Colleen Posted August 24, 2012 Share Posted August 24, 2012 If you use(d) WWS with a 7th grader (or thereabouts), how much time is it requiring ~ from the student and from you, the teacher? I hate to say it in these circles, but it looks more intimidating and time-consuming than I'd anticipated. Just trying to get a sense as to what it will really require, time-wise, since I'll be using two different levels of WWE as well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
redsquirrel Posted August 24, 2012 Share Posted August 24, 2012 I feel like it didn't take much from me, as the teacher. It took a good 45 mins to an hour a day for my son. He used it as a 6th grader. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lewelma Posted August 24, 2012 Share Posted August 24, 2012 My son (a young 6th grader) needed a full hour 4 times per week to complete WWS1, but typically did the first 2 lessons in 1 day to give him an extra day to write. So not one hour per lesson, but 4 hours per week. I discussed issues with him an additional 30 minutes 2x per week: once to help him clearly understand the assignment or discuss the topic, and once to go over his essay and discuss ways to improve. Some weeks required an additional hour for writing. So total 5 to 6 hours per week. Ruth in NZ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colleen in NS Posted August 25, 2012 Share Posted August 25, 2012 If you use(d) WWS with a 7th grader (or thereabouts), how much time is it requiring ~ from the student and from you, the teacher? I hate to say it in these circles, but it looks more intimidating and time-consuming than I'd anticipated. Just trying to get a sense as to what it will really require, time-wise, since I'll be using two different levels of WWE as well. My 8th grader varied. Some lessons took maybe 15 minutes; others could take up to an hour. But I found that the lessons were set up like that - one day would be a long one; the next day would be a really easy one. I think that was done on purpose. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mom22ns Posted August 25, 2012 Share Posted August 25, 2012 My 8th grader varied. Some lessons took maybe 15 minutes; others could take up to an hour. :iagree: For us this made it hard to even out the workload. On light days dd worked ahead so that she had more time to spread out the long days. She also would add a 5th day to finish writing assignments some weeks. For comparison's sake, she is a natural writer not a struggler and did WWS1 in 7th. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Halcyon Posted August 25, 2012 Share Posted August 25, 2012 My 5thgrader is n week 14 and it takes him between 45 and 60 min a day. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeterPan Posted August 25, 2012 Share Posted August 25, 2012 I have my dd doing a condensed schedule for WWS1, because she's a rising 8th grader. She's about as pencil phobic as anybody, and in fact when I tried to read her work to check it she acted surprised that anyone was SUPPOSED to be able to read it. :lol: Anyways, what I did to save us both a bunch of grief was go through each lesson with a highlighter and catch the important points. That way she can see exactly what she needs to catch and then fill in by reading more carefully. So far so good, as she's doing it correctly independently. I only mention it in case the method might help you with feeling overwhelmed. Literally just go through it with a highlighter (real or on a kindle app or whatever), so you can see what needs to be done in each lesson. As far as time, she did two lessons at a time this week, and it was pretty short order. But that's the advantage of an older student and the highlighting. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cschnee Posted August 25, 2012 Share Posted August 25, 2012 It took my 7th grader 45min -1 1/2 hrs to complete the work, the longer amount of time near the end of the program. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kokotg Posted August 25, 2012 Share Posted August 25, 2012 My 6th grader is just over halfway through, and I give him 30-40 minutes to work on it. Sometimes he finishes a lesson in one day, sometimes it spills over. We're not worried about taking more than a year to finish, though. It's also not the only writing program he's doing (he's working through MCT Voyage and doing writing assignments from Bravewriter's Boomerang) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SkateLeft Posted August 25, 2012 Share Posted August 25, 2012 Anyways, what I did to save us both a bunch of grief was go through each lesson with a highlighter and catch the important points. That way she can see exactly what she needs to catch and then fill in by reading more carefully. That's a great idea! My son is using WWS this year, and that would really help him out. Thank you for sharing! We'll only be aiming to complete half the book this year, and finish it next year. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
elegantlion Posted August 25, 2012 Share Posted August 25, 2012 We did half of WWS last year, ds was an 8th grader. He is writing delayed and some lessons took over 90 minutes. That included some distraction time. We've just started our year three weeks ago, but he still took 2 hours to complete some of the longer assignments. I needed to sit with him and use the TE last year, this year he has been a little more independent. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
