Welcome to Writing Foundations!

Parental Involvement is key to your student’s success in Writing Foundations. To better nurture, reinforce and benefit from this course, parents are always welcome to quietly observe and freely glean as much as possible from each class. My hope is that parents will receive quality information for teaching writing at home and for their own personal use as well.

For inexperienced students
- help student outline and draft – wean away your assistance during the 2nd year of Level I or first year of Level II
- you can type the rough draft for him/her but do so *exactly* as it was written. Let MSWord identify errors and student fixes. This is a great introduction to word processing on the computer. I recommend a fun typing program at this time as well – only a few minutes per day – like Slam Dunk Typing or Typing Tutor, etc.

For all levels of ability
- offer suggestions
- guide homework completion
Listen to narration
- sign checklist
Edit drafts for punctuation, spelling, and content that makes sense
- correct punctuation
- circle spelling errors, correct spelling
- for new typers, you may type the handwritten Rough Draft just as student wrote it
- let MSWord do the work as student corrects computer’s suggestions
- edit at least one typed draft by hand on paper
- student can revise using your suggestions
Keep track of assignments – hold student accountable
Provide computer/printer upkeep
Attend class meetings as much as needed
Choose a sound, but simple, grammar program to work through at home. I recommend Easy Grammar or any sort of workbook format that takes only 10 minutes or so a day for Elementary classes. (7-9, 10-12, and 8-12 classes will have grammar exercises with their homework )

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