Do you supplement Writing Tales with more writing?

[forwardbyfaith]

I am planning on using WT next year and someone said there wasn't enough writing in the program (only one story a week) and they felt they needed to supplement it with something else. For those of you who have used it, do you add extra writing to this? If so, what do you supplement it with? Thanks

[susie in tx]

I don't supplement with additional writing.

[Ali in OR]

Okay, I haven't used WT yet. Just got it in the mail on Saturday. So this isn't a response to anything in or not in that program, but I am looking at doing more writing, perhaps making sure that dd is doing some writing each week. This may be as simple as writing narrations in history or doing more writing in science. I plan to get SWB's new WWE too (not the workbook) and may pick up ideas from there for weeks when we're not writing in WT.

[stephanie]

I am planning on using WT next year and someone said there wasn't enough writing in the program (only one story a week) and they felt they needed to supplement it with something else. For those of you who have used it, do you add extra writing to this? If so, what do you supplement it with? Thanks

 

Ok, you may think I'm overkill on language arts, but I'll tell you what we did this year. We do R&S for grammar (orally and worksheets). We do WT to supplement for the writing aspect b/c I just like how it really breaks writing down into steps every lesson. We also do Spelling Wisdom for dictation and journal every AM (for only 5 min.) Our dictation is studied dictation so they study and write it for 4 days, and then I test on the fifth day . WT does cover grammar/mechanics/vocab/spelling, but I use R&S for our main study of grammar,and supplement with WT. I don't do all the parts of each lesson-I kinda combine it since we cover a lot of the areas in R&S. KWIm? I hope I haven't confused you!

[Wendy in ME]

As I said in the previous post, WT is a complete writing program as far as instruction goes. I just feel that my 5th grader needs to write more in terms of quantity than just his WT project of the week so we add curriculum based writing assignments but we do not supplement with another writing program or even a grammar program other than Latin.

[PeterPan]

Cindy, is it possible you were missing the context of the person's comments? For instance, I fully agree with Wendy in ME that a 5th grader doing WT2 can do more than just than that each week. An additional non-fiction paragraph writing assignment would be good, imho. But a student on the younger end of it, like my 3rd grader doing WT2, couldn't have handled more. So you're balancing the amount of writing in the program with the ability of the student. A struggling 3rd grade boy doing WT1 might find that plus a his spelling and handwriting PLENTY of writing for the week, just for the sheer physical exertion, while a 4th grade girl doing the same level might be able to handle a lot more. Do as much as your student can handle, the more the merrier. :)

 

BTW, I like the way we've taught WT this year using the co-op lessons and think that's something I'd do even if I WEREN'T teaching a class, simply because it's so convenient. If you do that, it fits in well with the way WTM suggests scheduling Writing Strands, where you have 2-3 days of WS and dictation on the other days. Then, to get the other quantities of writing you need to do, you look at the other places WTM assigns writing for your particular grade (history outlining, whatever) and do those. At least that's how I come up with my quantities for goals. For next year, 4th, I'm tentatively planning to do Wordsmith Apprentice and also a weekly non-fiction paragraph. The writing projects in WT2 are quite long and I don't know if we'd get to an additional paragraph on top of that, don't know. A 5th grader probably could, but that would be a stretch in 4th, personal opinion. You just have to know your student and do what they can comfortably handle.

[forwardbyfaith]

Thanks for all your replies. In thinking through this, I can see that for my kids this will probably be enough. Ds has not had too much writing instruction and is very reluctant so I think this will be a great fit for him. I am always second guessing myself. Sometimes I need to just take a deep breath and like you said, look at everything in context.