Winning with Writing Reviews?

[NoPlaceLikeHome]

Now that WWW has been out for over a year I am wondering if anyone has any updated reviews:)

 

I do use WWE and will use WWS but am considering supplementing with WWS to get my son up to speed quicker so to speak.

 

Any reviews?

[Amanda_Jo]

I used WWW 3 with my (advanced) 2nd grade daughter this year.

For the most part I have been happy with the writing instruction. It was adequate, it was easy to get done, and she could complete assignments almost independently. She enjoyed the lessons and I saw her transfering things she learned to her journal and story writing.

I may use it again next year for her, but I am still researching other options. I love that it is so clearly scheduled and assigned, but at the same time I dislike that there are 36 weeks with 5 days of assignments each week. We often have four days of academics due to field trips and that made it easy to get behind. I had to look ahead to find short assignment days to combine. I also dislike a 36 week writing curriculum as I would prefer to have the freedom to take interest and/or review rabbit trails without either getting behind or drowning in multiple writting assignments. I also felt that it did not have enough variety or instruction in brainstorming techniques and first drafts/editing. The first half of the year was heavy on grammar and sentence writing, while the second half was more paragraph/short essay focused. I felt that the first half of the year could have been condensed and shortened since there was much overlap in WWW and GWG.

We will be sticking with GWG next year, but will likely change writing. However, if I don't find a better fit for my daughter then I will stick with WWW and know she is getting adequate instruction.

[swiegers]

My 2nd grader is also doing WWW 3. But we started in the middle of the year with it. I just schedule it for every day, so we don't necessarily complete the 5 days of instruction in the same week.

 

It works well for my dd. It doesn't take up too much time, she gets plenty of practice with a particular topic (like quotations, for example). It's just enough to teach her the right/better way of writing. By the end of the week's work she understands the concept and can apply it to her other writing.

 

I read through the explanations with her and she is able to do the exercises on her own.

 

I like that the lessons are fairly short and it doesn't take a long time to finish.

[m0mmaBuck]

:bigear:

[3byzaz]

I ordered the WWW 3 for my 3rd grade son and he started it in January. He is almost done!! This is not a speedy kid, but he really liked it - he likes writing. I am really surprised...it is great step by step instruction, but kind of dry. Although I suppose most writing programs are?! Anyway, it was great for him. I also have my 7th grade son doing it. He is no where near done...much more meaty assignments and he still doesn't like writing!! tee hee - actually, he was embracing the assignment yesterday much better than usual!

 

It certainly has good instruction, review pages and one can definitely go at your own pace. I didn't go by the days listed either - we write for time. I give them plenty of time to get into the weeks lesson instead of breaking it up and killing the momentum that they may actually have started!

[mytwomonkeys]

we used WWW level 2 with my son this year. we ended up dropping it, as it felt like busy work and he wasn't really learning. it wasn't balked at though when i brought it out, and the layout is done nicely. if i had to do it over again, i would have started him in level 3. the price is great, so you can't go wrong trying it! another program that looks interesting is essentials in writing. i really considered that for our upcoming year, as it is also very affordable and even includes dvd teachings.

[shukriyya]

Is anyone using this program at level 4 or higher? It seems most folks using it are doing so for the lower levels which makes me wonder about its effectiveness as a middle school program.

[ChristusG]

I'm currently using WWW with my 2nd grader. We began late so we are only about halfway through with the book. I really like it though. It's easy to do independently....very self explanatory. And I feel that it is very thorough. It's going along well with FLL2 for us.

[justLisa]

Public-schooly busy work, if I were to sum it up simply.

 

ETA: Ok, I have to edit this to be fair. I think if your child could handle the amount of writing in 2 curriculu, or to use WWW as a supplement it would be good. It does align nicely with the typical at grade level writing a child would do in school.

Edited April 13, 2012 by 425lisamarie

[SweetandSimple]

We used WWW along with GWG earlier this year, and I really didn't like the combination of both of them together... there was too much repetition between the two. And too much boring formatting, I guess.

 

I felt like there were too many workbookish activities at the beginning of WWW, and not enough actual writing instruction, so we gave it up. In hindsight, I probably should've just skipped to the part of the book with the actual writing instruction... there is a lot more in the second part of the year.

[parias1126]

I am using Level 2 and Level 3 with my DC. The Level 2 just seems like busy work to me and I really don't think my DS has learned much from it. It is so easy that he is finishing all 5 days in ONE day!Level 3, on the other hand, my DD is learning something. It just seems as though it is the same thing over and over. Beginning sentence, middle sentences, and closing sentence. It basically just teaches the basics of how to write a paragraph. It is extremely repetitive in the 2nd semester. We are both very bored with it. I will be putting her in an outside class next year for writing that uses Writeshop, but I'm not sure what I will use with my ds yet.

