My child seems to need help improving her sentences-paragraph. I am not sure what it is I should be saying or having her do. She is in 6th grade and a writing example of her paragraph is: Kicking a kick ball three ways. First, I kick it high. Second, I kick it low. Third, I kick softly. I like kickball.- She has the basic formula and her paragraphs tend to look all the same when she does it on her own. Any suggestions?
Re: need sentence improvement
Years and years ago I had a student whose class was using a program called Sentence Combining. When I first saw it, it looked awfully simplistic, but the more I looked at it the better it got. After all, you do have to start simple and work up. The program taught students to take simple declarative sentences such as you gave for examples and to put them together in a variety of ways to make richer and more interesting writing.
I’ve been looking for this program for a long time and if anyone finds out where to get a copy, please let me know too.
Another approach is to work with her orally. Instead of handing her a pen or a keyboard, you sit down with the writing tool. You ask her waht she has to say about her topic. When she says anything at all relevant, even “I think this is a really dumb topic.”, you write it down. Then you ask extension questions, such as “Why do you think it’s so dumb?” You keep writing down anything that she says that is relevant and not just repetition.
When you get five to ten sentences down, you hand it back to her and say “Good. This is what you have to say, in your own words. Now re-write it and tidy it up — or if you have any more ideas, you can put them in too.”
After you have done the oral development for a while, she will get the idea and learn to ask the extension question for herself.
Re: need sentence improvement
P.S.
A lot of kids resist writing because they have physical difficulties with the process, so they deliberately write the minimum possible. I have seen paragraphs like that from kids who tortured themselves when they wrote.
Try throwing out the yellow pencils and getting smooth-flowing pens and markers. Get some smooth clean paper. If she has inefficient writing habits (lying on the table with the full weight through the pencil, twisting in a sideways corkscrew, etc.) work on getting her to sit in an easy vertical posture and move her hand smoothly; at first students reject change even if the old habit is actively painful, but keep working on it. Also work on teaching efficient directionality (always left to right and top to bottom). Once you have gotten over the hump of changing habits, writing that is not painful can lead to writing with better content.
She is going to need a lot of scaffolding to expand her sentences. I use Dr. Spivey’s program Strengthening a Students Writing through Focus to teach my students how to write and expand their sentences.