prairiewindmomma Posted December 18, 2015 Share Posted December 18, 2015 We're midway through WWS2 with ds13. He took 18 months to get through WWS1. We are trying to soldier on through WWS2, and it's going horribly. Essentially, he isn't juggling doing cited work well. I can continue to work on that with him, but I need to back down for a bit. Writing has become soul-killing for him. Doing 1-3 page summaries from WTM was similarly soul-killing for him. He thrived on IEW. He has significant executive functioning issues (and is on ADD meds). He is bright, has interesting thoughts, and free-writes creatively well. I need something to bridge the gap between IEW and WWS2. Recommendations? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tmstranger Posted December 18, 2015 Share Posted December 18, 2015 Is there a reason you cannot go back to IEW? If he was doing well with it, I'd go back to that. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lori D. Posted December 18, 2015 Share Posted December 18, 2015 (edited) Agreeing with tmstranger. Or... What about Brave Writer Faltering Ownership? Or, if you don't mind a program with a bit of Christian perspective that is very similar in style to IEW, check out Jump In. See Jump In table of contents and sample pages here, or more sample pages here. It's designed as a 2-year program, but we did it in 1 year with our 13-14yo struggling writer, as we dropped the free writing component in favor of free writes on actual past SAT essay prompts, as the Jump In prompts were lame and repetitive. (Also, the program has you do a unit, then break for several weeks of daily free writes -- which is how it stretches the program into a 2-year program. The author, Sharon Watson, also has a gentle high school program, The Power In Your Hands. If DS enjoys creative writing, I'd make sure to schedule time regularly for him to do that to ENJOY writing. You don't necessarily have to have a curriculum to that, but if your son would be interested, I've heard great things about the One Year Adventure Novel program for grades 8-12… It might be something you could ping-pong back and forth with a non-fiction writing program (do a unit/chapter in one, then switch and do a unit/chapter in the other, then switch back) and spread both out over two years... BEST of luck in your Writing adventures and finding what brings back the joy in writing! :) Warmest regards, Lori D. Edited December 18, 2015 by Lori D. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HeWillSoar Posted December 22, 2015 Share Posted December 22, 2015 (edited) Another one to try is Wordsmith. We are doing that this year with success after doing the first part of WWS1 last year and then doing our own thing (outlining, 5 paragraph essay). It teaches creative writing skills. It's much easier to implement that WWS, much lighter, but I think this will have my kids better prepared for it if we return to WWS in the future. It might just be the break your child needs. Edited December 22, 2015 by HeWillSoar Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mrs Twain Posted December 22, 2015 Share Posted December 22, 2015 You could do IEW's Elegant Essay. That can be done in about a semester. My son did that at the end of last year. He wanted to continue with Mr. Pudewa's lectures, so bought IEW SICC-C for him to do over 7th and 8th grades. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Julie of KY Posted December 29, 2015 Share Posted December 29, 2015 Writing has become soul-killing for him. Doing 1-3 page summaries from WTM was similarly soul-killing for him. Recommendations? When writing becomes soul-killing, then I often think that the best option is to take a break from writing altogether. It can be a break of weeks or months and a lot of writing related information can be learned, but you need to rejuvenate the attitude toward writing. For my non-writer, Brave Writer has been wonderful (he also tolerated IEW better than anything else). Brave Writer online courses have brought out his writing voice and taught him a lot of structure of writing. I've been amazed at the end result and he says that he if he has to learn writing he would like to do it the Brave Writer way better than anything else. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MerryAtHope Posted December 30, 2015 Share Posted December 30, 2015 Why not just go back to IEW and ditch WWS2? There are many different writing programs out there, and some will work better for students than others. I wouldn't carry on with WWS2 when it's going so poorly, especially since IEW went so well. Go with what works. He has years yet to work on how to cite materials etc... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
prairiewindmomma Posted December 30, 2015 Author Share Posted December 30, 2015 I think we have a plan. We are putting aside WWS2. He would like to use Moving Beyond the Page for writing to finish out the year. Next year we'll go back to IEW. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JadeOrchidSong Posted January 2, 2016 Share Posted January 2, 2016 We were in the same situation exactly a year ago. We sold WWS2 and used Lively Art of Writing to finish the school year. Now ds is in a writing class. I am not very happy with the class, which uses IEW basic paragraph level. Ds finished IEW Stdent Intensive Writing Level B a year and a half ago, so this is a huge step down. Oh well... I will consider some online writing next school year. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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