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Alex is a terrible writer. Terrible. When I read things that he's written, I cringe. He is in the 10th grade and I'm surprised that these things haven't been addressed with him sooner. Maybe they have, but they just haven't "taken".
So this semester, he's taking English 10. He was dreading it until I offered to help him. I still help Andrew and Amanda sometimes (and I have had them read my writing and critique it as well). Alex has never accepted my help before, so I was really excited when he agreed to let me help him with his weekly journal activities.
It quickly became apparent to me that Alex doesn't understand how to structure a paper, write an outline, or come up with a thesis statement. In addition to that, I discovered that he writes a lot of run on sentences and isn't always careful about the tense of his verb ... switching between sentences.
His first journal was due last week on Wed. I had to explain to him what a grabber sentence was (part of the requirement). We worked on coming up with one together. I let him come up with it and then I helped him to refine it. Then I worked with him on creating an outline and working from the outline. As he worked, I pointed out issues with sentence structure etc and told him how he might fix them....I gave several examples and then let him pick how he wanted to proceed. I helped him write transitions between his paragraphs. We worked on Tuesday night for almost 5 hours on a 5 paragraph journal.
My whole GOAL in doing this is to teach him the process, highlight sentence structure and grammar and ultimately get him working on his own.
He got feedback on his first journal. His teacher told him his thesis statement was the best she had read, that he had great transitions etc etc.
"You are a great writer"
Um No. NO he isn't. I overstepped my boundaries.
So ... by helping, I crossed the line and made him seem like he isn't an awful writer.
Last night, we had to work on Journal #2.
I helped prod him with the grabber, but then he took over and got it himself. Bam. I let him create his own outline, but it was kind of crappy. I left it and made him work from it. I did point out all grammatical and structural errors to him and he started re-reading things himself and saying "oh wait, that should be this..." He was getting the idea of what needed to be there. He created some sentences that served as transitions between paragraphs, but they sucked .... and I told him so. I made him change them. I helped him..
He wrote his thesis statement as a question and I told him it had to be a statement. He reworded it. It sucked. I left it.
This second paper was much more his than the first .... but I still am a part of it. He turned it in to this grading site to get a sample grade, and it made a grade of 75. He was kind of crushed.
His writing is so poor.....someone has to sit with him and help him so that he learns. I can't be hands off and expect him to just get it, and what they've been doing at school isn't working. At the same time, I don't want to cross the line and have his work be my work.
Any suggestions?
My goal is truly that by the end of the semester he is able to do these completely on his own with a better quality than now. I already saw a difference between his work on Journal 1 and his work on Journal 2.
Ugh.
Kris
So this semester, he's taking English 10. He was dreading it until I offered to help him. I still help Andrew and Amanda sometimes (and I have had them read my writing and critique it as well). Alex has never accepted my help before, so I was really excited when he agreed to let me help him with his weekly journal activities.
It quickly became apparent to me that Alex doesn't understand how to structure a paper, write an outline, or come up with a thesis statement. In addition to that, I discovered that he writes a lot of run on sentences and isn't always careful about the tense of his verb ... switching between sentences.
His first journal was due last week on Wed. I had to explain to him what a grabber sentence was (part of the requirement). We worked on coming up with one together. I let him come up with it and then I helped him to refine it. Then I worked with him on creating an outline and working from the outline. As he worked, I pointed out issues with sentence structure etc and told him how he might fix them....I gave several examples and then let him pick how he wanted to proceed. I helped him write transitions between his paragraphs. We worked on Tuesday night for almost 5 hours on a 5 paragraph journal.
My whole GOAL in doing this is to teach him the process, highlight sentence structure and grammar and ultimately get him working on his own.
He got feedback on his first journal. His teacher told him his thesis statement was the best she had read, that he had great transitions etc etc.
"You are a great writer"
Um No. NO he isn't. I overstepped my boundaries.
So ... by helping, I crossed the line and made him seem like he isn't an awful writer.
Last night, we had to work on Journal #2.
I helped prod him with the grabber, but then he took over and got it himself. Bam. I let him create his own outline, but it was kind of crappy. I left it and made him work from it. I did point out all grammatical and structural errors to him and he started re-reading things himself and saying "oh wait, that should be this..." He was getting the idea of what needed to be there. He created some sentences that served as transitions between paragraphs, but they sucked .... and I told him so. I made him change them. I helped him..
He wrote his thesis statement as a question and I told him it had to be a statement. He reworded it. It sucked. I left it.
This second paper was much more his than the first .... but I still am a part of it. He turned it in to this grading site to get a sample grade, and it made a grade of 75. He was kind of crushed.
His writing is so poor.....someone has to sit with him and help him so that he learns. I can't be hands off and expect him to just get it, and what they've been doing at school isn't working. At the same time, I don't want to cross the line and have his work be my work.
Any suggestions?
My goal is truly that by the end of the semester he is able to do these completely on his own with a better quality than now. I already saw a difference between his work on Journal 1 and his work on Journal 2.
Ugh.
Kris
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