OK It sounds like everyone loves IEW.....

[Lux Et Veritas Academy]

Tell me why you love it so much?

 

Tell me what type of writer you have and why it has worked for them?

 

If you don't use it, why not?

 

How will it change my life :confused: even better yet, my two children's writing career- :)

[Suzanne in ABQ]

I looked at it, saw/heard the author at convention, and considered it, but I ended up going with Classical Writing instead. After all these years of R&S grammar, we just couldn't wrap our brains around using terms like "-ly words" and "dress-ups". We wanted terms that were more meaty, like "adverbs" and "copia". Also, I liked that the Classical Writing builds on itself -- it's moving toward a high and lofty destination. We may never get there, but we'll get farther by trying.

 

I may use components of IEW, or we may use it someday. I'm not totally turned off by it. But, I had it sitting on my shelf for six months (borrowed from a friend), and never even cracked it open. I've seen Andrew Pudewa speak, and I know how the program basically works. I just didn't feel drawn to it like a have been toward Classical Writing. CW is similar in the method to IEW, but just seems meatier, without being overwhelming. I didn't start it witht a young student, though. I waited until my dd was almost finished with sixth grade, and am using CW for the Older Beginner. It's a good fit for us. My dd loves it, and totally gets into her lessons and writing projects. She has missed dance class twice because we were so absorbed in the lesson that we lost track of time. That speaks volulmes to me. I'm very happy with our choice.

[Karen in CO]

My son is an excellent writer, but he seems to have always been one of those people the can put creative ideas on paper with a wonderful voice. He surpassed my writing ability years ago, but he still had things to learn. IEW helped me to improve his writing even though it was beyond mine.

 

While we were watching the IEW videos, my first grader learned keyword outlines, retelling from an outline, summarizing, a little about plot, character, and conflict. She wasn't even part of my target audience.

[Rhonda in TX]

I'm sure you know that, though. :)

 

Writing was my weakest subject in school. I did okay, but I am very math-minded. Teaching writing has scared me to the point that I haven't done much of it. However, my kids are getting older and I knew I couldn't continue with that. IEW has given me step-by-step instructions, making it very easy for me to teach my kids. For the first time, writing instruction is taking place on a regular basis.

 

My DS has fought me on every writing program we have tried. IEW has made it very concrete for him and I am thrilled with the results we are getting.

 

My DD is a natural, creative writer. However, she doesn't really like assigned writing and I felt she needed more structure. She is able to take the structure of IEW, but it still sounds like HER writing. Again, I'm thrilled.

 

How will it change your life? Well, that depends on how your life is now! :) For someone who was teaching-writing-phobic, it has given me confidence and a plan. As far as your kids - I can only go by what it has given MY children.

[Sunshine State Sue]

If you don't use it, why not?

 

I considered it briefly, but having to watch the DVDs turned me off. I rarely sit and watch any TV, video, DVD. I was afraid that I would be left with great theory, but no practical instructions. If I wanted to review something I heard in the DVD, would I be able to find it in the 10?

 

After several false starts with other writing curriculi, we have now settled into Write Shop with good success. It is extremely detailed, which is what I need. FWIW, we tend to be more math-oriented here.

[Sarah CB]

I watched the TWSS DVDs and followed along with the syllabus. I really was not that impressed by the method or the examples of writing used. I detest the check-list and really don't want my kids using that as a guideline to good writing. I would rather teach them about different sentence openings by having them figure out the author's emphasis in the sentence, having them imitate it and then have them make different changes (grammar change, synonym substitution, compression, addition) and see what effect their change has on the author's emphasis. I want my kids to think about how their choice of words or sentence structure impacts the message being conveyed. I *don't* want them to be able to just stick in a bunch of different sentence openings without considering how that particular opening influences the emphasis they are trying to achieve.

 

I guess when it boils down to it I wanted more analysis, more purpose, and more flexibility from a writing program.

 

I chose Classical Writing.

[Ellie]

although to be fair, I haven't *used* it; I've only reviewed it (much the same as Cathy Duffy and others have not *used* everything they review). I don't like the gimmicks, and I think it encourages too many adjectives and adverbs instead of strong nouns and verbs.

 

So there you go.:D

[Suzannah]

A friend raved about it and invited me to watch some of the DVDs with her. I took copious notes and began to implement it at home some. But when it came time to think about actually buying the program, I realized it didn't really do what it claimed. The basic theory is that children learn to be great writers by reading great writing and imitating it. But the examples (at least the set I saw) are not great writing. They look like articles written for beginning readers. In other words, they aren't from "living books". I do understand that the program is intended to be used across the curriculum and that I could select my own texts for the lessons. But somehow this defeats the purpose of buying a program for me. Plus, the method of cramming tons of descriptive words into a sentence turns me off a bit. Sometimes a simple sentence communicates more effectively. And honestly, I don't have time to watch hours of DVDs.

 

We have used Classical Writing this year and I really like it. I began with Aesop B since DS is 5th grade and had some writing instruction before. We're not quite done with it. (That's my fault...new baby...lack of organization.) But we finally have a routine established and I expect to finish it early in the Fall and move on to Homer A. The stories in Classical Writing Aesop are not necessarily "great writing" either, but they are great stories. So far we've worked through various nursery tales, Aesop's fables and stories from history. The workbooks provide structure for the analysis and skills to be extracted from each piece. The Teacher's Guide gives some guidance and explanation of the theory. I think in the next level the texts become a bit weightier.

 

Good luck choosing something that works for you! :seeya:

[jen210]

Much like Rhonda, I am a math oriented person. I was a good writer in school but really didn't know how to teach anything other than punctuation, capitalization, when to start a new paragraph, and all the other mechanics. This program helped me to be able to step by step introduce things to help their writing sound much better. I am so happy with the progress of my 3rd and 4th grade boys this year. They actually don't complain about writing and it has taken a subject I dreaded to teach and turned it into one I feel confident to teach.

 

Jennifer

[LizzyBee]

I bought it during the first year I homeschooled. I watched the first couple of videos twice and I really wanted to like it. I've also heard Andrew Pudewa talk about writing at a homeschool convention. As much as I like him (and I really, really do), I don't like the way he teaches writing. We've used a variety of things for writing, and finally started using Classical Writing this past year. CW teaches students to analyze models before imitating them, it teaches students to think deeply about the topic on which they're writing, and their writing models are by far superior to the IEW models.

[Night Elf]

Writing doesn't come easily to me, unless I'm posting on homeschool boards. :tongue_smilie:

 

What I've liked about IEW so far is that it has the TWSS -Teaching Writing: Structure and Style. It's a set of DVD's for the educator/parent or whatever you may call us. It's my own personal seminar that I can watch as many times as I need to, and in the comfort of my own home. With all the writing programs I've tried, I've always wished to have someone sit with me and explain WHY and HOW when it comes to writing instruction. If I have specific questions, I can go to the IEW yahoo group that is full of very helpful people.

 

I've also never liked that other writing programs were generally seen as an extra subject rather than showing writing to be a tool for any subject. Once I did get my son to write from one of the other programs, i.e. Calvert, Spectrum, Wordsmith Apprentice, Writing Strands, Great Source and K12, he would be so glad that "writing" was over and he could get to the rest of his schoolwork. Although we're still fairly new, I can see his attitude improving a bit and I have hopes that the rest of schoolwork will naturally improve.