stephanie Posted June 21, 2011 Share Posted June 21, 2011 I've narrowed down some of our writing choices for this upcoming year. I'd love to see everyone's opinions...thanks Here's my choices so far... Write Shop-for all dc IEW-for all dc WWE (for the 4th grader) Jump In-for older dc I would like to use one curriculum for all, but that's not the deciding factor. I'm just interested in what kind of success everyone has had. My dc are not very strong writers, btw.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stephanie Posted June 21, 2011 Author Share Posted June 21, 2011 :lurk5: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChrissySC Posted June 21, 2011 Share Posted June 21, 2011 One for all 4 ... I would say the best economical decision is IEW. The longevity of the use and the span across grades for a great program is something that you cannot ignore. Supplements are reasonably priced too. I picked for you ... IEW. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
love2read Posted June 21, 2011 Share Posted June 21, 2011 IEW-for all dc I've used writeshop and a few other popular programs and IEW is my absolute favorite. I've owned or used most of their products, and for your situation I would recommend something by Lori Verstegen Level A & B like this http://www.excellenceinwriting.com/hbw-t which explains how to use it with different ages. It's very user friendly. If you prefer DVD, go with the level B student intensive workshop http://www.excellenceinwriting.com/sid-b watch it with your older children and teach it to your youngest. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sebastian (a lady) Posted June 22, 2011 Share Posted June 22, 2011 I'm using WWS for my rising 7th and 8th graders. We beta tested the early versions this year and I found it was very helpful. So I might suggest a WWE (possibly not level 4 if your 4th grader isn't proficient with narrations and dictations) and WWS. WWS does have a student book and a teacher book. I think both are useful. But there isn't much in the student book that is consumable (if anything), so it could be used with multiple kids. I have IEW and it just wasn't my favorite. About the only success with that style I had was using Imitations in Writing books. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pam B Posted June 22, 2011 Share Posted June 22, 2011 We used IEW. DD15 still uses it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lori D. Posted June 22, 2011 Share Posted June 22, 2011 In case it is of help, below is a "replay" of a past post of mine with reviews of some of the programs you mentioned. I also recommend checking out that whole past thread: What writing programs have you have loved/hated, as there are several other good reviews on other programs in there. Hope that is of help! BEST of luck in finding what works for your various DC! Warmest regards, Lori D. PROGRAMS THAT WORKED FOR US - Wordsmith Apprentice (gr. 4-7) Wonderful, gentle intro into writing, esp. for writing phobic boys; first time they didn't moan and groan about writing! And they loved the silly one-page comics. Can be used as a lite supplement or a fun break from a more formal/structured program. - Jump In (gr. 6-8) Similar in gentle, incremental, informal, friendly tone as Wordsmith -- and a more in-depth sequel to Wordsmith Apprentice than Wordsmith! Great esp. for struggling writers in helping them think of what to write, how to organize their writing, and how to come up with specific examples/details/facts to support their writing. Do be aware of "hot button" topics (pro choice; abortion) mentioned a few times as one of several ideas for writing assignments. The program is supposed to take 2 years, by interspersing free writing from prompts after each unit, but... the prompts are very lame, and when using Jump In with an older student, it worked much better to just skip the free writing and take 1 year to do the program. - Scholastic Writing Series (gr. 5-8) Descriptive Writing; Narrative Writing; Expository Writing; Persuasive Writing. While written for a classroom, and not that great as a stand-alone writing program, lots of creative and interesting informational details and exercises/assignments. Not a good choice for a spine writing program, but makes a great supplement for creative, unusual and fun short exercises and writing assignments. See at Rainbow Resource Catalog. - IEW Okay, we only have used the key word outline CONCEPT from seeing Pudewa live, and from watching some of the teaching DVD with a friend -- BUT, it was a very helpful idea, and made writing manageable for writing phobic elementary through middle school boys. It helped us to organize thoughts; spread the writing out over several days; by the end, write complete coherent paragraphs -- and if you do another paragraph over several days, and then another paragraph over another several days, in 2 weeks time your writing phobic student actually has a 3-5 paragraph PAPER! - chapter in Windows to the World on how to write a literary essay (gr. 9-12) So clear, specific, and