Bit & Rudder

Homeschool Writing Made Easy

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Episode #28 Best Practices for Requesting a Letter of Recommendation

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How important is a letter of recommendation? Well, it depends. If you’re trying to get a job at McDonald’s, it probably doesn’t matter that much.

But if you want to get into a competitive program such as med school or law school, or if you’re applying for a scholarship, it matters a lot.

A strong letter of recommendation can tip the scale when applicants have similar GPAs and test scores, or when a selection committee needs to assess character and leadership abilities.

This week’s episode is about the real-world skill of requesting a letter of recommendation. I discuss:

☑️6 key strategies to guide your request

☑️how far in advance of the deadline you should submit your request

☑️the importance of humility, helpfulness, and gratitude in crafting your request

☑️the specific details you must include if you want a strong recommendation

I also provide a step-by-step process for drafting a request as well as an example request that you can use as a model.

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Ep #15 Research Papers Part 3

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Ep #15 Research Papers Part 3

Today’s episode is the last of three parts in the Research Papers series. Be sure to listen to Part 1 and Part 2 first because they lay the groundwork for today’s discussion.

In this episode, I share with you

  • the essential prewriting step that makes writing the rough draft nearly effortless
  • how to craft effective introductions, conclusions, and body paragraphs
  • the importance of embedding research within the flow of your writing
  • one key mistake that students often make on their works cited page and how to correct it
  • plus a whole lot of examples from a model student paper so that you can “see” what I’m talking about

This is another meaty episode with a wealth of information. You probably will want to take notes, and you’ll also want to grab the free Research Paper Checklist to help you remember the steps and stay organized.

Links Mentioned

Research Paper Checklist
OWL (Online Writing Lab at Purdue)

Peer Editing Guide for Research Papers

Grading Rubric 

Example of How to Use the Grading Rubric

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Ep #11 To AP or Not to AP?

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Homeschoolers are often in a quandary when it comes to proving their excellence as students. How do you convince the scholarship committee or the college admission board that you really are a superior candidate when your mom is the one writing your transcript? One way that students can prove their merit is by taking AP courses and doing well on AP exams. But figuring out this process as a homeschooler can be little tricky and confusing, which is why I decided to devote an entire episode to this topic. In it I discuss

  • The two different AP English courses and which one to take if you want to skip college composition classes
  • How to use AP Course Audit to get your course approved and why it matters
  • The amount of time and money you save by scoring well on the AP exam
  • A key resource that AP students can access to help them succeed in the course and on the exam

I don’t cover everything there is to know about AP English, but I did pack the essentials into this no-nonsense discussion.

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How to Teach Writing to Middle and High School Students: Step 2—The Writing Process

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#2 How to Teach Writing to Middle and High School Students: Step 2—The Writing Process

Understand and use the writing process

My goal in this series is to give you—the homeschool parent/teacher—a straightforward, tactical plan for teaching writing to older students. In the last episode, I explained how easy and effective structured journals can be, especially if your child lacks confidence as a writer. Journals aren’t exactly magical, but pretty close—and so very easy to implement.

So that brings us to the next step which is all about the process of writing—and it has steps too—perfect, right? Because steps give us a pathway—from blank page to finished product.

In this episode, I talk about

  • How to help students find and explore a topic so that they never again have to say “I don’t know what to write about”
  • The crucial difference between revising and editing, and why it’s important to do both
  • Why the first version of a paper should not be the only version
  • One clever trick for proofreading

In this nuts-and-bolts episode, I take you through every step of the writing process

  • Prewriting
  • Drafting
  • Revising
  • Editing
  • Publishing

And I provide plenty of examples so you can see this powerful tool in action!

Be sure to grab the cheat sheet I created for this episode, so you can practice the writing process for each and every writing assignment.

Links mentioned in this episode:

Journal Writing Plan

The Writing Process Cheat Sheet (Episode 2)

Episode #1 How to Teach Writing to Middle and High School Students: Step 1—Structured Journal

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How to Teach Writing to Middle School and High School Students: Step 1—Structured Journals

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#1 How to Teach Writing to Middle School and High School Students: Step 1—Structured Journals

This strategy helps students practice writing without the fear of failure.

