Following my series posts for
The Writer's Jungle by Julie Bogart of
Brave Writer, here are my thoughts on Chapter 1.
This chapter is MEATY! And I thought I pretty much knew all there was to know about copywork, dictation, and reading good books!
No. No, I do not. Julie gave me plenty to think about and mull over.
She calls Chapter 1 "The Big Language Arts River." She describes her adventures along the Congo River and how she finally realized that a huge jungle needs a huge river. And since her book describes writing as a jungle - you guessed it - we need a big river to supply it. So what supplies a writing jungle? A language-rich environment. Discussions, beautiful books, poems, newspapers, more discussions, noticing the tricks of the trade that writers use, and even more discussions. Copying and studying the masters, thinking about them, and using them to form who you become as your own writer's voice.
And what is all this discussion called? Narration. Popular Charlotte Mason terminology, right? But narration isn't just about telling back, but TEACHING back. And it also has to make sense. Quizzing them at the end of the chapter? That's not natural, and it doesn't make sense. For many kids, that just doesn't work. (It didn't for mine.) We need a purpose to our narrations. "Where did we leave off in the story? Oh, yes, so-and-so was just getting finished with such-and-such!" "Hey, Dad, guess what I figured out today!" "Sister, can I teach you a new game I made up?" Those make sense.
When I read something interesting in a book or on the internet, I don't usually sit down and tell my 13yo all about it formally and not let her get a word in edgewise. Normally, I mull it over for awhile, then I'll tell my husband all about it when he gets home or after the kids are in bed. And then we talk about it. It's a back and forth, give and take. It's not just me doing all the talking (well, sometimes it is, but that's beside the point LOL). When my 7yo comes up to me all excited to tell me about the latest thing he discovered about Kylo Ren, he's not formally telling me about it. No, he's jumping up and down, telling me his discovery, I answer back or ask a question, and he continues telling me all about it and asking me questions. It's a back and forth. It is detailed and exciting and keeps the conversation flowing. And she equates this teaching and telling with ownership. They own that information. They know it. If they can tell it, they get it. And they will remember it.
But Julie did caution one thing with narration. Require them to give an actual description. It's not "cool" or "awesome." Tell me what made it cool or awesome. Describe it in such a way that I start to agree with you without you even using the words.
What happens if your kiddo just can't (or won't) narrate? It's just not going well, it's incomplete (like when I get 1 or 2 sentences instead of a whole paragraph or 3 as desired), it's just not good at all. Well, of course - they hate the topic, the format you're using to teach them isn't their style, or maybe they just haven't taken ownership of the information yet. Change it up, or if they just don't know it yet, don't worry - they'll get what they need when they need it.
O
h, hey, shouldn't we be writing every day? Nope! Julie, a professional writer, doesn't write every day. Kids are still learning about creativity and writing and getting ideas into their heads. Why should they - how can they - write every single day??? For kids under 12, Julie says it's way more important to just guard their enjoyment of writing. Let it be fun. Let them study the masters.
How do we guard that enjoyment? How do they study the masters? Enter the 3 keys for budding writers.
Read good writing. Duh. Of course. So simple, and yet sometimes so difficult! I struggle with reading aloud to my kids. I lack the time, most days. And my voice gets sore after a little while. But it's SO important! But as you're reading to your kids, don't just read for the story (well, do that, too, and some books, do only that) - but also pay attention to the writing elements. Musical language, good descriptions, opening hooks - those are a few of the things that we need to pay attention to and watch for to point them out to our kids. They'll start to recognize what makes a good book, *good.*
Second, copywork. This is only partially for practicing handwriting. A huge part of it is copying the masters. Just as a budding artist copies the master artist first before he learns techniques to become a painter of his own right, so, too, a child - a budding writer - must copy the master author first, learning those techniques that will make his writing as good, or perhaps better, than the master. Don't make it boring. Mix it up using a variety of sources, interesting topics and quotes, favorite books, etc. Hey, even let them choose once in a while! You can even do this with typing to practice keyboarding skills.
