DragonflyAcademy Posted September 23, 2012 Share Posted September 23, 2012 We have started IEW SWI A. My 6th grader loves it and it is working well for him... He does not mind the writing assignments. My 3rd grader also enjoys it but is starting to complain about the writing... This is the first year we have really focused on writing... I am wondering if the 3rd grader should use All Things instead.. is there less writing?.. save the SWI A for later.. 4th or 5th grade? or just go slower with it for them.. let the 6th grader continue to move through at one lesson a day... and have the 3rd grader move slower... 1/2 lesson a day..? or something Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jim Posted September 23, 2012 Share Posted September 23, 2012 A lesson a day is way fast. I believe they suggest a lesson a week or so. We watched the assignment on day 1. If we wanted we went ahead and created the kwo. The next day we tested the kwo by have ds retell the story in his own words. If that worked well he would write a rough draft on day three. On day four we would go over it and discuss the required tools, who/which clause etc. A re-write was completed by the end of the week. Most lessons included back up paragraphs if eextra paractice was needed and we did many of those since we were not in a rush. We started in third grade and did not find it overwhelming. It was just about right and we were doing WWE at the same time. Jim Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Julie of KY Posted September 23, 2012 Share Posted September 23, 2012 All things is fun for a young child. Now that you've reminded me that I own it, I think I might combine the two. I just started the first DVD with my daughter. We break one DVD into about 3-4 sessions and to the assignments as they come up. After the first DVD, I think I will do some All Things for reinforcement before starting the second DVD. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
boscopup Posted September 23, 2012 Share Posted September 23, 2012 I don't know about ATFF, but I'm using SWI-A with my 3rd grader. It's been just right for him, BUT... I often split his writing in half. So we might do KWO and brainstorming one day, then the next day write half of the rough draft, then the other half on day 3. Then final copy is written on day 4 and possibly day 5. Lately, he's doing it in one day now. His stamina is building. We've just finished units 1 and 2. Writing 7-8 sentences is a bit overwhelming for a lot of 3rd graders. 3-4 sentences is often more doable. :) I would definitely let them go at different paces. Your 6th grader probably doesn't need all of the reinforcement paragraphs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DragonflyAcademy Posted September 23, 2012 Author Share Posted September 23, 2012 I didn't mean we did a lesson a day as in all the aspects.. I meant Day 1.. dvd and KWO along with the dvd.. so we work together with the children on the DVD... Day 2 is our rough drafts Day 3 is our Final draft.. Day 4 KWO for a practice Day 5, Rough Draft..final draft done later in the day.. The next week, there usually isnt a DVD lesson, but we practice with the additional assignments.. But I think this may even be too much for my 3rd grader.. How quickly does SWI A move into tougher writing assignments?? I haven't looked ahead.. this may also temper my decision to use All Things... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
warneral Posted September 23, 2012 Share Posted September 23, 2012 Did you see the sample of All,Things Fun &Fascinating? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
boscopup Posted September 23, 2012 Share Posted September 23, 2012 But I think this may even be too much for my 3rd grader.. I have my 3rd grader write ONE paragraph per week for IEW - so that's one KWO, one rough draft, one final copy - never a rough draft/final copy on the same day! We're actually ahead of schedule because I skipped some reinforcement paragraphs early on that we didn't need. Thankfully, the schedule slows down to one assignment per week anyway, so that worked out well. I'd be totally ok with SWI-A lasting into 4th grade if it needed to though. How quickly does SWI A move into tougher writing assignments?? I haven't looked ahead.. this may also temper my decision to use All Things...Units 1 and 2 last 6 "lessons" (12 weeks on the 30 week schedule). The first couple lessons are kind of easy because there are no or very few dressups. Lesson 5 has -ly adverb, who/which, and a strong verb. Those are all fairly easy. There are also some banned words by then, but they're easy words to avoid in those assignments (eg, "said" in a paragraph where there is no dialogue). Lesson 6 adds the quality adjective and because clause. So now it's a bit hairier because there is so much to remember to put in a paragraph. Then Lesson 7 starts unit 3 - rewriting a story, using the story sequence chart. This will be 3 paragraphs, so we may stretch it out some if necessary. I won't have him write more than one paragraph in a day right now. I think for us, the material itself wasn't that difficult until lesson 5 (hence why we skipped some reinforcement paragraphs). Of course, YMMV, since you're teaching a different child, and all children will be different. ;) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DragonflyAcademy Posted September 23, 2012 Author Share Posted September 23, 2012 Did you see the sample of All,Things Fun &Fascinating? I did, it looked quite easy..... So, for SWI A.. We watched the DVD on the cocks and the eagle.. We did the kwo along with the children and retold the paragraph...orally... Then the next day she had to rewrite for her rough draft... But she ended up copying the paragraph instead.. So we had to stop and talk about that..and just the thought of rewriting it again, drove her to tears.. So I put it on hold...we will do the first draft on Monday.. It sounds like All Things is slower... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
justLisa Posted September 23, 2012 Share Posted September 23, 2012 I don't know about ATFF, but I'm using SWI-A with my 3rd grader. It's been just right for him, BUT... I often split his writing in half. So we might do KWO and brainstorming one day, then the next day write half of the rough draft, then the other half on day 3. Then final copy is written on day 4 and possibly day 5. Lately, he's doing it in one day now. His stamina is building. We've just finished units 1 and 2. Writing 7-8 sentences is a bit overwhelming for a lot of 3rd graders. 3-4 sentences is often more doable. :) I would definitely let them go at different paces. Your 6th grader probably doesn't need all of the reinforcement paragraphs. That's what we do, except we do the entire draft one day because I let him type it. That, and he is very motivated to cram writing in to 4 days. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
boscopup Posted September 23, 2012 Share Posted September 23, 2012 That's what we do, except we do the entire draft one day because I let him type it. That, and he is very motivated to cram writing in to 4 days. We tried typing one day, and it was worse than writing. :tongue_smilie: So we're still writing everything. He can now do a final copy in one day though, so we usually have 4 days of writing each week. :) We need to work more on typing practice. Sigh. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
amyrobynne Posted September 24, 2012 Share Posted September 24, 2012 My third grader is doing TWSS. We're working with unit 2 now and do 2 stories a week. The first day, he writes the KWO and retells it to me. The second day, he dictates the rough draft to me and we both edit it. Then he rewrites the final draft. If he doesn't want to do the writing then, I've let him do it as homework later in the day/evening. This way, he writes two KWOs and two paragraphs a week. It seemed like a lot of writing to have him write both the rough draft and final draft on the same day. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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