Subbing out WWS topics with your own

[TracyP]

Has anyone done this? Feel free to link me to another thread if this has been discussed.

 

We are on week 6 of WWS. My dd is on the young side for WWS (4th grade - just turned 10), so we are going at a slooow pace. My plan is to go through Week 15 this year.

 

She does the outlines and narrations on her own. We have been going over the day 3 models together. So far so good. Then, DD and I went over the week 4/5 writing assignment and I saw her eyes glaze over. I spent the weekend thinking about it and decided to have her write on a topic from history. She already knows how to take notes, and she agreed that it was easier to take her own notes than write on an unfamiliar topic. We followed the requirements laid out in WWS and it went great.

 

I have looked ahead a bit and it looks like I will be able to continue to do this. I'm wondering if anyone else has done this - how did it go? For anyone that used or uses WWS, do you think this will work or is there something coming that will make this impossible/difficult?

[Chrysalis Academy]

Yes, some of us have done this.  I think it's ideal, frankly, if you can pull it off.  In SWB's pre-WWS writing lectures, she talks about how silly it is for a kid to do writing as part of a "writing program" that is disconnected from what they are studying in the content areas.  She has said that she created WWS for parents who were having a hard time pulling off writing across the curriculum but that this remains the ideal.

 

I also think it's almost obligatory if you are using WWS with a young (4th-5th grade) student, because many of the selections will be above their reading level.  If I were you I'd substitute your own lit readings for the Literary Analysis lessons, for example.  Rikki Tikki Tavi was fine, but the other reading selections were difficult for an elementary age kid.

 

What may happen is that at some point, you may gain the confidence to teach the concepts without the hand-holding of WWS in which case you may decide to let it go.  Or you may decide it is so much work to adapt the lessons to what you are doing it becomes no longer worth it.

 

I didn't like the research chapters, BTW, and that was the point at which we finally jumped ship altogether.

 

 

[TracyP]

Ha, you said it perfectly. I think it is ideal, too. I'm just not sure I can pull it off. ;)

 

The heads up on the lit selections is helpful. I *think* they will be okay as is when we get there (probably the end of next year - 11.5 or so), but I'll keep that in mind.

 

Were the research chapters too incremental for you? I know you have talked about liking to see the big picture. I was flipping through WWS this morning and I thought, "I just wish I knew where this was going". I immediately thought of you, lol. I wish the WWS guide was available. I think that would help tremendously with the big picture.

[Chrysalis Academy]

I felt the same way when we started, too!  I'm feeling more confident now after a year and half of using WWS, Essay Voyage, and looking at other writing books & programs.  You might surprise yourself by the time you get there!

 

Your son may be fine with the reading selections by then, too - my dd was newly 10 when she read The Necklace, and it went right over her head!  And she hadn't studied WWI yet, so The Bowmen was really hard to understand as well . . . but both of those would probably have been fine had we encountered them in 6th grade instead of 5th.

 

I had a couple of problems with the research chapters.  I really disliked how it taught the use of quotes - I thought the examples of things chosen to quote rather than paraphrase were really bad.  The chapter on citing sources was so incredibly confusing to both dd and I that I had to teach that again.  It jumped around from in-text citations to the works cited page, and it was so terribly confusing to my dd, it took something that really isn't all that difficult and made it feel like a really complicated puzzle.  I hate that!  Finally, the selections they were to read and take notes from for the Julius Caesar assignment were from an adult-level text written in 1900.  Again, why teach a new skill using material that is so difficult to read and understand? That goes against SWB's oft-repeated advice to only do one new, hard thing at a time.

 

I really liked the discussion of plagairism and the exercises in figuring out what you should cite and what is common knowledge.

[SilverMoon]

We did after our first few weeks. DD did okay writing from a foreign outline during the beta testing, but really grew to loathe it when we started working through the actual book. She was in fifth grade when she beta tested level one. After a couple weeks of doing the grunt work to line the same exercises in other subjects, I just stopped taking WWS off the shelf. *shrug*

[Penguin]

 

I really liked the discussion of plagairism and the exercises in figuring out what you should cite and what is common knowledge.

 

Yes, this.  Probably my favorite part of the program.

 

We did some of the lessons (6th grade) by swapping out topics.  This is not really a big deal as long as you accept the fact that you might take longer to get through the book. 

 

I also skipped all of the Copia exercises because we have Kilgallon to use for that. 

 

This year, I am using WWS to mine for ideas and examples.  We no longer use it as a curriculum.