Confession: I avoided teaching my kids to write for years because I was so overwhelmed with the process. Oh sure, I had a curriculum, more than one even, and every year I promised myself that this was the year we were going to write. Usually, though, we didn’t make it past lesson 3 because it was too confusing, time-consuming, daunting, difficult. You get the idea!

If this sounds familiar, then you may find that this episode gives you exactly what you need to break through the confusion and prioritize writing this year.

Because let’s be honest, teaching writing can be tricky—there are A LOT of moving parts. If you don’t have an easy-to-use plan, it’s hard to keep moving forward.

In this episode, you will learn

  • a plan for writing so easy that you can start it today
  • a strategy that will get your child in the habit of writing
  • a way to help your child become a more confident writer
  • a nearly effortless way to get you—the parent/teacher—in the habit of assigning and grading writing

If this sounds too good to be true, I can assure you I have seen the results first hand, with my own children and in English classes I’ve taught. 

I won’t keep you in suspense any longer. The tool at the center of these great results is a structured journal. The “structured” part of that is very important as I explain in the episode, because journal-keeping without clear guidelines can be a big waste of time.

But I’ve got you covered with exact guidelines for assigning journals, plus all the prompts you need and instructions on how to grade student entries. It’s all laid out in this episode, but I’ve also created a FREE Journal Writing Guide with all the information you need to get started.

So if you’re ready, it’s time to learn all about how to set up your writing classroom.

Links mentioned in this episode:

Journal Writing Planhttps://marvelous-artist-7428.ck.page/713dbe727c

https://marvelous-artist-7428.ck.page/713dbe727c

Journal Buddieshttps://www.journalbuddies.com/

https://www.journalbuddies.com/

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Steps for Writing a Descriptive Essay

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Here is an assignment guide you can use for writing a descriptive essay about a person.

Assignment: Describe someone who has been an important influence in your life.

Length: 300-500 words

Audience: Formal/Academic (imagine writing this essay as part of a scholarship application)

Instruction: Descriptive writing is about painting a picture for the reader. To do this, you want to use language that appeals to the five senses. The prewriting questions will guide you through this process.

Prewriting

  • Make a list of people who have influenced you. Think about teachers, coaches, church leaders. Also, consider those influences that you might not know personally: singers, actors, missionaries, authors, characters in stories, politicians. Try to make a list of at least ten people.
  • Circle the person on your list that you are most interested in writing about. With that person in mind, answer the following questions:
  • What is the main impression you want to convey about this person? Is he/she cheerful, nervous, careful, funny, etc.?
  • List three pieces of evidence that support the main impression you want to convey. For example, suppose the main impression you want to convey about your subject is that she is nervous. How do you know she is nervous? Maybe she bites her nails or jumps at the least little noise or constantly furrows her brow in a worried expression or cuts her kids’ meals into tiny bite-sized pieces to prevent choking. Think about actions and mannerisms that demonstrate the impression you want to convey.
  • What sensory details can you bring in to paint a picture of this person? In other words, when you think about this person, what images come to mind?
  • What does he/she look like?
  • What sounds do you associate with him/her? (for example, singing or a certain accent, or the clink of pocket change)
  • What smells/tastes do you associate with this person? (for example, the smell of pumpkin spice candles in Grandma’s house, or the taste of homemade apple pie, or the smell of the ocean because she lives near the beach)
  • How does he/she make you feel?
  • How has this person influenced you? Why is this person important to you? List the ways this person has influenced you. These are the points you will develop in your essay.

Drafting

If possible, write the essay in one sitting. Focus on ideas and organization rather than on mechanics and style.

The essay needs a minimum of three paragraphs—an introduction, body, and conclusion. However, there is no set number of paragraphs.

Introduction The goal of the introductory paragraph is to grab the reader’s attention and state the purpose of the essay.

Ways to grab the reader’s attention:
–start with an interesting detail about the person
–start with an interesting (and relevant) story about the person
Purpose:
–make a general statement (in a sentence or two) about who this person is and how he or she has influenced you.

