I am an "old" homeschool Mom. My kids have moved on...I came here to read for fun tonight, haven't been here in years. I saw your post, and I had to create an account just to answer because you happen to hit a scabbed over sore from back in the day. LOL. My daughter is going into her senior year of college with a computer science major. Guess what -- she is a fabulous writer!!! Guess what -- her junior year in high school I was miserable because I thought I failed her at writing. Her junior year...she wasn't a good writer, and she hated it. IEW was terrible for us by the way. I can't recommend it. I'm actually a professional writer. We used it for a few years because I loved all the "theory" behind it. I actually don't like it now after having used it for a number of years. I'm sure it works for some people, many people even. It was NOT good for us. I gave up on using a curriculum junior year. Instead, we focused heavily on the formula of writing and really attacked it from a logical/formulaic angle. 1. Five paragraphs. 2. Thesis in standard place. 3. Good Intro 4. Include a counter argument. 5. Defend your point. Topics were as diverse as write a 5-paragraph paper convincing me of why you need a new phone case. Write a paper convincing your Dad that he should buy jewelry for Mom every Friday. (Sometimes keeping it silly takes the pressure off.) LOL. Also, she did book reports, She did a five-paragraph essay on her favorite mathematician. It was all about non-boring topics to her and working on that standard framework. The words came with topical interest. In many schools, some teachers will have a five paragraph essay per a week. If you go at this rate, you will improve. I will say junior year was a bit painful with all the writing, but she often gets complemented by college teachers for being such a good writer. I do not regret taking things into my own hands or the tears when realizing it was a paper a week, although I was a bit scared at the time. I actually think IEW and similar programs make writing too complicated for the student. I think if I had used such rigid programs in school, I probably would have skipped the English/Writing major in college. I was left to write what interested me, and I wrote often. That is the key. For at least a semester, I would focus on the five things I listed above and not worry about word choice, adverbs, fluff. Just get the writing down and praise it often. Once the words roll, then you can start to worry about word choice and tightening things up. First, you have to get the words on paper and feel good about it. Hope this helps!! Whatever path you choose, have a great year!