And also
dictation. This is where they will study more of the spelling, punctuation, and handwriting skills. Julie describes dictation as practiced in French schools. First the children (under 10 years old) receive a sentence from their teacher with one word blanked out. Then the teacher dictates the passage, and the student fills in the appropriate word. The next day there are multiple blanks in the passage. The third day they add sentences to the initial one, with several words blank. And then on the fourth day, the entire passage is dictated to the students with no clues. They must fill in the punctuation and the words all on their own.
This part was a tad confusing to me. Do they study the passage first? Or dictate blind? These are students under 10? My kids would never be able to do it all the way through the 4th day. Some didn't read until they were 9 years old, so this just seems to be a little over the top to me.
So I compromised. Here is what I plan to do with my kids:
With my oldest 2 (ages 13 and 12)
As described in "The Writer's Jungle" - no studying the passage first
With my next 3 who are reading or emerging readers
Day 1) Copy passage precisely.
Day 2) Write 1 sentence with 1 blank.
Day 3) Write same sentence with more blanks (especially homonyms & frequent spelling problems)
Day 4) Dictate sentence without any clues.
I'll see how these go and adjust as necessary. When my oldest 2 get good at doing it as described, I'll probably make it more difficult. More blanks at the get-go perhaps? I'm not sure yet.
Julie also described a game she made up called "Reverse Dictation." This sounds so fun! She types up a passage, putting all sorts of mistakes in it - spelling errors, punctuation errors, grammar errors, etc. Then she prints it out and has the kids edit it. They get a penny for every correct correction. For younger students, she gives the number of words misspelled and the number of other mistakes to look for. Older students have to figure it all out on their own. I love this idea, but a penny for every mistake, multiplied by 5 or 6 or 7 kids, sounds really expensive.... LOL I may try it anyway, though. If for no other reason but an experiment in how much it's actually going to cost me over the long haul. :P
Spelling skills are addressed through dictation, but Julie used a few pages to describe common spelling problems. One problem she sees often is misusing homonyms. She spelled it correctly, just used the wrong one. "Witch" instead of "which," for example. She's spelling it right, though, just needs practice with when to use which one. Isolating those in dictation sessions is perfect for these types of mistakes. Another problem is phonetic guesswork. Spelling it as it sounds. "Hows" instead of "house." The student just needs to learn some more principles for spelling, but she understands the phonics. Copywork and dictation will both help with these types of spelling errors. Now, if your kids can figure out their own spelling mistakes, they'll get there eventually, they just need more time studying those masters - copywork, dictation, and reading a variety of sources. She even gives advice for auditory learners - spell it out loud first, read out loud to mom more often to slow them down and make them look more carefully at the words on the page - things like that. But she admits, some students really do have trouble with spelling. She suggests a spelling program for those students. And perhaps to even be tested for learning disabilities if it persists.
Grammar? They'll figure it out as they study those masters. But Julie (and Charlotte Mason, too) suggest only hitting on grammar once in elementary, once in jr high, and once in high school. That's all they really need. The rest will be covered when studying a foreign language (I did learn more grammar in my German class than I ever did in all those English courses). And who cares if you miss something? Not knowing what exactly a participle is, is not going to make or break your high school or college career - or your future career.
My assignment this week:
- Continue those free writes!
- Read, read, read! Get reading more and more and point out those neat things authors do to make their stories superb. Also keep pointing out those elements of surprise.
- Add in copywork every day, in a variety of ways. I'm thinking possibly Monday, Bible; Tuesday, from a novel or non-fiction book we've been reading; Wednesday, their week's memory work; Thursday, a poem chosen by me or the child; and Friday, student choice. I have to redo some of my week's schedule to do this, but I think it's doable. I hope. :)
- I also want to try to add in dictation this week, but it may be a tall order. We'll see how it goes.
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