Body: The body should describe the person and explain in detail the reason or reasons that this person is influential. For example, let’s say you are writing about the influence your grandmother has had in your life. Grandma is important because she always makes you feel loved and appreciated. She shows her love by taking the time to listen to you and by sending you special gifts. Those are the general statements that need to be described in detail. Here is an example of a paragraph that develops one of these statements.

Because Grandma believed that “idle hands were the devil’s workshop,” she was always busy, whether it was baking her famous apple turnovers or scrubbing a pile of dirty dishes. But no matter how busy she was, she always had time to listen to me. She would stop whatever she was doing, pull off her grease-stained apron, and give me a big bear hug. Then she’d invite me to sit on the settee with her and have a cookie and a cup of milk while I told her what I’d been up to lately. …

This paragraph can be further developed with additional details that reveal more of the grandmother’s character and influence. Perhaps Grandmother not only listens but also gives valuable advice, and so on. After this idea is developed, move on to the next point about Grandmother sending gifts and provide details about that idea. Continue to develop each point in this way.

Conclusion: The concluding paragraph wraps up your paper, usually by circling around to the beginning and restating the purpose in different words. An interesting detail or illustration about the person that ties in with your main idea is a good way to close.

Revising

If time permits, allow at least a day to pass before students revisit their drafts.

Students should read through their drafts and make improvements. They should also have at least one other person read their essay and make suggestions for improvement.

The draft should be considered a working copy, and as such, students should mark it up with margin notes, arrows, crossed out words, and so on.

Editing

After students are satisfied with the revisions, they should create clean copies suitable for publishing. The final step in this part of the process is for students to read their papers out loud because this will help them catch mistakes that they will miss if they only read silently

Publishing

Students should share their essays with others.

Evaluating

To see the complete guide for evaluating this essay as well as information for writing other types of essays, follow this link: The Basic PLUS Writing Plan.

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Student Journals: Easy and Effective

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This Idea Will Have Students Writing in No Time

                When one of the moms in my co-op suggested that I require students to keep a journal this year, I was a little hesitant.  I remembered my own experience with journal writing in high school.  It was in a creative writing class, where we were supposed to make regular entries in a journal that was collected several times throughout the semester.  The guidelines were vague—no set number of entries, choose your own topics.  I think the freedom was supposed to inspire creativity, but for me it had the opposite effect. 

It resulted in paralysis, with me barely writing anything until a few days before the dreaded due date.  Then, in a frenzied panic, I would scribble furiously whatever random thoughts came to mind.  Stream-of-consciousness, after all, is a form of creativity!  At least that’s how I justified the awful prose and ridiculous verse that comprised these entries.  I’m sure my teacher wasn’t fooled for one minute by various colors of ink I used or my attempts to modify my handwriting from entry to entry so they looked like they’d been written on different days instead of in one midnight rush.  So my own experience with journal writing, to say the least, was not very successful!

                However, since then, I’ve discovered that it is possible for journal writing to be an extremely effective tool, especially for students who struggle with writing.  BUT it has to be set up with clear boundaries and guidelines.  Journals can be powerful tools—they provide students with the opportunity to practice writing frequently in a low-pressure environment.  And as we all know, practice leads to improvement.

Journal writing in my classroom

                So let me share with you how I implemented journal writing in my class this year.  I’ll give you the rundown on what worked really well, and I’ll also fill you in on what went wrong, and what I’ll do differently next time.

                Let me start by describing my class to you.  I have five students, ranging in age from 5th to 9th grade.  (Two of these are my own kids.)  We meet once a week for 45 minutes.  The rest of the time, students are working independently to complete the assignments that are due in class. 

                At the beginning of the school year, I established these requirements for journals:

  • A separate notebook for the sole purpose of journaling
  • 2 entries per week
  • Minimum of 100 words per entry (but no maximum length)
  • A date and title for each entry

I then informed the class that I would be checking their journals for completion each week, although not actually reading the entries.

Finally, I told them that they could write about whatever they wanted to, OR they could choose one of the prompts from the list I handed them and write about that.  This was my way of addressing the real difficulty of not knowing what to write about, which always comes up and is a legitimate concern. 

