Writing curriculum advice needed, especially from Australians / others outside the US

[IsabelC]

I am thinking it might be time to add a formal writing program to our mix of resources. WWE seems to be the go to curriculum, and I think the style might be less painful for my son than ones that have more emphasis on the creative side (he has a full-on meltdown if asked to think up something to write by himself).

 

I would love to know:

 

How American is it? Obviously it's a SWB effort so it's going to be US-centric to a certain extent, and that's perfectly understandable, no problem. But is it really biased, as in, would I have to change half the selections to make it more balanced for us?

 

Are the literature selections quoted verbatim, or edited like in FLL (I loved the concept behind FLL, but I was irritated to find after my kids had learned their first ever poem to recite ['The Caterpillar'] that it had been changed, and we had to relearn it correctly; we won't be continuing with the next level)?

 

Are there any other excellent writing programs in a similar vein?

My kids aren't keen on creative writing. We have the basic grammar, sentence building stuff covered with Fitzroy Word Skills. So I'm just after something that would help them work towards writing good paragraphs and structuring an essay, letter or whatever.

Edited September 8, 2012 by Hotdrink

[lewelma]

I own it, but have not used it extensively, so take this with a grain of salt.

 

1) the literature selections are about 2/3 American and the rest British, and there is not a lot of American history/historical fiction. More stuff like Wizard of Oz or Peter Pan.

2) The spelling is American

3) The lines for kids to write on in the back seems very American to me. I was raised in America but immigrated to NZ 15 years ago, so I can't tell you exactly, but the writing paper that I see kids in NZ use has smaller lines for each age and loses the dotted middle line much earlier.

 

I don't know about the verbatim issue.

 

As for other curriculum, IEW allows you to choose any resource material you want to use, but Andrew Pudawa has a VERY American accent in the videos. It does not use a workbook; it is teacher led.

 

HTH,

 

Ruth in NZ

[stripe]

How American is it? Obviously it's a SWB effort so it's going to be US-centric to a certain extent, and that's perfectly understandable, no problem. But is it really biased, as in, would I have to change half the selections to make it more balanced for us?

 

 

 

The teacher's manual can be used without using the workbooks, where you find your own selections, so you could use local literature. She gives a framework for what skills to work on, so it is do-able.

 

Also Galore Park is British and uses Roald Dahl and other British authors, many fairly modern, but it's not a formal writing program like WWE.

[IsabelC]

Thank you :)

 

I just discovered that I can get WWE as a pdf from PHP, which means I can afford to try it out. I've got the teacher's manual plus the first workbook, so I can use my own selections but have the ones they supply for when I haven't prepared something.

[skeeterbug]

I've used 1 & 2. Selections are verbatim from what I can tell.

 

The only problem I've had is punctuation in the copywork. :)