WWE 4....been a rough year....is WWS still the best way to go

[Happy2BaMom]

I've used WWE for elementary school with ds (now finishing 4th grade). For the first three years, I/we loved it and it worked well.

 

Then we hit WWE 4. Basically, ds has had a lot of trouble with the lengthy dictations, so I chopped those down to what was just at or beyond the challenge point for him (usually, two shorter sentences).

 

He has also struggled with summarizing. For shorter selections (a few paragraphs...no more than a page), he does OK to sometimes well. For longer selections, he stinks. We are on Week 35 right now, and his summary this morning of a two page reading was really rough, even though we were going one paragraph at a time. He just couldn't seem to focus and he still tends to pick out a few (or two many) details for the summary. I've tried doing the suggested method of taking 2-3 sentences and then saying, "OK, let's pick out the most important parts and put them into one sentence", but that doesn't help him...he doesn't see what the most important parts are.

 

I know summarizing is a challenging skill set to learn, but I honestly feel like WWE 4 is beyond his ability at this point. He has gone from loving writing as a subject to not wanting to do it, although he requested to do a Creative Writing camp this summer. Repeating WWE 4 or doing more practice with it is not an option. We are both at the point of wanting to throw the book out the window.

 

I still really want to do WWS - Susan's approach just makes sense to me; I like her focus; I really don't like changing curriculum. However, if WWS is going to be like this year, we will be switching. I can't handle another year of non-stop struggle.

 

Has anyone had a kid who struggled with WWE 4 who went on to have success with WWS?

 

Any words of advice?

 

As always, thanks (in advance).

[PentecostalMom]

Can you take some time to review things he struggles with? I have used WWE (I didn't think my dd was ready so we dropped it about 1/3 of the way through, plan to pick it up again later). I didn't want her to begin to despise the writing process altogether. I'm sure you don't want that to happen with your ds. I have used Writing Strands more extensively with my older ds and though it is much less scripted, it is still easy enough for the parent to admister. Maybe you could take him through one of those books before jumping back into WWS? WS was the first recommendation in the original WTM, back when I started hsing.

[sillymommy]

Your situation sounds so much like mine. DS used WWE and did well until the end of 4th grade. He has always struggled with the dictation, esp this yr. With the narrations since week 32 or so of WWE4, he reads the passages & just looks at me with a blank stare when I ask him to summarize. He can summarize history or fiction he chooses without problems, but he told me, "I just don't want to remember the stuff I don't like." :glare:

 

My current plan is to use WWS for 5th grade and see how it goes. I want to spend several weeks with WWS before implementing outlining across the curriculum.

 

Maybe our trouble is spring fever...

[Happy2BaMom]

I found another thread with several/many comments from families whose children struggled with WWE4...made me feel better. I think we will go ahead with WWS but not be afraid to push it back a year if it is not working. Thanks for the suggestion on possible alternative curriculum, Laurel.

[Mom-ninja.]

WWE 4 is a tough level. Those dictations are hard for me. We got through it at a slow pace. We took over a year to finish it to reduce frustration. We are now doing WWS. We started it mid 5th grade. He is 6th grade and we are still doing WWS. I'm not in a hurry. Better slow and he masters it than to go along on schedule and his writing be weaker.

[texasmama]

I own but have never used WWE4. It was too difficult. Instead, I prefer to use Writing Tales 1 and 2 as a bridge from WWE 1 and 2 to WWS. So far, so good. My second student will begin WWS next year in 5th grade. My 6th grader began it mid-way through last year and will continue it in 7th grade next year. He struggles in language arts but has made the transition to WWS just fine without WWE4.

[skimomma]

My dd also struggled with the dictations in WWE4. She eventually got them but it was a slow and painful process. I think the narrations are far more useful longterm and she did not struggle as much with those. I started dd (9yo) on WWS1 a few months ago and we are working through it VERY slowly just to get a feel for it before the 5th grade "officially" starts in the fall. Narration skills are needed right off the bat. Despite my dd's strong narration skills in WWE4, she still finds the WWS1 narrations to be a challenge. Knowing what I know now, if I were in your shoes I would spend a little more time on narration skills before beginning WWS. Take short selections from whatever materials and work your way up to the length and content level found at the end of WWE4. Start with passages your child finds interesting then move to more challenging passages. Learning to narrate from passages that you do not find interesting is an important skill....if a painful one..... I would not worry about the dictations.

[Happy2BaMom]

Sorry, taken me a few days to get back to this. Thanks for the additional suggestions. I think it is a maturity thing...it is not an easy thing to learn what the most important part of a selection is. I like the idea of just using additional selections on our own. I also think I may look for another 'bridge' program to use over the summer.

[Walking-Iris]

Just throwing another idea out there as far as dictations are concerned. I found that when I started using Bravewriter Arrow guides as well, that my ds's dictation ability became better. The Guidelines to the Arrow is the best little dictation advice I have ever read. The methods for teaching dictation in there are gold and way better than any teaching direction advice SWB offers in WWE, imho.

 

You wouldn't have to actually do BW. You get the Arrow Guidelines when you purchase an Arrow unit. And that could be enough to jump start dictation time. I use those guidelines heavily even when doing WWE lessons.

 

I also found that WWE3 and 4 have been harder, especially in narrations. In our case I think it's lack of interest in the reading passages. They're more history heavy. Arrow guides are dictations related to a read aloud rather than a passage from a book. They are also longer. But you work with that one long passage throughout the week. BW also suggests keeping copywork going along with dictation. I think WWE stops giving copywork prematurely. You just give longer copywork passages as they get older.

[Mom-ninja.]

Sometimes I would give the dictation passage as copy work the day before and then do it as dictation.

[Mommy22alyns]

We had it rough with WWE 4 as well. I quit doing the dictations partway through, and we struggled with some of the drier history passages for summarizing. If she was interested in the topic, no problem. I bought WWS, but I think I'm going to go with IEW for next year for both girls. I'll do TWSS and we'll use the ancient theme pack. Fingers crossed!

[mirabillis]

We had to leave WWE - it was getting so frustrating, we were stagnating. We had heard fabulous things about IEW - so decided to make the switch. Best move we've ever made. I love IEW - and my writing-phobic child has become quite a writer, without all the usual pulling teeth we used to have. We began with SWI-A and have moved into SICC-A. 2 thumbs up!

 

That being said, we still love FLL - and even used the ALL samples to transition us to a new Grammar... which we will begin this year (6th).