[Crimson Wife]

DD complained that the selections in the WWS workbook had nothing to do with what we were studying so we used selections from her materials in other subjects to work on WWS skills. I think it helped her master outlining and writing paraphrases from her notes/outlines. Those are important skills, but I need to get her to be able to write an original essay in response to an assigned prompt and WWS didn't help with that at all. So this year we're trying "Lively Art of Writing".

[TracyP]

I hear you with the dilemna of writing for 5th grade.  The WTM/SWB writing lecture reccomendations seem like not enough writing.  WWS is SO MUCH MORE and doesn't seem like it's levelled correctly for a 5th grader (it's doable, but for most not as written - it requires more parental involvement and some of the selections are way over a 5th grader's head).  I have been wondering for 2 years now why the disconnect between the recommendations for 5th grade writing, and WWS.

 

 

Rose, I hope you don't mind that I lifted your post from another thread. I didn't want to derail abrightmom's thread, but I wanted to chat some more about this. I'll derail my own thread instead. ;) I totally hear you on the question of WWS being leveled correctly. Your other comments have me confused. I haven't listened to the 5-8 lecture. Is it very different than what WTM and/or WWS suggest? I have thought there is a slight disconnect between WTM and WWS, but in the opposite direction. The WTM seems to be suggesting more writing than WWS. I think. :confused:

 

The WTM suggests

History: one outline per week, one 6-8 sentence summary of additional reading, and make a notebook page for all the great men and women encountered in reading. (plus more pencil to paper type stuff that I won't count)

 

LA: a one page summary weekly on book read and 2-3 formal writing assignments (from writing program) per week.

 

Science: one weekly composition of 2-3 paragraphs.

 

It seems like WWS requires less. Or is it the case that I am not far enough into WWS to see what you mean? Ugh. This writing thing is so hard for me to get a handle on. :banghead:  I have been following 8's plan of one paper per week. My idea was that the assignments would alternate between history, science, and WWS(until I decided to swap those out). That is our *writing assignment* but then we do other writing like outlining, summarizing, topoi exercises, and listing of facts on top of this. Again, this alternates between the same three places. So I started out wondering where the disconnect was, and now I am wondering if I am requiring too much. Or maybe not enough, because I still don't require all that WTM suggests. :tongue_smilie: Maybe this comes down to the definition of writing? I'm confused. :willy_nilly:

 

I quoted Rose but anyone feel free to respond.

[Penelope]

I'll try. :)

 

IMO the lectures make it seem even simpler than what TWTM suggests. See the middle grade writing lecture notes, here: http://www.welltrainedmind.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/writing-overview-expanded1.pdf there is a whole separate lecture just for middle grade writing, but it boils down to the same recommendations. SWB makes you feel like you can write across the curriculum without a formal writing program.

 

So when WWS came out, she explained that it was th fleshed-out version of what she said in her lectures. And in essence, it is. I think there are things in WWS that aren't touched on in the lectures, like plagiarism and citing sources, and in some cases WWS just gives names to the forms that students would come across naturally when outlining and rewriting from outlines. It's also a little more advanced than what TWTM strictly suggests. Ds is in sixth grade and using WWS2 and is starting 3-level outlines now, where WTM goes a little slower and suggests only one-level for the entirety of fifth grade, two-level for all of sixth, and no re-writing from outlines until seventh.

 

But SWB does say that students ideally should still be outlining and writing summaries across the curriculum, just less than they would if they were not using WWS.

 

In essence: WWS is slightly (i think only slightly in that it moves faster) more advanced than what seems to be advocated in the book and lectures. But you're right, the amount of writing if using WWS only will probably be a little less, but no one said that you can't also outline your history book or write a science report.

[Chrysalis Academy]

Tracy, my bad for conflating SWB's lecture with what is written in WTM.  I have recently re-listened to the lecture, but I haven't re-read the WTM Logic stage writing recommendations in awhile.  I should have been clear that my comparison was between the Middle Grade writing lecture and WWS, specifically.

 

My little one just woke up . . . I'll add more thoughts later.

