Has anyone turned out great writers withOUT IEW or Writeshop

[Love2Smile]

or any other expensive writing program?

 

What did you use??

 

I cannot believe I am at the point of ordering IEW or WS!

 

Please encourage me, tell me something else works! Or if you use nothing at all, tell me how your highschoolers turned out

[Heather in VA]

Well I don't think my dd would have been a good writer if I had used IEW or Writeshop. We use CW and while she is still developing (she's in 9th grade) she is becoming a very good writer and more importantly she's understanding what makes good writing, good essays, good and effective arguments.

 

I don't believe you have to use a program to achieve this. I know people like 8fillstheheart are quite talented at teaching writing. But I'm not so I needed the program.

 

Heather

[Love2Smile]

Well I don't think my dd would have been a good writer if I had used IEW or Writeshop. We use CW and while she is still developing (she's in 9th grade) she is becoming a very good writer and more importantly she's understanding what makes good writing, good essays, good and effective arguments.

 

I don't believe you have to use a program to achieve this. I know people like 8fillstheheart are quite talented at teaching writing. But I'm not so I needed the program.

 

Heather

what is CW???

[specialmama]

CW is Classical Writing. We use CW but also using Writing Aids. WA is put out by Lampstand Press, the company that makes TOG, but anyone can use Writing Aids as a stand-alone program. If you catch a sale, you can get it for $25, and it's the ONLY thing you need to teach all kids for all grades. I love it! It's grading rubrics really help accurately critique writing, and shows where improvement can be made.

[SkateLeft]

My daughter is a great writer, and never used either program. When we lived in California, she was able to take several writing classes at the state university and received A's in all of them. Writing is her greatest academic strength. (Math... not so much! ;))

 

To be honest, I have no idea what I did with her because I can't seem to duplicate it with #2 and #3! :lol:

 

She used K12's Writing in Action until middle school. From that point, she used -

The Lively Art of Writing by Lucile Vaughan Payne

The Writer's Workshop: Imitating Your Way to Better Writing by Gregory Roper (a really neat little book!)

Jensen's Format Writing

 

She's also done NaNoWriMo and Script Frenzy each year for the past few years, and has a little group of friends that writes stories and shares with each other.

Edited April 14, 2010 by sailmom
typo

[Liza Q]

Sort of? My oldest daughter writes fairly well - here are some braggy things. 780 on the Writing portion of the SAT, 760 on the Verbal. When I met her professor (Honors composition-type class) this fall and mentioned that she had been homeschooled he was visibly surprised and told me that she was an excellent writer! I just smiled and said that we had worked hard :001_smile:

 

Now, I am not a good writer myself but I read a lot and I can tell when things are wrong, so I have functioned more as an editor than a teacher over the years. When she was little she cried if she had to write anything but it was really the physical act of writing that she found difficult. We did lots of narration and copywork but no dictation (she has some sensory issues and it was just not worth the fuss) and started outlining in about the 6th grade. IOW, I tailored the WTM recommendations to what would work well for us. For Latin, we used LC1 in 7th and Lingua Latina in 8th. We waited for diagramming till 7th grade (used Easy Grammar for a few years first) and it was horrid (Christian Liberty) so we dropped it. In the 8th grade we tried Analytical Grammar and the light bulb went off - she looooved it and did the whole program in one year.

 

At the end of the 8th grade I had her do an online course (Writeguide) for three months. She learned to write a 5-paragraph essay with a funnel shape, Lively Art of Writing style. Her teachers were amazing and she just took off.

 

By the time she started the 9th grade she was able to write an organized, interesting essay. She found it difficult, though; she wanted them to be right the first time :glare: and it took several years - really, all four High School years!! - before she came to terms with the realities of editing.

 

I did buy the Lively Art of Writing, Format Writing and a few others but they were for me. I would just have her read a few sections that I thought she might find helpful, not actually give her assignments from them. We watched the IEW videos (borrowed them from a friend) together (in 7th or 8th grade, I think) and she did get some good ideas about sentence variety.

 

So, you see, we didn't use a "writing program" for High School. I assigned her papers in English and History regularly. I wanted to use SWB's suggestion about several 1-page papers per week but my daughter found it frustrating and it didn't seem worth pushing. So she would write longer papers less frequently. In 11th grade I added in some longer research papers but I can't remember the resource I used.