step-by-step, almost fill-in-the-blank. This is worth the price of the program alone. Really helped our high schoolers begin to make the jump from not only using examples to support their contention, but adding from their own brains the explanation of WHY the example supports the contention. PROGRAMS WE *WANTED* TO WORK, BUT... - Wordsmith (gr.6-8) Gentle sequel to Wordsmith Apprentice; it worked fine with older son, but after finding Jump In, Wordsmith just doesn't have as much to it as I originally thought. Perhaps using the teacher resource guide might expand and "beef up" this program... - Wordsmith Craftsman (gr. 10-12) Written to student, for independent use; good program, it just didn't connect here -- probably because neither DS likes writing and being responsible for it on their own just wasn't going to work for them. A student who is self-motivated and doesn't mind writing would do well with this program. PROGRAMS THAT *SORT-OF* WORKED - Stack the Deck (gr. 1-12 -- we used the gr. 8-12 books) While a lot of the individual bits of these programs are great, they are written for a classroom and it is a bit tricky to gear down to homeschool use without a lot of mom's time and effort. Of the 4 we've tried, the last one has been easiest to implement, and the only one we've been able to stick with -- and Stack the Deck offers a VERY helpful, inexpensive (under $3!) booklet on how to write an essay exam for high school ages: * Cut the Deck (gr. 8-9) * Stack the Deck (gr. 9-10) * Master the Deck (gr. 9-10) * Fan the Deck (gr. 10-12) -- this one has actually been do-able * How To Write An Essay Exam (gr. 11-12) -- booklet PROGRAMS THAT DID NOT CONNECT FOR US - Writing Strands 3 B-O-R-I-N-G. Did not even last 1 week here. - Jensen's Format Writing (gr. 9-12) Good information, but too dry and formal for us; never even got out of the starting block. Perhaps would work with a logical/science type of student, a "just the facts, ma'am" type of worker, as some very good types of writing (business letters, e.g.) are included in this program. - Put That in Writing 1 (gr. 8-10) While the explanation and exposure to the various types of writing in PTIW1 is pretty good -- and covers a few types of writing not usually seen -- it was only useable (for us) after *extensive* modification: - drop the repetitive grammar exercises - substitute our own writing assignments for the single dull assignment for each lesson - skip the long, dull examples of "good writing" - grit our teeth to read through the unnecessarily formal and elevated language/sentence structure of the explanations of the different types of writing. Ultimately (for us) too little benefit for way too high a cost -- and only after too much modification; probably helpful for the explanation and exposure to various types of writing IF you can pick it up used, cheap. MISC. THINGS THAT WORKED GRADES 1-4 - share writing a story Take turns, each write few words at a time (use dice to determine how many words) -- this and other writing ideas from Peggy Kaye's Games for Learning, or Games for Writing. - write a goofy or fun list (ex: 4 things I'd take into space; 7 ingredients for a witch's brew; names for 3 Ninja moves; top 5 places I'd go on vacation; etc.) GRADES 4-6 - free write/journal write (3-6 sentences, 2-3x/week) Our DSs do NOT like creative writing, so we used prompts like: "What I hate about..." "What I like about..." "Where I'd like to visit..." or things based on their interests at the time, such as Ninjas, gaming, movies, sports, etc. * good list of all-purpose prompts: http://www.canteach....ry/prompts.html * another good list of all-purpose prompts: http://teachers.net/...posts/1492.html * prompts by grade level from Write Source: http://thewritesourc...writing_topics/ * quotations for use as prompts (for middle/high school ages): http://teachers.net/...posts/1860.html * prompts for creative writing: http://www.creativewritingprompts.com/ - book report About one every 2-3 weeks, writing answers to various questions from SWB's list here (scroll 3/4 down the page, look under the heading of LANGUAGE ARTS), and then spending 2 days pulling the answers to the questions together into 1-2 paragraph book report -- this part completely involves mom, but it is good practice for how to pull material collected into a coherent paper... - Ready, Set, Revise write 1-2 sentences as a writing warm-up 2-3x/week GRADES 6-8 - practice research AND writing a solid structured paragraph Look up/read about a country 2 or 3 times a week and write 1 paragraph with key or interesting facts about it -- the paragraph has to have an interesting intro sentence with a "hook", 3 to 5 "body" sentences of different interesting details with transitions from sentence to sentence -- or all 3 to 5 "body" sentences all about a single event/person/tradition, etc.; and end with a single "clincher" concluding sentence. GRADES 9-12 - practice timed essays from past SAT essay prompts Find prompts at Online Math Learning website. After the IEW key word outline concept and research/writing paragraphs in middle school, this has probably been THE single most helpful thing we've done for writing that has truly helped writing become easier and more natural for DSs. Write the essays together and critique each other's essays; start with 15 minutes and write 1 long complete paragraph; after 2 months, progress to including a good "hook"; after 2 more months, go to 20 minutes and 2-3 paragraphs with at least 3 specific examples/facts/details to support your contention; after 2 more months, go to 25 minutes and practice thinking/jotting a quick outline, and making sure to conclude the essay and taking 1-2 minutes to go over it for spelling/grammar errors. