Jane Posted September 18, 2009 Share Posted September 18, 2009 I'm a bit frustrated with the writing assignments from TOG for my D level student. Does one need the Writing Aids program to complete their lessons? I am continually searching through my Loom and on their website for various sheets and forms for the writing lessons. I love the questions that the children are asked to write about in TOG; it's one of the reasons I chose the program. Now I'm debating what to do. I am wondering if we should just do the topics in TOG and then pick up CW on the side. What do you all recommend? What is included in the Writing Aids program? Is it worth the money? I don't want to purchase it and then learn I would've been better off with Classical Writing. Thanks for your feedback. It always helps me to hear experiences from others. :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnandtinagilbert Posted September 18, 2009 Share Posted September 18, 2009 Worth the money on all levels! The graphic organizers are priceless! They have helped me teach and dc understand the Writing Process. The instructions on how to teach and grade are great. Having their assignment go along w. history (although not 100%) has been helpful. It doesn't take much to implement and I actually allow the middle schoolers to read the teacher instructions and then begin. A great program and a great price considering it covers all ages. I haven't used it for my 1st or 2nd graders b/c we take a different approach, but have enjoyed it's thorough, yet gentle manner beginning with a 3rd grader. That means I've used levels 3-8 over the past few years and am well pleased. HTH! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
specialmama Posted September 18, 2009 Share Posted September 18, 2009 Worth the money on all levels! The graphic organizers are priceless! They have helped me teach and dc understand the Writing Process. The instructions on how to teach and grade are great. Having their assignment go along w. history (although not 100%) has been helpful. It doesn't take much to implement and I actually allow the middle schoolers to read the teacher instructions and then begin. A great program and a great price considering it covers all ages. :iagree::iagree::iagree: I love my Writing Aids! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jane Posted September 18, 2009 Author Share Posted September 18, 2009 A great program and a great price considering it covers all ages. I haven't used it for my 1st or 2nd graders b/c we take a different approach, but have enjoyed it's thorough, yet gentle manner beginning with a 3rd grader. That means I've used levels 3-8 over the past few years and am well pleased. HTH! Hmmm. I hadn't considered this aspect of "Writing Aids." Thanks for your feedback. Remind me, do I purchase a separat "Writing Aids" program for each TOG year or is it a one time deal for all four years? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
specialmama Posted September 18, 2009 Share Posted September 18, 2009 It's a one time purchase! :001_smile: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
siloam Posted September 18, 2009 Share Posted September 18, 2009 Hmmm. I hadn't considered this aspect of "Writing Aids." Thanks for your feedback. Remind me, do I purchase a separat "Writing Aids" program for each TOG year or is it a one time deal for all four years? Jane, WA has several components. It has explanations of each of the writing forms. Where able to include actually student examples. They include some hints in teaching the forms. On the disk they have graphic organizers (a lot of them, for many different applications), explanations written to the student of different forms (not for every form or every level, but a good amount of them). For example when covering paragraph construction there is a page you can print out for the child to review. Then I just put notes for my dd to review it again about once a month. :D The last part on the CD are rubics. Rubics are guidelines for grading papers. It breaks things down into tangible pieces based on what form it is. There isn't rubics for every form, it does focus on the forms the older children use, but there is some for the base forms the younger kids use too. I am thinking of selling mine because I love Classical Writing and really don't have the time to use both. I used WA for a while to reinforce paragraph writing, but now I am not sure I need it anymore. That little what if I need it has held be back. Of course writing reviews about it also makes me want to keep it. :smilielol5: Heather Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
inactive Posted September 19, 2009 Share Posted September 19, 2009 Worth the money on all levels! The graphic organizers are priceless! They have helped me teach and dc understand the Writing Process. The instructions on how to teach and grade are great. Having their assignment go along w. history (although not 100%) has been helpful. It doesn't take much to implement :iagree: Writing Aids is EXCELLENT...can't imagine teaching without it... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lovemy9kids Posted September 19, 2009 Share Posted September 19, 2009 I love TOG but found WA a little frustrating. It is a GREAT reference book and tells you exactly what you are supposed to end up with. However, it did not help me to teach my kids how to write, if that makes any sense. What I mean is, it will say something like, "You need to write good clear thesis statement about your paper." But how do you get from point a to point b? I guess if you have a child who is a good writer then it would be fine. Mine just need more help I guess. I was really disappointed because I wanted to use it. It would work well with a child who doesn't struggle with content. It's great for instructing on the different forms of writing. I feel like I didn't communicate my point very well, but I hope it gives you a little different view point. This year I am using Writing Tales with my younger ones and a CW with my older one. I will still have him do some of the TOG writing assignments throughout the year. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jane Posted September 19, 2009 Author Share Posted September 19, 2009 Jane,I am thinking of selling mine because I love Classical Writing and really don't have the time to use both. I used WA for a while to reinforce paragraph writing, but now I am not sure I need it anymore. That little what if I need it has held be back. Of course writing reviews about it also makes me want to keep it. :smilielol5: Heather Thanks for the great post! Only you're posting my hesitation here, do I *really* want CW? Why do you choose to use CW over WA? Would you mind elaborating? :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
siloam Posted September 19, 2009 Share Posted September 19, 2009 Thanks for the great post! Only you're posting my hesitation here, do I *really* want CW? Why do you choose to use CW over WA? Would you mind elaborating? :) I love CW because it is so concrete. Like Quiverfull said, TOG can make logical leaps sometimes. CW usually doesn't do that. Even if it is painful it will give you a means. Like with summarizing a scene. It allows that it might be necessary to go in and simply combine two sentences. Then combine another with those two, until you have the whole paragraph summarized. It would be a hard way to go about it, but I could see some kids needing that. While I haven't used it I appreciate that they bring things all the way down to that level. I also love that the child isn't writing original content till Diogenes. It gives the child lots of time to mature and have something to say. Plus they work on all sorts of skills in the mean time: changing tense, looking up synonyms, and antonyms (you can use an antonym and a negative), changing from plural to singular, singular to plural, changing from proper to common nouns and changing sentence types. It just gives the child so many tools to go in a tweak their writing with, so they can get it to say exactly what they want. When I was in school I had a couple of problems. I was an extremely concrete thinker and I while I got the concept of synonyms I never looked any up. Like it or not making them do it and become comfortable with it increases the chances to them actually using it later. :D The poetry work is also awesome! I finally am starting to appreciate poetry more now that I understand the different forms. Anything with structure I tend to love and poetry actually has a lot of structure. I did discover that if I don't try to get it before hand and just read the core out loud to my dd and lean with her, that it is a much easier program to use. Trying to own it and teach it WAS difficult. The only thing missing from CW would be the rubics. Though there are multiple webistes online where you can get those. Heather Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jane Posted September 19, 2009 Author Share Posted September 19, 2009 Thank you so much Heather and Quiverfull (I missed your post earlier!). I do appreciate hearing both sides of preferences. I may have more questions over the weekend as I ponder my choice a little longer. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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