Problem:  Child complains of hand pain.
After making sure they don't write with a "death grip", consider the following possible solutions:

  1. Allow students to dictate their writing assignments to you.  The thoughts/ideas are still theirs.   They can also still edit/revise.
  2. Can you combine certain subjects in order to reduce the physical writing load?  Spelling words could also be penmanship practice. 
  3. Can certain subjects be accomplished orally?  Instead of writing out answers to history workbook questions, could the child answer questions orally?
  4. Each year reduce the amount of dictation you take.    Eventually they will be writing on their own.
Problem:  Child "can't think of anything to write about."
  1. Provide prewriting activities:  word lists, examples of similar writing projects, or an activity.
  2. Write the assignment as partners day one.  The second day the child does the same assignment individually.  They will see exactly how the process worked.
  3. Do the assignment alongside them.  They will be very interested in what you write.  They will also see how you come up with ideas.  Journaling and letter writing are good activities to do together.
  4. Be sure to read aloud to them and give them meaningful personal reading assignments.  "A stream can't rise higher than its source."
Problem:  "I don't want to write about….."
  1. Assess your goals.  What are you trying to teach?  Is there more than one way to meet that goal?  Tell the child your goal and see if they can find a more interesting alternative way to meet that goal?
  2. If your goal is accomplishing a certain form, see if changing the subject matter would help.  (In other words, if the assignment is to write a book report, see if changing the book would make the assignment more interesting.  Think how much more interested they would be in writing a book report about a personal reading choice rather than something you assigned and they disliked.  You goal is they accomplish a book report, right?)
  3. Better yet, assess your goals first!  See if you can build choices into your assignment to eliminate this problem before it happens.  If your goal is they will write an essay, let them choose the subject.  If your goal is that they respond to a certain book, let them choose the format (report, poem, advertisement etc.).
    4.

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