s/o Writing Curriculum Eval Thread - WWS

[1Togo]

The op of the curriculum eval thread has provided a detailed description of how she is teaching WWS and the supplemental materials she is using, but I have a few questions for others using the curriculum.

 

Do you go through the pre-writing/prompt work described by the op of that thread or does your child usually follow the directions in the student workbook to complete their lessons?

 

Do you practice the form taught in each lesson for independence and mastery?

 

Do you use the forms taught in WWS to write across the curriculum? If so, can you describe how you do that?

 

If you are using WWS, are you still doing any of the history, literature, and science outlining and writing described in WTM? If so, how much writing does your child do per day with WWS, history, lit, etc.?

 

If you are supplementing WWS, what materials are you using?

 

Finally, if you have worked through the "Description of a Person" lesson and did not do the amount of pre-writing/coaching described in the curriculum eval thread, could you post samples of your student's pre-edited work?

 

Thank you.

Edited February 23, 2012 by 1Togo

[1Togo]

Bump

Edited February 23, 2012 by 1Togo

[Beth in SW WA]

The op of the curriculum eval thread has provided a detailed description of how she is teaching WWS and the supplemental materials she is using, but I have a few questions for others using the curriculum.

 

Do you go through the pre-writing/prompt work described by the op of that thread or does your child usually follow the directions in the student workbook to complete their lessons?

 

Dd follows the directions in the student book. Very simple, clear instructions.

 

Do you practice the form taught in each lesson for independence and mastery?

 

No. We just do the student book.

 

Do you use the forms taught in WWS to write across the curriculum? If so, can you describe how you do that?

 

If you are using WWS, are you still doing any of the history, literature, and science outlining and writing described in WTM? If so, how much writing does your child do per day with WWS, history, lit, etc.?

 

Dd is not doing writing/comp besides WWS and writing/typing her stories on her private blog. That is plenty for this stage.

If you are supplementing WWS, what materials are you using?

She reads MCT PT/GT currently. We are not doing formal grammar this semester.

 

 

We are on week 4 of WWS. Love it!

[Woodland Mist Academy]

We are only on week 3, so I'm probably not a good one to be answering.

 

I don't do any prep work. DD follows the directions and does the assignment. The first week was a challenge as she didn't think she really had to follow the directions. Now she knows. ;)

 

I do make suggestions afterwards and assist with editing, if needed. She then does a final copy. I don't do anything before the assignment.

 

We are also using MCT Voyage level. I am in the process of deciding what mix I will use next year.

 

Thanks for starting this thread. I have pulled back on assigning writing across the curriculum temporarily to allow time for/adjusting to WWS. I hope to start adding that back in soon--maybe next week. I'm interested in hearing various approaches for doing so.

Edited February 23, 2012 by Hilltop Academy

[Colleen in NS]

The op of the curriculum eval thread has provided a detailed description of how she is teaching WWS and the supplemental materials she is using, but I have a few questions for others using the curriculum.

 

Do you go through the pre-writing/prompt work described by the op of that thread or does your child usually follow the directions in the student workbook to complete their lessons?

 

My kids follow the directions in the student book in order to complete the lessons.

 

Do you practice the form taught in each lesson for independence and mastery?

 

If you mean outside of the actual lesson, then no. I'm assuming that as WWS continues, independence and mastery of these forms will be achieved.

 

Do you use the forms taught in WWS to write across the curriculum? If so, can you describe how you do that?

 

So far, my kids use their previously-gained-from-from-WWE knowledge of narration, and outlining (ds already knew how to outline to four levels, though) to write in science, history, and literature.

 

I could possibly have them practice some of the other forms, but at this point, the notes from which they write have been provided through WWS. They will receive instruction in note-taking in Lesson 28, so I'm content to wait until then. Lessons 35 and 36 are a final project designed to help them put all their skills to work. Again, I am happy to let WWS forge this path, rather than me having to scramble every week to pick a topic, take notes, come up with an assignment based on what they've learned so far, specifically instruct them on what to do, wait for them to write it, edit it, hand it back to them for corrections.

 

If you are using WWS, are you still doing any of the history, literature, and science outlining and writing described in WTM? If so, how much writing does your child do per day with WWS, history, lit, etc.?

