Essentials in Writing questions

[bbcooker]

I have 2 questions:

 

For the 4th/5th grade level.....

 

1. Can I do this without the videos? 

 

2. How much time does it take to do?  (For example, 3 days a week of 20 min, or 5 days a week of 10 min.)

[FriedClams]

We're using the 7th level for my 7th/8th graders. After years of IEW I was nervouse about a video again, but it's been great. The lessons are 10 minutes on the DVD. Short, concise. I'd recommend the DVD enthusiastically. The rest of the lesson has taken my kids 20 minutes on average (and we do whole lessons - no 15a, 15b... We do all of 15).

[kiwik]

I don't know about 4/5 but for level 3 I wouldn't. It is not recommended in the FAQs and to be honest if you don't want the DVD there are plenty of other options.

[bbcooker]

I don't know about 4/5 but for level 3 I wouldn't. It is not recommended in the FAQs and to be honest if you don't want the DVD their are plenty of other options.

 

What would be some similar options?

 

[sbgrace]

What would be some similar options?

 

 

Are you looking for something that does the teaching for you, but in workbook form? Maybe Growing with Grammar and Winning With Writing. I haven't used those, but have used EIW.

 

The video lessons are quite short and very much like you made a video teaching in your living room, so not flashy.

If you could watch the lessons ahead of time, you could teach them yourself. But that sort of ruins the ease that goes with EIW!

 

I can't think of any lessons that took us more than 20 minutes in 3rd grade. I haven't seen 4th/5th.

[kiwik]

We just did lesson 4 of level 3 in about 10 mins. I watched the DVD with ds7 but he was answering the teacher's questions and got all but one of the worksheet questions correct by himself. We checked together and discussed the problem with the last question. I expect the writing lessons will take longer (plus we may do each type more than once) but I am hoping to build his confidence before then. Ds is very bright but struggling with writing at his school.

 

I'm not sure about similar programmes without DVDs. Some of Evan Moor's stuff maybe? But if I didn't want the video component I would try CAP W&R or wordsmith apprentice I think. I want the DVD because it means we can do it together rather than me being the teacher. We are also working on summarising via WWE2 but at the moment not copy work or dictation.

[boscopup]

The teaching is in the DVD, so no. But like others said, the DVD portion is very short. It's not like IEW, where you are watching a DVD for 30 minutes. :tongue_smilie: I usually don't care for DVD stuff, but this one has gone well. My son uses it on a laptop - watches the video, then does the associated workbook pages. Easy peasy to get done. He's enjoying it so far. We haven't gotten to the writing portions yet, so I can't tell you how the writing instruction is. We're doing EIW6 right now.

 

ETA: Forgot to answer the 2nd question. I think it takes my son about 15-20 minutes to do the DVD+workbook pages. Sometimes he does 2 lessons in that time, because the early grammar stuff is all review for him. I expect it to take a little longer when we get to the writing. We use it about 2 days per week because I'm frontloading the week with W&R, finishing up Fable and hoping to do Narrative 1 this year also. I'll probably use EIW more after Christmas, when I have a new baby coming and I won't feel like putting a lot into teaching writing. :tongue_smilie: Even doing only 2-3 days per week, it looks like we can finish it this year, though I'm ok with going into next year with it, since we are using it a grade level ahead. I'm pretty flexible about when I finish curriculum. We often start new levels in the middle of the year.