Jenny in GA Posted October 22, 2014 Share Posted October 22, 2014 I have such a love/hate relationship with WWS. I love the way it's laid out, I love the structure, the way it breaks things down, the really quality instruction ... BUT I can't stand some of the reading selections. Worse, my 8th grade daughter (who is on week 5 in WWS Level 2) says it is SO boring -- and sometimes difficult to understand -- that writing is her most hated subject, and she dreads doing it every day. That isn't good! Especially since she is a kid who generally likes to write. I don't think she would like the MCT writing books we have on the shelf because she is a very step-by-step, checklist type of kid. I know some people say they use WWS concepts with their own reading selections, but to me that would feel like writing my own curriculum, and I really don't have the interest to do that. Can anyone suggest some writing curriculums for this age that are similar concepts and structure to WWS but with examples that don't make us want to kill ourselves? Also, any suggestions for note-taking and writing a research paper in particular? The lessons in WWS about those looked so awful we didn't even want to go there, and skipped them entirely. Thanks so much! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joysworld Posted October 22, 2014 Share Posted October 22, 2014 What about iew? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chrysalis Academy Posted October 22, 2014 Share Posted October 22, 2014 I feel your pain. Seriously. I've been looking for a good alternative for two years now. My 7th grader is working on Lively Art of Writing right now, but that's just as an introduction to essay writing, clearly it doesn't cover the ground that WWS does. The two things I have on hand that look like the most likely possibilities for a followup are Writing With a Thesis: A Rhetoric & Reader by Skwire & Skwire. I really like it. It covers Narration, Description, Examples, Process, Comparison & Contrast, Cause & Effect, Division & Classification, Definition & Argumentation. The tone is great, it is very readable, and so far the reading selections it contains seem to be really excellent and engaging. It's a textbook, not a worktext, but it has discussion questions, model essays, and writing assignment ideas. The other, more classical option is Writing the Classical Way, which is a progym program that is targeted specifically for 7th and 8th graders. It's a bit more like WWS in that it's a worktext/workbook with specific essay assignments included. It's different in that it follows the classical progym exercises, so it's less directly a "modern" writing program the way WWS and Writing With a Thesis are. It also has a lot of religious content, which is a necessary work-around for us, YMMV. I'm not sure if I'll use them both, and whether I'll use them sequentially or mishmashed. But they seem like the most age & level appropriate of the (many!) options I have considered so far. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Haiku Posted October 22, 2014 Share Posted October 22, 2014 You might try Writing in English, a free vintage writing book available form Google Books. The author is William Henry Maxwell. We jumped to his middle school book, School Composition, when we ditched WWS. My daughter likes writing again. Some people say some of the writing prompts are too old-fashioned, but I change them at will. For example, yesterday dd was supposed to write (another) descriptive paragraph about what someone was wearing. Instead she wrote a descriptive paragraph about a serval (cat). I am very pleased with the instruction and models in SC/WIE, and they don't make me want to stab out my eyes the way WWS did. :leaving: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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