 

Something that is pretty important to know is that WWW is A LOT of repetition of GWG.

 

We do still like GWG, but WWW just seems like a lot of busy work.

Edited April 13, 2012 by parias1126

[NoPlaceLikeHome]

I agree. I think it's slightly better than some of the stuff I hear going on in PS, but yeah, it's kinda like that.

 

I let my son type everything so he can do more "writing".

 

Would you say that WWW gives very specific, step by step instructions on how to write a intro, body, and conclusion paragraphs? Does it give clear examples to the student on how to do these things?

 

The only reason I am entertaining the idea of something like this is that ds will be attending school in the fall. I want to ensure that he is up to speed with school type writing.;) Of course, I want to slowly continue with WWE/WWS and Killagon. I also plan on afterschooling for writing:D

[Mrs Twain]

Would you say that WWW gives very specific, step by step instructions on how to write a intro, body, and conclusion paragraphs? Does it give clear examples to the student on how to do these things?

 

The only reason I am entertaining the idea of something like this is that ds will be attending school in the fall. I want to ensure that he is up to speed with school type writing.;) Of course, I want to slowly continue with WWE/WWS and Killagon. I also plan on afterschooling for writing:D

 

I have used WWW3 this year, and IMO it is very good for preparing for school/traditional type of writing assignments. Level 3 has very straightforward explanations and practice in writing paragraphs, including personal narative, descriptive, how-to, persuasive, informational, and compare/contrast paragraphs. There are also assignments covering friendly letters, writing poems, book reports, short reports, biographies, and short stories.

 

You can look at the scope and sequence and the table of contents for other levels of WWW on their website. Those should give you a good feel for what each level covers.

[WeeBeaks]

We are using WWW 4; however, we just started it a few weeks ago, so I was hesitant to chime in since we don't have as much experience with it. Since you asked about 4 and above though ...

 

I think it is excellent for a struggling writer. We used FLL4/WWE4 prior to it (through weeks 30 I believe in each). That my DS (9yo, 4th grade) hated. Detested, and did not learn anything pretty much this year. Prior levels he did okay in. He is ADHD, and struggles to focus his thoughts enough to write, and was recently diagnosed with dysgraphia. WWW 4 is just what he needs, fed to him simply in clear explicit language, and takes him through the steps of creating a paragraph. WWW4 starts with paragraphs, writing topic sentences, detail sentences and then an ending sentence. The wider line space with dashed middle lines even at level 4 helps my son with dysgraphia keep neat and tidy writing.

 

I don't know that we will use it alone next year, but it is perfect for us right now. We use it with R&S 4 grammar (our replacement for FLL4), but I do assign some of the R&S 4 writing assignments and an occasional TOG writing assignment to see if he can transfer his skills. So far, so good.

[DragonflyAcademy]

We use www level 2 and 5 with my second and fifth grader. WwW2 was a good fit, easy to do daily, independent work and she enjoyed it.

 

WwW 5, we stopped shortly after we started.. It was a lot of repetition..write this, then rewrite it..and so on.. For my son..who is dygraphic..it was too much writing... I haven't found a good solution for him..we focused on how to summarize and write outlines this year

 

So.. Liked level 2! Will look at level 3..

 

Eta: we also used growing with grammar and soaring with spelling..I liked those and the children learned a lot..but it was never overwhelming...they got burnt out on FLL

Edited April 13, 2012 by ChantyD3

[EastTNmom]

Hi all,

I am new to the boards and love all the curriculum chat. We were using FLL2 this year and 2 months into it, there were constant tears and frustration. We used FLL1 last year and it worked great. I switched to WWW and we instantly loved it. I have slowly added FLL back in but plan on using WWW and GWG next year!

 

 

Julie

[Cynful]

Sorry to hijack, but just wondering if you think WWW would be good for a special needs teen? Writing is not his strong suit at all. We're in Classical Writing Aesop with some WWE thrown in also, but I'm just not sure how far he'll go with those. Would WWW throw in some nice easy basics to get him by?

 

Thanks,

[zoo_keeper]

We're wrapping up WWW2 with my oldest. Both girls have loved this publisher's wbs (we also do GWG and the younger does SWS). Yes, I'm sure it mirrors the PS approach, but I love that it's open and go and requires absolutely no instruction from DH (who is home with them most days), freeing me up to do the more teacher intensive programs like MCT. Plus, it is HUGE when then kids don't complain and actually do the work. So I just placed our order for the next round of levels. Oh, and while I struggled at first to adapt to their 5 day/week approach (although we, too usually do 4-5 days), I now don't care if we do Day 3 on Monday. I just cycle through and do the next assignment regardless of the assigned day that's on the top of the paper. But we school year round, so at 4 lessons/week instead of 36 weeks it's 45 weeks - not too bad for us.