What types of Writing are covered?

[jkhamell]

Could someone tell me what types of writing are covered in the follwing levels of HOD?

Beyond
Preparing
Rev to Rev.

Also are their some links about dictation and how that relates to writing instruction? I'm a newbie to dictation and this curriculum. I think these will be the levels we do - but want to know a little bit more specifics on the writing genres.

Thanks so much,
Kim

[LynnH]

First of all I can address the questions about dictation. Dictation is the way that Charlotte Mason recommended that dc do spelling,instead of just memorizing a list of words for a spelling test. They study the passage including all the punctuation, capitalization etc and then the parent dictates it to the student one phrase at a time. The student then compares their work with the passage and if they missed anything (spelling, indenting, punctuation etc) then they redo it the next day. Here is what Carrie says in the Preparing Introduction as to how it ties in to writing:

"Special instructions for the dictation passages are included in the Appendix.
The Charlotte Mason method of studied dictation is used. In this method,
students study the passage prior to having it dictated. This is an important
step in learning to visualize the correct spelling of words. All items in the
passage must be written correctly, including punctuation marks, before
going on to the next passage. Studied dictation focuses on the goal of using
correct spelling within the context of writing"

There have been some threads about how dictation has significantly improved dc's spelling on testing and in their everyday work.

As far as the other types of writing in the programs. I can't really address Beyond because we didn't do Beyond, however I believe it is mostly copywork. Again laying the foundation for what good writing looks like.

In Preparing written narration is begun. It starts gently with guided questions and 5 sentences. It then slowly gives less direction as the year progresses. Also there is creative writing that centers around poetry. These assignments vary from writing their own version of a poem that is done in the same style as the poem studied to writing a descriptive poem or paragraph, again modeling the week's poem. My ds really loved the writing in Preparing, and this from a kid that came out of ps the year before hating writing, and believing he couldn't write. There is also the copywork of much longer passages.

You didn't ask about CTC and RTR, but just so you can see the variety of writing instruction and the way the skills go I will describe them briefly. CTC uses Write with The Best Vol 1 that mostly focuses on descriptive writing of various types modeled after great literature. This included more multi-paragraph writing. In RTR the writing program is IEW's Medieval history based writing which focuses on keyword outlining, writing 5 paragraph reports, literature analysis where they are asked to give their opinion of what happened in a short story they read as well as a summary of the story. The written narrations also get much longer in RTR, my ds wrote multi-paragraph narrations at times, and written narrations for science are also done.

We are due to do Rev to Rev this year and it uses the "Exciting World of Creative Writing". From looking through it the program will focus on more lengthy creative writing pieces. Then the following year in MTMM Write with the Best Vol 2 is used which is considered a high school program and it focuses on different types of essays as would be expected at that level.

If you are using Rod and Staff for Grammar then there are writing assignments in there as well. I know in level 5 my ds did things such as outlining, writing poems, letters, descriptive paragraphs etc.

One thing I will add is that my ds came home 3 years ago hating to write and his writing was below age level due to many factors, one being he has dysgraphia, so since the physical act of writing was tough then he hadn't been able to focus on the creative and technical aspects. After using Preparing, CTC and RTR he is at or slightly above grade level with his writing according to my friend who was a junior high English teacher to gifted students. She is amazed at what he writes. This summer he has to write a 500 word essay in order to get his black belt in karate and he is using the things he has learned and is writing it himself with then some editing help from me. There is no way I would have ever thought he would be able to do that.

[Robbi]

We are in unit 25 of Beyond. Most of the writing is copywork of the poetry. They write the 10 spelling words & once weekly they write 3 sentences for the spelling words. Ever once in a while, they copy another sentence. Like they narrate, you write it down and they copy the main sentence. I do want to add, this has been plenty of writing for my age 7 DD. HTH.