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#21
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Another homework responsibility question
In article . com,
"beeswing" wrote: Scott wrote: Better organizational skills should allow your daughter to break up her work into less intimidating chunks, however. I don't think the teacher missed the boat -- maybe you're just sailing parallel paths rather than paths intersecting at a common point. She missed the boat when she said that she thought we could get my daughter to motivate herself by using rewards such as computer time, TV, and ice cream. My daughter wants to do well -- that's her main motivation. The main thing that froze her on the assignment she's working on is writer's block. Carrots won't solve that. I don't think. And neither will added pressure. I think a point to discuss with the teacher is how to teach your daughter to divide tasks (maybe repeatedly) until each individual task that comprises the whole is not so overwhelming. To her credit, the teacher sent us an email that gave us some ideas very similar to what you wrote above. If this were my DD, I might also ask her if the things she was spending most of the time on (in DD's case, this would be, oh, the cover page of the report) are vital to finishing. In other words, finish the most important stuff first, then the slightly less important, etc. That way if you run out of time, you can still hand something in. What if the hard part is getting words on the page? Would you recommend setting that assignment aside and working on something else? The Kid has been stuck on writing the same thing for three days now...precluding getting any other homework done. On the other hand, apparently this written assignment is the one the teacher wants first. According to my kid. Then again, what The Kid says needs to be taken with a huge grain of sand. On yet another hand...it *was* due last week. Scott DD 12 and DS 9 Thanks, Scott. I appreciate your insight. Have you ever dealt w/the writer's block issue with your kids? How did you handle it? beeswing I found with two of my kids that becoming their scribe helped with the writer's block. They dictated, I wrote (or typed), resisting like hell the urge to correct their grammer or improve their syntax. I didn't have to do it often, but they were able to do the creative part of writing provided they didn't actually have to put pen to paper. (Note that I didn't do this regularly -- or even that often -- but I DID do it when they seemed significantly blocked. Being able to just talk helped those two kids.) -- Children won't care how much you know until they know how much you care |
#22
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Another homework responsibility question
beeswing wrote:
Scott wrote: [snip] If this were my DD, I might also ask her if the things she was spending most of the time on (in DD's case, this would be, oh, the cover page of the report) are vital to finishing. In other words, finish the most important stuff first, then the slightly less important, etc. That way if you run out of time, you can still hand something in. What if the hard part is getting words on the page? Would you recommend setting that assignment aside and working on something else? The Kid has been stuck on writing the same thing for three days now...precluding getting any other homework done. On the other hand, apparently this written assignment is the one the teacher wants first. According to my kid. Then again, what The Kid says needs to be taken with a huge grain of sand. On yet another hand...it *was* due last week. Scott DD 12 and DS 9 Thanks, Scott. I appreciate your insight. Have you ever dealt w/the writer's block issue with your kids? How did you handle it? As it happens, this was DS's plight last night. He had 2 paragraphs to write, and was unable to start. So first he practiced his viola. He finished that and wrote a paragraph. Then he did his spelling, and after that he finished his writing. If he hadn't had other homework to do, I would have had him clean his room, or somesuch thing, to get his mind off task. I find that my kids benefit from this when they're blocked. Scott DD 12 and DS 9 |
#23
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Another homework responsibility question
Claire Petersky wrote:
"beeswing" wrote in message ups.com... What if the hard part is getting words on the page? Then I'd recommend the technique of free writing. I have. She won't do it. There's something about committing words to a page that freaks her out, at least at times and at least initially. Last night, she got *TALKING* about the book she was supposed to be writing about and was able to break through the block that way. I suppose that's kind of similar to free writing, at least in getting words out there. I will try it from that angle next time. (It's hard to get her to talk when she's upset, though, too -- so it's only going to work when she's reasonably calm.) Thanks for writing! beeswing |
#24
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Another homework responsibility question
Rosalie B. wrote:
I'm not Scott but I've dealt with it myself, and what I do is start in the middle or at the end. Sometimes it is just too hard to start at the beginning and go to the end. Just write something - one paragraph or even a letter to someone. Or write out what you want to accomplish with that assignment as if you are the teacher. Set out one paragraph as the goal and then do something else. If one paragraph is too much, then do one sentence. Then come back and start over someplace else in the assignment and write one paragraph and then go away and do something else. Etc. We were dealing with a line at a time the last few nights. Just completing some sentence starters was the task. But the way you break it up here sounds good...less intimidating. Maybe she could be doing work on other assignments in between "thinking" about the writing one. (I keep wondering about whether that might world; it would keep her moving, at least.) She did finally get it done and finished the last part of another assignment to boot. So that's the good news. Thanks for the idea! beeswing |
#25
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Another homework responsibility question
dragonlady wrote:
I found with two of my kids that becoming their scribe helped with the writer's block. They dictated, I wrote (or typed), resisting like hell the urge to correct their grammer or improve their syntax. I didn't have to do it often, but they were able to do the creative part of writing provided they didn't actually have to put pen to paper. (Note that I didn't do this regularly -- or even that often -- but I DID do it when they seemed significantly blocked. Being able to just talk helped those two kids.) Thanks for reminding me of this techique. I tried it a few times when she was much younger, but for some reason I'd pretty much forgotten about it. beeswing |
#26
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Another homework responsibility question
Scott wrote:
beeswing wrote: Have you ever dealt w/the writer's block issue with your kids? How did you handle it? As it happens, this was DS's plight last night. He had 2 paragraphs to write, and was unable to start. So first he practiced his viola. He finished that and wrote a paragraph. Then he did his spelling, and after that he finished his writing. If he hadn't had other homework to do, I would have had him clean his room, or somesuch thing, to get his mind off task. I find that my kids benefit from this when they're blocked. Scott DD 12 and DS 9 Yeah, the break method works for us, too. For some reason (even though it seems obvious, now), I hadn't thought to try "breaking" by doing other homework. That's a good idea, though it will require some buy-in by The Kid. Thanks! beeswing |
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