jeri Posted January 14, 2011 Share Posted January 14, 2011 I have six all together with three using WWE 3. (One is a bio 3rd grader, and two are ESL 4th and 5th graders.) Although I know it is pretty much grade level for all of them (and we completed WWE 2 last year), it takes FOREVER to get it all done in a week! LAtely I have tried to do a reading/dictation on days 1 and 5, and a combined dictation on day 3 I think part of is that I do it individually as per SWB, and that sometimes the readings are difficult (new words/new concepts), especially for my ESL children. Any tips on how to move this program along (btw we are on week 9)? Jeri Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JadeOrchidSong Posted January 15, 2011 Share Posted January 15, 2011 I wonder the same thing. Ds8 is doing WWE 2. I need to start WWE 1 with ds6, but I just started Chinese with him and adding another subject would be too much. I would like ideas of how to do it too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Carrie-txmama2six Posted January 15, 2011 Share Posted January 15, 2011 I am using it for 5 dc (3rd, 4th, 5th, 7th, 8th) and it does get a bit time consuming at times. I am using levels 1, 2, and 3. I am going to continue with it because I know it will bear fruit in the end, it actually already has. I do not have ESL students, but children who were adopted at an older age that have some language delays that seem a bit ESL-like :D. We do it five days a week and we just keep chugging along not overly concerned with the actual levels on the books. I use it individually with each student because it works better that way for us. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
robsiew Posted January 15, 2011 Share Posted January 15, 2011 I'm doing WWE with 3 kids. It does take time. I figure some things are just going to take more time though... writing is one of those things that I think is worth putting some extra time and effort into. I'm trying to make sure I have some other curriculum that isn't so teacher intensive so I kind of balance it out. Right now, though with such young kids school is teacher heavy no matter what. Just try to keep in mind the future when your children have a great foundation and writing just makes sense for them because they have the tools! Looking back, I'm sure all the time we put in will be more than worth it!:D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mallory Posted January 15, 2011 Share Posted January 15, 2011 For a writing program WWE really doesn't take that long. Are they doing lots of other writing? I think that teaching writing to kids is teacher intensive, I don't think there is an easy way around it. But here are some thoughts- Are they doing the reading on thier own? They should be at that level. If they can't maybe you should go back to level 2. Again, if the dictations are a real struggle, maybe level 2 would be better. Or just make them much shorter. I've found that the levels of dictation she recomends in the teacher guide are much shorter then the dictations picked out in the workbooks. Could you cover the skills with other reading? So instead of reading the passages from the workbook do the questions and dictations with books you are already spending time on. (Ya know, following the instructor text, instead of using the workbooks ;)). Could they read and ask the questions or do dictations with each other? Again this might work better if you had some of the other workbooks so they could use the passages from level 1 or 2 or even 4 instead of everyone doing the same. Just some ideas, hope you get it figured out:001_smile: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
razorbackmama Posted January 15, 2011 Share Posted January 15, 2011 Are you using the workbooks? I know that they are intended to make things go faster for mom, but in our case, they just made things worse. The dictation passages were WAY longer and more difficult than what the textbook said to use, which made writing take a lot longer. So I stopped using the workbooks and only use the textbook as a guide to pick out appropriate passages. I choose passages from history/science/literature and use those instead. It takes maybe 5 minutes????? And since your kids are all on the same level, you can just use the same passage for all of them. Once I started doing this, life was a WHOLE lot easier in the WWE dept. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
siloam Posted January 15, 2011 Share Posted January 15, 2011 I always focus on the oldest child, and delay the younger children as needed. How does that work out practically? Well my 2nd dd started it in....3rd or 4th. She did WWE 1 and 2 at double pace. Then with WWE 3 I switched over to not using the workbooks, but applying the skills with other hs. Saved me some reading time because I was going to read the other stuff one way or another. She progressed to level 4 work and just last week finished it up. In the mean time my 3rd dd was doing WWE 1, but only twice a week as part of her loop schedule. She finished her Explode the Code books, so I moved it up to her daily schedule. Now that her 3rd dd is finished she is now doing it twice a week. The plan is to once again finished WWE 2 at double pace, then do WWE 3 and 4 work with her other hs material. Meanwhile my ds hasn't started. He is delayed in reading, so my focus has been there or he would be doing it twice a week. He will probably start this fall, and I will have to see what is going on then to decide if it will be part of his loop schedule, or something he does daily. They eventually all get there, it just isn't the nice neat progression. BTW I am doing the same with AAS. We started when my oldest was in 5th grade with level 1. My oldest has done each lesson in 1-2 days and is now finishing up level 5. My 2nd dd does a step over 2-6 days. She used cover just one section in a step a day. Now she does a couple. My 3rd dd used to do spelling on her loop schedule (twice a week), now she does it daily, but only one section a day. Once my oldest is finished my 2nd dd will get more of my attention, and so will the younger kids. Heather Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jeri Posted January 15, 2011 Author Share Posted January 15, 2011 I think it takes so long because some of the readings *are* very difficult, especially for my ESL kids, since they don't have a lot of context for what they are reading. Also, many of the words are unfamiliar to them. Even my 3rd grader (bio) doesn't always understand what the selection is about! But once we get to the "writing down the narration" stage, they all actually do quite well with writing mechanics. We've already completed level 2, so I don't want to go back there. But your ideas about taking something we are already reading are really good! And I will definitely keep them all on the same page, so to speak. Also, you are right in that slower and more carefully done will yield big dividends. Perhaps I need to relax about this! Bottom line is that it sounds like most of you with several still keep them apart for this. So, I think I will keep that up. Again, thanks for the input! Jeri Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
razorbackmama Posted January 15, 2011 Share Posted January 15, 2011 I think it takes so long because some of the readings *are* very difficult, especially for my ESL kids, since they don't have a lot of context for what they are reading. Also, many of the words are unfamiliar to them. Even my 3rd grader (bio) doesn't always understand what the selection is about! But once we get to the "writing down the narration" stage, they all actually do quite well with writing mechanics. Yep, that's why we dumped the workbooks. I was very surprised that they had passages that were WAY longer than what the textbook calls for.:confused: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.