redsquirrel Posted August 25, 2012 Share Posted August 25, 2012 I also did the highlighter thing. That was part of the whole READ THE DIRECTIONS challenge of WWS for my son. It helped a great deal. I can never sell the book, but oh well. It is pretty beat up from getting thrown a couple times. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EKS Posted August 25, 2012 Share Posted August 25, 2012 My complaints about WWS center on the time it takes to complete each lesson. I have two issues: (1) many of the lessons take too long and as a result when we were using WWS very little writing got done that wasn't a WWS assignment and (2) the length of time it took for each lesson tended to vary wildly and so it was difficult to schedule. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeterPan Posted August 25, 2012 Share Posted August 25, 2012 I also did the highlighter thing. That was part of the whole READ THE DIRECTIONS challenge of WWS for my son. It helped a great deal. I can never sell the book, but oh well. It is pretty beat up from getting thrown a couple times. :lol: :smilielol5: :rofl: Too funny!!! Yeah, dd was just blown away trying to read the instructions. She got to the end, and said "Mom, you mean all they wanted me to do was xyz? Why didn't they just SAY that?!?" Then she politely suggested SWB do some summarizing. :lol: So whatever, I don't mind making her read the whole thing, even think it's valuable, but it just was not a hill to die on to say that someone who had never taught a classroom of 6th-8th graders (the way curriculum authors have at least at places like BJUP) to see the wide diversity of kids at this age should set a method of instruction and my kid was defective or deficient if she couldn't learn from the text her way, oh well, not going there. So yeah, we're doing the highlighter, boiling it down, living in peace. My goal is to get through it and get through it FAST, before she has time to slow down and realize it got tedious or torturous. :D So I guess we'll see how it goes. So far it's going better than I expected, that's for sure. And as for scheduling, I'm scheduling a longer block (45 minutes) and not worrying on the days it takes less. But I think those highlighted instructions are why she's going through it faster. That and I didn't tell her the writing was supposed to be legible. :lol: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colleen Posted August 25, 2012 Author Share Posted August 25, 2012 Yeah, dd was just blown away trying to read the instructions. She got to the end, and said "Mom, you mean all they wanted me to do was xyz? Why didn't they just SAY that?!?" Then she politely suggested SWB do some summarizing. Ya know, this is my reaction in looking over WWS. I appreciate that SWB is trying to hand-hold, but some of these instructions are the equivalent of writing a doctoral thesis on how to boil an egg.;) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
redsquirrel Posted August 25, 2012 Share Posted August 25, 2012 Unless of course you are my son, who didn't hardly read them at all. Then he freaks out about it. So, he has learned to read the instructions and we do appreciate the hand holding. He can get all 'middle school-ish' and 'misunderstand' the directions in such a way that oops! he somehow missed half the assignment. SWB leaves him very little wiggle room for not knowing what to do. It's almost like she has experience with middle grade kids who are too smart for their own good. Hmmm... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mom22ns Posted August 26, 2012 Share Posted August 26, 2012 It is pretty beat up from getting thrown a couple times. Ya know, this is my reaction in looking over WWS. I appreciate that SWB is trying to hand-hold, but some of these instructions are the equivalent of writing a doctoral thesis on how to boil an egg.;) It's almost like she has experience with middle grade kids who are too smart for their own good. Hmmm... :lol::lol::lol: I didn't realize how entertaining this thread had gotten. I'm afraid I agree that the longwinded instructions made it too tempting for dd to skim through which then led to the missing half the assignment thing. I don't think she ever learned her lesson in spite of wasting a tremendous amount of time redoing some lessons. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Omma Posted August 26, 2012 Share Posted August 26, 2012 I've decided to give double raffle prize tickets each day that my 12 ds actually follows all written instructions correctly. :D This is, in fact, my very biggest goal for him this upcoming 7th grade year! (And yes, we are doing WWS... much to his chagrin... and he has forgotten to put in dialogue one week, and a direct quote the next week)... hence the new raffle ticket rule that just came out today! I am hesitant about the highlighter usage. If I prepare it for him, wouldn't that be a crutch? Isn't he supposed to be learning to follow directions by middle school???? I only mention this because the idea is intriguing, and I know he would really love to speed through WWS and never read anything he didn't have to... so I guess I cannot use this "highlighter" method FOR THIS PARTICULAR child. Too bad.... :tongue_smilie: Brenda Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeterPan Posted August 26, 2012 Share Posted August 26, 2012 Ya know, this is my reaction in looking over WWS. I appreciate that SWB is trying to hand-hold, but some of these instructions are the equivalent of writing a doctoral thesis on how to boil an egg.;) :lol::lol::lol: Now that just goes to show that you have MASTERED the skills of WWS1!!! :D Seriously, I decided we weren't going to lose the blessing of what's in it just because we were quibbling a little bit here or there. Open highlighter, mark, get it done. The point is only to get it done. We can learn to read a textbook elsewhere. I'm glad that fits SWB's family, but it doesn't fit mine. