If your child likes Writing With Skill, did he use WWE? Did he enjoy it?

[Colleen]

I'm so looking forward to fully implementing both WWE and WWS this next school year. I've been using the Complete Writer to introduce my guys to the general approach. My two youngest boys have done fine with it and will use WWE 4 and WWE 2, respectively.

 

My 12 year old, on the other hand, has hated what he's experienced of WWE 4. He's familiar with narration and dictation, so it isn't as if these are brand new concepts to him. There's just something about the approach that completely negates his interest in writing. Like all my guys, he loves creative writing. He enjoys nothing more than applying his imagination when he puts pen to paper, and I worry that this approach is going to suck the writing life out of him.

 

Or will he perhaps feel differently about WWS? What's been your experience? I do plan to incorporate our usual variety of other writing resources ~ Bravewriter is near & dear to my heart, and I'm interested, too, in the creative writing book recommended by SWB. I'd appreciate your input. Thanks!

Edited April 24, 2012 by Colleen

[masaki]

WWE was not a good fit for my ds either. We gave it a several tries over the last few years and it just never really worked for us. We got stuck for the last time in WWE 3. In our case, ds had a hard time with summarizing. I think the difficulty was caused, in part, by maturity issues (lack of patience and understanding of what was required), and because like your 12 yo, mine enjoys creative writing much more than what he was being asked to do in WWE. We ended up using Writing Strands for a couple years, in between our failed WWE attempts. Fast forward to now, ds is enjoying WWS a lot, even though some days are hard. I think he's just ready. He likes that the assignments vary and that some give him a little freedom to insert his own "style." WS was great for him. When he started WS 5 last fall, he decided to do all of the exercises in such a way as to include the same characters and "world" in each one. He had to be clever to pull it off, and there were a couple of times when the end result was a little awkward, but I LOVED that he was enjoying writing. Of course, I couldn't just let that happen! Lol. But really, we switched because I felt that because WWS is a more systematic and disciplined(right word?) way of learning to write, that he would benefit from that approach more right now. And he really has. I would recommend that you go ahead and buy WWS and spend some time with it yourself to see if you think your ds will enjoy the variety of assignments. I mean, compared to WWE, there's actual variety! If it doesn't work for him, sounds like you'll be able to use it with your other ds. I hope you get some more responses, too. Good luck!

[Jilly]

My son never clicked with WWE. I am not sure if it was his age or the approach, but he did not like it. WWS, on the other hand, has been more of a hit. He still isn't crazy about writing, but he does the work without complaint, and he understands it.

[Colleen]

WWE was not a good fit for my ds either. We gave it a several tries over the last few years and it just never really worked for us. We got stuck for the last time in WWE 3. In our case, ds had a hard time with summarizing. I think the difficulty was caused, in part, by maturity issues (lack of patience and understanding of what was required), and because like your 12 yo, mine enjoys creative writing much more than what he was being asked to do in WWE. We ended up using Writing Strands for a couple years, in between our failed WWE attempts. Fast forward to now, ds is enjoying WWS a lot...I would recommend that you go ahead and buy WWS and spend some time with it yourself to see if you think your ds will enjoy the variety of assignments. I mean, compared to WWE, there's actual variety!

Thanks for the encouragement. I was looking over WWS last night, and two things struck me: There's variety (as you said), and it grants the student more independence. Both these factors should make the program more inviting to my 12 yo. I think our foray into WWE has felt somewhat patronizing to him in that he wants to work on his own rather than have me hold his hand while he creates summaries.

 

I don't think he will feel differently about WWS. My son didn't mind WWE (although we did not use 4, we used 2 and 3). He is using WWS now and he generally likes it. He isn't much into creative writing. He basically just wants to git er done. What he has always liked about WWE are the stories. He loves to read and the selections are usually interesting to him.

 

My son likes the selections, too, but he's not quite willing to accept that summarizing them serves a purpose.;) By far, though, the most unappealing aspect of WWE, for him, is the dictation. I forgot, when I began this thread, that dictation isn't part of WWS. That should make a difference.

 

There is also a creative writing book by SWB. Have you looked into that? I haven't seen it, but maybe he would like it?

 

I mentioned in my original post that I'm considering the creative book recommended by SWB. She's not the author, though, and I don't yet have a good feel for the book. Have you seen it?

 

My son never clicked with WWE. I am not sure if it was his age or the approach, but he did not like it. WWS, on the other hand, has been more of a hit. He still isn't crazy about writing, but he does the work without complaint, and he understands it.

 

Good to hear ~ thanks!

[Colleen in NS]

My 12 year old, on the other hand, has hated what he's experienced of WWE 4. He's familiar with narration and dictation, so it isn't as if these are brand new concepts to him.

 

It sounds from your other post that you are getting more comfortable with him trying WWS. I want to mention, too, that if your son is currently using WWE 4, he could just drop it and move right into WWS. SWB mentioned on the big WWS thread that WWE 4 is more of a bridge from WWE 3 to WWS, for younger children. Older kids who have narration and dictation skills already can go right to WWS. The first few weeks of WWS will review narration, but I believe you can skip some or all of these weeks, without detracting from the rest of WWS, if you don't feel they are necessary. Oh, I just remembered, though, that a bit of note-taking is taught, for the sake of composing a narration. This is different from WWE.

 

I mentioned in my original post that I'm considering the creative book recommended by SWB. She's not the author, though, and I don't yet have a good feel for the book. Have you seen it?

 

I have it, and I love it. My daughter loves creative writing, so I bought it for her. Now, we haven't actually used it very much yet, as I haven't made it a "school requirement" - I left it in the "fun studies" dept.. However, one reason I like it is because the author seems to teach similarly or with a similar philosophy as SWB. He builds creative thinking skills very slowly. If you have more specific questions about it, let me know and I'll dig it out.

[Colleen in NS]

My son likes the selections, too, but he's not quite willing to accept that summarizing them serves a purpose.;) By far, though, the most unappealing aspect of WWE, for him, is the dictation. I forgot, when I began this thread, that dictation isn't part of WWS. That should make a difference.

 

The necessity of summarizing skills will become more obvious to him in WWS. So will the dictation skills. Even though dictation is not explicitly taught in WWS, he will be told when summarizing, "Say your sentences aloud three or four times before writing them down." This is just a continuation of dictation skills, but put into a useful context for him. The reason WWS has students do this is so they can hear their own sentences and fix grammatical structures or words that sound awkward. In short, you can tell him that all he has learned in his earlier years will now be put to use in WWS, in an interesting way. :)