The list of prompts I gave them was compiled from the huge list I found on a website called Journal Buddies.  This is a great resource that has thousands of prompts for all different ages.  I culled through the lists I found there and selected the prompts I thought were suitable for my group.  There were about 60 different prompts on the list I handed them, which I decided was more than enough to get them started.  We read through the list together so they could get a sense of the possibilities.  Overall, students were positive about the prospect of keeping a journal and seemed confident that they would be able to complete the task. 

                When the next class meeting rolled around, the first thing I did was have students pull out their journals, and then I dutifully went around and checked to see that everyone had two entries which met the requirements.  I did have to warn at least one student that showing up with an incomplete journal was unacceptable.  That was the last time for a while that people came to class unprepared.  However, as the year wore on and I became less vigilant about checking for entries, some students started skipping the assignment occasionally. 

                After I checked to make sure journal entries were complete, I asked for volunteers to read one of their entries.  I was pleasantly surprised that almost everyone wanted to share, and some students even wanted to read both of their entries.  The class also enjoyed listening to one other.  If someone didn’t volunteer to read, I asked them to give me a one-sentence summary of their topics.  For example, a student might say, I wrote about my dog and the fight I had with my brother. 

                This enthusiasm for sharing entries lasted about a month, and then gradually people stopped volunteering.  When I asked why they didn’t want to share, students said they couldn’t think of anything very good to write about. 

                But what about all those prompts I gave you, I asked beseechingly.  The answer I usually got was something along the lines of I didn’t like any of those prompts or those prompts weren’t very good.  For a while, I was willing to blame their lack of inspiration on the poor prompts too.

                But when I finally got around to re-examining the prompts, I realized that there was nothing wrong with them.  In fact, they were great prompts.  The real problem, I concluded after mulling it over a while, was that I had given students too many prompts from which to choose.  Most students were unwilling to read through a long list of prompts to figure out what they wanted to write about.  My son, Aaron, for example, who has a policy of not reading even one extra word that he doesn’t have to, of course was not going to read through this mega-long list.  So he was paralyzed right from the start.  And even the students who were willing to read the list found themselves crippled by too many choices.  The problem of what to write about had not been solved after all.

                So one week after a particularly lackluster showing of journal entries, I announced to the class that I was assigning the topics for the next week.  I picked two prompts from the list that I thought would be inspirational.  I was not disappointed.  The following week, I had plenty of volunteers wanting to share their entries.  The key had been to limit the options. 

Improving the plan

                Overall, journal writing turned out to be a great idea, and I definitely will be assigning journals again next year, but I do plan to make several changes based on what I learned.  Here are some of the highlights of my new plan:

  1. This is a small change, but I will not require titles for entries, but instead have students put the number of the entry alongside the date.  The titles became too burdensome for most students.
  2. I think that two entries per week is a good number, so I’m going to stick with that.  Also, setting the minimum length at 100 words per entry seemed to work well.
  3. I’m going to do a better job of monitoring my own children so they work on their journals throughout the week rather than doing both entries at the same time the day before class.  Spreading it out will go further in helping them develop a habit of writing, and it is likely to improve the quality of writing as well.  I’m going to suggest that the moms of my other students do the same, if possible.
  4. I’m going to stay vigilant about checking journals each week to create more accountability.
  5. The biggest change I will make has to do with the journal prompts.  Instead of giving the class a huge list at the beginning of the year, I will give them 3 prompts each week.  One of their entries must be in response to one of the prompts.  The other entry can also be in response to a prompt, or they can write about a topic of their own choosing.  This solves the problem of what to write about plus allows students to generate their own topics if they so desire.  In addition to Journal Buddies, the Daily Teaching Tools website is also a good resource for journal prompts.  It has a robust list of 180 prompts for each day of the school year.

Finally, you may be wondering if it is possible to use this method of journal writing if you have just one student.  Absolutely!  You only need to make a couple of adjustments.  First, I think it is a good policy to check journal entries only for completion rather than reading the entries.  This allows students to write freely without fear of the teacher’s red pen or of their privacy being violated.  At the end of the week, ask your child if she wants to share one or both of her entries.  If so, she can then read the entry to you.  If not, ask her for a sentence summary.  Inform your student that at the end of each month, she will be required to select her favorite entry to read aloud to you.  If she is already sharing her entries regularly, you can skip this.  Otherwise, it is a good way to make sure the student is making sufficient effort to complete the journal assignments. 

