foofoobunny Posted May 25, 2015 Share Posted May 25, 2015 My daughter (13) will be in 8th grade. She finished Writing with Skill 1 this past year and did very well. I want to switch to IEW, but I'm not sure what to buy. I checked out the 9-12 grade stuff - it looks intense. I think she would be able to do it if she had been in IEW before (knowing the lingo and such), but I'm unsure if I should just throw her into it or do a prerequisite like they suggest - Windows to the World. Does anyone have any suggestions? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OneStepAtATime Posted May 25, 2015 Share Posted May 25, 2015 Call the company and talk to them. They should be able to answer your questions. Honestly, though, you might want to just start her in SWI-B. That would be the Middle School level of their main writing program. Do you have a grammar program? You could pair it with the new IEW Fix-It Grammar. Some people complete each Grammar book in a semester instead of a year, especially with older kids, since the lessons are only 15 minutes long at the outside and there are only 4 per week. Easy to complete two weeks worth of lessons each week and still get grammar done in less than 30 minutes. Do grammar over the summer and a child could complete the entire grammar program in 2 years. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SparklyUnicorn Posted May 25, 2015 Share Posted May 25, 2015 I started with B with my 13 year old. It's working well, but we are moving through very quickly because it's a tad on the easy side for him. BUT the thing is, it's a pretty specific method so it makes sense to start there. I will buy C when he is done. Another option is to just buy the teacher stuff and find your own resources and move through at whatever pace you want. You can do it without the writing intensives. I like having it though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SparklyUnicorn Posted May 25, 2015 Share Posted May 25, 2015 To add, we also did WWS 1. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
laughing lioness Posted May 25, 2015 Share Posted May 25, 2015 Window to the World is Lit analysis and not a pre-req to the writing. Do you want to teach or do you want a DVD to teach? If you are going with DVD- I'd suggest "B". Your kids are taught through the DVD and create a writing notebook- they will learn the lingo as they go through the DVD. If you want to teach, go through TWSS and learn the lingo-it will teach you how to teach the program. Then, I would suggest a theme book to match up with science or history. I've taught both IEW and WWS and I did not find IEW more intense than WWS- it is just a different focus. With IEW, your kids will learn a lot of stylistic techniques, but the writing they've done so far will put them in a great spot to soar with IEW (or any other program, for that matter). 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
foofoobunny Posted May 25, 2015 Author Share Posted May 25, 2015 Call the company and talk to them. They should be able to answer your questions. Honestly, though, you might want to just start her in SWI-B. That would be the Middle School level of their main writing program. Do you have a grammar program? You could pair it with the new IEW Fix-It Grammar. Some people complete each Grammar book in a semester instead of a year, especially with older kids, since the lessons are only 15 minutes long at the outside and there are only 4 per week. Easy to complete two weeks worth of lessons each week and still get grammar done in less than 30 minutes. Do grammar over the summer and a child could complete the entire grammar program in 2 years. I thought about starting her in B, but I think it would be too easy for her. I guess I was just worried about reading Canterbury Tales and The Great Gatsby. Those seem difficult to me. I am probably not giving her enough credit. I don't have a grammar program. We just finished Bob Jones English 7. It was so boring and easy for her. I started with B with my 13 year old. It's working well, but we are moving through very quickly because it's a tad on the easy side for him. BUT the thing is, it's a pretty specific method so it makes sense to start there. I will buy C when he is done. Another option is to just buy the teacher stuff and find your own resources and move through at whatever pace you want. You can do it without the writing intensives. I like having it though. I was wondering about the specific method. That is why I was wondering if 9-12 would be too hard for her since she is used to the WWS way of doing things. She likes the idea of doing the IEW British Literature... Window to the World is Lit analysis and not a pre-req to the writing. Do you want to teach or do you want a DVD to teach? If you are going with DVD- I'd suggest "B". Your kids are taught through the DVD and create a writing notebook- they will learn the lingo as they go through the DVD. If you want to teach, go through TWSS and learn the lingo-it will teach you how to teach the program. Then, I would suggest a theme book to match up with science or history. I've taught both IEW and WWS and I did not find IEW more intense than WWS- it is just a different focus. With IEW, your kids will learn a lot of stylistic techniques, but the writing they've done so far will put them in a great spot to soar with IEW (or any other program, for that matter). I'm not sure if I want to teach it or not. I didn't know there was an option of having the kids go through the dvds... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OneStepAtATime Posted May 25, 2015 Share Posted May 25, 2015 Yes IEW has DVDs for the kids to watch (SWI). The kids can learn from those, although I recommend you watch them, too so you can act as faciliator. There are also teacher DVDs (TWSS) that have just been updated. That teaches you how to teach the course. Some people skip those and just buy SWI. Some buy the TWSS DVDs anyway, so they can be more effective at helping their student even if they don't actually teach the class. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CoramDeoTutorials Posted July 4, 2015 Share Posted July 4, 2015 Hi Foofoobunny, I actually teach an online writing workshop class over the summer that introduces children around your daughter's age (middle school age) to the stylistic techniques in IEW. It's a simple, laid-back workshop where students have fun trying out the stylistic techniques on various short stories that I prepare beforehand. There is no homework involved. The class works together during our online sessions to incorporate IEW's stylistic techniques. I think that might be a good introduction and/or a good way to catch up for your daughter if she intends to begin the curriculum this school year. As you may or may not know, IEW's curriculum consists of two broad areas: structure and style. From my own personal experience in teaching IEW, the style portion of the syllabus is much more useful and fun (I use other curriculum to teach structure), so I now teach all of the stylistic techniques in two summer workshops. Feel free to check out my website if you're interested. The first workshop starts on July 13th. http://coramdeotutorials.com/courses/workshops/ Here's an article I wrote which includes sample work from young students applying stylistic techniques to their writing: http://coramdeotutorials.com/2013/04/11/what-are-stylistic-techniques/ Hope some of that is helpful! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest CmpSciMom Posted July 6, 2015 Share Posted July 6, 2015 We used WWS 1 and switched recently to IEW. My 13 year old eighth grader is using SWI B, but I also have the TWSS that I use to guide her. She looked over the samples for the high school levels but was not comfortable with them, even after WWS 1. So, we will finish up SWI B before moving into high school writing, probably mid year of 8th grade. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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