IEW Writing Success

[CookIslandsMommy]

Can someone explain to me how exactly IEW works in regards to helping a child become a good writer?

Does anyone have any success stories that they could explain and how it worked for their child/ren?

 

Thanks

Sherid

[lillybell]

I can't give you success stories because I will barely be starting it this next year with my daughters but I have been going through the TWSS and seems like it can definitely help kids who are reluctant writers. My daughters are pretty scatter brained when it comes to writing so we had been using Winning with Writing because it is very structured and helps them learn to write in small pieces at a time but they only go up to 8th grade and they are almost done with that level so I bought IEW. I can see how it makes writing simpler and helps them learn where to start when writing. For example, you might tell your child to write a paragraph about what he/she read, they might sit and sit and sit trying hard to figure our where to even start. With IEW, there is a process to follow with an outline that guides them through this type of paragraph quickly. So now, they can sit and look at the outline and rules for this type of writing and know exactly where to begin. Once that is mastered, the program takes you through other rules to add as they progress through the program in order to make their writing more creative and interesting.

[AmyontheFarm]

I have found that listening to a couple of the Webinar recordings has really helped me to understand the program better. You can find the homeschool webinar links here: http://www.excellenceinwriting.com/webinar-archive

 

I would start by listening to Andrew Pudewa's recordings.

 

Are you familiar with the Suzuki method? Andrew talks about how children need practice learning how to write to become a writer. You wouldn't hand a child a violin and say ok, you have a violin and had a few lessons, now just play this little piece by Mozart. Instead, you would break that music piece down into smaller portions, even down to just a few notes at a time and have them practice those few notes over and over until the child just does it instinctively.

 

My own son went from sobbing at the thought of having writing class to ASKING if we can do IEW now. Huge change! Part of it is the program and part of it is because Mom listened to Andrew and actually heard him explain that I was expecting too much from my child. He has a phrase "EZ+1" before you move onto the next thing, what they are working on needs to be EZ for them to do and then you add 1 thing. This has changed our whole homeschooling experience across all our curriculums. Some people will argue that this program is too systematic, there is no freedom, but truthfully, I don't believe, they haven't sat through all the teaching and actually listened to how the child can become a creative writer with in the structure. I would argue that my child has more freedom now to just enjoy writing and they are writing for the sake of writing, where that has never happened before. I can't believe how far my children have come in such a short time and they are not "brilliant" kids. They are just normal children who finally understand what is expected of them and they have confidence that they actually can meet the goal, so they no longer panic at the thought of writing class. I love the IEW approach and knowing that my dd19 used some of Andrew's writing curriculum for College Plus! has opened my eyes to understand that this program will work for everyone at any age.

 

I'll try to post later how I prepped everything for our next school year into one small file box. Knowing that every thing we will need for IEW next year is sitting there ready to go has really removed all the stress of teaching this again next year.

[TarynB]

My own son went from sobbing at the thought of having writing class to ASKING if we can do IEW now. Huge change! Part of it is the program and part of it is because Mom listened to Andrew and actually heard him explain that I was expecting too much from my child. He has a phrase "EZ+1" before you move onto the next thing, what they are working on needs to be EZ for them to do and then you add 1 thing. This has changed our whole homeschooling experience across all our curriculums. Some people will argue that this program is too systematic, there is no freedom, but truthfully, I don't believe, they haven't sat through all the teaching and actually listened to how the child can become a creative writer with in the structure. I would argue that my child has more freedom now to just enjoy writing and they are writing for the sake of writing, where that has never happened before. I can't believe how far my children have come in such a short time and they are not "brilliant" kids. They are just normal children who finally understand what is expected of them and they have confidence that they actually can meet the goal, so they no longer panic at the thought of writing class. I love the IEW approach and knowing that my dd19 used some of Andrew's writing curriculum for College Plus! has opened my eyes to understand that this program will work for everyone at any age.

 

I love your post, Amy. You've captured my experience with IEW products as well, better than I could have stated it, especially the bolded above.

[freesia]

 

I love your post, Amy. You've captured my experience with IEW products as well, better than I could have stated it, especially the bolded above.

I agree. Adding dress-ups, etc are like practicing scales. Using varied sentence patterns, strong words becomes a habit. Structuring an essay or report becomes a habit, too.

 

There is structure and support for each writing exercise. Writing was an overwhelming, hysteric producing experience for my oldest until we started IEW. And it's not as though I had been expecting "much". He LOVED Andrew Pudewa and would do ANYTHING for him. Seriously, he'd jump up and get right to any assignment. It blew me away.

 

We did SWI-B for fifth, Ancient History for sixth, SICC-B for seventh. He blows folks away with his writing now. We no longer use the checklist (we've been doing some WWS for the end of the year and are moving on to LTOW next year) but he naturally uses varied sentence structure and strong vocabulary. His paragraphs are cohesive and stick to "the point". IMO the scales worked like gangbusters for this child.

[SebastianCat]

My kids were in 5th & 3rd grades last year and did SWI-A. My older child has always been a decent writer but my younger was very reluctant. After going through the SWI, my younger child now loves how she can make her writing so "fancy" and "full of expression" (her words). We just had our end-of-year evaluations today and I was reminded of how much she progressed in that year as she proudly read some of her writing selections for our evaluator. Both of my kids BEGGED to do IEW again next year, which I never thought I'd hear about ANY writing program.

 

I think IEW gives kids the tools to be successful in a non-threatening way. Knowing ahead of time that their finished product would be polished and "fancy" took the drudgery out of the writing process.

[IrishMum]

My oldest son has gone from starting well enough with writing but finishing very weak with no structure, to having a clear start, middle, and end. I don't know much about writing, but I can see an unmeasurable difference in his writing over the last 4 years using IEW. He has always liked to write, the difference is now I like to read it ;)