WWE and Writing Through History

[desertflower 635]

Hello,

 

I really like WWE.  I was wondering if Writing Through History teaches the same thing, just with history passages/poems/documents.  What I mean by that is I like the way WWE is helping the child learn how to narrate.  It tells the instructor to ask these questions and the child's answer should be similar to these answers, etc. 

 

Will Writing Through History have this process as well or does it just tell the student to narrate in your own words w/o any prompting questions?

 

Thanks for any information. :) 

[Chrysalis Academy 40,274]

There are no questions or  prompts in the actual text, just passages to read, space for written narration, and then a copywork passage and space for copying. There is a pretty thick section at the front on how to teach it, and how to do narrations, how to use it to cover grammar, etc.  But it's not laid out for you lesson-by-lesson, passage-by-passage the way WWE is.

[desertflower 635]

Thank you Rose. 

[TheAttachedMama 1,243]

The beauty of Writing through History is that it is EXTREMELY flexible.   First just choose which part of history you want to study.    Then, apply your own language arts "loop" of narration, copywork, and dictation based on the level of your child, their strengths/weaknesses, and your preferred methods of instruction.    We basically followed the same WWE pattern of teaching writing, except we used the passages from Write from history.    If I ever notice that a particular skill is difficult for my child, we practice it more often in our loop.   We also pick and choose which selections I want them to narrate or do dictation from.

 

I loved Susan Wise Bauer's method of teaching writing.   I always use that as my 'base' to fall back on.   I did NOT love WWE becaues I didn't like teaching language arts through random excerpts from books.   Plus, we read so much---it seems silly to read more just so we have something to narrate from.   It just isn't efficient.   You know?    Write from History contains various selections for literature that I already want to read to my kids when we study history.   Additionally, I like teaching children to narrate from fables and other similar stories.  It is easier for kids to realize they need to include a definite beginning, middle, and end to their story.   (That is harder to teach when you are just pulling five random paragraphs from the middle of the book---because there is no end in the selection.)    

 

The selections in Write from History ARE very challenging.   Even at 9, my kids seem to understand the level 1 selections a lot more.   Much of the poetry and direct source documents weren't really appreciated.  

[Chrysalis Academy 40,274]

Agreed. The Level 2 selections are really quite challenging.

[desertflower 635]

Thank you AttachedMama.

 

I agree about I love the way she teaches writing, but want to apply it to history selections. 

 

I'm kind of torn because we already do sotw and I ask him to narrate every other week on that.  But we will see.......

[Amy Meyers 414]

Agree with both Rose and Attached Mama. WTH doesn't help you with narrations at all the way WWE does, but it is way more efficient in my opinion. Wish I could have WWE, WTH-style!

[waa510 619]

We've really enjoyed Write From History over here but no, it doesn't have any comp questions like WWE. I feel like it's a good stepping stone for my Dd though as I wanted her to start reading the selections and finding that important information on her own, without hints as to what's important by rewording what she said in response to my questions. ;)

 

The selections are very challenging but similar to what she'll later see in a textbook. It's important to me that she can pick up any textbook and be able to learn from it, so this is helping a ton with that skill. I find having my Dd narrate orally to me any passage that is particularly dense, then have her write her narration after that, has helped quite a bit. I also have her chunk the paragraphs into groups, like these talk about Alfred the Great's childhood, these talk about his fighting against the Danes, these talk about his working with shepherds, etc so that she can pick out the details for narrating. It's kind of visually outlining without doing so. WTH has definitely helped her learn history, and enabled me to become a better writing coach. It's not as open and go as WWE was but I'm starting to feel like she's at a level in her writing that she would need me to be there to help stretch her whatever we use. 

[desertflower 635]

Thank you for your inputs Amy and waa510. 

[thegeyser 196]

I think Writing Through History would marry well with The Complete Writer. I posted a review on Amazon and basically said this exact thing.

[LMD 7,736]

Yes, what geyser said. There's no reason that you couldn't use the teacher wwe text and use sotw or history lit (or just lit) for your wwe selections. I also didn't love the bits and pieces of novels, so we just work through one, generally, unless I'm pressed for time and just use the workbook!

[desertflower 635]

Thank you thegeyser.  I'll check that out.

 

Thank you LMD.  I think that's what I'll do with some sotw chapters and  some write through history selections.   :)