 

They do this on Friday, on a rotating basis - history one week, science the next, literature the next, etc. I give one narration or outlining-plus-rewrite-from-outline (the rewrite for ds who knows how to do this) assignment each Friday.

 

When ds was in grades 5-7, I did the writing across the curriculum from WTM instructions. We tried things such as outlining (which is why he knows how to do it), continued grammar-stage style narrations, eventually rewriting from outlines to replace those narrations, analyzing and evaluating literature books and biographies, and evaluating primary source documents. We did it messily, but we did it and learned. I suspect that WWS will teach these things neatly. In fact this week, week 23 goes into literary analysis. Some of the method in WWS is already familiar to me, based on how I taught from the WTM instructions on lit. discussions, so it was good to see how the process in WWS is broken down even further (although I currently have a post going on one part of this process that I didn't understand) than I knew how to do.

 

So anyway, as for current writing across the curriculum while doing WWS - we do narration and outlining and rewriting (for ds) - but I am probably going to start incorporating the lit./biog. anal./eval. again, lab reports, and evaluating primary source documents. Maybe WWS will dig deeper into these, and I suspect it will. But I just want to keep that part of our content studies going, by fitting them in on a rotating basis once a week. As for all the other skills taught in WWS (descriptions of various things, biog. sketches, chrono. narratives of past events/discoveries, other literary skills, etc.), I will leave that to WWS (and let WWS fix any messy teaching I am doing with the WTM instructions on writing across the curriculum. WWE did this for me, after I'd taught ds copywork/dictation and narrations for four years - it was published, so I used it to refine the skills I'd already taught him.) It's why I bought it.

 

I assign one WWS "day" per day M-Th. If I assigned more writing than this each week, we'd be writing and I'd be editing far more than any of us has time for. My kids find that the thinking that goes into the WWS assignments "as presented" really stretches them. And I find that combing through their writing products, with checking to see that they followed the instructions and checking their work against the rubric or "teacher helps" stretches ME. From WWS used "as is", we have plenty of dialog and refinement going on about their thinking/writing/grammar.

 

If you are supplementing WWS, what materials are you using?

 

Finally, if you have worked through the "Description of a Person" lesson and did not do the amount of pre-writing/coaching described in the curriculum eval thread, could you post samples of your student's pre-edited work?

 

Which lesson? 16 is basic description, but 17 has students writing slanted descriptions. 18 has them describing after picking out characteristics from some paragraphs. Let me know, and I will try to find the unedited versions my kids have done - we usually keep the rough drafts. I also suggested on the thread where people post their kids' work that we post the "before" and "after" drafts - I find that most helpful. I'll do the same for you, if you let me know and if I can find them.

[1Togo]

Thanks to everyone who has replied to my post. We are pleased with the curriculum we are using, but I am considering WWS for the summer, at least the parts of WWS that we haven't covered. Whew! I am relieved that the instructions are clear and that I wouldn't need to do planning, prep, and prompting to use the materials. We've used various materials for writing instruction, beginning with IEW years ago, and unless it was an online class with real time instruction or video instruction, my children just read the student lessons, asked for help when they needed it, and then brought their pieces to me for editing input. I gotten some messy first-drafts, but we've learned as worked the process of revision.

Edited February 23, 2012 by 1Togo

[1Togo]

Colleen,

 

I don't know the exact lesson, but the op of the curriculum eval thread posted her son's piece describing his brother as well as her description of the pre-writing process they used for that piece. Seeing examples of that assignment from students who only used instructions from the WWS student text would help mothers who don't plan to use the type of pre-writing process the op described.

 

I appreciate your post about the way you are using WWS and how the past work you have done with WTM links with your current work. It's a path most mothers can accomplish.

Edited February 23, 2012 by 1Togo

[lewelma]

1Togo,

 

WWS is completely written to the student and its explanations are clear. The week I described was anomalous for us because he had never written a description of anything, ever, and needed a lot more help than for previous exercises. I posted it because it was such fun to do, and we both really enjoyed digging into the topic. I often don't use curriculum as written :001_smile:. Also, the reason I was considering having him do another description is that I had helped him too much for me to consider it an "independent" piece. But now that he knows the process, and I think the next piece might be equally good.

