IEW SWI parent involvement?

[erikdeb]

What do I as a parent do for SWI-A? The teaching part is on DVD? Then I do the feedback part? Or, how does it work?

[freesia]

I have done SWI-B but the format is the same. All the teaching is done on the video. Your teacher book has the assignment for the week. (The SWI were originally done over the course of a day or so. The program as it is packaged spreads the lectures out over a semester or school year.

 

Your part is to support your student if they need help and to give feedback when the writing is done. We usually sat and edited together. How to give feedback is covered in the teacher materials.

 

While you do not have to watch the video with your child (and I mostly didn't this year with the continuation course), if you have not watched the TWSS it is advised so that you can support your child with the method.

[KimberlyI]

Yes, the teaching part is on the DVD. My children enjoy watching the DVD's. I usually try to listen in so I can learn what they are learning. It would be difficult to help with the writing process or the editing if I did not know what they had been instructed. It does move rather slowly, especially at the A level, so sometimes I mulit-task. However, depending on the student it would probably be helpful to pause the DVD and check for understanding.

 

The lesson plans that come with the program will tell you exactly what portion of the DVD to watch and what assignments to complete.

 

Yes, you are crucial for the feedback part. Also with any help needed along the way - before a paragraph, or sentence, has even been written. IEW says to give as much help as the student needs.

 

I started my kids at SWI A and have 1 in high school working on on Continuation course C, a 7th grader who has a passion for writing, and a 4th grader who is really starting to blossom as a writer! It has worked very well to lay a strong foundation for us.

[boscopup]

I have found it fairly teacher dependent. Yes, there is teaching on the video, but in SWI-A going at a 30 week pace, there is a video lesson roughly once every 2 weeks. So inbetween that, you are doing the teaching and handholding each day. Pudewa walks them through the first assignment for the lesson, but it's up to you to walk them through any reinforcement assignments (there are usually 1 or two reinforcements).

 

My biggest time committment is at the beginning of the assignment, where I help my son with his keyword outline and do brainstorming for the dressups. Once the KWO is made, he can write the paragraph on his own (so that day is independent - yay!). Then I need to spend time with him editing. Then he can rewrite the final on his own.

 

So it's not like you're sitting there the entire time they're ever using the program (like WWE), but you are still having to teach and guide and know what you're doing. Perhaps an older student would go through it more independently, but my 8 year old needed me nearby.

 

I really like the program though! I've seen huge growth in my 8 year old, and we've only done 3 units! We'll start unit 4 next week. I plan to do the rest of SWI-A next school year.

[erikdeb]

Thanks for the feedback! I will ponder this. I actually tried to ask at their booth at convention last week, but the man there interpreted my question as "I have no time, can I just have my kid do this alone?" So I didn't really get the answer I was looking for.

 

I am also contemplating just doing the twss and then the Bible Heroes for my 1st-5th graders next year (that would the pn be three of them). Sigh, not really sure, but I am really loving the methodology.

[boscopup]

If you have TWSS, applying the method is pretty easy. In fact, after watching TWSS, I felt like I really didn't need SWI-A. I used it anyway, because I wanted Pudewa to teach unit 3 (I still had trouble with unit 3 - though we later used the technique in R&S English, and it worked fabulously - go figure!).

 

I found it less teacher intensive than WWE, but still teacher intensive, as a good writing program will probably always be. :) It's mainly that first day (Monday) that is the most intensive. You may spend 30-45 minutes discussing the passage, helping with the KWO, and helping brainstorm for dressups. At least, with a younger kid you would. Perhaps the 5th grader might be able to do more of that without help. The rest of the week is not so bad.