Learning writing

We got a letter home from Jordan's teacher on the Friday before spring break, explaining that Jordan had not completed a sufficient quantity of writing in class, and would have to do some as homework over break. Apparently he had three weeks of writing time in class during which he produced almost nothing, so that now, she did not have enough work to be able to evaluate his progress. She sounded frustrated. While we wanted to sympathize, we also were a little put out. After all, this was the first we had heard of it; what were we supposed to have been doing? And we were fairly annoyed at having to do homework over break... we had all been looking forward to a reprieve. 

Grudgingly, we did make time for it, and in the process of working with Jordan my sympathy for the teacher increased. It was a pain in the neck. Jordan has a quality about him that often, when there is something he doesn't want to do, he doesn't make a big fuss: he just doesn't do it. This can be a great way to go: for example, if he is served food he doesn't like, he does not declare it disgusting; he just quietly doesn't eat it. That's good manners. But if you are in public school, and you are not succeeding in doing a task, and you just quietly don't do it, weeks can go by without anyone recognizing what's going on. So I got a sense of how this non-work could have happened. 

The hardest part for Jordan seems to be coming up with what to write in the first place. Revising is much easier. When I realized that, I thought... ain't that the truth, honey. I have gotten to be a pretty productive writer over the years, but we all are faced with that blank page at some point. I have worked with a number of beginning professional writers (mostly graduate students) who, like Jordan, are seriously daunted by a first draft, sometimes to the point of just putting it off and putting it off until weeks have gone by and no one realized you weren't doing anything, just like in Jordan's case. I admit, it is maddening! Here I am trying very hard to be positive and encouraging and supportive and helpful; why isn't he responding?? But the fact is that I am not in possession of a magic writer's-block elixir. And of course if I get frustrated and pushy, all the pent-up stress I think he has been repressing comes crashing out and he bursts into tears, at which point he can't work at all, because he's flooded, and he doesn't want my help, because I'm the enemy who is shoving this down his throat. All around, it's very difficult to help him be productive. And none of this is unique to seven-year-olds.

All that said, we got a certain amount done, and I wrote his teacher a letter describing the experience.

Dear Heather, 

Thanks for the heads up about Jordan's writing. This was the first we heard of his not completing his in-class assignments. Over break we worked with him to make a publishable version of the soccer piece, for which there was a draft in the folder, and to write three drafts of a new piece about his swim teacher (first getting ideas out, then correcting all the mistakes, and then finally writing a version with no mistakes).  

Getting him to do this work required intensive effort on everyone's part. Creating a new piece from scratch was the hardest. Jordan would just sit there in front of the paper, not doing anything, even with a parent sitting right next to him giving him constant support and encouragement. It drove us all crazy! I don't know what the issue is with his writing production. He says he can't think of what to say. I'm sure this is common. But it was certainly very frustrating for everyone. In spite of our efforts to be patient and positive, there were a lot of tears and rejecting the task and just unproductive time. Producing these two pieces took multiple hour-long sessions on multiple days. 

The good news is that with constant one-on-one support and a rough draft to work from, Jordan does warm to the task eventually. Once he gets rolling, he is much more attentive and hardworking, and his creativity kicks in so that he can improve and add to his sentences as well as his correcting his writing errors.  

I notice that he often writes letters  like m, n,  and r starting at the bottom instead of the top, which impacts his writing clarity. He writes other letters in unorthodox ways also. I worked with him to correct his m, n, and r (made him practice them many many times starting at the top) and he was responsive. I think he'll need more of this to improve his handwriting. He also has a fist grip with his pencil that we are trying to help him correct. 

In general it's an effort for us to try to be firm enough that he completes his assignments without inciting rebellion. We want to work with you to help him improve his writing, but the thought of more homework is pretty daunting for our family. If you have any suggestions, we'd be glad to talk to you more about it. 

Thanks again for keeping us in the loop,
Rachel and Dale

She wrote back the next day:

Hi, 

I grabbed Jordan and his work this morning and gave him much praise!  He was very excited to share them.  We talked about why this happened and the cumulative effect of not writing in class for 20-25 minutes a day, 4 times a week.  We also talked about how that in this unit, when I would come by to confer, he would be writing a sentence or two, but never completing a piece.  We also talked about asking for help and letting me know when he is struggling with a topic.  

We are on to poetry and Jordan informed me he has like 46 topics ready to go!  He said he does not want writing to have to come home again.  Thanks for your support at home!

I think this is a success! We all understand Jordan's situation a little better, including Jordan, and can work together better to make it all happen. We have improved communication with his teacher and are feeling like we're all on the same team. This is hugely helpful for me.

In the end he can produce a pretty entertaining piece. Here is his review of the Sand Point Grill, which was part of the unit they just completed on persuasive writing.