Mommy2BeautifulGirls Posted February 28, 2012 Share Posted February 28, 2012 I have a just-turned 8yo who I call a 3rd grader this year. :D (She's 1 year ahead of PS age, working 1-2 years ahead.) Currently, we are using level 2 of WWW, which I have been informed is boring to her. I have tried WWE (boring - to her), which didn't work well for her. As a rising 4th grader, I am now looking to get more serious with her writing. 1-1/2 years ago we had her tested with the WIAT, and she scored the grade equivalent of 4.7 in sentence structure. I do not want to use IEW with her. I have looked into WWS, which I'm not sure would be a good fit. I like the looks of WriteShop. What other options should I be looking into for an all-around advanced student who loves to write on her own? (FWIW, she likes to write both fiction and "reports".) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sunriseiz Posted February 28, 2012 Share Posted February 28, 2012 :bigear: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beth in SW WA Posted February 28, 2012 Share Posted February 28, 2012 I have a just-turned 8yo who I call a 3rd grader this year. :D (She's 1 year ahead of PS age, working 1-2 years ahead.) Currently, we are using level 2 of WWW, which I have been informed is boring to her. That level is not appropriate for an advanced 8yo. Dd8 dabbled in WWW4 and has settled on WWS. She loves sitting at the laptop to do her indy work. WWS is an excellent program for an advanced 3rd/4th grader, imho. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Carol in Cal. Posted February 28, 2012 Share Posted February 28, 2012 Writing Strands 3. It is the only specific curriculum that leaves room for creativity while also teaching academic writing. It starts very easily, deceptively so, and it is really good at helping students notice good and emulate good writing that they hear or read elsewhere, and appropriate those techniques for their own work. Writer's Jungle would be a good investment for you as the teacher. It was immensely helpful to me in encouraging and nurturing my dd's creativity, while also working up to teaching essay skills. BTW, Dd is now attending an RC high school where she takes honors English AND Creative Writing as a high sophomore (usually the CW class is upper division there. She is getting an A+ and the teacher loves her). So this worked for us! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mommy2BeautifulGirls Posted February 28, 2012 Author Share Posted February 28, 2012 (edited) That level is not appropriate for an advanced 8yo. Dd8 dabbled in WWW4 and has settled on WWS. She loves sitting at the laptop to do her indy work. WWS is an excellent program for an advanced 3rd/4th grader, imho. The samples of WWS looked like they would be too much for her at this point. The reason we got the level-2 WWW is because we wanted her introduced to some of the topics included in it. It has really helped her in some aspects, even if it is way too easy. ETA: I suppose I could print out a few of the WWS samples and try it for a few days, right? Edited February 28, 2012 by Mommy2BeautifulGirls Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mommy2BeautifulGirls Posted February 28, 2012 Author Share Posted February 28, 2012 Writing Strands 3.It is the only specific curriculum that leaves room for creativity while also teaching academic writing. It starts very easily, deceptively so, and it is really good at helping students notice good and emulate good writing that they hear or read elsewhere, and appropriate those techniques for their own work. Writer's Jungle would be a good investment for you as the teacher. It was immensely helpful to me in encouraging and nurturing my dd's creativity, while also working up to teaching essay skills. BTW, Dd is now attending an RC high school where she takes honors English AND Creative Writing as a high sophomore (usually the CW class is upper division there. She is getting an A+ and the teacher loves her). So this worked for us! I'll look into those. Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mommy2BeautifulGirls Posted February 28, 2012 Author Share Posted February 28, 2012 Writing Strands 3.It is the only specific curriculum that leaves room for creativity while also teaching academic writing. It starts very easily, deceptively so, and it is really good at helping students notice good and emulate good writing that they hear or read elsewhere, and appropriate those techniques for their own work. Did you use Writing Strands all the way through the upper levels, too? