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Permalink Reply by Dawn Moore on October 26, 2009 at 11:40am

My son (also 8 years old but in the 3rd grade) got stuck with this in the 2nd grade. His tutor suggested using a video recorder and using a "reporter/interview" method for him to convey his thoughts. We used this idea some but found that using a graphic organizer before writing helped him the most. Using a Web Organizer helped him organize his thoughts around a certain subject. Teacher Created Resources has book called "Graphic Organizers Grades K-3" With several types of organizers. I homeschooled my son in 2nd grade and I found that "on demand" writing was extremely stressful and that when he was given more time to mull over the subject to write about, he was much more capable of completing it. Try to get his teacher to give him the writing assignment ahead of time so that he can think it over, then use a graphic organizer to help organize his thoughts and then write. Trying to think, organize those thoughts into something logical and then writing all at the same time is overwhelming and will cause those "shut downs" that you mentioned. It takes longer but by the end of the year he was able to write with much more ease. Start slowly with the length, going from a requirement of 3 sentences then increasing one sentence at a time. Also, try to focus on just the content until his writing becomes better, don't worry about spelling, punctuation, capitalization. Now, a year later, I focus on correcting those other things after he writes. I'm just happy to see words on a paper =)....He'll jump the hump, don't worry!

Permalink Reply by Sarah Shumpert on October 27, 2009 at 6:46am

Thank you! This is very helpful information. I will look into the graphic organizers. It is so true that the "on demand" writing expectation in his class makes it so overwhelming for him. Perhaps an audio recorder will help in the classroom with "on demand" writing; and we can make use of graphic organizers with longer term projects and homework.