Okay, fess up...who has dumped Writing & Rhetoric?

[Ms.Ivy]

I am sill using it, but i view the program as more of a work-out routine to help writing skills, and less as direct writing instruction. It is based on exercises the ancient Greeks did orally with boys to prepare them for rhetoric in the future. I love it, but we do use Rod and Staff with it. I honestly don't believe in requiring a lot of writing in elementary. I really believe that conversation can prepare students to become better writers, perhaps more than direct instruction. So the CAP program fits my idea of a good writing prep program. But I can certainly see why others would be disappointed with it, if it wasn't what they expected.

[ChocolateMomster]

Dumped it after two lessons. :p I felt it was a bunch of busywork.

[pitterpatter]

LOL! The second lesson must be the nail in the coffin. Seems like a lot of us have called it quits at that point.

 

Dumped it after two lessons. :p I felt it was a bunch of busywork.

 

[Bluegoat]

Jumping in a little late here, but I wanted to comment since we are still continuing to enjoy the W&R series.

 

This answer is going to sound really lazy, but I honestly didn't make my dd do that much work with her stories in Fable.

 

hen she had a rewrite or an amplification I'd talk over the elements she needed to make sure and include, but I didn't make her map it out or anything. We would brainstorm ideas together and talk it through. For example the rewrite of the Mice Council we brainstormed a bit about what animals/situations would work well together. Usually she'd pick random animal that she liked because she wanted to write about that animal, so then I'd start asking her questions. "What would your other animal be?" "How could you make those two animals fit the formula of the fable?" "Would that really work or should you choose another animal?" If her choice was a go, then she'd go off and write it. If her choice wouldn't really work, I would slowly lead her to that realization through questioning and she'd pick another animal that was a better choice as her jumping off point.

 

For amplifications it was much more simple. I'd help her brainstorm where she could add in extra details. Some of that is in the book anyway, but I'd have her start talking to me about what additional details she would add just to make sure she was on the right track, and then send her off to write.

 

So I guess ours was more of a questioning method of instruction, but I really let her lead the direction even if sometimes I was inwardly rolling my eyes thinking, "There are so many better choices for that rewrite," or "It would have been so much better to amplify it this way,"  but ultimately this method has worked with her. By the time we finished Fable she had really found her voice and her writing became very descriptive, tight, and imaginative. It was night and day between the beginning of the book and the end. We started Narrative II this summer and are about to finish it up. I've seen Grace's writing continue to grow by leaps and bounds. My mom even took one of her stories from Narrative II back to her school district to show the language arts teachers how W & R was teaching writing. She was really impressed with Grace's work.

 

This is what we did.  It didn't occur to me that we were meant to do anything more complicated.