[Chrysalis Academy]

So, it's not so much that WWS is more writing - it's just a lot more complicated!  The writing lecture makes it sound so simple - it's two summaries, two outlines, and one literary composition each week.  It doesn't even feel like enough, exactly . . .  Then you get to WWS, and you are learning about topos and copia and writing from notes you didn't take on subjects you know nothing about . . .  and you have to get all your instructions by reading them from the workbook . . .and some of the reading selections are pretty darn advanced.  I just think it takes something that felt simple when you listen to the lecture, and makes it feel a lot more complicated.  And you aren't sure why you are doing what you are doing, or where it's leading, or how it fits into the big picture . . . I don't really know how to explain it better than that.  I just feel like it took something that felt straightforward and intuitive and turned it into a complex chore.  I really wanted it to work for us, because I respect SWB's philosophy of writing instruction as articulated in her lectures and in The Complete Writer, and I thought that given this, I should follow her curriculum.  But I realize that's not necessary - I can appreciate the philosophy and share the goal, but take a different path to reach it.

 

This was our experience, of course - some have had much more comfort & success with WWS as written, and others have adapted it so it worked for them.  For me, I learned from it about what to teach (and how not to teach it!  ;) ) and I'm trying to apply that to writing across the curriculum, which I think is the ideal in any case.

[Chrysalis Academy]

Another thought:  remember that WTM recommendations treat each subject separately - they give a complete list of how to thoroughly and comprehensively address each subject.  SWB has said and written that no one actually does every single thing in WTM - nor should they, you will make yourself and your kids crazy! You pick and choose.  So, we write in history, lit, and science - but not all at the same time! When dd is working on a paper for history, she's not doing a lot of science writing, and vice versa.  She's typically alternating between daily writing assignments in history or science - outlining, note taking, summarizing - and working on longer papers, which might take 1-2 weeks to complete.  There are times when she does very little writing in science, but her history is writing-intensive.  Because she is writing so much in history, she doesn't write about all the books she reads, though we do try and talk about all the assigned books, but I only have her write about one for each topic (~3 weeks per topic)

[abrightmom]

Rose, I hope you don't mind that I lifted your post from another thread. I didn't want to derail abrightmom's thread, but I wanted to chat some more about this. I'll derail my own thread instead. ;) I totally hear you on the question of WWS being leveled correctly. Your other comments have me confused. I haven't listened to the 5-8 lecture. Is it very different than what WTM and/or WWS suggest? I have thought there is a slight disconnect between WTM and WWS, but in the opposite direction. The WTM seems to be suggesting more writing than WWS. I think. :confused:

 

The WTM suggests

History: one outline per week, one 6-8 sentence summary of additional reading, and make a notebook page for all the great men and women encountered in reading. (plus more pencil to paper type stuff that I won't count)

 

LA: a one page summary weekly on book read and 2-3 formal writing assignments (from writing program) per week.

 

Science: one weekly composition of 2-3 paragraphs.

 

It seems like WWS requires less. Or is it the case that I am not far enough into WWS to see what you mean? Ugh. This writing thing is so hard for me to get a handle on. :banghead:  I have been following 8's plan of one paper per week. My idea was that the assignments would alternate between history, science, and WWS(until I decided to swap those out). That is our *writing assignment* but then we do other writing like outlining, summarizing, topoi exercises, and listing of facts on top of this. Again, this alternates between the same three places. So I started out wondering where the disconnect was, and now I am wondering if I am requiring too much. Or maybe not enough, because I still don't require all that WTM suggests. :tongue_smilie: Maybe this comes down to the definition of writing? I'm confused. :willy_nilly:

 

I quoted Rose but anyone feel free to respond.

 Paying close attention, Tracy. We seem to have the same questions and frustrations although you are tackling WWS (and TOG).   :coolgleamA:  

 

Rose, 

 

You are a wonderful source of counsel in writing and math! Thanks for giving so much thought to your advice and for taking the time. It's a huge blessing and help to so many. 

[abrightmom]

Another thought:  remember that WTM recommendations treat each subject separately - they give a complete list of how to thoroughly and comprehensively address each subject.  SWB has said and written that no one actually does every single thing in WTM - nor should they, you will make yourself and your kids crazy! You pick and choose.  So, we write in history, lit, and science - but not all at the same time! When dd is working on a paper for history, she's not doing a lot of science writing, and vice versa.  She's typically alternating between daily writing assignments in history or science - outlining, note taking, summarizing - and working on longer papers, which might take 1-2 weeks to complete.  There are times when she does very little writing in science, but her history is writing-intensive.  Because she is writing so much in history, she doesn't write about all the books she reads, though we do try and talk about all the assigned books, but I only have her write about one for each topic (~3 weeks per topic)

Would it be derailing Tracy's thread to ask detailed questions about this post? Maybe not because Tracy and I are having similar struggles with laying down a writing plan (and relying upon SWB's resources to do so). 