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeterPan Posted August 26, 2012 Share Posted August 26, 2012 I've decided to give double raffle prize tickets each day that my 12 ds actually follows all written instructions correctly. :D This is, in fact, my very biggest goal for him this upcoming 7th grade year! (And yes, we are doing WWS... much to his chagrin... and he has forgotten to put in dialogue one week, and a direct quote the next week)... hence the new raffle ticket rule that just came out today! I am hesitant about the highlighter usage. If I prepare it for him, wouldn't that be a crutch? Isn't he supposed to be learning to follow directions by middle school???? I only mention this because the idea is intriguing, and I know he would really love to speed through WWS and never read anything he didn't have to... so I guess I cannot use this "highlighter" method FOR THIS PARTICULAR child. Too bad.... :tongue_smilie: Brenda Uh, I still tell her to read the entire text. She's just supposed to read the highlighted stuff FIRST. Crutch? How about me showing her how to skim a text and look for the important things. Study skill. We don't just read something through, we read and find the important things or structure then REread to make sure we understood it. Die on the hill if you want. I just decided I wasn't willing to. What I *think* is gonna happen though is that some week, a while from now, I'm just gonna end up busy and not gonna get it done and she's gonna say "Oh yeah, that didn't matter Mom. I did it anyway. I'm not STUPID you know." She's 13. :lol: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeterPan Posted August 26, 2012 Share Posted August 26, 2012 :lol::lol::lol: I didn't realize how entertaining this thread had gotten. I'm afraid I agree that the longwinded instructions made it too tempting for dd to skim through which then led to the missing half the assignment thing. I don't think she ever learned her lesson in spite of wasting a tremendous amount of time redoing some lessons. Highlighter! :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeterPan Posted August 26, 2012 Share Posted August 26, 2012 I've decided to give double raffle prize tickets each day that my 12 ds actually follows all written instructions correctly. :D BTW, why did I not think of this? How fun!! :D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeterPan Posted August 26, 2012 Share Posted August 26, 2012 SWB leaves him very little wiggle room for not knowing what to do. That's actually why it takes a while to highlight, because I wanted to get all the helpful concepts she put in there and not miss stuff but still boil it down. Sometimes it looks more like a highlighter outline, with words and 1,2,3 and arrows to make everything connect. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Omma Posted August 26, 2012 Share Posted August 26, 2012 I am still pondering what to do, and I didn't mean any reflection upon any others when I used the term, 'crutch'. You see, I have a ds who skipped right over the story in wk 7, day 4 in WWS about treating gunshot wounds by cauterizing... he didn't read it AT ALL. And he was very upset that I made him go back and read that part because he thinks SWB just wanted to put more (in his mind, useless) words in her book so she could "up" the price!?! :001_huh: :tongue_smilie:Ugh!!! This is what I am dealing with here. The highlighter idea is great, but I am concerned that my ds will read NOTHING ELSE but the highlighted parts and as little else as possible to get the job done. That is why I am still pondering.... Regarding raffle tickets, we have a big stack of blue ones for my ds and red ones for my dd, and they bid with their hard-earned tickets a couple of times of year for small prizes that we bring out (such as gadgetry that my dh picks up from work conferences, etc.) The biggest goal I have for my ds this year is that he learns to follow written directions (which requires careful reading that he doesn't like to do). For my dd, it is that she puts everything away when she is done using it. Hence the use of double tickets each day the #1 goal is met! :D Brenda Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
redsquirrel Posted August 26, 2012 Share Posted August 26, 2012 I do stuff like put in notes. Where the instructions say "go to your list of how to describe a person" I write notes like "Actually do this. Now. I will know if you didn't." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeterPan Posted August 26, 2012 Share Posted August 26, 2012 I do stuff like put in notes. Where the instructions say "go to your list of how to describe a person" I write notes like "Actually do this. Now. I will know if you didn't." :lol::lol::lol: Love it!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Omma Posted August 26, 2012 Share Posted August 26, 2012 I do stuff like put in notes. Where the instructions say "go to your list of how to describe a person" I write notes like "Actually do this. Now. I will know if you didn't." That is hilarious!!! I love it! :lol: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheApprentice Posted August 26, 2012 Share Posted August 26, 2012 It's taking very little time from me. I'm just there for support if he needs it. Ds (7th grader) is taking about 45 min. to an hour. It's not his favorite subject. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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