IEW can you just get a book

[ElizabethB]

I like reading stuff, not watching DVDs. The children also do not like DVD instruction. I also do not like IEWs forumulaicness, but want the grading scale and a few of the exercises to prevent grading and revision clashes. So, will one of the books suffice, and which one? For a bit of help with whatever we use for writing next year for 9th grade and 6th grade next year, I am still undecided for this subject, am looking around for ideas, and may cobble somethng together from a variety of sources.

 

I am either going to need an objective grading scale for high school or may outsource grading and revision in some manner, this has recently become an issue. Objective grading is not an issue, so hopefully if I can make English objective enough I could just grade it myself. I mean, I have standards and reasons, but not a checklist or anything...

Edited May 26, 2016 by ElizabethB

[OneStepAtATime]

No idea with that would work or what to use but I thought I would bump this hoping someone would have an idea for you...

[Sahamamama]

I like reading stuff, not watching DVDs. The children also do not like DVD instruction. I also do not like IEWs forumulaicness, but want the grading scale and a few of the exercises to prevent grading and revision clashes. So, will one of the books suffice, and which one? For a bit of help with whatever we use for writing next year for 9th grade and 6th grade next year, I am still undecided for this subject, am looking around for ideas, and may cobble somethng together from a variety of sources.

 

I am either going to need an objective grading scale for high school or may outsource grading and revision in some manner, this has recently become an issue. Objective grading is not an issue, so hopefully if I can make English objective enough I could just grade it myself. I mean, I have standards and reasons, but not a checklist or anything...

 

Just throwing out some ideas here --

• Writing with Skill has some rubrics in the Instructor's Guide. They are not correlated with grades, exactly, but list the specific requirements for each specific assignment.

• Perhaps you could find something sufficient by searching for "essay grading rubric." Here's one possibility.

• You could try to swallow the whole DVD thing, by watching this. It didn't convince me, though. I'm with you, just give me a book. ;)

• You could email Andrew and ask him what product might work best for your situation. He has a money-back guarantee, so you could try something and if it doesn't work, send it back.

Edited to Add: I just wanted to pop back in to say that I really like how WWS has the student become accountable to a set of guidelines for each assignment. That set of requirements is ever before the student while writing, and matches up to the set the parent/teacher uses to evaluate the writing. I wonder if WWS and/or WTMA course would work for your oldest?

 

 

Edited May 26, 2016 by Sahamamama

[ElizabethB]

Just throwing out some ideas here --

• Writing with Skill has some rubrics in the Instructor's Guide. They are not correlated with grades, exactly, but list the specific requirements for each specific assignment.

• Perhaps you could find something sufficient by searching for "essay grading rubric." Here's one possibility.

• You could try to swallow the whole DVD thing, by watching this. It didn't convince me, though. I'm with you, just give me a book. ;)

• You could email Andrew and ask him what product might work best for your situation. He has a money-back guarantee, so you could try something and if it doesn't work, send it back.

Edited to Add: I just wanted to pop back in to say that I really like how WWS has the student become accountable to a set of guidelines for each assignment. That set of requirements is ever before the student while writing, and matches up to the set the parent/teacher uses to evaluate the writing. I wonder if WWS and/or WTMA course would work for your oldest?

She does not enjoy WWS. I am considering WWS 2 if I don't find anything better for next year. She is capable of and does fine with it, though, but she reallymwants another format if I can get a good grading scale so we don't clash over that.

[foxbridgeacademy]

I used the IEW Medieval themed book having never used the program but I did do a lot of research on how the program worked. 

[athomeontheprairie]

No help. I don't like DVD's, and neither do my kids. We've used swi-a and the swcc. Moving into a theme book next year. one thing I really hated about the DVDs, was there was 20 minutes sometimes of jokes and fluff. we just wanted him to get to the point so we could move on.

 

BUT we really did enjoy the program And her writing vastly improved.

 

This is no help, just commiseration

[Mrs Twain]

I like the IEW grading rubric for middle school/high school levels. Of course it follows the IEW checklist ("formula") exactly, so if you don't want to use their checklist, it would be difficult to use IEW's rubric.

[Garga]

Create your own rubric and don't tell her that you created it yourself. Then you will have your daughter writing the way you want her to and it's an "objective grading scale." I don't know if that is dishonest. But you don't have to let her know you created it yourself, necessarily. Just "here's a rubric for writing assignments".

[Garga]

The IEW grading sheets or rubrics are very geared toward their forumla. You score based on whether they used things like a "strong verb" or certain types of opening sentences. They don't have a general grading scale. It's all on if you are using their formula.