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scrapbabe Posted June 22, 2011 Share Posted June 22, 2011 In case it is of help, below is a "replay" of a past post of mine with reviews of some of the programs you mentioned. I also recommend checking out that whole past thread: What writing programs have you have loved/hated, as there are several other good reviews on other programs in there. Hope that is of help! BEST of luck in finding what works for your various DC! Warmest regards, Lori D. PROGRAMS THAT WORKED FOR US - Wordsmith Apprentice (gr. 4-7) Wonderful, gentle intro into writing, esp. for writing phobic boys; first time they didn't moan and groan about writing! And they loved the silly one-page comics. Can be used as a lite supplement or a fun break from a more formal/structured program. - Jump In (gr. 6-8) Similar in gentle, incremental, informal, friendly tone as Wordsmith -- and a more in-depth sequel to Wordsmith Apprentice than Wordsmith! Great esp. for struggling writers in helping them think of what to write, how to organize their writing, and how to come up with specific examples/details/facts to support their writing. Do be aware of "hot button" topics (pro choice; abortion) mentioned a few times as one of several ideas for writing assignments. The program is supposed to take 2 years, by interspersing free writing from prompts after each unit, but... the prompts are very lame, and when using Jump In with an older student, it worked much better to just skip the free writing and take 1 year to do the program. - Scholastic Writing Series (gr. 5-8) Descriptive Writing; Narrative Writing; Expository Writing; Persuasive Writing. While written for a classroom, and not that great as a stand-alone writing program, lots of creative and interesting informational details and exercises/assignments. Not a good choice for a spine writing program, but makes a great supplement for creative, unusual and fun short exercises and writing assignments. See at Rainbow Resource Catalog. - IEW Okay, we only have used the key word outline CONCEPT from seeing Pudewa live, and from watching some of the teaching DVD with a friend -- BUT, it was a very helpful idea, and made writing manageable for writing phobic elementary through middle school boys. It helped us to organize thoughts; spread the writing out over several days; by the end, write complete coherent paragraphs -- and if you do another paragraph over several days, and then another paragraph over another several days, in 2 weeks time your writing phobic student actually has a 3-5 paragraph PAPER! - chapter in Windows to the World on how to write a literary essay (gr. 9-12) So clear, specific, and step-by-step, almost fill-in-the-blank. This is worth the price of the program alone. Really helped our high schoolers begin to make the jump from not only using examples to support their contention, but adding from their own brains the explanation of WHY the example supports the contention. PROGRAMS WE *WANTED* TO WORK, BUT... - Wordsmith (gr.6-8) Gentle sequel to Wordsmith Apprentice; it worked fine with older son, but after finding Jump In, Wordsmith just doesn't have as much to it as I originally thought. Perhaps using the teacher resource guide might expand and "beef up" this program... - Wordsmith Craftsman (gr. 10-12) Written to student, for independent use; good program, it just didn't connect here -- probably because neither DS likes writing and being responsible for it on their own just wasn't going to work for them. A student who is self-motivated and doesn't mind writing would do well with this program. PROGRAMS THAT *SORT-OF* WORKED - Stack the Deck (gr. 1-12 -- we used the gr. 8-12 books) While a lot of the individual bits of these programs are great, they are written for a classroom and it is a bit tricky to gear down to homeschool use without a lot of mom's time and effort. Of the 4 we've tried, the last one has been easiest to implement, and the only one we've been able to stick with -- and Stack the Deck offers a VERY helpful, inexpensive (under $3!) booklet on how to write an essay exam for high school ages: * Cut the Deck (gr. 8-9) * Stack the Deck (gr. 9-10) * Master the Deck (gr. 9-10) * Fan the Deck (gr. 10-12) -- this one has actually been do-able * How To Write An Essay Exam (gr. 11-12) -- booklet PROGRAMS THAT DID NOT CONNECT FOR US - Writing Strands 3 B-O-R-I-N-G. Did not even last 