I don't know if this would help, but re the elaboration and prodding - I wouldn't want to prod a reluctant writer either and cause them frustration - but otoh when I compare my ds' writing (very bare bones in terms of descriptions) to what my dd who loves to write writes, she is all about descriptive language and detail. One thing we've done with my dd which is prompting but doesn't necessarily result in frustration is to have him write first, then prompt him to add descriptive words, one at a time. This doesn't have to be non-fun, there are ways to make it fun. Your ds might not need it - I'm working with a kid who is severely writing challenged, but fwiw, my dd who is not severely writing challenged did add a lot of detail by the time she was in 3rd grade. Plus - I'm not sure you want to be prodding or prompting do you? If it's a sample for Davidson the goal would be to send something he's doing independently.
One thing that might help judge the level of his writing is if you've seen writing samples from other children in the same grade or higher grades. Our schools post them on the wall as part of showing off kids' work - looking at those has been another way I've tried to track ds' progress. Of course, it's the holidays and I'm guessing you're not going to be at school in time to look at something like that, but if you've made that comparison in the past think about what the other kids' writing samples looked like.
Good luck!
polarbear
Last edited by polarbear; 12/21/12 12:59 PM.