[mtomom]

I'm using a theme book alone, a history theme geared for all grades. However, I don't think their rubrics would be what you need. They are tailored toward IEW writing style.

[ElizabethB]

I actually think she might do well with the whole program for a semester or two if it weren't DVD, she is a very checkboxy person. But, she also hates, hates, hates DVD instruction. She did extra chores to avoid DVD watching to finish up a DVD program she was using, she did chores while I watched the DVD and then I taught it to her...

 

I like doing chores less than I like watching DVDs, but my daughter does not. We both prefer reading.

[Garga]

I actually think she might do well with the whole program for a semester or two if it weren't DVD, she is a very checkboxy person. But, she also hates, hates, hates DVD instruction. She did extra chores to avoid DVD watching to finish up a DVD program she was using, she did chores while I watched the DVD and then I taught it to her...

 

I like doing chores less than I like watching DVDs, but my daughter does not. We both prefer reading.

Then you want one of the theme books. Here they are: http://iew.com/shop/shop-category/theme-based-writing. They're sort of hard to find on the website, so search for IEW THEME in google to find them.

 

I used them for two years for my sons and never read a word about the IEW process or watched any DVDs. However, I am a strong writer so I don't know if that counts. I think the DVDs are about how to teach writing. I didn't necessarily need that.

 

What you do is pick one of the theme books, preferrably one geared for her age and then do the lessons. No DVDs ever. You don't need to have pre-studied about their program. You can just pick up the theme books and go.

 

At first, I found the lessons a little perplexing. I had to study exactly what would need to be done and decide what day to do what part of the lesson. I mean, for each lesson they tell you what to do, but they don't break it up into daily assignments. I broke each lesson up into daily assignments. After about halfway through the book, it was really easy to break it up into daily assigments, but it took me a bit of time to do it with ease. Just letting you know.

 

It is formulaic, but it served its purpose for my kids who were floundering and never knowing what to write. I deliberately used it for 2 years and then stopped. We needed that groundwork.

Edited May 27, 2016 by Garga

[Garga]

You will need the student edition and the teacher's edition. You must have both. But that's all you'll need. The student book and the teacher's book. Done. No DVDs or anything else required.

 

Once you buy the books, you'll get a code for a free pdf file to download with helpful pages of information. Like, they teach you some alternate phrases for "said." The pdf will have list of words to use instead of said: replied, exclaimed, murmured, etc.

 

And they have pages of verb ideas and adjective ideas, and so forth. I printed some of those out for my kids and put them in a binder for them to refer to.

 

The pdf is free with the purchase of the books and very helpful.

Edited May 27, 2016 by Garga

[ElizabethB]

You will need the student edition and the teacher's edition. You must have both. But that's all you'll need. The student book and the teacher's book. Done. No DVDs or anything else required.

Thanks. I am a stong writer, too, I think it could work in a similar manner to how you used it. I was planning on selling WWS 2 but I'll keep it just in case or maybe for ideas or follow on work.

[NoPlaceLikeHome]

I'm using a theme book alone, a history theme geared for all grades. However, I don't think their rubrics would be what you need. They are tailored toward IEW writing style.

This. I recall the rubrics in the US History theme book to be a simple checklist for using the different style sentences and that was about it. Plus, I felt to follow the checklist exactly stilted my kid's writing since he already wrote something very nice and the checklist wanted him to force more style features in. I told not to do the whole checklist. IMHO I don't think the checklists that we saw was very helpful in terms of a rubric for essays.

[NoPlaceLikeHome]

Thanks. I am a stong writer, too, I think it could work in a similar manner to how you used it. I was planning on selling WWS 2 but I'll keep it just in case or maybe for ideas or follow on work.

One idea is to look at crash course syllabi on the WTM Academy since it is a condensed version of all 3 WWS books. Not every lesson is necessary in WWS since there are multiple lessons developing same topic which is good if you need practice in a particular area. 

 

I like how WWS gives very good info on plagiarism, bibliographies, etc.

[Mrs Twain]

The first step I do with IEW is to use the checklist (or rubric) to make sure my kids included everything they were supposed to--all the required dress ups, sentence starters, decorations, topic-clincher, intro and conclusion elements, etc. You could do this with your child in order to give an objective grade for the paper. If anything is missing, we try to add needed parts to complete the checklist. If my child can't come up with a decoration, I don't worry about that.

 

After that we edit the paper to improve the flow so the finished composition is one that we are basically pleased with. If a few of the IEW required components get axed, that is okay.