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Make Vocabulary Words Stick

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How to Improve Vocabulary

Years ago, when I was studying for the big exam to get into graduate school, my primary strategy was to learn tons of vocabulary words.  When I say tons, I mean I literally had thousands of index cards with words on one side and definitions on the other.  I used this approach because I recognized that a good vocabulary was the key to doing well on every section of the test, whether it was antonyms, analogies, or reading comprehension.  It helped that I had a knack for memorization, and that I actually enjoyed the rote process of learning a small dictionary.  My months of study paid off, and I aced the test.  I had been right.  Vocabulary development had been the crucial component to success.

The moral of this story is not for you to stock up on index cards and have your students write vocabulary words until their fingers blister.  Rather, it is meant to underscore the importance of building a strong vocabulary.  I am so thankful that I invested the time in learning vocabulary, because it not only helped me pass my exam, but it also helped me excel in graduate school.  My improved vocabulary transformed me into better reader, writer, and thinker, which, of course, is the very outcome we want for our students.

But even if we recognize the importance of a robust vocabulary, helping our students develop one is often easier said than done.  Probably the easiest path is by encouraging kids to read.  Have you ever seen a study that argued for less student reading, or a headline that condemned more reading as a waste of time?  I know I haven’t.  The benefits of reading are well documented.  Students who read frequently are better readers, writers, and thinkers than their non-reading peers.  The more you can get your students to read, the more likely they are to have academic success.

How we repeatedly failed at vocabulary

But what if you have a reluctant reader (or two) as I do in my house?  What can you do to help these students improve their vocabulary?

This is an issue I’ve tackled many times as a homeschool teacher.  If you are anything like me, you probably have a variety of vocabulary workbooks collecting dust in your home ,and most of them only partially completed.  I must have at least five different programs represented by my quest to find the magic vocabulary curriculum.  The start of each school year is full of hope and optimism as I distribute the pristine workbooks and dole out the first assignment. I’ve found that  most programs follow a similar format: a weekly list of words followed by an assortment of three to five wordlist-related activities with a final test at the end.  Easy enough, right?  Read the list, do the exercises throughout the week, take the test on Friday.  It seems like independent work that doesn’t require a lot of teacher/mom input.

But here’s what happened year after year. For the first couple of weeks, I diligently checked to make sure my kids were doing their work each day, and I even marked their mistakes and talked to them about what they missed.  So when test day rolled around, I expected great results.  What I got were grades that were average to below average.  Even my daughter, an avid reader, struggled to score higher than a B-minus.

By the middle of the semester when the tornado of life was in full spin, my daughter was barely passing the tests and my boys had ceased even trying.  Of course, by then, I had mostly stopped checking the weekly exercises, and the occasional glance I gave them revealed that none of my kids was putting in much effort.  Sometimes I tried to regroup and crack down on completion requirements, but that rarely resulted in much improvement.  By the time the holidays were over, vocabulary had usually been abandoned and another half-completed book had been filed away, All that remained was for me to make my annual resolution to find a better curriculum for the next school year.

How to get (dramatic) improvement in ten minutes a day

            So this year, I decided to STOP THE INSANITY.  In other words, I was determined to stop doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.  If I wanted to change the outcome, I needed to change my approach.  With a few minor adjustments and about ten extra minutes a day, I was able to help my kids improve their vocabulary skills and vastly improve their test scores.  My approach was based on the premise that the more engagement students can have with the vocabulary words, the more likely they are to actually learn them (and not just put them into short-term memory five minutes before the test—although my kids couldn’t even do that!)

Combine age groups

I combined age groups for vocabulary.  Just because your vocabulary book says it’s for tenth grade doesn’t mean that all other grades are banned from using it.  Hello, I’m the word “enumerate” and you can only learn me in the tenth grade.  Vocabulary words don’t inherently contain grade-level identifiers.  The textbook writers have decided (somewhat arbitrarily) which words to include and at what grade level.  If there were one “right” list, then there wouldn’t be such a wide variety of vocabulary books.  A different curriculum might introduce the word “enumerate” in the eleventh grade. 

