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WWS or CW Homer B?


noashmam
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My son is going into 7th grade and has completed CW Aesop, Cw Aesop Homer A. I had planned to use Homer B for him next year in 7th grade. I like CW for the most part because I think it is solid program and I like the improvement I have seen in his writing, but I don't like the teacher intensive part. I don't like the jumping around from day to skill level in the core book. I finally understand how to do that, but I have wished that it wasn't so complicated. And I especially wish that the whole thing was written to the student!

 

I just looked at the WWS pdf sample and understand it may be ready by the fall. I like that it is written to the student! I am seriously considering switching my son to WWS next year. However, I am concerned that it would be too low of a level. Does anyone know how the two programs compare? WWS says that it could be started with any student in 5th or higher that isn't ready for rhetoric. Also, if I do switch him to WWS this year, will the next level be ready for the following school year (2010) or am I better off just sticking with CW since I have it mostly figured out now?

 

Thoughts?

 

Thanks,

 

Kim

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I've been looking at WWS, and it seems to me that you could use it with a 7th grader, but maybe just use it at a faster pace if necessary -- for example, there are a number of outlining exercises that you might be able to skip if it seems like your ds masters them quickly. What I think will probably be really valuable, for a 7th grader, are the exercises toward the end of the year, when WWS teaches how to write responses to literature and poetry. However, the samples don't show any of these latter lessons, so it's hard to comment on whether these will be too easy for a 7th grader or not. I'm anxious to see what these look like myself, as the rest of the samples look really good.

 

CW is a really good program -- WWS just looks a little more direct. I can't see how you would really go wrong with using either one. The skills taught in WWS will still be really useful, imo, and if you finish it up in less than a year, you'll have time leftover to do CW Poetry.

 

It would be nice to know when the next levels will be available. If I recall correctly, levels 2-4 of WWE came out relatively quickly after WWE1.

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I would pick WWS. I have used CW Homer A and B (Days 2-4) and my dd learned a lot of editing techniques. But SWB's layout for the three stages makes so much sense to me and seems much more practical for future writing. I would definitely be comfortable using WWS with a 7th grader. You might possibly do one week's worth of work in one day depending on what level of writing ability he is at.

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Well, if you make it to Diogenes, Classical Writing is much easier, and it is written to the student.

 

I also thought that Homer dragged on a bit, we ended up skipping several of the last weeks.

 

I also did some of the beta testing for WWS, and I really think one of the big strengths of these writing programs is how easy they are to use across the curriculum. Not something we managed to do with Homer (or Diogenes), even if we'd had any energy left for more writing.

 

I would guess it wouldn't be too hard to apply a WWS type of writing to science and history and still do Homer, espcially if you gave yourself permission to skip a story here and there.

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I also did some of the beta testing for WWS, and I really think one of the big strengths of these writing programs is how easy they are to use across the curriculum. Not something we managed to do with Homer (or Diogenes), even if we'd had any energy left for more writing.

 

I would guess it wouldn't be too hard to apply a WWS type of writing to science and history and still do Homer, espcially if you gave yourself permission to skip a story here and there.

 

:iagree::iagree:

 

As I read through WWS sample, I was thinking the same thing. It would definitely be easy to use WWS methodology across the curriculum. IN fact, I had already done something similar and it worked very well. I took notes in outline form when we watched a documentary and then had DS choose a portion of it to write his narration. SWB filled in all the details for me on how to do that effectively. :001_smile: She rocks!

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Well, if you make it to Diogenes, Classical Writing is much easier, and it is written to the student.

 

This is what I had heard and what gave me hope to hang in there with CW Homer. We too ended up skipping the last few weeks of Homer A because we were sort of burnt out. I planned to finish the last weeks of Homer A this upcoming school year and then begin Homer B. But I really like the looks of WWS...except that if the other levels aren't ready for a whole 'nother year, does that mean my son will be doing WWS 8 when he is in 10th grade and is this acceptable? We really can't move faster through WWS if the other levels aren't ready yet, YKWIM?

 

I wish SWB would chime in here and tell me what to do! LOL Pretty please!!!!

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This is what I had heard and what gave me hope to hang in there with CW Homer. We too ended up skipping the last few weeks of Homer A because we were sort of burnt out. I planned to finish the last weeks of Homer A this upcoming school year and then begin Homer B. But I really like the looks of WWS...except that if the other levels aren't ready for a whole 'nother year, does that mean my son will be doing WWS 8 when he is in 10th grade and is this acceptable? We really can't move faster through WWS if the other levels aren't ready yet, YKWIM?

 

I wish SWB would chime in here and tell me what to do! LOL Pretty please!!!!

 

Bump.

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My son is going into 7th grade and has completed CW Aesop, Cw Aesop Homer A. I had planned to use Homer B for him next year in 7th grade. I like CW for the most part because I think it is solid program and I like the improvement I have seen in his writing, but I don't like the teacher intensive part. I don't like the jumping around from day to skill level in the core book. I finally understand how to do that, but I have wished that it wasn't so complicated. And I especially wish that the whole thing was written to the student!

