Integrating WWE and SOTW for second grader

[happypamama]

We'll be using SOTW1 next year, for our second and fifth graders, and the second grader will be working through WWE, either the latter part of Level 1 or the early part of Level 2. I want to have him do copywork, narrations, and dictations based on our history readings.

 

Originally, I had intended that we'd read the SOTW chapter on Monday (and do the map page, and the coloring page if they want), and then Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, we'd read supplemental books and do projects. With WWE, I was anticipating that being a Monday-Thursday thing as well. Fridays are co-op/errand days or "fun school" (games, etc.) days, no formal work, so I don't want to carry WWE over onto Fridays.

 

However, in looking at WWE, it looks like that plan would have us reading the SOTW chapter on Monday, but the first narration wouldn't come until Tuesday. So he would not be able to do the narrations based on SOTW.

 

Would you:

-Move SOTW to Tuesday, and use Monday for a supplemental picture book? That would have the advantage of a picture book providing a little preview to pique interest, and then he could do the narrations based on SOTW.

-Keep SOTW on Monday (because it makes a nice thing for Monday morning, as it's already here and ready to go, even if I don't get a lot of time over the weekend to plan), but have him use a picture book for the Tuesday narration?

-Move SOTW to Tuesday, do narrations based on that, and use Wednesday, Thursday, and the following Monday for supplemental books and projects? (This seems the least likely to be successful, tbh.)

-Something else? (What?)

[boscopup]

So you're using the WWE instructor text, correct? I actually use the WWE workbook *and* do narrations in SOTW, but what you're wanting to do should work fine. You don't have to do each thing in the same order each week. The main idea is to do two narrations (copying or dictating one sentence from one of those narrations), and 2 days of copywork or dictation (depending on level). The order you do them does not matter. In fact, in WWE2 (using the workbook), we combine days 1 and 2 into the same day, since day 1 is a narration without writing and day 2 is copywork. So we end up doing one week in 3 days (leaving the other 2 days open for writing across curriculum).

 

I would suggest doing narrations outside of history also, if you aren't already planning to do so. You can do it the same way you do WWE narrations. You want experience with different genres, which is what the WWE workbooks give - fiction, non-fiction, poetry, etc. You can easily do that with your read-alouds on occasion or find a poem that tells a story, etc.

 

ETA: In case I wasn't clear... I'm saying you can do the SOTW narration on Monday, even if you're working in WWE level 1, as the day 1 and 2 order really doesn't matter there, and level 2 swaps those days so the narration is the first day anyway. ;) So do narration from SOTW on Monday, do copywork on Tuesday, do copywork Wednesday, do narration from picture book and copywork of one sentence of that narration from a picture book Thursday... or you can swap the day 3 and 4 WWE days if you want. :)

Edited February 25, 2012 by boscopup

[happypamama]

Boscopup, thank you so much; your posts (here and on other threads) have been such a help to me as I figure out the best ways to use WWE! I am using the instructor text; I just got it, so I haven't had a chance to look through all of it and didn't know that by Level 2, they switch some of the days around. So it sounds like my plans will work perfectly. Thanks also for the reminder to be sure that I use fiction, poetry, etc. for narrations as well!