CW online tutorials: Anyone's dc taken these?

[Mary in GA]

I'm beginning to consider having dd take their Chreia tutorial next fall. Mosty because I want her to write for someone else besides me. I have nagging insecurities about evaluating my own children's writing!

 

Was the class worth the $? Was it a good and productive experience? Would you take another tutorial? Any feed back greatly appreciated!

 

Thanks,

Mary

[Kathie in VA]

I have dd-gr 9 and ds-gr8 taking the combined Diogenes Maxium/Creia class this year. I do like that it has kept us moving through the courses. Without it I'm sure we would not have gotten this far. They also got to see what the other kids wrote for the various assignments. (Keep that in mind too, the kids all post to the same place and get to see each others work. Sometimes my dd didn't like that week's assignment and thus didn't like her results and ended up choosing not to bother posting her work. :glare:)

 

However, I would have liked to get more direct feedback on my kids writing from them. Basically, if what you post is wrong then they will either send you an email to help explain it or they will bring up problems they see during class. Apparently my kids' writing have been fine so far. But if we want a direct review or grade of a piece then I need to send it in separately (with $10 per paper). This is not hard to do and the price is fine since I really don't think we need many papers 'graded' by someone else. But it's something to note before signing up for the class.

 

Also, it might help to have a microphone. We don't and it is not required. However sometimes the teacher wanted to share the reading and no one in our class could offer to help.

 

I think they do a good job of explaining the work. It helps if the kids can type fairly quickly as it is the main means of communicating.

 

They are definitely learning the material. Any questions are quickly answered and the concepts are explained quite well. I find the rhetoric discussions interesting and well done.

 

I don't think we will sign up for online classes next year. Neither of my older kids seem to want to do online classes in general. They prefer a real class or to just work from home.

 

Hope that helps,

Kathie in VA

[Mary in GA]

I have dd-gr 9 and ds-gr8 taking the combined Diogenes Maxium/Creia class this year. I do like that it has kept us moving through the courses. Without it I'm sure we would not have gotten this far. They also got to see what the other kids wrote for the various assignments. (Keep that in mind too, the kids all post to the same place and get to see each others work. Sometimes my dd didn't like that week's assignment and thus didn't like her results and ended up choosing not to bother posting her work. :glare:)

 

However, I would have liked to get more direct feedback on my kids writing from them. Basically, if what you post is wrong then they will either send you an email to help explain it or they will bring up problems they see during class. Apparently my kids' writing have been fine so far. But if we want a direct review or grade of a piece then I need to send it in separately (with $10 per paper). This is not hard to do and the price is fine since I really don't think we need many papers 'graded' by someone else. But it's something to note before signing up for the class.

 

Kathie in VA

 

I read on their website that opportunities are offered for students to do some supervised peer critiquing of each others' work. Are they actually doing that in your dc's class? That and being able to view other students work were some of the things I found appealing in the tutorial description.

 

I did see that they charged extra to evaluate student papers and I was a little nonplussed. I think I would want them to evaluate a few papers, but I agree it definitely isn't necessary to have them all looked at.

 

Thanks, Kathie

Mary

[Kathie in VA]

I read on their website that opportunities are offered for students to do some supervised peer critiquing of each others' work. Are they actually doing that in your dc's class? That and being able to view other students work were some of the things I found appealing in the tutorial description.

 

I did see that they charged extra to evaluate student papers and I was a little nonplussed. I think I would want them to evaluate a few papers, but I agree it definitely isn't necessary to have them all looked at.

 

Thanks, Kathie

Mary

 

hmm, I don't remember them critiquing each others papers. (we do it at home but not in the class)

 

hth,

Kathie

[NancyNellen]

Hi Mary~

 

My son is taking the Maxim class this year. He is really enjoying it and learning a lot. Considering the class is a full year, I would say it is definitely worth the $. Mrs. Weitz is a very thorough teacher and has developed a nice rapport with the class.

 

To answer your question re: critiquing other student's work, I do not think they have done that yet this year.

 

I have signed my oldest up for Chreia and his younger sister up for Maxim for next year. With my upcoming 5th grader heading into Homer, it will greatly lessen my workload. Like Kathie said, the best part for me is that my son is moving steadily through the material at a faster rate than he would if it were just me teaching.

 

HTH,

[Heather in VA]

We are in our second year of CW online classes. I love them. They are the reason I understand CW now. My daughter has really loved them as well. When my middle dd gets to Maxim she will start taking the online classes too. We have had a few papers individually graded - I paid once, she offered at least once or twice to the class without charge. I like to have a few graded but I don't feel the need to have them all. Without the online classes I doubt we would ever have gotten this far in the CW progression so I am very grateful. CW is fantastic so anything that made it possible for us is money well spent in my book.

 

Heather

[Mary in GA]

OK. I think I'm sold on this idea.

 

I feel like I have a pretty good grasp on what CW is about, but I'm also feeling like it would be beneficial at this point to work through it with an "expert" because I don't know that I'm facilitating the depth of discussions I feel we should have. I plan to listen to the tutorial sessions with dd.

 

Dd has been using CW since Aesop A in 3rd except for a nearly 1 yr hiatus which should have been Homer B. I got so incredibly fed up with Homer that I just quit. Having read some of the posts on here about Homer, I think I may have missed out on something in the process. I did read through the Homer core, but I thought the pace of the student book at that level was overly slow and I lacked the initiative to plan my own lessons. I may try waiting until Older Beginners for my last dd.

 

Thanks for the feedback y'all. It's been very helpful!

 

Mary