 

I just looked at the WWS pdf sample and understand it may be ready by the fall. I like that it is written to the student! I am seriously considering switching my son to WWS next year. However, I am concerned that it would be too low of a level. Does anyone know how the two programs compare? WWS says that it could be started with any student in 5th or higher that isn't ready for rhetoric. Also, if I do switch him to WWS this year, will the next level be ready for the following school year (2010) or am I better off just sticking with CW since I have it mostly figured out now?

 

Thoughts?

 

Thanks,

 

Kim

 

I would vote to stick with Homer for another year. It's working. You've figured out how to make the program work for you, and you're seeing improvement. Looking at Diogenes for my 7th grader this fall, there is no more jumping around. You work the book from front to back. It also looks less teacher intensive and less time intensive than Homer.

 

I did look at the WWS samples. I personally think it is too low of a level for a 7th grader. It only teaches one level outlining, which is very similar in technique to the CW summaries which write one sentence per paragraph. Personally, I already had my oldest doing some 2 level outlines last year in sixth for history. All the exercises that I saw use a chronological narration, which I thought looked similar to the writing exercises in Homer A. I also like the sentence shuffle method of Homer better than the couple of exercises I saw in the WWS sample for writing sentence in different ways. While it might make a good review of outlining, narrating, and summarizing for a struggling student, I think a 7th grader should easily be able to work through the book in less than a year. Then you'd be unable to continue advancing the skills because the next level wouldn't be out until Fall of 2012. HTH

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I would vote to stick with Homer for another year. It's working. You've figured out how to make the program work for you, and you're seeing improvement. Looking at Diogenes for my 7th grader this fall, there is no more jumping around. You work the book from front to back. It also looks less teacher intensive and less time intensive than Homer.

 

I did look at the WWS samples. I personally think it is too low of a level for a 7th grader. It only teaches one level outlining, which is very similar in technique to the CW summaries which write one sentence per paragraph. Personally, I already had my oldest doing some 2 level outlines last year in sixth for history. All the exercises that I saw use a chronological narration, which I thought looked similar to the writing exercises in Homer A. I also like the sentence shuffle method of Homer better than the couple of exercises I saw in the WWS sample for writing sentence in different ways. While it might make a good review of outlining, narrating, and summarizing for a struggling student, I think a 7th grader should easily be able to work through the book in less than a year. Then you'd be unable to continue advancing the skills because the next level wouldn't be out until Fall of 2012. HTH

 

Thank you. This is what my gut has been telling me too. Plus, I already purchased Homer B. I really really really wish that Homer B was written to the student.

 

Another question. I have a 5th grader dd that will be in Aesop B next year. What do you think? Should I switch her over to WWS? Or just stick with CW?

 

Thanks,

Kim

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WWS does cover 2 level outlines but not until nearer the end. It also covers literary essays and research reports w/ documentation. I don't believe that info was in the samples but we saw the near finished product at RFWP Valley Forge Conference.

 

Narrow Gate Academy - I've been curious as to how WWS aligns w/ CW so thank you for your summary.

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WWS does cover 2 level outlines but not until nearer the end. It also covers literary essays and research reports w/ documentation. I don't believe that info was in the samples but we saw the near finished product at RFWP Valley Forge Conference.

 

Narrow Gate Academy - I've been curious as to how WWS aligns w/ CW so thank you for your summary.

 

I really wish the sample included an example of the material toward the end of the WWS book!

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Another question. I have a 5th grader dd that will be in Aesop B next year. What do you think? Should I switch her over to WWS? Or just stick with CW?

 

 

To stay or switch for the 5th grader is going to be a matter of choice. I think both programs will work to improve their writing. Here are some of the questions that might help you think through the decision. I've been pondering something similar for my rising 5th grader who would be doing Homer A this fall.

 

1. How did your student do this past year with Aesop A? Was it a good fit? Did you see improvement?

2. Which fits better with your teaching style and your student's learning style? Does your student do better working with you or independently for writing?

3. What are your goals for writing next year for the 5th grader? Aesop is going to continue to work on descriptive retellings of fables with dialogue. WWS is going to work on a combination of narration and outlining with a few other topics. (see pages 7-9 of the sample for a better description.) Which scope and sequence is more in line with your goals?

4. What type of writing does your student prefer? Aesop is all stories. The student has more freedom to add or change details, to create dialogue, to change the setting, etc. WWS uses a combination of models. In part 2, I see models about history and science as well as description about places, objects, and phenomena. The student has to work with the story, details, quotations, etc. given to produce their output.

5. Do you have the money to invest in a different program? Do you have the time to read through the text to understand the directions, the goal of the assignment, and how you as a teacher can help a struggling student?

6. At 10, you might also consider letting your child look through the online samples and give them some input on the decision as well?

 

HTH

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