WWS question

[Mrs Twain]

I am considering using WWS as part of my writing curriculum next year for my 5th grade son. At a curriculum sale last weekend, I was paging through it to try to gauge how it may work with my kids. My, oh my, did the student book look wordy. I am not sure that would go over well with my son or me. Does anyone else have an issue with this? Or is it actually fine once you get started using the program? My son used to hate writing, and writing assignments were torture. After completing IEW SWI-A, he has actually started to enjoy writing and has become a fairly decent writer (for a 10 year old). I fear that WWS could take us back to the "writing is torture" days. Any thoughts? Besides all of that, the TM uses "she" for the generic which never ceases to get under my skin. I can get past the "she" when I like a program well enough, but if I already find WWS annoying or difficult to use, the "she" references may cause me to throw it out of the window. Any advice?

[Chrysalis Academy]

It is really wordy. The instructions are written to the student, which a lot of users have found doesn't work out quite so well for our 5th graders . . . :lol: People have dealt with this in different ways - some go through the student book and highlight the specific instructions for the lesson. Some read through the lesson with their dc, or have them read it aloud. Whenever dd reads the lesson and says "I don't know what to do" I have her read it aloud to me again, and half the time she figures it out after actually, you know, reading the instructions! I definitely would *not* assume you can just hand it to him and have him do it independently. Nor do I think this means there is anything wrong!! It is a very advanced writing program for a 5th grader, one that can be fruitfully used any time 5th-9th grade, it seems.

 

Should you use it? I can't say. I've gone around about this myself, and I do think it's the best thing I've seen, for us, to get where we want to be with expository writing by high school. But I use it at our pace, and we take breaks and do other writing as well. So, we did the first 10 lessons in the spring of 4th grade, and 11-26 in 5th grade, and we'll finish it in 6th.

[TheApprentice]

I too agree that it's wordy, and it takes some maturity on the students part to get through the book/activities. My ds is finishing the book this week, but he is a 7th grader. It worked fine for him, but there were days when his thought it was too much, but he was able to accomplish it anyway. My impressions is that it is aimed for the 6th-8th grade student, but that's JMHO.

[RootAnn]

If IEW stuff is working, stick with it for now.

 

WWS is fine to use for older kids, IMO. (Working on WWS with a young going-into-7th-grader.)

[Mrs Twain]

Thank you for your comments. I bought IEW SICC-B, and I may make that my main program for the coming year or two. We are doing well with Mr. Pudewa on the DVD's. Why ruin a good thing?

[skimomma]

I'll also say to stick with what works. If it isn't broken..... But, I am using it for my rising 5th grader and she has had no problem with the wording. It is very specific, which is why there are so many words. This is good for my 5th grader. She needs things spelled out very carefully or else does not seem to know what to do. I was concerned after reading on here because my dd is not advanced or gifted. And she had never done much independently. She seems to get a kick out of the independence factor and really likes that she "owns" the understanding of the concepts. I am not saying this will be the case for everyone but do know that there are some 5th graders that are using this successfully. She did do WWE 1-4 so she had a good background for WWS.

[Halcyon]

We used it last year with my 5th grader. It was very challenging. There were parts that we had to work on together, but that's okay. He learned a whole heck of a lot, and we'll be moving into WWS2 in the fall. It IS wordy, but it works, IMO.

 

ETA: He did WWE 1-3 successfully, but we decided to skip WWE4 and move directly to WWS.

[Alte Veste Academy]

It is very specific, which is why there are so many words. This is good for my 5th grader. She needs things spelled out very carefully or else does not seem to know what to do.

 

Oooh. Good thoughts. I like this. I was going to do SICC-B with DS10 for the first half of 5th, then move to WWS mid-year. Then I start to think why not just dive in with WWS for him and use SICC-A with DD and DS7? Hmmmm. The way you've explained the program's specificity is very attractive to me. DS10 likes everything laid out crystal clear.

 

Thanks for sharing your thoughts!

[HS Mom in NC]

It designed as a teaching textbook. The instructions and explanations are directed at the child. The instructor text has a list of things to say to the child at each part of the assignment if the child gets stuck. If the child isn't getting stuck it's pretty hands off for the parent. WWS is a list of very specific types of academic writing.

[Mrs Twain]

http://forums.welltr...hl__+comparison I have been reading this thread, and now I am changing my mind again. Maybe I will do IEW SICC-B for 5th/6th. Plus add in parts of WWS, namely note-taking, narrative, and descriptive sections, condensing it into 2-3 months or half a year, or whatever it takes, skipping the summaries and literary analysis parts. Lewelma described doing something like that. --(Thank you, Rose, for the highlighting idea (post #2). I could see that helping us make WWS work. I could read the lesson along with my son, and then have the main ideas highlighted so all of those wordy paragraphs don't freak us out.)-- For 7th/8th, I am looking into LToW since it seems to follow IEW well. How come I always tweak everything??? I must have some kind of disease. That is a question for separate thread, I suppose.

[TracyP]

I have gone back and forth on this, but I think I have decided to start WWS with oldest next year. My plan is to try to go half pace and apply the skills she is learning. FWIW, she will be a 4th grader who turns 10 in the fall. So two weeks would look like this:

 

Week 1 ~

Day 1: WWS (narration)

Day 2: history/science/lit narration

Day 3: WWS (outlining)

Day 4: history/science outline

 

Week 2 ~

Day 1: WWS (analyzing the topos)

Day 2: history/science/lit narration

Day 3: WWS (practicing the topos)

Day 4: WWS (final draft (part of 'practicing the topos' but I thought could use extra day)

 

My goal is to get through weeks 1-15 next year and finish WWS the following year.

[Jenn121]

We started it in Jan. with my 6th grader. It was a bit of a learning curve for her to pick out the instructions in the reading. She soon realized she had to actually read it all because she would miss things and have to redo things.

 

I would not have given to her in 5th grade not because she could not do the assignments but because she did not have the maturity and ability to extract the instructions.

[Chrysalis Academy]

Mature, late-year 4th graders, and 5th graders, *can* do WWS, don't get me wrong - mine has been! But in addition to the self-direction/reading the directions on your own aspect, I do think that some of the selections for students to read are quite challenging as well - definitely junior high level. There have been a few posts about this, too. So an older kid would not be a whit insulted by the content of the material, and would still learn an awful lot about writing.