IEW Question?

[roxyintn]

I have tried several writing programs with my 10th grade son over the years, Writeshop, Rod & Staff, Writing with Skill and now Jensens. None of them have produced results. I would like to try IEW but didn't know where to start since he is in 10th grade. Any suggestions??

[hsbeth]

IEW is a method based approach. Many of their programs (such as Teaching Writing with Structure and Style) are aimed at the teacher. If you're looking for a basic course aimed directly to the student then I think you'd want the "Student Writing Intensive" level C.

 

With that being said, I'm not sure that I'd recommend diving into that kind of instruction for the first time in 10th grade. At this point I'd try to hone in on specific weaknesses and remediate those rather than re-inventing the wheel. You mentioned that other curric. hasn't produced the desired results. Can you be more specific about what kinds of skills are lacking? What are your concerns? At this level a specific resource(s) focused on the type of writing skill desired may be more helpful. Maybe if you tell us specifically what you are wanting to teach and practice writing wise we can suggest some resources.

 

Also, IEW writing can be quite formulaic. It's never been a good fit for my children after middle school. I use it for a few years sometime between grades 4-8 as it gives them some good tools such as summarizing and narrating, outlining, varying sentence structure, and incorporating sophisticated vocabulary. After that we progress to Jensen's and the Lively Art of Writing so they can get more practice and find their own "voice" so to speak.

 

IEW does have a few specific programs such as "The Elegant Essay" (teacher led) or "High School Essay Intensive"(video based) you could consider. Those focus more specifically on essays. I've not used either, but have heard some positive feedback about them.

 

Another idea would be to consider an online writing course of some sort.

[roxyintn]

His main weekness is in formulating a good thesis sentence and then writing the essay. We tried the Elegant Essay last year but it didn't really fit. We love WWS but it does not focus on essay and research writing skills. He is strong in summarizing and outlining. I just need to find something to map it out to bring it all together. I have thought about an online writing class but have not found one yet.

[purplelily]

You may want to start with Student writing intensive B, this year it would be a slower start.

The program teaches sentence variety, by using different sentence openers, and different style techniquics inside the sentences. Then it also offers models for the various types of writing assignments.

 

There is a yaho group called IEW families.

 

[hsbeth]

I think Jensen's would accomplish this, but you mentioned that you had already tried this. If the elegant essay wasn't a good fit, I'm not sure that other IEW options would be better. I know several here have used some online writing options. Maybe someone will chime in. You might also try searching the board a bit for past threads. I know there are several.

 

As far as IEW intensives go, only 1 unit is focused on essays specifically. The others teach summarizing/outlining and other basic writing techniques. Their elegant essay program is an expanded version of the unit in the main course that focuses on essays. I'm not sure how helpful the main intensive course would be know that you've given us more specifics.

[Trilliums]

My kids used IEW SWI B around middle school. As I recall, it spent a good deal of time on summarizing and outlining skills but didn't have much specific instruction on generating the final research paper. There are assignments on longer papers, but it is a big jump from the work expectation in the previous units. I had to get extra help from their yahoo group.

 

Have you looked at the end sections of WWS? I was thinking toward the end the various skills are brought together for the independent writing assignments.

 

 

ETA: have you looked at The Lively Art of Writing? It is inexpensive used on amazon. There were some recent posts on parent generated workbooks to go with it.

 

http://forums.welltrainedmind.com/topic/285630-lively-art-of-writing-workbook/

[Pamela in VA]

IEW now has a course for writing a research paper. If I remember correctly, it does not depend on having used IEW previously and if it contains checklists, they are more for structural elements rather than stylistic ones. These will be the same types of essay/research paper structural elements that any program is going to address. It also includes all the necessary information for learning quotations, citatations, etc. for a research paper. We will probably use this one semester course next year. We used EE this fall and will spend the spring writing various types of essays, practicing the SAT essay, and writing one longer essay (not a research report).

 

Many people feel as if following the IEW stylistic elements requirements results in formulaic writing, but I have not seen that in my dc as we have progressed over the years. As they learn and become comfortable with using these stylistic techniques (i.e., dress ups, sentence openers, etc.), they are released from the checklist and their own "voice" really does shine through. I know that this opinion varies widely across this board. I'm not trying to do any convincing, just sharing our experience.

 

HTH,

Pamela in VA

[mamajudy]

You should definitely check out The Lively Art of Writing. It's just a little book, but it's packed with instruction. The whole focus of the book is the essay. And it's inexpensive!