like it’s a separate subject.
2. Writing Styles (Formal and Informal): Writing in a variety of contexts helps you grow as a writer. As part of our personal curricula, we do history writing (twice weekly), writing for language arts (once or twice weekly), and creative writing (more sporadically at this point). We plan to add in science writing, as well. My ideal writing curriculum would include a variety of writing types and would teach an overview of writing styles, as well as basics of writing summaries and creative writing.
3. Write Regularly: The best practice is to do a little writing every day. Adult writers should try to meet the “1000 words a day” goal, while youth writers should shoot for around 100 words. My ideal writing curriculum would encourage short, daily writing, as well as once-weekly longer assignments.
4. Creative Writing (and Pre-Writing): Don’t push creative writing too early, but don’t eschew it entirely. Some people discourage expecting creative writing for children under 8-10, but I think making the connection between story telling and writing a story is important. Even very early writers can dictate a story, read back what was written, and expand on that story. Older children should be encouraged to write from prompts, to rewrite stories and include their own original details, and to do things like character development.
5. The Long and Short of It: Some writing programs put the emphasis on florid language, some put in on saying things succinctly. My ideal writing program would include both — sections where the student is to write a long description (perhaps even rewrite a short, succinct sentence) of something and sections where the goal is to summarize an event or long sentence into one simply, precise sentence.
6. No Five-Paragraph Essays: The only purpose of the five-paragraph essay is to develop the idea of thesis sentences, supportive details, and concluding paragraphs. You can accomplish this same goal with a tree/flowchart (thesis sentence as the top, main details coming off, minor supporting details coming off of those, and all of it coming back together at the bottom with the conclusion.
7. Outlines and Key Word Outlines: One thing we did like from IEW was the idea of the key word outline. It’s a good introduction to the concept of detailed note taking. My son reads his section once, get an idea of what his paper will be about, goes back through and does a key word outline, then sets aside the book and does his paper. He’ll be moving on to more formal outlines in the future.
8. Let Writing Be Its Own Reward: The great thing about writing is that it produces something tangible that can be shared for the brag factor. Compile your student’s best works from the year and have them bound (or use a self-publishing company like Lulu). Let your child give the writing as gifts or just keep a copy of his “book” for posterity.
I can’t see myself sitting down and developing a formal program that does all of this, though the bits and pieces are all things we do. Maybe someday, when I’m not actually currently homeschooling, I’ll give it a whirl.
What would YOU like to see in a writing program?
Maybe I should have you look at my CW stuff closer, it does have a lot of what you’re after.
I think that’s the key, though – “a lot.” An idea I’ve been tossing around for a while is the thought of doing two different writing programs – for reinforcement and further development, not to work against each other. Lots and lots of homeschoolers use two math programs, and writing is arguably the most important skill to retain out of high school. (I mean, you can get cards that will figure the tip for you. You can’t get a business card that will help you write a persuasive essay).
Thoughts?
I don’t know about writing programs, but I’m constantly thinking about math programs (and less so, science programs, but I feel very uncertain about how I’d structure science for now).
I keep coming back to the idea (kind of a lifelong dream/goal) of writing a complete math text, which uses worksheets purposefully to reinforce important properties and concepts, and tells the parent what the child should be learning, so they can check if the child is seeing the pattern! I don’t really know what’s out there though, if texts are already doing this better than I might.
There is one thing I want to add that I don’t think other math texts will have: I want to make it available for free on the internet, so you could either print it out yourself, or order a book for minimal costs. Also, that it would be constantly updated and fixed, according to input from users.
I’m also exploring the idea of introducing basic algebra earlier, so it’s not such a terrifying monster when they start it in 6-7-8th grades. For example, once you’ve learned addition and subtraction, you start on a fill-in-the-blank style worksheet, so: 3 + __ = 5. Then you replace the blank with an x, and start teaching them the rules for how you solve questions of this format:
3 + x = 5
3 + x – 3 = 5 – 3 [keep the equation balanced]
3 – 3 + x = 5 – 3 [I used properties of commutativity to move the -3 over.]
0 + x = 5 – 3
x = 5 – 3 [0 is the identity under addition, that is, a+0=0+a=a]
x = 2.
Lather, rinse, repeat. Now, once they’ve got it down, we can talk about constants (usually a,b,c are used for constants, but this is not required). What’s the difference between constants and unknowns? Unknowns are what we’re solving for, and constants are used to GENERALIZE the method used to solve a typical equation.
So, we’d generalize a + x = b, solve for x (or isolate x, same thing).
The method was:
a + x – a = b – a
a – a + x = b – a
0 + x = b – a
x = b – a
So that’s the general rule! You don’t need to know anything except addition and subtraction.
You mentioned a while ago that your son was having trouble with dividing by fractions (he gets the rule, but he doesn’t understand why). Algebra might help explain it to him, so long as he already knows how to divide and multiply:
a/(b/c) = x
a = x * (b/c)
a = (x*b)/c
a*c = x*b
(a*c)/b = x
a*(c/b) = x
so the rule is, a/(b/c) = a*(c/b) (we use the x in the middle to make them equal).
Now let’s analyse what rules we used for this. The only thing we used in this proof (and this is also a great way to start on formal-style proofs) is the fact that if you’re dividing on one side of an equation, to move it over, you multiply by the number on the bottom. Why? Because division is the “undoing” operation of multiplication, by definition! It was created for the purpose of filling in the equations a * __ = b, the way subtraction is the undoing of addition. Also, we should talk about when this rule doesn’t work: we can’t divide by 0.
(Why? 0*1 = 0*2. If we can divide by 0, then we can show 1=2! Uh-oh!)
I hope that helps!