IEW/SWB Middle grades writing ... we need help!

[Free Indeed]

Ok, we have been using IEW this year, and it has been going well. My son is in the 8th grade. I understand KWO. They make sense to me. However, SWB talks about doing multi level regular outlines and writing from those for 8th grade, and either I am using bad source texts, or years of doing drugs (teenage years) or mommyhood had fried my brain. I see what she is saying, but it hard to wrap my brain around. I was hoping to get Remedia Outlining 5-8 ebook, but I can't find it available in a digital format. What sources do you use to outline? Maybe I am doing this wrong, you outline each paragraph right? I am usually not this dense, but this is baffling me, maybe it is because I have 4 other children to teach, and 1 is new here and WAY behind in EVERYTHING! :tongue_smilie:

[Jane Elliot]

Ok, we have been using IEW this year, and it has been going well. My son is in the 8th grade. I understand KWO. They make sense to me. However, SWB talks about doing multi level regular outlines and writing from those for 8th grade, and either I am using bad source texts, or years of doing drugs (teenage years) or mommyhood had fried my brain. I see what she is saying, but it hard to wrap my brain around. I was hoping to get Remedia Outlining 5-8 ebook, but I can't find it available in a digital format. What sources do you use to outline? Maybe I am doing this wrong, you outline each paragraph right? I am usually not this dense, but this is baffling me, maybe it is because I have 4 other children to teach, and 1 is new here and WAY behind in EVERYTHING! :tongue_smilie:

 

I see in your signature that you use R&S. Is that R&S English? There are very good outlining lessons in those English books starting in R&S 5. They are much better than the Remedia lessons. You can skip right to them, do them consecutively, then practice what was learned on material of your own choice.

[Free Indeed]

Yes, it is Rod and Staff English. I will try that! :001_smile:See, I overlook the obvious! :glare: I am tired! :tongue_smilie:

[Jane Elliot]

See, I overlook the obvious! :glare: I am tired! :tongue_smilie:

 

Well, I can certainly relate to all of that. That's why these boards are so nice. :)

[pbjmeyer]

I use IEW middle ages also, and he does KWO for the exercises in there.

 

I use SWB's suggestion to outline history using standard outlines (I, A, 1, a). I have him do sections of the history textbook he reads. I think it will be beneficial to learn both techniques, and as he gets older he can use whichever one suits him better. Using R&S is a good way to learn the standard outline.

 

Hope this can help you!

 

Joyce

[angela in ohio]

Ok, we have been using IEW this year, and it has been going well. My son is in the 8th grade. I understand KWO. They make sense to me. However, SWB talks about doing multi level regular outlines and writing from those for 8th grade, and either I am using bad source texts, or years of doing drugs (teenage years) or mommyhood had fried my brain. I see what she is saying, but it hard to wrap my brain around. I was hoping to get Remedia Outlining 5-8 ebook, but I can't find it available in a digital format. What sources do you use to outline? Maybe I am doing this wrong, you outline each paragraph right? I am usually not this dense, but this is baffling me, maybe it is because I have 4 other children to teach, and 1 is new here and WAY behind in EVERYTHING! :tongue_smilie:

 

I start with a short enough resource that they can outline one point from each paragraph. Eventually they need to move beyond that, as some paragraphs contain many important facts and some don't include any. So we move to a few key points from each section (which may be a few or many paragraphs): take the section title, turn it into a question or questions, and outline the facts that answer that question. We don't write from these, though; they are for taking notes.

 

For writing, we stick with the IEW method of taking just a few key words on each topic (not necessarily one per paragraph) from several sources, then fusing those into one master outline to write from.

[Colleen in NS]

What sources do you use to outline? Maybe I am doing this wrong, you outline each paragraph right?

 

R&S has been helpful. Also, the outlining questions in the 2009 ed. of WTM are immensely helpful. We apply those questions to each paragraph when outlining. They help us to think our way through the paragraph. And yes, you outline each paragraph. From whatever good non-fiction writing you want or having lying around. And "good" to me means appealingly written because it's logically laid out to make sense.

[Capt_Uhura]

ONe thing that helped me (and I posted about this recently and someone else summarized it quite nicely) is there are two types of outlines. One type of outline, you outline each paragraph. It aids in seeing how good writing is laid out. In another type of outline, for taking notes and retaining info, it might not be paragraph by paragraph. I think in both you can then write from that outline but in the first, it would more closely resemble the source ie paragraph by paragraph, but the second could be quite different depending on how you arranged the topics. Sometimes I'd look at a SWB outline (I beta testing Writing with Style 1) and would think "Now why is that there? I don't think that detail is important." However, I was thinking more of the second style of outlining rather than the first. Once I wrapped my head around that, it made more sense.