 

Your post here is precisely what I refer to when I say that Moms project confidence in teaching writing. You have what sounds like a fleshed out plan. For your 6th grader I see this:

 

She works on papers in history.

She alternates between daily writing assignments in history and science working on outlining, note taking, and summarizing.

She works on longer papers. 

She does some literary analysis though its scaled back to leave more room for history writing.

 

 

Are you using a writing curriculum and then applying those learned skills to your content? Essay Voyage? 

What kind of papers for history? How do you decide what to assign? How do you teach her to write these papers? 

Did you choose history and science resources that are conducive to practicing outlining, note taking, and summarizing skills?

How do you teach note taking and summarizing?  

What kind of longer papers? What process do you go through to assign them, teach the process, lay down a syllabus for your student, etc? Are these "reports"? 

Do you follow SWB's ideas for discussion and written literary responses?

 

I don't know how to organize a writing plan across the curriculum but that is what I want. What SWB says makes sense on the lectures so maybe I run into trouble with choosing history and science resources that allow me to exercise these skills. 

 

I could start ANOTHER thread asking Rose to flesh out the specifics (please!) if I need to but hopefully the continuing WWS discussion will help Tracy. 

 

ETA: I am going to take my list of questions and seek to answer them using the resources on my shelf. It's likely the answers are there. It seems to me that I can and should take the WTM recs, Susan's lectures, WWS and my own intuition to form a plan that is doable here. Susan DOES make recommendations within WTM for some of the areas I'm struggling with (i.e. resources for note taking).

[TracyP]

Penelope, thanks for the post and the link to the middle grade notes. It seems that it boils down to this:

 

So, it's not so much that WWS is more writing - it's just a lot more complicated! 

 

I totally get where you are coming from here. Thank you for taking the time to explain.

 

Would it be derailing Tracy's thread to ask detailed questions about this post? Maybe not because Tracy and I are having similar struggles with laying down a writing plan (and relying upon SWB's resources to do so). 

 

Your post here is precisely what I refer to when I say that Moms project confidence in teaching writing. You have what sounds like a fleshed out plan. For your 6th grader I see this:

 

She works on papers in history.

She alternates between daily writing assignments in history and science working on outlining, note taking, and summarizing.

She works on longer papers. 

She does some literary analysis though its scaled back to leave more room for history writing.

 

 

Are you using a writing curriculum and then applying those learned skills to your content? Essay Voyage? 

What kind of papers for history? How do you decide what to assign? How do you teach her to write these papers? 

Did you choose history and science resources that are conducive to practicing outlining, note taking, and summarizing skills?
How do you teach note taking and summarizing?  

What kind of longer papers? What process do you go through to assign them, teach the process, lay down a syllabus for your student, etc? Are these "reports"? 

Do you follow SWB's ideas for discussion and written literary responses?

 

I don't know how to organize a writing plan across the curriculum but that is what I want. What SWB says makes sense on the lectures so maybe I run into trouble with choosing history and science resources that allow me to exercise these skills. 

 

I could start ANOTHER thread asking Rose to flesh out the specifics (please!) if I need to but hopefully the continuing WWS discussion will help Tracy. 

 

ETA: I am going to take my list of questions and seek to answer them using the resources on my shelf. It's likely the answers are there. It seems to me that I can and should take the WTM recs, Susan's lectures, WWS and my own intuition to form a plan that is doable here. Susan DOES make recommendations within WTM for some of the areas I'm struggling with (i.e. resources for note taking).

 

This is why I want to use WWS. I don't know what to teach when, not to mention *how* to teach it. I think WWS will help with this, but I can see where I'm not going to be able to use it as written. WWS at least makes me feel like I have a clear track laid ahead of me. Not a hijack at all, btw. Writing is by far my biggest struggle when it comes to teaching. I am all ears.

 

 

[Chrysalis Academy]

I'm happy to share what we're doing, but I feel like I need to say up front that I've learned so much from posters here! Lots of people who have shared their experience, but particularly 8FilltheHeart and Lewelma when it comes to writing.  So if you haven't, I'd search for posts by those two and "writing" and you will get much more inspiration!

 

 

 

Would it be derailing Tracy's thread to ask detailed questions about this post? Maybe not because Tracy and I are having similar struggles with laying down a writing plan (and relying upon SWB's resources to do so). 

 

Your post here is precisely what I refer to when I say that Moms project confidence in teaching writing. You have what sounds like a fleshed out plan. For your 6th grader I see this:

 

She works on papers in history.

