I'm sure there is beignets. How do you teach something that you don't really comprehend yourself?

The teacher liked my writing, but I didn't even meet the criteria for enough detail of the setting. She did say that she wrote up a quick example of what she wanted and read it to the class, so hopefully that will help. She also said that the portion I critiqued for my daughter was very good and on track.

You know CC, I have some sweet potatoes at home and I think I will be trying that treat out tonight!

I am also disappointed in my kids' writing skills or lack thereof, and have also been disappointed every year in the writing skills or lack thereof, in their teachers. I wonder if there's a connection?

My son, an excellent writer, was also struggling with his 8th grade writing assignments. The teacher put so many constraints and specific requirements on the assignments that it was impossible for Shorty to use his own voice. He finally decided that he would write with his own style, as close as possible to the rubric, and hope for the best.

Just last week he was walking down the hall with his teacher and he asked how it was that he got an 87 on a paper that didn't meet half of the official requirements. She told him that he's one of three of her students who are exceptional writers and she has to grade them on a different scale. She's trying to help her students find their voice but he and the other two already have theirs.

Sure there are rules to good writing but it's also an art form. Limiting self expression with too many constraints takes all of the fun out of it.

LUV ~ I bet you'll get an A+ on your work!

Mmmm, I just had a yummy snack. And healthy too. My friend told me about it. It's oh so yummy, low fat, low sugar and high in good complex carbs.

Just three ingredients: One sweet potato, three graham crackers, light whipped cream

Microwave the sweet potato, remove the peel and mash it in a bowl. Top with the whipped cream. Spoon bits of it onto the graham crackers.

The real problem for her is that they are expected to not only make up a story, but to use a list of specific vocabulary words within the story. They have to use the words correctly and in such a way that by reading the sentence/paragraph, someone who has never heard the word would know what it meant. They are also expected to focus their writing on setting a scene. This is an advanced literature class, but WOW! She is a great writer and has gotten nothing but positive comments from her language arts teachers, but I think there are so many constraints on the writing that she is basically just giving up and throwing junk down on the paper. She threw an absolute fit when I pointed out that one of the sentences needed to be completely redone because she had used a vocab word that was a noun as an adjective. I really blame it on elementary because they didn't do that much writing. There was "journaling" every year, but no writing like I remember from my school days.

In order to make sure I was on the right track I did the assignment myself and e-mailed it to the teacher. It should be interesting to hear her comments on MY writing!

Does this all mean that someday we will have no authors because no one is capable of writing a coherent sentence let alone an entire novel?!

I'm kind of disappointed in my 5th graders writing as well. Seems he cannot get to the point and writes these sentences that don't tie to anything nor are they self standing. It's so hard to read them and not change them or get confrontational as to "what the hell are you thinking". He went to bed frustrated and I was equally so. I cannot imagine when we get to "creative stuff".
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I'm not a big fan of white chocolate either, unless it's covering a salty pretzel.

I'm way behind on my holiday baking too. It seems like every time I plan to do a little, someone comes home with some issue that throws all my plans right out the window. Last night was a lesson in creative writing and how to establish a setting. Seems the whole class isn't getting it. I wrote a paragraph and then read it to my daughter(and hubby and son), so she could hopefully have that "A-ha" moment, but she just got mad. Hubby and son were quite impressed though. We had a conversation with the teacher on Tuesday and I'm going to drop her a note today. If the whole class isn't getting this(that's from the teacher not just my daughter) then I think something needs to change. Maybe I'll start tutoring on the side....