Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I learned about Ainia from my friend:https://ainiaforwriting.lovable.app/. They have a structured curriculum, which is exactly what you are looking for. They are online. We tried it out and my kid loved it.

Interesting. Does this just spoon feed edits (like prompt with correct spelling and grammar and punctuation) or does it get the kid to actually correct themselves?

It lets the kid correct themselves. In general it focuses on building writing skills, more than correcting grammar. They taught how to structure ideas, expand sentences, and build paragraphs. My kid used to write super simple sentences and can now write more expressive ones.

Anonymous wrote:What has her teacher said? Is this standard 6th grade. I know my son will write as little as possible and the teacher will comment “flesh it out”.

If she will work with you at this age you might try that.

+1. I had to tell my son that he had to write at least 3 sentences.

Anonymous wrote:I learned about Ainia from my friend:https://ainiaforwriting.lovable.app/. They have a structured curriculum, which is exactly what you are looking for. They are online. We tried it out and my kid loved it.

Interesting. Does this just spoon feed edits (like prompt with correct spelling and grammar and punctuation) or does it get the kid to actually correct themselves?

My son went from barely writing to fluently typing pages and pages in 8th grade. I would first of all make sure that your DD can do assignments on a laptop to overcome any difficulties with handwriting.

Second, don’t discount the fact that many elementary school and early MS writing assignments are unbearably, horribly boring. The new curriculums are test-focused and aske really painfully boring and restrictive questions. Once my kid started getting better and more open-ended assignments and started to take classes that encouraged actual thinking (creative writing and drama electives) he really started to take off.

I’m also a bad mom in that I let my kid have pretty unfettered access to the internet (I limit the total time and turn everything off when it is time for bed but otherwise I let him surf away a lot). This has led him to actually pretty deeply read about his areas of interest - his most visited site is Wikipedia. YMMV if you have a kid that gravitates to YouTube and social media (mine does not) but allowing my DS to read broadly also kickstarted his writing because good writing is founded on reading a lot.

I learned about Ainia from my friend:https://ainiaforwriting.lovable.app/. They have a structured curriculum, which is exactly what you are looking for. They are online. We tried it out and my kid loved it.

Former middle school teacher here! I tutor many kids in writing, and I often see the situation you're describing. It sounds like she may not be reading with the writing in mind, so she's not sorting and retaining the information she needs when it comes time to put pen to paper. That leads to a hovering pen and not enough details.

If you're interested in learning more about my experience, you can reach out here: jessica.leader@gmail.com.

Writing with middle-schoolers takes patience and skill. It's good that you're reaching out for support!

What has her teacher said? Is this standard 6th grade. I know my son will write as little as possible and the teacher will comment “flesh it out”.

If she will work with you at this age you might try that.

Not a tutor, but if you work with your child on your own I highly recommend The Writing Revolution 2.0.

My 6th-grader really struggles with writing. A lot of the time she’ll just stare at a blank page and not know how to start. When she does write, it’s hard for her to organize her thoughts into clear paragraphs, and she doesn’t add many specific details to back up what she’s trying to say. She reads fine, but she doesn’t enjoy reading or writing, and writing assignments have become a big source of stress. I'm looking for a tutor who can help her structurally build writing skills. Would love any recommendations or advice. Thanks in advance.