1 week here. - Jensen's Format Writing (gr. 9-12) Good information, but too dry and formal for us; never even got out of the starting block. Perhaps would work with a logical/science type of student, a "just the facts, ma'am" type of worker, as some very good types of writing (business letters, e.g.) are included in this program. - Put That in Writing 1 (gr. 8-10) While the explanation and exposure to the various types of writing in PTIW1 is pretty good -- and covers a few types of writing not usually seen -- it was only useable (for us) after *extensive* modification: - drop the repetitive grammar exercises - substitute our own writing assignments for the single dull assignment for each lesson - skip the long, dull examples of "good writing" - grit our teeth to read through the unnecessarily formal and elevated language/sentence structure of the explanations of the different types of writing. Ultimately (for us) too little benefit for way too high a cost -- and only after too much modification; probably helpful for the explanation and exposure to various types of writing IF you can pick it up used, cheap. MISC. THINGS THAT WORKED GRADES 1-4 - share writing a story Take turns, each write few words at a time (use dice to determine how many words) -- this and other writing ideas from Peggy Kaye's Games for Learning, or Games for Writing. - write a goofy or fun list (ex: 4 things I'd take into space; 7 ingredients for a witch's brew; names for 3 Ninja moves; top 5 places I'd go on vacation; etc.) GRADES 4-6 - free write/journal write (3-6 sentences, 2-3x/week) Our DSs do NOT like creative writing, so we used prompts like: "What I hate about..." "What I like about..." "Where I'd like to visit..." or things based on their interests at the time, such as Ninjas, gaming, movies, sports, etc. * good list of all-purpose prompts: http://www.canteach.ca/elementary/prompts.html * another good list of all-purpose prompts: http://teachers.net/lessons/posts/1492.html * prompts by grade level from Write Source: http://thewritesource.com/writing_topics/ * quotations for use as prompts (for middle/high school ages): http://teachers.net/lessons/posts/1860.html * prompts for creative writing: http://www.creativewritingprompts.com/ - book report About one every 2-3 weeks, writing answers to various questions from SWB's list here (scroll 3/4 down the page, look under the heading of LANGUAGE ARTS), and then spending 2 days pulling the answers to the questions together into 1-2 paragraph book report -- this part completely involves mom, but it is good practice for how to pull material collected into a coherent paper... - Ready, Set, Revise write 1-2 sentences as a writing warm-up 2-3x/week GRADES 6-8 - practice research AND writing a solid structured paragraph Look up/read about a country 2 or 3 times a week and write 1 paragraph with key or interesting facts about it -- the paragraph has to have an interesting intro sentence with a "hook", 3 to 5 "body" sentences of different interesting details with transitions from sentence to sentence -- or all 3 to 5 "body" sentences all about a single event/person/tradition, etc.; and end with a single "clincher" concluding sentence. GRADES 9-12 - practice timed essays from past SAT essay prompts Find prompts at Online Math Learning website. After the IEW key word outline concept and research/writing paragraphs in middle school, this has probably been THE single most helpful thing we've done for writing that has truly helped writing become easier and more natural for DSs. Write the essays together and critique each other's essays; start with 15 minutes and write 1 long complete paragraph; after 2 months, progress to including a good "hook"; after 2 more months, go to 20 minutes and 2-3 paragraphs with at least 3 specific examples/facts/details to support your contention; after 2 more months, go to 25 minutes and practice thinking/jotting a quick outline, and making sure to conclude the essay and taking 1-2 minutes to go over it for spelling/grammar errors. Sorry to highjack, but Lori D. always has so many amazing posts. I've seen several tags on threads that are tagged as Lori D. It doesn't matter what the topic is, Lori D. just has wonderful lists and descriptions for every topic. Thanks Lori D. :001_smile: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stephanie Posted June 23, 2011 Author Share Posted June 23, 2011 Sorry to highjack, but Lori D. always has so many amazing posts. I've seen several tags on threads that are tagged as Lori D. It doesn't matter what the topic is, Lori D. just has wonderful lists and descriptions for every topic. Thanks Lori D. :001_smile: :iagree:...Thank you to everyone!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lori D. Posted June 23, 2011 Share Posted June 23, 2011 Shalynn, you are too kind. :) It's nice to know that our long-time struggle to find a writing programs that fit for us can perhaps benefit others. :D Warmest regards, Lori Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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