LMD Posted June 30, 2011 Share Posted June 30, 2011 Or straight to CW Aesop? Looking at LA for DD for next year. She's currently doing LLATL Red which we really like and plan to stick with, I have yellow ready for when we finish (probably end 2011/beginning 2012). LLATL says that Red is 2nd grade, yellow 3rd, but I have heard that this may be a bit generous. We use WWE1 & Scott Foresman Grammar (grade 2) as a supplement - simply because both DD & I are L.Arty minded people and we enjoy it. WWE1 seems to be easy for her. I was planning to use CW Aesop along side LLATL yellow. I'm wondering if I should see out this year/Red with either: 1. Just continue what we're doing with WWE1 - a more relaxed take on writing so she can just enjoy it. I've looked over and over at the Aesop scope & sequence and I think she'll be ok with it next year if we take this route. 2. Get WWE2 to work up writing skills ready for CW Aesop, or 3. Get CW Primer as a build up Aesop. Thoughts?? Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pata Posted June 30, 2011 Share Posted June 30, 2011 I would stick with WWE. We went through WWE3 before doing CW Aesop. Well I take that back, we tried CW Aesop after WWE2 and I quickly realized we needed to keep working on dictation and narration, so we switched back to WWE3. Next year, we'll be using CW Aesop A & B along with the WWE4 weeks from the main text to make sure her skills are progressing. IMHO, WWE gives a strong foundation of basic writing skills (narration/copywork/dictation) for the student, so that when they get to CW, they can begin to build on that base. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LMD Posted June 30, 2011 Author Share Posted June 30, 2011 Thanks so much for your reply Pata, very helpful. Do you mind if I ask you some more questions? So does Aesop rely on an already strong base in dictation/narration? Because I can't see any dictation build up in the Primer scope? Can I ask what specifically about Aesop made you realise that dictation/narration needed more work first? Or does Aesop, or CW in general, just not include some aspect that WWE does? Or do they just come at writing from two different philosophies? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pata Posted June 30, 2011 Share Posted June 30, 2011 So does Aesop rely on an already strong base in dictation/narration? Because I can't see any dictation build up in the Primer scope? Can I ask what specifically about Aesop made you realise that dictation/narration needed more work first? Or does Aesop, or CW in general, just not include some aspect that WWE does? Or do they just come at writing from two different philosophies? I haven't used the primers, so I don't know if they include dictation. Aesop schedules dictation once each model, plus the student narrates the model once. If you only do one model every two weeks, that's only once ever two weeks that you get to dictation and it wasn't enough for my dd. She was starting to freeze up every time we did dictation and I noticed that her narrations in other subjects were declining. I'm not sure that it was CW Aesop's fault, she just needed more practice until those skills came easy to her. She also needed some more focused phonetically spelling work as she was getting tripped up by that in dictation. So we spent another year with WWE and with WRTR and now we'll condense CW Aesop into one year doing a model each week. We did a trial week and I was very pleased with the progress she's made. This time, she narrated without difficulty. I didn't have to ask her any questions, she was able to summarize the passage with ease. She did fine with dictation and she was able to write her entire writing project by hand on her own, something she couldn't do last year. WWE has given her confidence in the basic skills, so that we can now focus on writing instruction. Plus, I really prefer to do the model analysis & imitation and the writing project in one week. It just makes more sense since this is how it will be done in future levels. As for them being different writing philosophies, I don't see them as such. I think that WWE/WWS and CW are the different methods for the same philosophy. WWE/WWS focuses on the basic skills early on, making sure those are strong and then will move onto progym exercises in later years. CW starts with the progym exercises, teaching them gently over a number of years, but also teaches the basic skills along the way. In the end, they will both end up in the same place. I see them as different paths up the same mountain. Hopefully, that makes sense, my little guy is pulling on me and distracting me, so let me know if it doesn't :). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LMD Posted June 30, 2011 Author Share Posted June 30, 2011 Very helpful again, thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SnegurochkaL Posted July 1, 2011 Share Posted July 1, 2011 Hi, I am not familiar with WWE, but my daughter used CW Primers and we really enjoyed them. Each week is divided into 4 lessons: narration, copywork, nature study, grammar, picture study and dictation. It was a good introduction to CW before we moved on. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SilverMoon Posted July 1, 2011 Share Posted July 1, 2011 So does Aesop rely on an already strong base in dictation/narration? Because I can't see any dictation build up in the Primer scope? Can I ask what specifically about Aesop made you realise that dictation/narration needed more work first? Or does Aesop, or CW in general, just not include some aspect that WWE does? Or do they just come at writing from two different philosophies? I'm not Pata, but I have been through Aesop twice now, and will begin it again this fall. Aesop just schedules the dictation, and doesn't tell you how big of a piece to use. It's assumed you'll choose what's right for your student. If a child can already retell a short, simple story, such as an Aesop fable, they're ready for the narration part of Aesop. The grammar, synonym usage, and such is taught through Aesop and won't need covered before hand. I held one of my kidlets back from starting Aesop, because I thought her narration wasn't up to snuff. She began it about halfway through the school year, at the pace of one