We finished Write Shop for 6th-7th-8th grade last week...

[Sunshine State Sue]

We used SOTW for writing in 2nd-5th. In 5th grade, we started out with Shurley for writing and eventually switched to Writing Strands. I was not impressed with either because they did not give enough instruction for my ds. For 6th grade, I considered IEW (I knew I'd never watch the videos) and Classical Writing (way too intimidating for me) and settled on Write Shop.

 

Here's my review:

 

We used Write Shop for 6th-7th-8th. Here's my review:

 

Write Shop website is https://www.writeshop.com/index.htm. We used Write Shop 1 & 2 for 6th-7th-8th grade. Write Shop 1 consists of 16/30 lessons covering descriptive, informative, and narrative writing. Write Shop 2 consists of 14/30 lessons covering reviewing the basics, expanding your skills, persuasive writing, and essays.

 

Pros:

• Extremely detailed instructions for the teacher (this might be considered a con if the teacher didn’t need extremely detailed instructions)

• Extremely detailed instructions for the student (ditto)

• Teaches a variety of methods for brainstorming

• Teaches many ways to make writing more interesting and varied and requires the student to use them over and over (ex. paired adjectives, present and past participle sentence starters, adverb sentence starters, similes, etc.)

• Helps the student use vivid words by providing them with thorough lists of words to choose from

• Strictly limits dull writing (to be verbs, weak words, repetitive words)

• Towards the end of WS 2, teaches thesis statement, organization, and outlining

• Guides the student to edit their own work by giving them a checklist

• Guides the teacher to edit the student’s work by giving them a checklist

• Nearly secular

Cons:

• Learning curve for the teacher

 

Each Write Shop lesson contains:

• skill builders (review of synonyms, appositives, adverbs, participles, etc.)

• pre-writing activity

• brainstorming/practice paragraph

• brainstorming/sloppy copy

• 1st revision

• final copy

 

We spend 2 weeks per lesson, but that is working 3 days the first week and 2 days the second week. The first 2 days are the most teacher intensive, covering pre-writing lesson (which might involve looking at travel brochures and discussing how they are worded to entice the customer to visit) and the dreaded (for my son and I) practice paragraph.

 

Writing is not my favorite task. Teaching writing is not my favorite task. I spend more time preparing for each writing lesson than I do preparing for any other subject. Writing is not my son’s favorite task, either. We spend more time together working on writing than any other subject. I have seen his writing improve tremendously with Write Shop. I have been able to teach writing and help my son improve his writing through Write Shop. The results have been worth the time and effort.

 

After we completed WS 2, I sent 3 of ds’s essays to Cindy Marsh of Writing Assessment Services for evaluation. The Write Shop paper earned an A- but she said it was "formulaic". The literature paper earned a B- because he didn't actually follow the instructions. The history paper earned an A due to the content.

 

Overall for 8th grade, I’m pleased.

 

Full disclosure: During 7th and 8th grade, we had some supplemental help. Ds completed three 6-week sessions of Home2Teach (so-so) and 6 months of working on revisions to papers with Aubrey from TWTM boards (helpful).

Edited May 22, 2010 by Sue in St Pete

[Rhondabee]

After we completed WS 2, I sent 3 of ds’s essays (one from WS, one from history, and one from literature) to Cindy Marsh of Writing Assessment Services. In her opinion, he is producing B- to A- level work. She said that the WS essay was “formulaicâ€. I would agree, but overall for 8th grade, I’m pleased.

 

Oh, wow, Sue - how Brave!!! I'm tickled pink for you, and think you did great! What a wonderful testimony of finishing the race.

[KimWheeler]

I just heard about WriteShop and I found your review very helpful. Thanks!

[Clover11]

What are you using for high school?

[PenKase]

Thank you for your detailed review. It's been most helpful!

[Sunshine State Sue]

What are you using for high school?

We used LLfLOTR for 9th grade - no writing instruction, just writing essays. For 10th grade, he will be doing the Composition course at Laurel Tree Tutorials. Tentative plans for 11th/12th are composition and speech at CC, literature with Laurel Tree or at home.

[Clover11]

We used LLfLOTR for 9th grade - no writing instruction, just writing essays. For 10th grade, he will be doing the Composition course at Laurel Tree Tutorials. Tentative plans for 11th/12th are composition and speech at CC, literature with Laurel Tree or at home.

 

Thanks for posting this! I have not heard of Laurel Tree Tutorials before, so I'm off to do some research :auto:

[scrapbookbuzz]

Thank you for this review. I purchased IEW (used) last spring and, while I like the concept, found it not detailed enough, for me, on how to teach it. As I discover more and more about Writeshop, it seems to be very much like IEW but enhanced in that it has more helpful instruction for teaching. At least for me. Thanks again!

[Sunshine State Sue]

Thank you for this review. I purchased IEW (used) last spring and, while I like the concept, found it not detailed enough, for me, on how to teach it. As I discover more and more about Writeshop, it seems to be very much like IEW but enhanced in that it has more helpful instruction for teaching. At least for me. Thanks again!

I have a review written by a lady that used both IEW and WS. I don't like to post it publicly because I didn't write it, but if you send me a PM with your email address, I can forward it to you. It was written in 2006, though, so I'm not sure how out-of-date it is. I think IEW has added some new features since then.

Edited August 8, 2011 by Sue in St Pete