Ways to help a 2nd grade boy improve his writing skills

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Copywork and narration. Have your dc sit down every day and do copywork. You can keep it minimal at first and slowly include more. Pick a sentence out of good literature and have him copy it. Gradually work your way up to a few sentences to a paragraph. Then, read passages out of some good literature and have him answer some questions about it in the story order. Once he's used to that, have him narrate to you what happened in the passages. You can write it down and then read it to him so he can see how it sounds. Lastly, after he has become pretty good at that have him write down his narration of the story.

Doing these will help him understand how to properly form sentences and paragraphs and how to make his thoughts more fluid. It seems counter to all the "creative" writing that is required by the schools, but it is sometimes very difficult for children to be able to express their thoughts on paper. This takes out the need to think of a topic on their own and write about it which involves 2 steps. Once they are comfortable knowing how to write out thoughts, it can be easier to get their own creative thoughts on paper.

I would absolutely NOT do this. Almost guaranteed to turn him off from writing. My son is extremely bright but struggles with handwriting. He entered third grade this year and for the first time in three years we can actually read his work. The key has been consistently having him write, not a lot but something and had to be written well. This past summer, he had to write a paragraph everyday-a topic sentence, three supporting facts and a summary sentence. Before he began writing, I had him do a draft of his ideas-whatever form he wanted-free form, numbered, whatever. Then write a concise, simple paragraph. There are tons of writing books for kids that give you ideas on what to write-favorite sport, favorite game, three things to do before school, how to brush your teeth, etc etc. Worked wonders for us but it was a result of daily practice-which resulted in stronger fine motor skills. BTW, may boys struggle with this issue-it is very common, just be patient and consistent and he will be fine. Best of luck!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Is it possible your son has dyslexia? FWIW, your DS sounds exactly like my DS a few years ago. He is now diagnosed with dyslexia but we never had any clue to it because his reading seemed OK. We even had neuropsych testing done in 2nd grade but the psychologist told us DS only had an issue with ADHD and a general learning disorder. ADHD has never seemed like the reason for his problems to us and I regret that there was so much emphasis on his attention/behavior (which has only ever been a problem with school work) and not what was causing him to have trouble concentrating. It was not until half way through 5th grade that we finally got the correct diagnosis of dyslexia. It finally all made sense. I just wish we'd gotten the diagnosis much earlier and saved DS many tears of frustration.

Can you share who finally gave you a correct diagnosis? Anyone you'd recommend? What kind of testing did you get that specifically revealed this?

Your child sounds very much like mine. But, he is only 2nd grade and so until this year, we have only gotten some speech/lang testing, which gave speech/lang. diagnosis, but was done too young (and probably by wrong type of professional) to diagnosis dyslexia. At that time tester noted "attention" problems might have caused variability in testing. In addition, he has had consistent hearing problems although physical hearing problems have now been ruled out. Writing is extremely difficult for him, both in terms of physical production and in terms of getting his thoughts out and organized on paper. And his spelling is almost unintelligible.

[Anonymous]

I'm the OP (chiming in for the first time since I posted this query - I think others in a similar situation have commented but those are not me). Thanks very much for all the good advice and ideas. I'm leery of medicalizing this or even jumping into OT without hearing from his teacher - as I said, I queried based on the sample of what I saw in the classroom on back-to-school night, but obviously his teacher will have a better sense of where his skills rank. I'm still not persuaded that just sitting him down every afternoon and demanding that he write is going to help; his school actually scaled back on homework this year and his teacher told us that she doesn't believe it's wise or constructive to have kids at this age expected to do serious work for extended periods of time every day. But if I could find some good resources - books, computer sites? - that have short exercises or creative ideas, I might be able to get him interested. (I am trying on my own, but coming up with sentences that involve birds of prey to get him to practice 20 spelling words nearly made my head explode.) So if anyone can recommend books or other resources that have been useful, I'd be grateful all over again! I'm definitely going to try some of the other ideas offered here, including the lego play for fine motor skills. He'd be thrilled with that!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My oldest is in second grade at a good suburban public school, and each year we've had a bit of a wakeup call in the beginning of the year. In K, he really struggled with the social adjustment (despite having gone to FT daycare/preschool); first grade started very unhappily as he worked up to the challenge of the more rigorous academic expectations. This year I may be getting ahead of myself, but I was taken aback at his back-to-school night at how much more advanced his classmates seem to be at writing. There were projects displayed around the classroom, and my son's really stood out as having vastly inferior spelling, grammar, handwriting as well as just being significantly shorter in length.