She alternates between daily writing assignments in history and science working on outlining, note taking, and summarizing.

She works on longer papers. 

She does some literary analysis though its scaled back to leave more room for history writing.

 

 

Are you using a writing curriculum and then applying those learned skills to your content? Essay Voyage? 

 

I have learned a lot about what I want to teach from WWS - although I differ in the how.  I am also going through Essay Voyage with dd.  We discuss the lessons and we analyze and discuss the sample essays - there are several in each lesson.  We usually take 3-4 days to go through a lesson thoroughly, and refer back to the principles frequently.  We're not going straight through the book, we tend to spend a week on it here and there.  I also refer to 8FilltheHeart's post on teaching writing.

 

What kind of papers for history? How do you decide what to assign? How do you teach her to write these papers?

 

We're doing modern history topically.  We're spending about 3 weeks on each topic.  As I plan each topic's detailed work, I keep an eye out for topics/people I think dd would be interested in learning more about.  I also keep in mind the different kinds of writing I'd like to have her do.  So the first topic was Immigration & Women's Suffrage.  I assigned her a biographical sketch of Elizabeth Cady Stanton based on a single source, a bio of Stanton by Jean Fritz, which was one of her history readings for this topic.  I went over the assignment with her before she started and reviewed the instructions for bio sketches in WWS.  It was a straightforward assignment, she planned it via discussion with me, wrote a basic outline in one day, the next day she wrote the rough draft, the 3rd day revised and edited.

 

For the second topic, I assigned a multi-source report with citations, because I knew that was the next type of writing I need to teach her (based on the S&S in WWS, Comprehensive Composition, and other sources).  We studied art and culture pre WW1, and I had her read and watch docos on the Impressionists, and then choose one to research and write about.  She chose Mary Cassatt.  She went to the library and got sources, made a preliminary topic outline, took notes on cards, made a more detailed outline, and is now working on the rough draft.  I'm more involved with this paper, and it's taking longer, because it's the first time she's worked from multiple sources and cited sources.  

 

Her next-up assignment will be in science - she's been studying the solar system, and I told her she could choose a topic to write about.  She's thinking about choosing the outer/mini planets (Pluto and friends) but that hasn't been settled for sure.  This will also be a report with multiple sources.

 

For each topic I'll choose this type of assignment, something that lets her research and learn more about something she's interested in, and lets us work on specific skills in writing, and types of writing - the types of writing in WWS, all expository for now.  I think after January we may shift into more essay/analytical writing, or we may stick with this more factual writing this year and focus on essays next year, it all depends on how things develop.

 

Did you choose history and science resources that are conducive to practicing outlining, note taking, and summarizing skills?
How do you teach note taking and summarizing?

 

I chose a variety of history readings for each topic: textbook chapters, nonfiction books, biographies, primary sources, and historical fiction.  Some of them are more appropriate for different types of note-taking, and I look at the book and assign what I think is most appropriate for the type of reading.  Some things are easy to outline - she read a Russell Freedman book on Immigrant Kids that was very straightforward to outline.  I try and pick the kind of note taking that makes the most logical sense to me.

 

She learned summarizing and outlining skills from WWE & WWS.  I teach note taking more generally by trying to show how it's relevant and how the notes will be useful.  So at the end of each topic, I assign an essay question for which she may use her notes, but not the books.  If she has taken good notes, the essay question is easy to answer.  I also talk to her about the kind of writing assignments and essay tests she'll see in high school, college, and standardized tests and how note-taking will help.  So I try and make it very relevant to the thing being read, as well as to her future studies.  This is very discussion-based.  I give her feedback on her notes and sometimes model how I would take notes on a particular source

 

What kind of longer papers? What process do you go through to assign them, teach the process, lay down a syllabus for your student, etc? Are these "reports"? 

 

answered above.  a variety, mostly reports at this point, we will move into more analytical assignements as she is ready

 

Do you follow SWB's ideas for discussion and written literary responses?

 

Yes.  She usually reads 5 or 6 books for each topic, and we discuss them all as she finishes them, and then I have her choose one book per topic to write about.  She can do a "straight" literary analysis assignment based on our discussion a la SWB, or she can do one of the assignments on a list I modified from The Writer's Jungle, which includes a bunch of different creative ways to write about books.  She enjoys having the choice and has written a couple of different things - a letter to a character, a book review, etc.

 

I don't know how to organize a writing plan across the curriculum but that is what I want. What SWB says makes sense on the lectures so maybe I run into trouble with choosing history and science resources that allow me to exercise these skills. 

