Maximizing Learning Potential: Junior Novelist

Friday, August 28, 2009

Junior Novelist

Haley is starting to develop a passion for writing. I am so thrilled for her! For the past 6 months or so, she has had on her checklist "20 minutes free writing." I have let her explore her thesaurus and writing during this time. I do not correct any grammar or spelling during her free writing. I am amazed at how far she has come. Of course, she has not FINISHED one single piece that she's writing, but she's coming up with some great ideas.

Yesterday, she told Maddie that she was going to write another Weird School Book for her to read. Maddie has read every single one of the series that has been released. Haley worked on her first chapter of Mr. Sum is Dumb. Maddie always laughs at the beginning of each book when it announces that AJ HATES school. So. . . Haley decided to go forward in time a couple years to 4th-grade, when AJ has learned to LOVE school.

I think the idea of not taking a red pen to her work is the key to getting her to love writing. Too many teachers in the public school correct EVERYTHING that a child has written and consequently, the child is turned off.

We're starting to get used to our schedule. However, the girls were tardy to school today. Maddie was busy practicing piano and Haley was taking an Algebra quiz on the computer. Before we knew it, it was time to leave. Hunter was downstairs, still in his pajamas :( We were only a few minutes late, but still not good!

1 comment:

Thomas K CarpenterOctober 1, 2009 at 4:31 PM
I think the no red pen is a good idea. Unlike math which is finite and has right answers, writing is never perfect and consequently, never done. You don't finish working on your writing, you just give up momentarily. :)
ReplyDelete
Replies

Add comment

Is it a Cheetah?

When we think of cheetahs we are likely to think first of their speed. It's flashy. It is impressive. It's unique. If a cheetah is confined to a 10 X 12 foot cage, though it may pace or fling itself against the bars in restless frustration, it won't run 70 mph.

IS IT STILL A CHEETAH?

If a cheetah has only 20 mph rabbits to chase for food, it won't run 70 mph while hunting.

A school system that defines giftedness (or talent) as behavior, achievement and performance is as compromised in its ability to recognize its highly gifted students and to give them what they need as a zoo would be to recognize and provide for its cheetahs if it looked only for speed.

However, schools are to extraordinarily intelligent children what zoos are to cheetahs. Many schools provide a 10 x 12 foot cage, giving the unusual mind no room to get up to speed. Many highly gifted children sit in the classroom the way big cats sit in their cages, dull-eyed and silent. Some, unable to resist the urge from inside even though they can't exercise it, pace the bars, snarl and lash out at their keepers, or throw themselves against the bars until they do themselves damage.
In some schools brilliant children are asked to do what they were never designed to do while the attributes that are a natural aspect of unusual mental capacity -- intensity, passion, high energy, independence, moral reasoning, curiosity, humor, unusual interests and insistence on truth and accuracy -- are considered problems that need fixing.

Exerpts from Stephanie S. Tolan ©1996

Work Samples

Manatees (unedited)
By Haley
05/14/09

Manatees are very different than other animals. Manatees are aquatic mammals. They are also endangered. Manatees live in warm waters. They are very slow. Manatees are related to elephants. Manatees never hurt any other animal.

Manatees are funny looking creatures. Manatees are a grey- brown color. They are known as sea cows. A baby manatee weighs about 60 pounds. A grown manatee weighs about 1000 pounds. Sharp propellers from motor boats scar the manatees back.

Manatees have to lots of things after they have a baby. A mother manatee always stays near her calf. Manatees always teach there calf which plants are safe to eat. Manatees usally have one baby at a time every three years. The first thing a baby manatee does after it gets born it rises to the surface to breath. Last, a female manatee becomes an adult when it is five.

Manatees were used in lots of different ways. Its skin was burned as fuel. Also its bones where used as medican and jewelry. Its skin was made into shoes. Manatees fed many people.

Manatees are endangered animals. People need to protect them and not hurt them so they don’t dye out!