 

She does read a lot. I think that has a lot to do with her ability to write well! And I should mention that I still edit her papers. Honestly, we both know that she can do it herself but she enjoys the Mom time, I think!

 

But. My next daughter is not a strong writer. Her end result is usually fine but her first drafts are just a mess!! I did a few things differently with her when she was younger and I have some regrets but she has improved this year. I just do not like the IEW style and no program is just right, so I still pull out different writing books at different times and discuss them with her. I have had her use a few online classes but nothing seems to work better than working with me.

 

hth

[pjssully]

I have a daughter 9th grade

We have used many things: IEW, writing strands, on line writing class from Bravewriter to name a few. Nothing really "worked" she DEVELOPED into a good writer-though i think writing and literature is her strenth. I use to worry about writing ALOT but i have come to the conclusion that she developed into a writing through reading good literature, using a variety of instruction methods WHEN she was ready, and letting her write about things that interests her.

 

She will begin high school writing in the fall and i am not worried (yet) She has confidence and may not like the structured writing of essays...etc but i think she has the skills to do that type of work. I am not sure there is ONE program that will work for everyone so you have to find your own program that works for YOU.

sorry i wasn't more help

pam

[2boysmom]

We just picked up Spectrum writing book. (Yes, gasp), but it's very easy to use, straightforward and seems to be working nicely.

[Yolanda in Mass]

Absolutely! Like others have already posted, we've spent hundreds, if not thousands on writing curriculum: IEW, Writeshop, Writing Strands, Brave Writer, Write Guide, and more that I can't even remember. It's not that I haven't learned something from each of these, actually some were a complete waste of money but we won't go there, but none of them have made my kids good writers.

 

Good writing is the result of good thinking. Yeah I know, writing is still a craft that must be learned, but the thinking foundation must be there. Thinking comes from discussions and good books. The books don't need to be all Great Books, but books that are well-written, are thought-provoking and worthy of discussion. While my boys are not voracious readers, they have had to read a lot for history and English. We have had many, many discussions about what they're reading and learning.

 

The one writing course which has helped also is Write at Home. However, I wouldn't say that this necessarily made them into good writers, but rather has helped them to hone their writing skills and has lessened the burden on me. With this course, the assignments are given and I know someone else will edit and grade (accountability), but I take an active role in coaching (using mat'l. from the following list), editing and learning from the writing tutor's comments.

 

Books that have helped me to be a better editor:

 

The Elements of Style (excellent!)

The Lively Art of Writing - Lucille Vaughn

college level writing texts - like the kind used at comm coll for Comp 101; the one my older son used is very good: Patterns for a Purpose

Writer's Inc - I'd use this before Patterns for a Purpose, until you're more comfortable with the whole writing process

 

Yolanda

[Pam L in Mid Tenn]

Yes. But, only because my two daughters are gifted with writing talent.

 

My two sons? Could barely write a sentence before IEW. Now they have a procedure to follow and can write a decent report.

 

Ask around if you could borrow someone's TWSS. It is basically a writing seminar that teaches the method of IEW. You really only need to watch it ONCE to understand the process. I watched a few units more than once and did not watch a few units at all.

 

When my boys write, I don't require all the dress ups, clinchers, and other IEW jargon in the paper. I want them to develop some creativity (even a tiny bit) on their own.

[Colleen in NS]

 

Please encourage me, tell me something else works!

 

You might want to have a look at SWB's "A Plan for Teaching Writing" audio series of three lectures, plus the lit. analysis talk here. $16 can buy you an entire writing plan for all grades. She references support helps, too, like grammar recs, lit. terms exercise book, research paper book, etc.. This combination of lectures takes the WTM writing suggestions and boils them down into a doable, weekly, flexible plan for 12 years.

[Love2Smile]

You might want to have a look at SWB's "A Plan for Teaching Writing" audio series of three lectures, plus the lit. analysis talk here. $16 can buy you an entire writing plan for all grades. She references support helps, too, like grammar recs, lit. terms exercise book, research paper book, etc.. This combination of lectures takes the WTM writing suggestions and boils them down into a doable, weekly, flexible plan for 12 years.

