Comments on: One Writing Project Per Month

By: Kika

Kika — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 06:47:54 +0000

A follow up comment: I asked my son to write a comparison essay of two video games or gaming systems and he lit up! I don’t know what the final product will look like and must say that will be secondary compared with the experience of seeing him so motivated to write. Why, why, why did I not allow him more freedom of choice in writing topics before? Yikes.

By: Kika

Kika — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 01:00:22 +0000

Thanks for the ideas on integrating my son’s principal interests into his writing – I look forward to using some of these. In the past, his formal writing usually centered around whatever we were learning about in science or history. He was never terribly excited about this. This year I feel so much more freedom to explore writing in a more “natural way”; to let his interests lead the way.

By: Julie Bogart

Julie Bogart — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 14:46:48 +0000

I like your thinking. Let her write, value what she offers and incorporate the BWL activities. She’s young. This is a perfect time to let her enjoy writing. What I might do is simply find interesting writing prompts, games to play with her to stimulate her. Spinergy is a great game for that kind of thing.

Take her on experiences that stimulate writing too so that she has a rich source for her efforts. Sounds like a dream child for this season of life. Enjoy it.

By: Dawn

Dawn — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 11:53:55 +0000

Julie,

I have a 10-year-old daughter who loves to write, but I’m not sure what to do with her. I am currently working on incorporating the different activities suggested in the Bravewriter Lifestyle. We started dictation a few months ago and recently added Tuesday Teatime. My dd has been doing copywork for awhile. I have been reading aloud daily and requiring oral narrations for the past 4 years or so. My dd is also a voracious reader. She journals on her own (has been for several years) and writes stories with chapters in her free time, in addition to written narrations, letters to friends and family members, and “reports” on topics she is interested in. She produces tons of writing without me requiring it. Do I need to require writing projects if she does her own? For right now, my plan is to work on incorporating the various Bravewriter Lifestyle activities one at a time. Is it okay if she doesn’t do assigned writing projects for a few more months, or maybe even another year?

By: Julie Bogart

Julie Bogart — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 19:06:14 +0000

I can help out a bit here. My son, who was also into video gaming, created a notebook where he made up an imaginary island chain. Each island had different special powers and properties, flags, military and weapons, religions, topographical features (like they find on their gaming maps) and so on. We worked on this project over a two year period, probably once a month or less even. But when we did work on it, it would sometimes absorb a day or two of writing and imagining. He did drawings, colored stuff in, designed flags, drew weapons and then would narrate what each island represented in his overall “world.” He did some of the writing, I did some of the transcribing. It was a joint task.

I’ve also used video gaming as the source of material for an expository essay for my then 14 year old, Noah. We had him argue that video games don’t produce violent children. He did research etc. to support that contention.

Other ways to get interests into more formal writing: Participation on discussion forums, blogging, also creative writing assignments.

So for instance, once you have your child freewrite, then think about what kind of writing to turn this into. Could it be a review? A “how to” piece? A description? An evaluation of one game against another (compare and contrast)?

During the revision stage, you determine what kind of piece and revise with that vision in mind. Does that help?

By: Cindy K.

Cindy K. — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 19:00:54 +0000

Like Kika, I would love to hear about how to incorporate my sons’ interests and passions of video games and comics into more formal writing or a writing unit. My boys are 11 years old (fraternal twins), and they focus much of their free time into the fantasy world. I would love to intertwine those interests into some kind of unit that encompasses skills/topics I need them to cover as well.

By: Just one a month… «

Just one a month… « — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 18:50:29 +0000

[...] never happen!! For a more detailed look at the concept of one writing project a month read Julie’s blog. You might just find yourself embracing a whole new writing [...]

By: Elizabeth

Elizabeth — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 00:01:06 +0000

Thank you so much for putting this all into one blog. From the yahoo group I’ve understood the idea of one writing project per month, but I’ve needed an explanation of the process.

As to Kika’s question above … my oldest daughter loves ballet and has read a tremendous amount of books on the subject just because she loves it so much. It recently occurred to me that I could suggest to her to write about ballet. Although she has done a few freewrites on ballet, she’s really ready for the challenge of writing all the way through the writing process as outlined above. So, I think having ballet as her subject all year long will inspire her and be interesting to her. I even wonder if she could write about a different aspect of ballet each month and even end up with a longer piece of writing by the end of the school year. Having the year to complete this would be a lot less daunting for both of us

By: Kika

Kika — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 16:22:04 +0000

My 13yo son adores video games, comics, cartooning and movies (his dream is to become a professional cartoonist). He likes freewriting as it allows him to write all about these passions of his. I would like to figure out how to incorporate more of his interest/passion in these areas into a more formal piece of writing or writing unit. Would anyone care to share specific ideas on how I could make this happen?