So this year, I decided that both my seventh-grade daughter and ninth-grade son would both be in the seventh-grade vocabulary book.  If I hadn’t already bought the seventh-grade curriculum, I probably would have put them in the eighth-grade book, but I just went with what I had.  The reason that I wanted them in the same book was so that I could go over vocabulary with both of them at the same time.  Time is as valuable as gold in my household, so it was essential that I streamline lesson time as much as I could.  Plus, having a sibling around made each of my kids try harder (because s/he didn’t want to look dumb!) and also made the lesson more interesting.

Go at a slower pace

I slowed down the pace.  By this, I mean that I changed my whole attitude about how long it should take to complete a unit of vocabulary.  Previously, I was bound and determined to get in a chapter a week.  The kids got the words on Monday, and they took their test on Friday.  If they missed a lesson during the week, then they did two lessons the next day.  The trains were running on time even if meant a wreck when they pulled into the station. 

But this year, I’ve adopted a much more casual approach.  Before, my goal had been to get through a chapter a week.  Now my goal is for my kids to learn and retain vocabulary words, and they can’t do that if we’re moving at a furious pace.  So we never tackle more than one exercise a day even if we’ve missed the day before, and it always takes us more than a week to get through one chapter. 

Introduce the new word list

I spent a whole lesson going over the words.  My kids love the start of a new chapter because they know they aren’t going to have any follow-up work to do that day.  We use our ten-minute lesson time to pronounce and discuss each word.  I have them take turns pronouncing the words, and I give help as needed.  We talk about their familiarity with the words.  Is it a word they have seen before or something completely new?  While I usually read the definitions and example sentences in the textbook, I also try to add information from my own experience that might help the word stick better.  For example, . . .

Review the list each day

I reviewed the word list each day by asking my kids questions about the words and playing simple games.  I am sure that if you search online, you can find much more creative games than the ones I was doing with my kids, but these took zero prep time and seemed to do the trick.  Maybe for next year, I’ll do a little research and see if I can find a few other games to add to the mix.  The system I used went something like this:

Mom: Amelia, can you tell me which means

(Amelia takes a moment to scan the list)

Amelia:

Mom: That’s correct.  Aaron can you give me an antonym for

(Aaron scans the list)

Aaron: 

Mom: No, that’s the opposite of ?  Look again.

Aaron:

Mom: Right.  Amelia, can you use ? in a sentence.

Sometimes, after we have worked on a word list for several days, I’ll have my kids compete against each other to see who can be the first to give me the correct word or definition.  And that is about as complex as the review games have gotten this year.  It takes about five minutes to review all the words, and this process seems to really help my kids retain what they are learning.

Assign just one vocabulary lesson a day

I assigned one exercise each day which we checked together the next day.  The vocabulary curriculum I’m using has four exercises in each chapter which are supposed to help students master the words.  I assign one exercise a day that my kids are required to complete on their own.  We read the directions together so I’m sure that they understand what they are supposed to do.  They are expected to have completed the assignment for the next meeting.  At that time, we check the answers together by me calling on them to give me their responses.  (It quickly becomes apparent if someone hasn’t done the work!)  It takes a total of five minutes to check work and assign the next exercise.  And we keep repeating this cycle until we are finished with the chapter.  Then I give them a test.

Love the results!

I am happy to report that under this new system, grades have improved dramatically.  My daughter often gets a perfect score, and I can’t remember the last time she didn’t get an A.  It is almost miraculous how well Aaron is doing.  He still doesn’t get “A’s” very often, but he almost always scores a solid “B,” which is so much better than he had been doing.

One of the best things about this approach is that it should work with any curriculum, so you don’t need to go out and buy something new.  You could pull out some of those half-finished workbooks and start using those.  Obviously, the book should be somewhat age-appropriate.  You probably don’t want your ninth grader in a fifth-grade book, but he might be challenged by the words in a seventh-grade book.  You know your student; don’t be overly committed to forcing him to work at a particular grade level. 

So that’s how we do vocabulary instruction in our classroom. I hope that you found at least one strategy that you can use with your students.

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