 

WWS really helped me figure out what kind of writing assignments make sense: I read through the assignments, and the rubrics, and try to understand what the point is, what the principle is that is being taught, and then apply it to our own topics, and teach it "in my own words"  I think it helps that we're not doing text-based history, we have a lot of different types of reading to choose from, so I can be very flexible.

 

I could start ANOTHER thread asking Rose to flesh out the specifics (please!) if I need to but hopefully the continuing WWS discussion will help Tracy. 

 

ETA: I am going to take my list of questions and seek to answer them using the resources on my shelf. It's likely the answers are there. It seems to me that I can and should take the WTM recs, Susan's lectures, WWS and my own intuition to form a plan that is doable here. Susan DOES make recommendations within WTM for some of the areas I'm struggling with (i.e. resources for note taking).

 

I hope this helps.  I am totally making it up as I go along, but it seems to be working really well so far!

[abrightmom]

 

 

This is why I want to use WWS. I don't know what to teach when, not to mention *how* to teach it. I think WWS will help with this, but I can see where I'm not going to be able to use it as written. WWS at least makes me feel like I have a clear track laid ahead of me. Not a hijack at all, btw. Writing is by far my biggest struggle when it comes to teaching. I am all ears.

Yes, Tracy! ;) 

[abrightmom]

Rose,

 

Awesome!!!!  :coolgleamA:

 

Hearing it fleshed out is a HUGE help to me. Huge! You have really learned how you want to teach writing by studying for yourself, trying different methods/curricula, and adjusting as needed. I understand that if I want to teach this way I am going to have to dig in and do my homework, take some risks, try some things, ask more questions, etc.

 

Thanks for reminding me about 8Fill's writing method. 

 

Do you consider MCT's writing integral to your plan? 

 

 

 

[Chrysalis Academy]

Hmm.  Not integral, but for me it was really helpful and  important.  You've seen the whole to parts/parts to whole discussion about WWS, right?  Well, WWS is parts to whole, Essay Voyage is whole to parts.  I'm whole to parts, so it really helped me to see the big picture, which helps me teach it.  And I do think the example essays will be more useful as dd gets older and starts writing actual essays - I think we'll go through parts of the book again then.   

 

So not crucial, but a really useful supplement that helps me see the forest, instead of getting stuck amongst the trees?

[abrightmom]

Hmm.  Not integral, but for me it was really helpful  important.  You've seen the whole to parts/parts to whole discussion about WWS, right?  Well, WWS is parts to whole, Essay Voyage is whole to parts.  I'm whole to parts, so it really helped me to see the big picture, which helps me teach it.  And I do think the example essays will be more useful as dd gets older and starts writing actual essays - I think we'll go through parts of the book again then.   

 

So not crucial, but a really useful supplement that helps me see the forest, instead of getting stuck amongst the trees?

Okay .... 

 

That's cool. I'm whole to parts so perhaps reading through MCT's materials would help ME with the big picture. Maybe that's why I'm having trouble with all of these "parts" .... getting it all pulled together into a cohesive whole. I'm definitely stuck amongst the trees :rolleyes: *shrug*. 

[Chrysalis Academy]

Wow, looking back at my post above, that sounds like a great plan for 6th grade writing! Wish I would have followed it more closely!  :glare:  :toetap05:  :smilielol5:

[Miss Tick]

Wow, looking back at my post above, that sounds like a great plan for 6th grade writing! Wish I would have followed it more closely! :glare: :toetap05: :smilielol5:

We'll, Rose I've been reading what you said back then and I think Sept 2013 Rose had a gold plan and I may just follow her lead when we get there. Of course, by then Sept 2014 Rose may give me even better, specific, detailed plans. I guess I will keep watching!

[TracyP]

Arrgh. This thread didn't show up in My Content. :toetap05: I'm glad I caught it.

 

Wow, looking back at my post above, that sounds like a great plan for 6th grade writing! Wish I would have followed it more closely!  :glare:  :toetap05:  :smilielol5:

 

I just happened to revisit this thread about 1.5 weeks ago. I kept thinking I have to 'like' this post and this post. Oh, I already did. :lol: There is some great info in this thread.

 

 

 

 

And for anybody who is curious, we did use WWS as a "spine" but substituted our own topics. We made it through week 26 and had a great year. I plan to start next year by going over the 2 level outlines, citation, common knowledge, etc. weeks and then writing across curriculum for the rest of the year.