IEW's SWI-A - how much time each day?

[MeganW]

I am going to do IEW's Student Writing Intensive A this summer with my 10.5 and just-turned-12 year olds.  Assuming we plan to work 4-5 days a week, about how long would you plan to spend on this each day?  I won't hold you to an exact number of minutes - I just need to know whether to budget 10 minutes or an hour.  Thanks!

[cintinative]

The videos really vary in length. I went on the "suggested schedule" in the appendix and wrote in the video times.  So sometimes the videos may be 45 minutes long and sometimes 30 minutes or less. Most often they average out at about 30 minutes.  I broke up the longer videos into two days.  There are timestamps in the teacher's manual so you know where sections end. Our schedule for a three paragraph paper was something like this:  Monday watch video (40 -45 minutes), Tuesday create outlines (30 minutes), Thursday (write 1st paragraph from outline, about 30 minutes), Friday (write 2nd paragraph from outline), Monday (write 3rd paragraph from outline), Tuesday (type and complete checklist--20-30 minutes), Thurs (next video), Friday (outline), etc.  I would assume 30-40 minutes four days a week. 

[mschickie]

Are you planning on doing it as an intensive over just a few weeks or stretching it out to the 30 or so weeks?  That will make a big difference.  On average I would plan on 30-40 minutes each day minimum if you are stretching it, a few hours if you are doing it as the intensive.

[athomeontheprairie]

Are you planning on doing it as an intensive over just a few weeks or stretching it out to the 30 or so weeks? That will make a big difference. On average I would plan on 30-40 minutes each day minimum if you are stretching it, a few hours if you are doing it as the intensive.

When I saw your title I would have said 30-40 minutes, depending on video days. But doing it all in the summer? Much longer per day, though I fouls try to break it up. Outline, break, write, break, edit break rewrite. I wouldn't do all those parts in one sitting.

If I remember correctly out tells you which lessons you can easily skip and which ones you NEED

[cintinative]

When I saw your title I would have said 30-40 minutes, depending on video days. But doing it all in the summer? Much longer per day, though I fouls try to break it up. Outline, break, write, break, edit break rewrite. I wouldn't do all those parts in one sitting.

If I remember correctly out tells you which lessons you can easily skip and which ones you NEED

 

Yes, I missed you were doing it over the summer also. So sorry. If you only have three months to do it you will have to use the 15 week schedule and expedite it. There should be something in the teacher manual about how to do it as a shorter course. 

[mschickie]

The teacher's manual says to double up the assignments if you want to do it in 15 weeks.  You could do it in less time but it then becomes a lot of work each day for the student.   We did the program for 4 days over 30 weeks (or so) and it worked well for dd but she could move at a faster pace.  I have friends who use the one program over 2 years too.