Is this just an audio to listen to, or does it have hand outs schedules etc..

You say she references support helps. Is this curriculum.. I am just confused how this all works

[TravelingChris]

I didn't use anything. My oldest daughter is simply a natural writer. I so no need to give her formulas to use when she came up with great ideas and wonderful flow in her writing without my help. Does that mean she doesn't need editing? No, but not a specific writing program.

 

Then I was thinking about one for my second daughter but I turned to a writing tutor instead. Turns out she can write well without a program either.

[Janice H]

Dd finds graded essay samples and grading rubric explanations helpful. The SAT, ACT and GRE exam websites all have essays and grading explanations. Obviously this is geared to timed standardized tests, but many of the principles of essay writing hold. The ACT rubric is perhaps the most useful.

 

I think David Bruce's free downloads look great, but haven't used any yet. There are several titles that might interest you, starting in about the middle of this web page. http://stores.lulu.com/bruceb These are generous downloads of over 100-pages. Some are in workbook form as I recall.

[Colleen in NS]

Is this just an audio to listen to, or does it have hand outs schedules etc..

You say she references support helps. Is this curriculum.. I am just confused how this all works

 

They are audio lectures, where she lays out a plan for teaching writing from grades 1-12. The lit. one lays out a plan for "teaching" lit. from grades 1-12, and includes how to teach how to write about lit. She does talk about general schedules, such as have your 1-4 grader do narrations x amount of times per week, have your 5-8 grader do outlines x amount per week, have your 9-12 grader do persuasive papers x amount of times per week, etc.. No handouts, but there is an outline of the lit. lecture on the wtm site resources.

 

Support helps - not curriculum, just recommendations of things to teach writing-related skills. Like R&S for grammar, another book for teaching and doing simple exercises on lit. terms, another book for guidance on writing research papers (but in her plan, she'll say how many research papers to do each year in high school and why, and how many pages each year). She lays out the basic writing plan, but you need to add the other skills (like grammar) that support the writing. She might mention a few other supplements, but the basic "how to teach writing" plan is there. And of course, R&S is just one rec for grammar - you could always put in your favourite grammar program - the idea is that along with writing, there needs to be grammar knowledge, spelling, maybe vocab, etc.. But she talks about how to put all this together into a plan.

[Kareni]

Has anyone turned out great writers without IEW or Writeshop or any other expensive writing program?

 

 

I have to admit that each time I see this question, I think about Shakespeare, Austen, Bronte, and Hemingway; I doubt that their parents used IEW or Writeshop!

 

I don't have firsthand experience with many of the writing resources frequently mentioned on this board; however, my daughter did work through Lucile Vaughan Payne's The Lively Art of Writing before taking an outside the home writing course and some community college composition classes. Though she tired of the drag racing examples, I think we'd both agree it was a valuable yet surprisingly inexpensive help.

 

Regards,

Kareni

[SusanAR]

My dc are in 11th and 10th grade. We have used everything throughout our homeschool journey including : IEW, Wordsmith, Writing Strands, CW Aesop and Homer, Lost Tools of Writing level I etc, etc.

 

The one tool that seemed to help my dc more than anything (and this is their opinion as well) was the Sentence Composing for .... Students by Killgallon. We used all three levels- elementary, middle school, and high school. I recently found that there is a college level too! I'll probably order it just for fun:001_smile:

 

Another favorite is The New Oxford Guide to Writing. Maybe this worked so well because of the numerous tools we had used in the past-I don't know. I do know that there was a definite leap in writing ability after we used it.

[Ellie]

Millions of people in the world have learned to write well without IEW or WS, including Bronte, Longfellow, Twain, Buck, Doyle, and more. I doubt that any of them took specific "programs", either.:)

[Love2Smile]

This thread is really encouraging me. My girls can write creatively for days on end. My older one has written literal novels since 6th grade.

 

I think I need to just find something that shows the structure of essays and certain papers. We will continue with Wordsmith and perhaps Jensens.

 

My library has The Lively Art of Writing along with the Oxford one. More than one person has recommended those last two.

 

I also like the looks of "hands on essays" it is around $50, in another year or so, if I don't see any progress I may get that one. I am so intriqued by IEW, it seems like the hot program now, I almost just want to see what I am missing!