WWE question

[Twilight Woods]

I tested DD to see which level I should buy. She can do copy work no problem. She has never done dictation or narration this is a new skill set for her. I did not test her on dictation because she was getting bored with the narration portion. When I had asked her questions her sentences were scattered thoughts that included part or some of the answer...kind of like she was thinking out loud of what the answer would be, or she couldn't remember. Narration we definitely need to work on as well as dictation.

 

She is 10. Will WWE level 2 be OK or should I use WWE 3 and just go slower till she grasps the new skills and can form her answers better?

[Sara in WA]

Get the WWE text (Writing with Ease Strong Fundamentals) and do the test for level 2 or 3 and you'll get your answer. You should test her on each skill - copywork, narration and dictation. If you start with any easier level, you can always double up on assignments. Always better to start easier, have great success and then move on to the more difficult levels.

[Pata]

I also would suggest getting the text. There are several weeks for each level, so if you wanted to move through level 2 quickly, it would be easy to do so. Level 3 has dictation passages that get fairly long and would be hard for someone with no dictation experience, even if you want slowly. I think that you'll find that level 2 will be a better fit. WWE will definitely help you dd focus her narrations, I've seen a huge improvement in my own dd. Hope that helps!

[Twilight Woods]

I also would suggest getting the text. There are several weeks for each level, so if you wanted to move through level 2 quickly, it would be easy to do so. Level 3 has dictation passages that get fairly long and would be hard for someone with no dictation experience, even if you want slowly. I think that you'll find that level 2 will be a better fit. WWE will definitely help you dd focus her narrations, I've seen a huge improvement in my own dd. Hope that helps!

 

 

Thankyou both! I was planning on getting the text and NOT use the workbooks, since we will be moving through 2 pretty quickly. I think once she understands the "concept" she will be ok. AUditory is very hard for her so I am wondering if I should let her follow along while I read or should I start out by narrating 2-3x first and slowly move down to once? I know with the dictation she will need several runs of me narrating it to her. In the long run though this should improve her auditory learning skills.

[The Governess]

I would start with level 2 - you could go through the level quickly by having her do a week's worth every 2 days:

 

Day 1: First narration and copywork sentence in the morning, dictation sentence at end of day

Day 2: Second narration and dictation sentence

 

At week 28 the copywork is dropped and another dictation assignment takes its place, so you may need to slow down a bit at that point. This might also be a good place to skip to if you find she has mastered the beginning assignments and is ready to move up.

 

My dd is a very visual learner and over the last couple years I have seen her auditory skills improve with this program (I don't let her read along even though she would much prefer that and would probably have better retention if she did). It helps if I read it in a dramatic voice too. :D But I think in level 3 they start reading the selections on their own, so I'm not completely sure if auditory training is really the point?

[Pata]

I think it's worth trying to work on auditory narration skills, as it will help with note taking in the future. We still do narrations like this after I read to her for history and science to keep up with the skill. One thing I did at the beginning was to give dd the questions, so that she would know what I was looking for. Another thing I have done is to read it to her first, then let her look at the passage while answering the questions. She's made tremendous progress through level 2 and 3. It's a great program! Hope that helps!

[Twilight Woods]

Thanks everyone! :)

[Mommee & Baba]

Sounds like you got some great advice.

 

I too think getting the text is a good starting point.

 

As for narration and dictation...it'll come with practice and kind corrections. When dd7 is answering questions about the story and she starts off saying...well ummm...there were...I will stop her nicely and say...you need to answer with a complete sentence..and she'll answer with a complete sentence...mind you...this took until WEEK 25 of the 36 WEEKS in WWE1 to get her this way...so it does take some patience, time, hand dragging, shoulder slumping, face pouting and kind nudging and guiding :D

[NittanyJen]

We're tackling it this way . . . I actually started both of my DC's (7 and 10, 2nd and 4th grade) in WWE1.

 

My DS10 is rather verbally advanced, and reads voraciously. However, his writing is terribly-- he speaks well, he has a nice grasp of grammar. However, even in Writing Strands, he would write like a Kindergartener unless I sat on him and pushed him through a spaghetti strainer, and even then, the best I could expect was about mid-second-grade writing. The kids' school was a huge fan of "hand them a journal and force them to write for 30 minutes, and if they don't produce at least 3 pages of writing, make them stay in for recess." My son, a terrific student with no behavior problems and test scores in the 99th centiles, missed a lot of recess. (Do not ask me why I waited until the 4th grade to start homeschooling). The school also adhered to an "only canned answers are acceptable answers" model-- ie, if you are answering a question, you are wrong unless you restate the question (drives me nuts) as part of your answer.

 

His improvement has been rapid and dramatic in all areas since starting WWE1. At first, he complained about the copywork (he is one for whom handwriting is physically tiring). We had to read each narration several times before he could answer the questions, and he could not answer at all if I asked him to answer with a sentence other than one that just restated the question, and I got a blank look or just a restatement of either the first or last sentence of the selection when I asked him to narrate.

 

We are going at a fast pace to play catch-up, as he really is a bright kid, has all the grammar basics down, and is a great reader -- one "week" per day. He can now answer all questions after the first read-through, using complete, novel sentences, and provide a solid narration sentence to summarize the passage. (I say, "If you were to tell Dad about this passage when he got home, in just one sentence, what would you tell him?") He no longer grumbles about the copywork, and his accuracy on it is improving dramatically.

 

DS7 is a whole different story, but also a highly successful one. He has various expressive language procssing issues, language speed issues, and auditory processing issues (all very common symptoms of 47,XXY). The school had been equally unsuccessful in teaching him. He is currently also on the one-week-per-day pace, as we also started him at the beginning of WWE1. He also started out needing the passages repeated multiple times, needed to be reminded every time to answer in a complete sentence, and having difficulty with the narration and the copywork. Now, after just a few lessons, he can sometimes answer all the question with no repetition of the passage, will tell me, "I need to think of my answer first, then I'll put it into a complete sentence," which is great, even if he verbalizes it-- it's awesome that he can think through that process. He can handle the narration in a one-sentence summary that gets to the kernel of the passage clearly stated, and the copywork is improving dramatically, which is an accomplishment for a kid who has to fight not to reverse his letters.

 

When it starts getting harder for him, we will slow things down a bit-- stretch things out to 2 days per "weekly lesson plan" and I think by the end of this next school year, he'll probably be at grade level in the program, which would be an enormous triumph for him if it happens. We will slow down, though, at whatever point he seems to need to do so.

 

DS10 is on the same plan, but I expect he will remain at the accelerated pace for a longer period of time as we work through the levels, eventually slowing down to 2 days per lesson, and then finally to the intended pace as we hit his natural writing level.

 

Both of them have stuck an open-ended list to the fridge, "Books to read" and have started adding books to the list as we encounter them in WWE :D. They both get frustrated at only reading snippets in the lessons! I had no idea my 10YO DS would be interested in Little House in the Big Woods! I had been planning to let DS7 read Farmer Boy this year, as he wouldn't be aware of the whole "Little House" = girls thing yet. (No, I don't teach them stereotypes, they were in PS long enough to figure that out for themselves. DS7 won't even read a book with a pink cover on it-- I expect a big revolt next year in Singapore Math . . . I think that's the pink year . . . )

 

 

Good luck!

 

Jen