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Carol in Cal. Posted February 28, 2012 Share Posted February 28, 2012 DD went pretty far with it. She did all but two of the books, I believe, by the end of 8th grade. We also used some selected Rod and Staff writing assignments to emphasize specific writing mechanics and terms. Additionally, I followed TWTM's suggestions for subject area writing in history and literature, pretty much, although not as repetitively as they suggested. And we used Writers' Jungle as well, but more to inform teaching of descriptive writing and the overall encouragement to make all writing engaging and also to favor immersion in good writing and great use of language. In 8th grade Dd went through a coop that taught IEW--by then it was no danger to her style/writing voice; just additional tools in her toolbox. Also in 8th grade DD took the Essay class from Bravewriter--that was a good finish to her work on that, right before she started high school. So for the last year or so before high school, Writing Strands continued but took a back seat to the extra classes that popped up as opportunities. I regard Writing Strands as the primary source of DD's writing training, but there were many other resources, as you can see. Still, I'm pretty sure that if we had just continued with WS all the way through, the results would have been similar, even if we had skipped the Expository Essay BW class and the IEW one. But EE was taught that time by the author of Writers' Jungle, and I thought that it would be an extraordinary opportunity for DD to be taught by a very special teacher. And I never wanted to teach IEW, but when it popped up as a free coop offering it seemed like a worthwhile use of her time. It was right before her homeschooling PE class and her Confirmation class, so the timing was perfect as well--it was already a 'scattered about' day for us, and so getting that extra view of writing was helpful. That's pretty much how I always homeschooled--I had curricula in mind, and used them when necessary, and did other things instead or in addition as they popped up. I didn't pile DD with WS homework when she had a big essay assignment in EE, for instance, because she was already doing good and educational writing in the EE class. If I had been obsessed with finishing all the WS books by the time we finished homeschooling, I would have either homeschooled for an extra year (2 years of 8th grade--very defensible as DD is on the young side for her grade level) or skipped the outside classes to push on through WS, or finished WS in a big push over the summer. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mom2boys030507 Posted February 28, 2012 Share Posted February 28, 2012 If your dd likes to write fiction, you might to look at Creative Writer. I am having my ds, just turned 9, work on it one day a week. About every third lesson, we split it into two weeks. There is a lot of writing involved but he is loving the fact that it is helping him learn how to write better stories. I am looking at using WWS with him next year, but we also do alot of writing across the curriculum so I am not sure if this would just take to much time. I have found that the best curriculum is no set curriculum. I need something to teach me the topics and then we work on them through out the rest of his writing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mommy2BeautifulGirls Posted February 28, 2012 Author Share Posted February 28, 2012 Well, here's what I did. I printed out the sample lesson of Writing Strands 3 and day 1 of the WWS samples. I had her read through them both when we went grocery shopping. She said they both look good and she wants to do them both. :glare: I told her that would be a lot of writing, but she says she doesn't care. :glare: Part of me says, "Sure, why not?" but we'll have to see. For now, she wants to complete the sample lessons that I've printed out for her. She's starting the WS one right now. We'll see how she does with it. :D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Carol in Cal. Posted February 28, 2012 Share Posted February 28, 2012 Well, here's what I did. I printed out the sample lesson of Writing Strands 3 and day 1 of the WWS samples. I had her read through them both when we went grocery shopping. She said they both look good and she wants to do them both. :glare: I told her that would be a lot of writing, but she says she doesn't care. :glare: Part of me says, "Sure, why not?" but we'll have to see. For now, she wants to complete the sample lessons that I've printed out for her. She's starting the WS one right now. We'll see how she does with it. :D Early on, I found that I had to explain the WS instructions to my daughter or she sometimes failed to notice part of the assignment. It was really good instruction, though, especially for someone who likes to read fiction, as most good early writers do. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mommy2BeautifulGirls Posted March 7, 2012 Author Share Posted March 7, 2012 Well, the sample lesson from WS level 3 was completed last week. Not too bad. My daughter definitely needs writing practice, but overall she did a fairly good job. And she had fun, which is really good. This week, she was going to try the WWS sample. She read through Week 1 Day 1, which she had done last week as well, and she doesn't have any interest in it now. I told her I wanted her to work on it slowly, with my help, just until I can order her the other one. I think she agreed. We'll see tomorrow. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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