5th grade writing-continue on to WW4 or do another program IEW?

[Aconnolley]

My soon to be 10ds will be in 5th grade next year. He is a very reluctant writer. I started WW2 with him late fall of his 3rd grade year. We did it through the summer and will finish WWE 3 this year. He has gone from barely being able to formulate a sentence and put it on paper to seemingly enjoying coming up with interesting ways to say things and doing a decent job writing it down. His handwriting is still sloppy much of the time and he still doesn't like to write anything on paper, (he is VERY auditory) but I am no longer panicking about his writing progress....well, not as much anyway. :lol:

 

I am wondering what to do for next year. Though much progress has been made, he doesn't really know how to formulate a real paragraph. He is doing better and better at making his summaries sound good though. The last WWE lesson focused on leading him to come up with a sentence and then give two sentences to back it up. (Ah! A paragraph in the making.) He came up with a very interesting long sentence much in the style of what we had been reading, but not a paragraph. :confused:

 

Should we continue on with WWE for 5th grade or switch over to something like IEW? I have no doubt that continuing dictations would be good for him, but I worry about his lack of knowledge of structure etc. Are the really long dictations in 4th grade worth it for a 5th grader? Will we be missing something or be putting him "too far behind" if I wait another year to introduce some of those things? (paragraphs etc.) I am tempted to go ahead and start IEW, but I'm not sure if that would be best.

 

Thanks for reading! I didn't have good writing instruction when I was in school and am not a good writer. Teaching it is really intimidating to me. I don't want to put my kids at a disadvantage because of my weakness. :001_smile:

 

I'd appreciate any advice.

 

Angela

[tiffanieh]

My soon to be 10ds will be in 5th grade next year. He is a very reluctant writer. I started WW2 with him late fall of his 3rd grade year. We did it through the summer and will finish WWE 3 this year. He has gone from barely being able to formulate a sentence and put it on paper to seemingly enjoying coming up with interesting ways to say things and doing a decent job writing it down. His handwriting is still sloppy much of the time and he still doesn't like to write anything on paper, (he is VERY auditory) but I am no longer panicking about his writing progress....well, not as much anyway. :lol:

 

I am wondering what to do for next year. Though much progress has been made, he doesn't really know how to formulate a real paragraph. He is doing better and better at making his summaries sound good though. The last WWE lesson focused on leading him to come up with a sentence and then give two sentences to back it up. (Ah! A paragraph in the making.) He came up with a very interesting long sentence much in the style of what we had been reading, but not a paragraph. :confused:

 

Should we continue on with WWE for 5th grade or switch over to something like IEW? I have no doubt that continuing dictations would be good for him, but I worry about his lack of knowledge of structure etc. Are the really long dictations in 4th grade worth it for a 5th grader? Will we be missing something or be putting him "too far behind" if I wait another year to introduce some of those things? (paragraphs etc.) I am tempted to go ahead and start IEW, but I'm not sure if that would be best.

 

Thanks for reading! I didn't have good writing instruction when I was in school and am not a good writer. Teaching it is really intimidating to me. I don't want to put my kids at a disadvantage because of my weakness. :001_smile:

 

I'd appreciate any advice.

 

Angela

 

I personally would do both! :). I think by 5th grade he definitely needs to start a more formal writing program to prepare him for middle school years. I haven't seen WWE 4 so I'm not sure the rigor but I believe we are going to do both next year ourselves!

[Aconnolley]

I personally would do both! :). I think by 5th grade he definitely needs to start a more formal writing program to prepare him for middle school years. I haven't seen WWE 4 so I'm not sure the rigor but I believe we are going to do both next year ourselves!

 

 

In theory, that is a good idea. I'm not sure that we would both come out of it alive though. :lol: If he thought that he had to do TWO writing programs a day.....:ack2: Is that really necessary?

 

Angela