IEW theme-do you do additional writing?

[pocjets]

if you use an IEW theme book with your 5th/6th grader, do you make them do additional writing in other subjects? If so, how much/often and what type of assignments? Thinking ahead for next year. Thank you!

[Goldilocks]

I am using a theme book with my 5th grader.  We are using All Things Fun and Facinating because I happened to already own it.  I was looking for a systematic way to teach him how to write good summary paragraphs after reading about a topic in history.  Because my focus was narrow, I have skipped a lot of the lessons in the theme book.   He did a few lessons on key word outlines and a few more on summarizing sources.  On the weeks that he does not do an IEW lesson, I have him write a paragraph for history.  I provide a source ( a short article from an on-line encyclopedia) and he uses what he has learned to write a paragraph.  

 

I was able to skip around in the theme book because I have used IEW off and on with my older children. If I had not done that, I would have stuck with the theme book only and not required any other writing until we were finished with the book.  I think a paragraph a week is a good expectation for a 5th/6th grader.