really could use advice for 3rd grade writing

[elizawill]

my daughter is in 3rd grade & will be 9 in a few days. for writing, we use WWE 2 and also dabble with writing strands. today, for creative writing, she chose to make up her very own story. this is a first for her! she thought of the topic on her own and poured all of herself into this project effortlessly and joyfully. it is 5 pages long, super funny, well written (as far as the plot, characters, story line, etc). i'm very proud of her, especially since this time last year, writing was a HUGE roadblock for her (she literally couldn't write creatively at all, even if a topic was given to her).

so....my problem is that although her story is truly wonderful, it is also full of grammatical errors. i do not want to discourage her new love and ability, but i really do want to help her with the basics at least.

before she started writing today, i *did* tell her this was a rough draft. i encouraged her to not concern herself with spelling or grammar, but to simply write, write, write. tomorrow, she knows we'll be making corrections to the rough draft & she's fine with that.

my question for you all, is how do i do that with her? do i correct it? do i have her correct it? what specifically should i be working on with her as a 3rd grader? i don't know what realistic expectations are at this age & grade. i know this sounds like i don't know what to do....but really, that's exactly the case. i want my expectations to be fair, and i want the experience to be positive for her (so that she'll continue to write lots of stories and grow in the process).

i hope this makes sense. thanks for reading! and thanks for helping me!

amy

[Alyantavid]

I would leave this one alone, but start talking about the process of writing. About how important free writing is, but also that after that you go through and fix any mistakes you find.

My son's in third and this is what his teacher asks of them as well. I (and the teacher) don't expect perfection, but being able to see spelling and grammatical errors is important. But don't discourage the free writing and don't ask her to find mistakes in everything she writes.

[elizawill]

thank you, i think i will take your advice and leave it alone. what i've decided to do is let her creative writing remain a separate entity for now. i won't critique it at all (unless of course she's asking me for specific advice). what i will do, however, is use her creative writing to assess what words we need to work on in our spelling time. i also may incorporate the free scott foresman grammar book ( http://www.sfreading.com/resources/ghbgrd3.html# anyone use this??). it seems to touch on many of the issues i noticed in her work today. because it will remain separate from her creative writing though, it won't feel like a critique.

thanks for your help. hugs.

[Marimami]

I have been meaning to post to this thread, but kept getting distracted. I am probably going to use the Editor in Chief series for DD (6 years). I have a rule that I will not correct her creative writing. I've told her this--I tell her that we work on spelling, handwriting, etc. outside of her creative writing work. It takes all the pressure off of her.

Her perfectionist self would not take well to learning how to edit her work just yet so I think this program seems like a good idea: Editor-in-Chief:
http://www.criticalthinking.com/getP...ode=p&id=09707

I'm a professional writer, and she knows that I write and re-write, have others review my material, edit, etc. but she's just not ready for that.

Holli

[tammyw]

I like the idea of letting creative writing be creative writing and not spelling and/or grammar. I think of it this way - their brain works differently while doing creative writing. I think I might worry that if she had to rework her creative writing to make it "correct", she might lose the love she is currently experiencing of just writing for fun. Then again, my thoughts might be worthless, because DD is only 7.5 and hasn't done any lengthy creative writing, but I will hopefully be taking the advice here and using it in the future.

I'd probably find it tough to hold back though, lol! Same way I find it hard to hold back sometimes when DD is reading aloud and makes a mistake on a word - I often find myself correcting her (she is pretty good though so I don't do it often). I caught myself recently doing this and said "do you want me to let you keep reading or do you want me to correct/help you?" She said she wanted me to correct (or help) her.

[canuckgal]

Originally Posted by Marimami

I have been meaning to post to this thread, but kept getting distracted. I am probably going to use the Editor in Chief series for DD (6 years). I have a rule that I will not correct her creative writing. I've told her this--I tell her that we work on spelling, handwriting, etc. outside of her creative writing work. It takes all the pressure off of her.

Her perfectionist self would not take well to learning how to edit her work just yet so I think this program seems like a good idea: Editor-in-Chief:
http://www.criticalthinking.com/getP...ode=p&id=09707

I'm a professional writer, and she knows that I write and re-write, have others review my material, edit, etc. but she's just not ready for that.

Holli

OMG! Thank you for this! I know my 10 yr old has intuitively picked up grammer to some extent, but, this would be perfect for her. She is an in-context learner..."doing" grammer this way is what would work, not doing just a grammer page that is dry and boring.

It's bookmarked into my homeschool shopping file right now.

[AAK]

Just a word to the wise. . . we thought editor in chief was harder than we expected! But, English has never been my strong point

Another idea, if she keeps being so creative, you may have her choose one of her stories to "publish". At that point, have her look for spelling errors (or have her look up unsure words) and basic grammar errors (capitalization and endmarks). Then, turn it into a book. Or make a book of short stories or whatever. We love using blank books like these http://www.bookblanks.com/Portrait_L..._p/bb-5027.htm to publish our most special writings.

Amy

[elizawill]

thanks everyone! so far, it's going well . she did decide to "publish" her work and has been typing her story into word, and making illustrations to go with it. most of the mistakes were fixed there, as it underlined many of her errors.