My son is definitely not gifted but he has done reasonably well in school - his "grades" are always positive, he was assessed at reading at/above grade level, and he hasn't really had any disciplinary problems. His teachers, particularly last year and from what I can tell of his teacher this year, are just fantastic. However, he doesn't love school, and the prospect of my getting him to sit down and do random extra writing assignments at home seems fairly unlikely. Does anyone have any tips / programs / resource suggestions on how I might work with him more effectively to improve his skills in this area? On the plus side, he has interests (science, nature, animals) that he is literally obsessed with, so if I can integrate those subjects, he might respond better. Obviously I'll ask his teacher for ideas at some point, but I really want to avoid starting the year off as one of those neurotic PITA parents. (Seems much safer to do so amidst the presumptive anonymity of DCUM!) Thanks!

Try homeschooling for a year.

[Anonymous]

those of us who have gone through this with a child will tell you that there isn't a "magic" resource...the key is to practice, playing legos is fine but if your child needs help organizing their thoughts put some effort into it and help him. Writing spelling words is useless-A program like handwrititng without tears can help but in second grade kids are moving on to sentence structure. If your child doesn't have a medical excuse-sorry to say but you as a parent need to devote 10-20 minutes a day (gasp!)to help them write. Pick any topic that interests them but teach them to organize their thoughts into a simple concise sentence or two. Op sounds like she has an excuse for everything-if you don't want to give your child "homework" how else do you suppose he will learn to write? there is no easy answer, give your child legos and tell yourself you did your best but don't expect some simple quick solution-it doesn't exist.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My oldest is in second grade at a good suburban public school, and each year we've had a bit of a wakeup call in the beginning of the year. In K, he really struggled with the social adjustment (despite having gone to FT daycare/preschool); first grade started very unhappily as he worked up to the challenge of the more rigorous academic expectations. This year I may be getting ahead of myself, but I was taken aback at his back-to-school night at how much more advanced his classmates seem to be at writing. There were projects displayed around the classroom, and my son's really stood out as having vastly inferior spelling, grammar, handwriting as well as just being significantly shorter in length.

My son is definitely not gifted but he has done reasonably well in school - his "grades" are always positive, he was assessed at reading at/above grade level, and he hasn't really had any disciplinary problems. His teachers, particularly last year and from what I can tell of his teacher this year, are just fantastic. However, he doesn't love school, and the prospect of my getting him to sit down and do random extra writing assignments at home seems fairly unlikely. Does anyone have any tips / programs / resource suggestions on how I might work with him more effectively to improve his skills in this area? On the plus side, he has interests (science, nature, animals) that he is literally obsessed with, so if I can integrate those subjects, he might respond better. Obviously I'll ask his teacher for ideas at some point, but I really want to avoid starting the year off as one of those neurotic PITA parents. (Seems much safer to do so amidst the presumptive anonymity of DCUM!) Thanks!

Try homeschooling for a year.

but that would require effort-

[Anonymous]

those of us who have gone through this with a child will tell you that there isn't a "magic" resource...the key is to practice, playing legos is fine but if your child needs help organizing their thoughts put some effort into it and help him. Writing spelling words is useless-A program like handwrititng without tears can help but in second grade kids are moving on to sentence structure. If your child doesn't have a medical excuse-sorry to say but you as a parent need to devote 10-20 minutes a day (gasp!)to help them write. Pick any topic that interests them but teach them to organize their thoughts into a simple concise sentence or two. Op sounds like she has an excuse for everything-if you don't want to give your child "homework" how else do you suppose he will learn to write? there is no easy answer, give your child legos and tell yourself you did your best but don't expect some simple quick solution-it doesn't exist.

Thanks for the snotty superior "advice." I guess this thread was just too constructive, one of the DCUM witches needed to come on and preach how wonderful she is. I am not looking for "magic" - I'm looking for ideas and specific suggestions on how to engage a kid in writing when it is hard work for him, and when he is already in school for what his very experienced teacher considers to be a day that is plenty long enough. I've been googling and found some ideas via Scholastic and elsewhere, but if there are parents who can offer something other than unsolicited preaching on my parental failings, I'd be interested to hear them.