 

If you look on the k-8 writing workshop's "post WWS exercises here" thread, I have posted much of my son's work this year, most of which was done without pre-writing. The only other piece that we did a lot of pre-writing on was the "Ivan the Terrible" piece, and to me the difference is quite obvious. There is no way he could have written that on his own, which I clearly state at the top. Also, you can look at the difference between weeks 14 and 15. After editing week 14 with ds, all I needed to say to him about week 15 was to "think in paragraphs." So it was the editing process of the previous piece that led to the improved output for for the subsequent week, not any pre-writing.

 

Ruth in NZ

Edited February 23, 2012 by lewelma

[1Togo]

Ruth,

 

Thank you for providing more details about the way you work with your son. I have read your posts on the K-8 Writing Workshop and your posts on the writing eval thread. The purpose of this thread was to get input from others using WWS and to see examples of work by other students, especially examples of the assignment you posted.

Edited February 23, 2012 by 1Togo

[lewelma]

Ruth,

 

Thank you for providing details about the way you work with your son. The purpose of this thread was to get input from others using WWS and to see examples of work by other students.

 

I know. I'll keep quiet:D. I just wanted to point out that I have posted some examples of one of the things you were interested in seeing - the difference between a student writing with and without pre-writing help. I think your questions are excellent, and I am looking forward to seeing what others have to say.

Edited February 23, 2012 by lewelma

[Colleen in NS]

Finally, if you have worked through the "Description of a Person" lesson and did not do the amount of pre-writing/coaching described in the curriculum eval thread, could you post samples of your student's pre-edited work?

 

I gotten some messy first-drafts, but we've learned as worked the process of revision.

 

Seeing examples of that assignment from students who only used instructions from the WWS student text would help mothers who don't plan to use the type of pre-writing process the op described.

 

Hi 1Togo,

 

Please see posts #50 and 51 in this thread: http://www.welltrainedmind.com/forums/showthread.php?p=3643171#post3643171

 

I've posted what you requested to see. Hopefully you can see how WWS prepares the student for the assignment (and I didn't explain it very well - but WWS does an excellent job of explaining), and then how WWS rubrics plus the student's current grammar study helps to polish the assignment.

[laughing lioness]

I gotten some messy first-drafts, but we've learned as worked the process of revision.

 

I'm teaching three writing classes this year and I've tried to make it a point to tell my kids in each class that messy first drafts are pretty much expected. Ann Lamot in her excellent book on writing (Bird by Bird) devotes a whole chapter to sh**ty first drafts. I think teaching the kids this lesson, and the value of re-writes, actually takes a lot of pressure off of them (once they realize that the first draft probably won't cut it).

[1Togo]

Colleen,

 

Thank you for the posts.

 

LL,

 

Yes, learning the lesson of messy first-drafts changes everything for the teacher and the student. Btw, "Bird by Bird" is one my favorites.

[Halcyon]

The op of the curriculum eval thread has provided a detailed description of how she is teaching WWS and the supplemental materials she is using, but I have a few questions for others using the curriculum.

 

Do you go through the pre-writing/prompt work described by the op of that thread or does your child usually follow the directions in the student workbook to complete their lessons? My child does this independently.

 

Do you practice the form taught in each lesson for independence and mastery? No, unless specified by the workbook.

 

Do you use the forms taught in WWS to write across the curriculum? If so, can you describe how you do that? Not yet, but we will be using outlining in history starting in the fall, and hopefully by then the concept will be reasonably solid.

If you are using WWS, are you still doing any of the history, literature, and science outlining and writing described in WTM? If so, how much writing does your child do per day with WWS, history, lit, etc.? My son does narration for science and/or history weekly. He also takes notes for history and science lectures/discussions.

If you are supplementing WWS, what materials are you using? Writer's Jungle and we'll start using Pearson's vintage composition book as soon as I finish transcribing it into a worktext, which will likely take a couple of months. For grammar, we use KISS along with diagramming.

 

Finally, if you have worked through the "Description of a Person" lesson and did not do the amount of pre-writing/coaching described in the curriculum eval thread, could you post samples of your student's pre-edited work? Not there yet!

 

Thank you.

 

We are really enjoying WWS.