lesson a week. I promptly kicked myself for waiting so long. She did great, and the work strengthened her narration skills. Aesop wasn't the only place she got to practice narration though; history and science each gave her weekly practice. That said, I wouldn't go from WWE 1 straight to Aesop. I'd enjoy the primers for a year, first. :001_smile: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LMD Posted July 2, 2011 Author Share Posted July 2, 2011 Thanks so much for all your replies. I'm still very much undecided atm, in fact I'm changing my mind every hour or so! Though I'm pretty well convinced that I should do *something* between WWE1 and Aesop. Part of me thinks, if I'm going to get on the CW wagon, I may as well just get on at the beginning and get the primers. Things holding me back are: seasonal - we're in Australia so US seasons are backwards to ours, ie. Christmas is in summer. I'm not even sure if they actually contain stuff like this though? So seasonal primers may just be annoying or confusing?... But they look really good! Part of me thinks that the WWE teachers book is a good price and I may use it with my boys so it might be worth it... Watch, in a couple of weeks I'll convince myself I need both! :lol: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LMD Posted July 2, 2011 Author Share Posted July 2, 2011 bump! Can anyone tell me about the primers? Are they specifically North American themed in their seasons (Christmas in winter etc.)? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Critterfixer Posted July 2, 2011 Share Posted July 2, 2011 They looked like they were to me. They did look very pretty. I wasn't too happy about the price with two boys, so I was thinking about getting Aesop and tweaking it for my beginning second grade boys instead of using the primers. As much as I like the way WWE works, I found that I really needed to up the narration with my two. And we also narrate in history, science, and grammar. Now they narrate very well, and they are started to take things from dictation, so I think they might be ready for Aesop. I guess we'll find out! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nansk Posted July 3, 2011 Share Posted July 3, 2011 Part of me thinks, if I'm going to get on the CW wagon, I may as well just get on at the beginning and get the primers. Things holding me back are: seasonal - we're in Australia so US seasons are backwards to ours, ie. Christmas is in summer. I'm not even sure if they actually contain stuff like this though? ...Part of me thinks that the WWE teachers book is a good price and I may use it with my boys so it might be worth it... I think you can do the CW Primers according to your seasons (so you could do the Summer Primer in December). We have summer all year here, but we still did the three Primers. BTW imho, WWE may turn out to be more appropriate for your sons, because, 1. they are young and 2. they are boys (and supposedly, boys are not willing writers). The copywork in the CW Primers is much longer than that in WWE1. HTH Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RootAnn Posted July 3, 2011 Share Posted July 3, 2011 I found WWE2 was helpful before moving onto Writing Tales 1 (roughly same level as CW Aesop). I'd vote for WWE over the Primers. However, if you decide to do the Primers, I'd just do them in your season. I don't think it matters. :-) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LMD Posted July 3, 2011 Author Share Posted July 3, 2011 (edited) thanks for your replies! I'm still thoroughly confused! Haha! I've been searching and reading through the similar threads and see some people go through WWE1-4 then into Aesop (skipping the primers I assume). Then Aesop is done in one year for 4th. This idea is intriguing to me and seems to be a 'best of both worlds' solution. The seasons in Primer is quite offputting "seasonal focus on early autumn through Christmas", I was just about ready to order them too... It's nice to hear that it shouldn't be a huge deal, I'm still seriously tempted. I'm wondering about doing the primers (do you need to do all 3?) this year - because I think DD is ready for them now, then next year going quickly through WWE 3 & 4, then back ready for Aesop in 4th? Is that too much switching around? So basically we'd be going through WWE - but switching out WWE2 for the primers... That way I can leave the purchase of WWE for a little longer (DS1 won't be ready for it next year so no rush) hmmm, so my LA will look something like this: K - LLATL Blue 1st - LLATL Red + WWE1 2nd - LLATL Yellow + CW Primer 3rd - LLATL Orange + WWE 3&4 4th - LLATL Purple + CW Aesop 5th - LLATL Tan + CW Homer A 6th - LLATL Green + CW Homer B I like the looks of that and think it looks do-able. I think I was really attached to the idea of starting Aesop next year, but I think the primers and WWE will be a good base. The grades may not be as neatly aligned as that, I think they may end up a bit staggered, but I'm ok with that! DD skipped LLATL Blue (still finding my feet at that stage), but she'll start 2nd next year at 6.5y/o, so she'll finish up the 6th grade work at 11.5y/o - is that about on track? From looking at my state's enrollments that puts her 1 year ahead - they usually start 7th at 12+y/o. Any thoughts would be much appreciated! Thanks for all your help everyone! Edited July 3, 2011 by LMD Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LMD Posted July 5, 2011 Author Share Posted July 5, 2011 Bump! Last questions! I'm really liking the looks of the LA sequence above. But I am wondering if switching out the WWE 2 for the CW primer will make it difficult to come back to WWE 3? The only think I can see sort of missing from the CW primer that is in WWE is dictation - it's not in the primer scope, but looks like it is an option in the sample, anyway I can simply make one of the copyworks into dictation without an issue. We've been using the WWE 1 workbook this year (no teachers book) with no problems. Should I bother getting the teacher's guide? Or will just the workbooks work? I'm tempted to only get the teacher's guide but I think I'm making too much work for myself... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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