writing with ease?

Springtime, and getting close to the end of our counted school days.  We are required to have 180 for the year. If this month goes well, we should be done by the end of May!  Not that we will stop doing school time, but I can start counting for next year!!!

I have begun thinking about next year and what curriculum needs we might have to go on to second grade at the Wright house.  I was thinking that we needed to do a bit more writing, with some intentional lessons.  I am not actually a fan of teaching writing the way that I was taught to teach it at college.  I saw it in practice in the "regular" classroom.  The basic premise is "children will learn to write if they write and write and write." They just need real audiences and long periods of time to try it out. Along with LOTS of feedback and encouragement. Hence, the "writing workshop". It demanded MUCH too much conversation with the teacher in a one on one setting (the "writing conference") and it was very very much like pulling teeth.  Give the child a prompt, or blank page, encourage them to write something.

For children who are avid spellers and have good command of the English language, this may be fine in the end. Most children however do not know the grammar for writing well.  And quite honestly most of their stories were one to two sentences, or were actually a retelling or narration of a recently watched movie, video game, or beloved book.  Very few stories are original.  And, after pulling a few sentences from them during a precious chunk of time in the classroom, most of their writing was quite "wrong".  They spent much of the time procrastinating because they don't want to can't  do it, and then when they finally do try the assignment, it is mostly wrong, and their little hearts break when their paper bleeds get excited about revision. (which doesn't seem like a great use of time in the classroom...for anyone involved)

And so, I am definitely open to another way of doing things.

We have based our first year on the classical education model.  (keep in mind I didn't know anything about the classical education model a year ago...was I not presented with this in "teacher school" or did I conveniently not pay attention to that tidbit?) The Well Trained Mind is our best resource to date.  I have used a few of the author's pieces and love them.  They now have a writing curriculum available and I got pretty excited about this.  Within the classical education model, writing for the first 4 years, or during the grammar stage, is actually simple.

The basic structure of teaching writing in this method is as follows:

1. Trace over letters.
2. Print letters.
3. Copy words.
4. Copy sentences.
5. Copy whole passages.
6. Take dictation.
7. Write narrations.

"These steps stretch out over a period of roughly six years at the grammar level. Some children may be ready for step seven in grade four. Others may not be ready for written narrations until grade five or six. It is important for a child to master the previous step before moving on to the next step." (more in depth can be found here.)

A close friend has purchased the writing text and I wanted to see it. There are different formats available, including a workbook with selections to be copied provided.  However...The premise of the entire year is copy work (1-3 sentences) 2 times a week, and narration (retelling, and copying ) 2 times a week. (minimum) We are using the First Language Lessons text for grammar, which includes both of these skills.  Our history text also includes narration practice.  And so, I have decided not buy an actual curriculum at this time.  We have tons of paper for them to write on.  I may staple some and make "copybooks", which if you are familiar with old fashioned education you might remember copybooks were one of the key ingredients to children learning to write and memorize.

There are a few modern copybooks available and I did browse them and think about them.  I honestly like to be frugal in our purchases though. ( I realize that later on, our needs will cost more!)  If I need more for them to copy, I am sure that I can pull sentences from current reading and would very much like to include bible verses, starting with proverbs...which make excellent copy work.

And so, at the end of my week of thinking and pondering and sifting through my paradigms, yet again.  I have a general plan for writing for the coming year and  what it may look like.  Best of all...It is a proven method and costs almost nothing!