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| Mon, 10-23-2006 - 12:57am |
Peter 'sneaked' his writers workshop home to do some work over the weekend, He had missed an in-school assignment, because he is having severe difficulty putting his thoughts to paper.

Paula, it sounds like Peter experienced good old-fashioned writer's block. The majority of the writing students I talk to tell me they don't think they can write because they 'can't seem to get it on paper'. They see images in their minds, little movies running at full speed. They can describe the mental movie verbally but get stuck when it comes time to put pen to paper (or fingers to keyboard, as the case may be).
There are lots of techniques for dealing with it. The truth is, most young people aren't taught the 'art' of writing, they're only taught the mechanics, and that's extremely unfair to them, as well as a crying shame for us as a people. Every time we are denied the vision in a young mind we are devalued as a culture. This is why I made the Plot Bunny Farm, to help the regular every day person learn and practice the Art of Writing, children and adults alike.
You might get Peter 'bunnified' or let him work through you on the Farm. Or you might just take some of the principles learned there and teach them to him. The first thing I recommend is get him to tell his stories aloud, to you or to your DH. Have him describe his stories and ask him questions to help him develop the image in his mind to its fullest potential. Then ask him to sit down and write, type, or dictate a description of his story. Not the full story, mind you, just a description of it. This is an outline. Once he's done that he can sit down with the outline and write the actual story using the mechanics he's learning in school (or from you).
That isn't all there is to it, but for a young author his age, it's a good start.
~SG_1Niner
I don't have an answer, but my ds is the same way. I didn't realize how severely until he broke his leg and has been doing his school work at home (a teacher has been coming in a few hours each week, but I help the rest of the time). Any answer that requires something more than a straight fact (2+2=?) is very hard for him to answer even though he has all the info in his head. He can tell you all the info, but when you tell him to put it on paper, it flusters him, and he sits there saying, "I don't know what to write." The in-home teacher has been very understanding and has been acting as scribe for some of his stuff, and some of it she's been trying to teach him steps for doing it himself (tho' it's not helping yet). I'd love to hear any other answers for helping ds through this, too.
I love this in-home teacher that's been coming. She has the patience of Job, has an excellent teaching style and is so good with ds. When she learned that ds was AS, she knew what it was and what kind of accommodations might be helpful for him. Some of you have talked about jobs you can do while your kids are at school. I don't know if all school districts have this kind of set-up, but I've been impressed with this home-teaching thing. The woman lives near me and works mostly with kids in our area who are in situations like ds where they are temporarily unable to attend their regular school (I don't know about long-term situations). She consults with the teacher to make sure the child is learning everything the classmates are learning, but the in-home teacher makes the assignments tailored to suit ds (he's a whiz at spelling, etc., so she won't make him do as much of that homework), and she's the one who actually checks ds papers and gives him his grades. They've even done a couple of science experiments which ds thought was so cool. The teacher gets to set her own work schedule based on when her kids are in school. I don't know how this would compare pay-wise though. Since she's a certified teacher, I would imagine the pay would be better than a non-certified position.
Paula- Hmmm, thinking a good old fashioned writer's workshop may be a good help for Peter.
I wondered about writer's block. I think there may be some thereof, but my gut says there is more to it than that: A missing link. I am not sure if it is a skill missing or a dysfunction present; and indeed if that ultimately matters, for the solution
visit my blog at www.onesickmother.com
Not sure if my son has the same problem but..
He can write grand fiction stories but his teacher sent me a note saying..
He's very literal with his reading & writing skills.In reading, he misses the big picture of the story. In writing, he writes what he reads and does not show the depth of thinking and reflection. He likes math & science because they are more visual and hands on.
Son has great handwriting. Printing is a bit messy.
When son tells a story about a book it's like reading the back cover.
I was wondering how to help him with this problem.Suggestions?
Without reading the other responses I would suggest a couple things. First, exactly what you did with allowing him to dictate to you. No reason he can't use a scribe for this part of writing.
Next, I would look into assistive tech for him. For instance, dragon speaking naturally 8 is supposed to be really great voice software that writes what you say, then you edit.
How is his writing other wise? You mention he needs OT for handwriting? If you are concentrating on how to make your letters it is very hard to get a story out and on paper. He will need to continue with the OT but now that he is in 3rd grade he should start some keyboarding so that he can use the computer as he gets older. It will likely be a better ally than handwriting. Did I mention I have awful handwriting which makes me crazy. I would rather email and type teachers than write letters. Takes me 1/4 of the time.
At any rate, for now for the sake of writing stories I would let him get his stories out via scribing for him. Then to work on writing conventions have him go back and write the final product or even just the first paragraph of the final product to learn all those grammer conventions. And I would also at the same time explore assistive tech.
Renee
Josh is very much like the rest of the kids here,. Taks things he reads very literally. He can tell you about what he read but if you ask him to put some emotion/translate the story or why the characters did what they did or how he feels about the story. Or better yet who is his favorite character and why or how he you get the idea.
For the lovely ELA tests. Joshua managed to learn the formula on how to write the essays he neeeded to pass at least the 4th grade tests. I don't think he did as well of the 5th grade tests. But the verbatim stuff is hard for him and it trips him up on math word problems. Josh has a hard time with visualizing the words into pictures in order to understand things.
He also gets very frustrated when i do try and work with him.And very stubbborn it is like pulling teeth sometimes with this stuff.
What I did find that helped with some reading stuff was the books on CD. I would take the book out and take out the CD version so he could read along (hopefully) And have a better chance of getting the story.
We will see what hap[[ens.
Rina
Well I spoke to the teacher, and I think we gt it sorted out. Unfortunately,Peter didn't hand over my note, so he got into a bit of trouble before we got it all figured out.
As usual, Peter was putting a lot of pressure on himself. He was expecting to write a perfect story longhand in a single sitting.
So the book is coming home. I will be helping him plan and start
visit my blog at www.onesickmother.com