I found this line while re-reading Calkins’ classic The Art of Teaching Writing. Calkins uses it as a lead-in to the story of a kindergartener whose teacher worried over how he seemed to draw the same thing, day after day. “When I looked at the child’s most recent book, I found that the teacher was [...]
In which we trek into the mind of my youngest and once again get sidetracked. Over the past few weeks, Mr. T and I have been listening to the first volume of The Story of the World, narrated by Jim Weiss. T has requested that we not only listen in the kitchen, but that we [...]
October is a good time for wondering. September can be such a flurry. Such a transition time. Even if your kids don’t go to school, all the regular activities start back up. This year I purposely conjured up a handful of new projects in September, to focus me on a new life homeschooling with just [...]
Taking dictation isn’t a tool just for little kids. Read this recent comment from Caroline to see what I mean: “I just want to attest to the wonders of dictation for older students as well. I teach introductory college composition. Today in office hours, as I was laboring to explain to a student how to [...]
Continuing with the dictation project, I’d like to try to answer some questions from readers. (You can access all posts in this series by clicking on the category the dictation project in the right column, or by clicking on the archives for September 2010.) Carrie recently left this comment: “I’ve been loving this series, but [...]
Yet another post in a month-long series. A cooperatively-transcribed story. He dictated part and wrote part himself. “You gotta hear this,” Mr. T said to me the other day. And then he proceeded to read, “The end of the world started when a pegasus landed on the hood of my car.” It was the first [...]
Taking dictation from kids is a great way to get them started with writing. It helps them leap over writing mechanics–the penmanship, the spelling, the grammar–so they can begin to see they have something to say. But if you keep at it a while, whole new benefits begin to reveal themselves. For one, kids begin [...]