My 8th grade students are really struggling with writing a literary analysis. We have gone over the material from Writing Aids as well as the book Writer's Inc. It's at the point where I am beginning to feel like I am going to have help them actually compose their papers.

Any suggestions? Should I perhaps work on another writing level for the next few weeks? They have done fine with the dialectic lit assignments, but this writing assignment has seems to be overwhelming all of us.

Lisa in AZ

I'm sorry to hear that, Lisa. :-/ Can you tell me more about the problem? Is it just that their writing skills are week, or are they having trouble writing about literature specifically, or narrowing it down to a topic and staying on point, or what?

Hoping to help!
Christy Somerville

Hi Christy
I think the biggest challenge was getting their brains wrapped around WHAT they were trying to do. I think we were all a bit challenged in that there were so many choices. Analyze character? Plot? Themes? Another challenges was not having many examples to read over. I searched online but I have to say find examples of literary analysis papers for an eighth grade student was not easy. I have Writing aids and it helped as did the example provided but it definitely took some time for my girls (and me) to figure out what they were supposed to do. (I couldn't find "Tell a Lie to Show the Truth" sample paper though which is mentioned on page 77 of Writing Aids)

One of my daughters chose to analyze the character of Tom from "Tom Sawyer" in these terms...."Tom is rebellious, deceptive and crafty, yet Twain develops him into a likeable and ultimately redeemable character". She is in the process of writing the paper but essentially explores the characteristics mentioned (supports them with qoutes) and then trys to show how Twain used these characteristics we would normally despise to develop a character we love. Is she on the right track?

Her twin sister decided to write about the metaphors in "A Princess and The Goblin" and how the author uses them to illustrate faith, specifically faith in God. She discusses Irene following a piece of string, Curdie risking his life (faith that he will succeed in defeating the goblins) and Irene's never give up attitude in regard to Lootie and trying to convince her about the grandmother. Her essay needs some work, but I loved her concluding sentence; "As Christians we must be like Curdie and Irene. We need to follow our magical strings, defeat our goblins and tell our world about the never ending love of God."....isn't great for an 8th grader! Well, I'm her mom. I thought it was sweet! LOL!

Anyway, how are we doing? Are we on the right track? Are they trying to do too much? Should we narrow the focus down to one specific? Such as Tom's rebellion and that one aspect of his character? Just talk about the string and faith?

Thank you SO MUCH for any input!

Lisa in AZ

I hope this isn't too much of a shock to you, but you're on exactly the right track. ;-) Those are excellent theses! You've chosen three traits of Tom Sawyer which should give three solid points, and that's a good "form follows function" thesis showing how Twain sets up Tom's character in a way that functions sympathetically for the reader. Your other daughter has a great "meaning through form" thesis about how MacDonald is conveying meaning through three metaphors. Now you just have to worry about staying on point, good writing, transition sentences, spelling, punctuation, and grammar. :-P But that's all "form"---the "content" looks excellent!

Be encouraged!
Christy

Fabulous!! I am a bit shocked!

I feel like as long as we get the right idea about WHAT we are supposed to be doing, I can easily teach them the rest about staying on point etc. and if we can get our heads wrapped around what to do now, as they progress through high school the rest will also improve. I feel much better!!

Bless you!!! Thank you so much!

Lisa

You're welcome. :-) If I ever get around to putting together audio CD's on teaching literature to equip and encourage moms, one of the main things I plan to say is "It's easier than you think!" I'm so glad you're finding that to be true now. Thank you for your faithful care for your kids! What an example to younger women like me!

Lisa,

I'd like to know if you used any other writing programs prior to tapestry and if so what it was?
thanks
Lisa

Lisa
I tried the writing program that came with Sonlight, although I can't really remember what in the world that really was or how it worked. I hsve and sporadically used IEW...but despite the fact that it is a great program it just never worked for me. Too teacher intensive maybe? I don't know I just could never get it to click for me. And that's really about it. My biggest challenge frankly was not having a program to use or follow.

I went from using Sonlight to using TOG and that is all I ever really used as the spine to our homeschool.

For ME, the key to TOG was the specific assignments in each week plan that said, do this, do that, here are your topics. That made all the difference for me.

Lisa

I am a math/science person, so teaching writing has been difficult for me. I needed help in how to evaluate my students' writing as well as how to direct them.

WriteShop is an excellent program for grades 7-9, but can used for a little younger and older. You can do it in 2-4 years, depending on how fast you work through the books. They teach the teacher as well as the student in incremental steps. It has helped me to know what to look for and how to grade and help the student improve. Many of the assignments can be adapted to TOG topics; this last week, my ds was to describe a person, and I had him describe a civil war soldier. My dd was to do a first person personification of an object, and she described a day in the life of a civil war cannon. It has helped me immensely. http://www.writeshop.com/

I have also used Wordsmith Apprentice, as a lead in to WriteShop. It is fun and well-laid out.

I tried Writing Strands and found it very difficult to use. The instructions were not clear nor very detailed.

HTH,

If you having challenges with evaluating your student's composition, I highly recommend Marcia Somerville's Writing Workshop on CD. I can't find it on the bookshelf right now but if you call TOG I know they have it and sell it. It is a 2 cd seminar that takes you through every step of evaluating a student's writing. Also, if you buy or purchase Writing Aids, there are rubrics and many other guides included on the CD about evaluating a student's writing. But the workshop Marcia gives is outstanding.

I have not been confident of evaluating my student's writing always thought I was doing a terrible job, but she is getting an A at the Community College in her 2nd semester of English there (which the entire class is a writing class). Even though I question the rigor of the class, I have confidence that the teaching and evaluating I provided her was sufficient.

Lisa in AZ