IEW questions

[Coffeebreak]

I am thinking about doing theme based writing program, Medieval History-Based Writing lesson.  I can't afford Teaching Writing: Structure & Style. Will be difficult to use the themed program without having watched the videos? Any reviews on themed program or IEW in general?

TIA

 

Lynn

[JDoe]

I have used the ancient history one without having Teaching Writing: Structure & Style without encountering any difficulties, although I do suspect that it might be a little better or a little easier with. It would probably be OK even without the teacher book.

 

I think that the student resource notebook is a plus to get as there are some references to it that we missed in the beginning without it.

[AmyontheFarm]

You could also watch the free webinars on the IEW website.  It is assumed you will have the TWSS teacher's manual, but they might help.

[cintinative]

I would look into borrowing it. The story sequence chart is really tricky to teach without having watched the videos.

[OneStepAtATime]

Since they just updated their program, you might be able to get a used one of the old version much cheaper now....

[jessamonk]

I have a similar question. If I was able to borrow someone's DVDs for a few weeks and watch them all this summer, before teaching, would that work? Or do I need to have access to DVDs whilst teaching? Would I need the seminar workbook throughout the year?

[FLDebbie]

Jessamonk, you should be fine with watching TWSS over the summer.  It's nice to have them to refer back to, but with all the support on thier website and the Yahoo group, you should be able to get any questions answered.

[Suzanne in ABQ]

I second the recommendation to try to borrow the DVDs, and watch them over the summer.  

 

Or, getting them used is an excellent idea.  I got mine off eBay.  Since most people just watch them once or twice, there were many sets available in excellent condition.  Since there is a new version out, it may make the old version even easier to find (or it may cause a panic frenzy if word gets out that people like the old better than the new -- you never know).  

 

You definitely want the TWSS Workbook to match the DVDs you are watching, as he refers to specific pages frequently, and jumps back and forth in the book.  I imagine it would be confusing if you had old DVDs with a new workbook, or vice versa.

 

To save some money, you can skip the Teacher Edition of the History Based Writing book, and just work with the Student Book.  The Teacher book has examples for outlines and suggested answers to the worksheets, but they're only suggestions.  We never use them.   :)  Everything else is exactly the same.

[foxbridgeacademy]

I also couldn't afford the full program and I just purchased the Medieval student/teacher set.  Except for the first day I never used the teacher's manual.  We did use, and still use the student resource notebook.  Both Dc said they learned a lot and especially DS, who improved immensely.  We skipped the story lessons, we needed to work on non-fiction writing and the story of St. Augustine was too religious for us. I did do a ton of research first on dress ups, KWO,  www.asia etc... but I didn't need to, everything is pretty much included in the student book and the resource book, or you can ask here. 

[Garga]

I got the student book only. Wait...I also got the student resource notebook (SRN), but if I recall, that comes with the purchase of the student book. On the first page of the student book is a blue page with a link to the SRN to download and print if you like. You will need the SRN.

 

We did perfectly fine without ever even knowing there was supposed to be more to the program. I thought the theme books *were* IEW and it wasn't until a year into it that I realized there was supposed to be more to the program.

 

It took me a couple of months, though, to really sort out how to present the material. Here's what I do:

 

I read over the lesson jotting down each thing presented in the lesson, like this:

 

vocabulary words

learn banned words

read pg #

do the outline

tell the story out loud fro the outline

write the rough draft

check the rough draft

write a final copy

 

Then, I break all the little pieces into the number of days I have for each lesson (6 for me.) So, for the above it would look like this for me:

 

Day 1: vocab words--read them

learn the banned words

 

Day 2: vocab words--write a sentence using each word (this isn't in the book, but it's what we do.)

read pg #

do outline

 

Day 3: vocab words--write a sentence using each word

tell me the story from the outline outloud

write the story from the outline as a rough draft (1/2 of it)

 

Day 4:

second half of RD

Edit RD

 

Day:5

Write the final draft (1/2)

 

Day 6:

Finish the FD

 

 

 

My kids went from being unable to write and crying over it, to being able to write very lovely papers. We did IEW this way for 2 years. It breaks writing down into tiny little chunks and very explicitly teaches writing tips (like have some long and some short sentences in an essay--not all long or all short. Start some sentences with -ly words like Finally or Conversely, etc.)

 

Now that we've absorbed those technical tips, I'm looking for more creative writing for next year, but IEW met our needs for the process to be broken out and writing tips to be carefully explained.