[Anonymous]

Give him a writing prompt and have him write about it. Then, go back and edit it with him. Show him where to combine sentences to make them longer and more complex. If he isn't spelling all of the sight words correctly by now, how him play games on www.spellingcity.com. Then, you can work on different types of writing- personal letters, personal narrative, writing to persuade, a report of some kind, etc. If he doesn't like it, remind him he won't like everything that he does but he still has to do it. Give him an example from your life. My son is in 1st grade and wrote in a journal all summer which he hated. But now, in first grade, it isn't hard for him to do that a few mornings a week at school which was the point. He whined and complained all summer but it worked. And I pointed that out when I saw his journal on Back to School Night. He said that it is easy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

those of us who have gone through this with a child will tell you that there isn't a "magic" resource...the key is to practice, playing legos is fine but if your child needs help organizing their thoughts put some effort into it and help him. Writing spelling words is useless-A program like handwrititng without tears can help but in second grade kids are moving on to sentence structure. If your child doesn't have a medical excuse-sorry to say but you as a parent need to devote 10-20 minutes a day (gasp!)to help them write. Pick any topic that interests them but teach them to organize their thoughts into a simple concise sentence or two. Op sounds like she has an excuse for everything-if you don't want to give your child "homework" how else do you suppose he will learn to write? there is no easy answer, give your child legos and tell yourself you did your best but don't expect some simple quick solution-it doesn't exist.

Thanks for the snotty superior "advice." I guess this thread was just too constructive, one of the DCUM witches needed to come on and preach how wonderful she is. I am not looking for "magic" - I'm looking for ideas and specific suggestions on how to engage a kid in writing when it is hard work for him, and when he is already in school for what his very experienced teacher considers to be a day that is plenty long enough. I've been googling and found some ideas via Scholastic and elsewhere, but if there are parents who can offer something other than unsolicited preaching on my parental failings, I'd be interested to hear them.

truth hurts-google away but it is still a simple matter of practice

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My oldest is in second grade at a good suburban public school, and each year we've had a bit of a wakeup call in the beginning of the year. In K, he really struggled with the social adjustment (despite having gone to FT daycare/preschool); first grade started very unhappily as he worked up to the challenge of the more rigorous academic expectations. This year I may be getting ahead of myself, but I was taken aback at his back-to-school night at how much more advanced his classmates seem to be at writing. There were projects displayed around the classroom, and my son's really stood out as having vastly inferior spelling, grammar, handwriting as well as just being significantly shorter in length.

My son is definitely not gifted but he has done reasonably well in school - his "grades" are always positive, he was assessed at reading at/above grade level, and he hasn't really had any disciplinary problems. His teachers, particularly last year and from what I can tell of his teacher this year, are just fantastic. However, he doesn't love school, and the prospect of my getting him to sit down and do random extra writing assignments at home seems fairly unlikely. Does anyone have any tips / programs / resource suggestions on how I might work with him more effectively to improve his skills in this area? On the plus side, he has interests (science, nature, animals) that he is literally obsessed with, so if I can integrate those subjects, he might respond better. Obviously I'll ask his teacher for ideas at some point, but I really want to avoid starting the year off as one of those neurotic PITA parents. (Seems much safer to do so amidst the presumptive anonymity of DCUM!) Thanks!

Try homeschooling for a year.

One family from our school is homeschooling this year. I predict the kid will be back by the end of the year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

those of us who have gone through this with a child will tell you that there isn't a "magic" resource...the key is to practice, playing legos is fine but if your child needs help organizing their thoughts put some effort into it and help him. Writing spelling words is useless-A program like handwrititng without tears can help but in second grade kids are moving on to sentence structure. If your child doesn't have a medical excuse-sorry to say but you as a parent need to devote 10-20 minutes a day (gasp!)to help them write. Pick any topic that interests them but teach them to organize their thoughts into a simple concise sentence or two. Op sounds like she has an excuse for everything-if you don't want to give your child "homework" how else do you suppose he will learn to write? there is no easy answer, give your child legos and tell yourself you did your best but don't expect some simple quick solution-it doesn't exist.

Thanks for the snotty superior "advice." I guess this thread was just too constructive, one of the DCUM witches needed to come on and preach how wonderful she is. I am not looking for "magic" - I'm looking for ideas and specific suggestions on how to engage a kid in writing when it is hard work for him, and when he is already in school for what his very experienced teacher considers to be a day that is plenty long enough. I've been googling and found some ideas via Scholastic and elsewhere, but if there are parents who can offer something other than unsolicited preaching on my parental failings, I'd be interested to hear them.

No offense intended OP, and I'm not the PP above, but it sounds like you don't really want advice from other moms. It sounds like you want to have your son play with legos and do play-based projects that don't involve homework or writing. Nothing wrong with that - it's your choice. But, then, why come here looking for advice. The great thing about advice - particularly advice given by anonymous strangers - is that you don't have to take it.