WWE/WWS Questions???

[l&r'smom]

My dd 8 almost has finished WWE1 and is almost finished with WWE2.  Quite frankly, she doesn't love it, but tolerates it.  I am struggling with whether to continue with it or not.  The very structured process appeals to me greatly, and I had always thought I would stick with this program throughout.  At the same time......I want her to really enjoy writing, and right now, she views it as a chore.  And don't even get me started on narrations!  If it is my turn to write, I have to reign her in, or she will ramble on until I have no more room left on the paper. If she has to write it out, it can sometimes sound like a bad Dick and Jane reader.  She is not finding a happy medium.  Is this just a stage??  If I stay the course will her sentence structure improve?  Or do I need to add something??  Or switch programs? Maybe Writing Strands??  Anyone else feel like this at this stage?

[l&r'smom]

Sorry that should read:  My dd8 almost 9 has finished WWE1.....

 

It is early and my coffee is not working yet!!!!

[Alice]

My son hated it. He called it Writing Without Ease. :) I stuck with it because I could see the fruit. He definitely got better at writing and I could see that it was working. Also, my intuition was that he was never going to find a writing program he did like. If he had been a kid who loved creative writing or would sit down and write on his own or showed other interest I might have searched harder for a program that sparked that interest. My personal philosophy is that there are going to be some subjects that he just doesn’t like and that he still has to do. For those, I look for the curriculum that appeals to me and that gets the job done. 

 

I will say we’re starting on WWS now and although he still hates writing, it’s gotten slowly better. I think that’s because it’s getting slightly easier for him as he’s worked through the program. 

 

 

[My3girls]

Dds7&8 are doing WWE 2, and I am seeing improvement. We'll migrate into 3 before the school year is out. We will stick with it through this year, but I have not heard good things about WWE 4 so I am considering moving them to CW Aesop next year in 3rd grade. Dd11 is using WWS 1 this year. So far it's been very easy. Dd does have trouble with keeping the summaries just summaries on what she has read. She is always wanting to stick in her own little side stories or goes off on a tangent. I'm trying to make her see that sometimes you have to write just the assignment. That she cannot always make every project her own masterpiece, kwim? I may need to add in some creative writing outlet fulfill this need for her. I've heard that it gets progressively harder, though, so we will use it all year and then assess where we are.

[NotSoObvious]

Honestly, they are such short lessons and I see so many benefits from WWE, I'd probably just keep going. But that's how I roll.

[Chrysalis Academy]

My dd7 doesn't love WWE either - she likes copywork & dictation, but says she "hates" narration.  But it is a crucial skill, I think, so I'm not dropping it.

 

What you might consider looking at is a program like the new Writing & Rhetoric program from CAP.  It's new, so no one has a ton of experience with it yet, but posters here seem to really like it.  I have it and I'm planning on using it starting next week, alternating with WWE.  One thing I like about it, and that might help in your situation, is that it distinguishes between two skills:  narration, telling back a story orally with as many details as possible, vs. summarizing, which is finding the main points of the story and leaving out the details.  It teaches summarizing systematically, as in "Write one sentence that tells what happens at the beginning of the story" "Write one sentence that tells what happens in the middle of the story" and "Write one sentence that tells what happens at the end of the story" as separate steps, which I think will really help with that process of focusing on the main event and leaving out the details.

 

Your dd is a good age for this program, you might give it a try, or you could just use that technique with the WWE passages.  The WWE passages are more difficult and complex than the stories in W&R, I think, but the technique should be helpful.

[l&r'smom]

Thanks to anyone who put in their two cents.  I think we will definitely keep it up with the change that Chrysalis Academy mentioned.  She may just need more specific instruction.  What about the sentence structure?  Her sentences seem to be very short or sort of garbled.  They do not seem to flow well.  Is this normal for this age?  She is kinda an all or nothing sort of girl.  Either you have to wring sentences out of her, or she starts writing so quickly I can't correct mistakes fast enough!  Then she is very upset about having to erase and correct her mistakes.  I guess I just need to be patient and do a little more hand holding.

[Chrysalis Academy]

I think if my dd was writing as you describe, I'd back up and do a fair amount of copywork and single-sentence dictation until she's really writing single sentences well. If sh'es doing fine with copywork and dictation, no need to back up, but keep doing that before pressing ahead with trying to have her write her own narrations.  

 

I'd keep doing narrations, but you scribe for her, and then use her sentences (which you have written down) to discuss, analyze, etc.  I wouldn't necessarily make her write her own narration sentences until you can get her doing good oral narration(summaries).  Remember, it's two hard things - summarizing & writing - and you don't want to ask her to do two hard things at the same time.  Use copywork and dictation to get her to practice the physical act of writing, and keep summary/narrations oral (i.e. her speaking, you helping her rework her spoken words into good sentences, then you writing them down, then you discussing them (and what makes them good) with her).

[happycc]

Learning anything new is hard work and no one enjoys it until they truly master it. 

 

Mastering of writing takes years and years and the process is just the process. It is not an easy process for many children/people. 

 

I hated writing as a child but had to go through the process and I enjoy writing a lot more now. I can always still improve especially since English is not my first language. 

 

So many times when kids are struggling with a writing program, it is because they are going through the process and LEARNING!

 

My kids were loving writing and did plenty of writing while they were at ps school. However their writing was awful. Nothing was capitalized and there were no punctuation and the sentences were fragments and run-ons and often didn't make any sense whatsoever. Don;t even let me begin about their spelling. So what is the point of loving to write when it is not even communicating anything to anyone properly? 

 

With WWE-the kids are trained to look at details, trained to speak and recognize complete sentences, trained to listen carefully for details, trained to retain a certain amount of information in their brain long enough to get it down on paper, trained to learn new vocabulary, trained to read different kinds of genres, introduced to classics utilizing complex sentence structures and vocabulary, trained to take a long piece of information and express it into just a few sentences..the list goes on. 

 

So yes, with all that learning and making their lazy brain work, of course, they are going to fight it and not like it. 

 

But so worth it in the end! My 6th grade daughters are taking a writing class with other kids who are about a few grades ahead of them. They are doing just fine in the class and I know it has to do with WWE. 

 

I plan to go through the program with my younger ones as well and add to it by using other programs. I will not substitute WWE.