IEW Theme books or SWI?

[pocjets]

I have the Teacher Seminar and do plan to watch it. I'm wondering if I should also get the SWI for my kids or do a theme book? What do people seem to have the most success with? I know I don't want to teach it without one of those. Thank you! 

[OneStepAtATime]

You could go either way and do fine.  If there is a particular theme book you think your child(ren) would have particular interest in then go with that.  If not then do SWI.  Either would be fine, especially if you have TWSS to help you.

 

I would also ask you to be flexible in your approach.  If you feel as you are using it that IEW is creating more of a straightjacket than a helpful way to teach then ask for help here or just be more open to shifting things around to fit your needs and that of your children.  This is simply a tool, not the master.  Even the creator of the program says tweak it to make it work for you.  No writing program is perfect.  The key is learning to adapt that program to meet your particular needs.  IEW is awesome, but it doesn't always work as well if you rigidly insist on following lock step with everything presented in the program.  It depends on the teacher/student.

Edited January 6, 2018 by OneStepAtATime

[pocjets]

You could go either way and do fine. If there is a particular theme book you think your child(ren) would have particular interest in then go with that. If not then do SWI. Either would be fine, especially if you have TWSS to help you.

 

I would also ask you to be flexible in your approach. If you feel as you are using it that IEW is creating more of a straightjacket then a helpful way to teach then ask for help here or just be more open to shifting things around to fit your needs and that of your children. This is simply a tool, not the master. Even the creator of the program says tweak it to make it work for you. No writing program is perfect. The key is learning to adapt that program to meet your particular needs. IEW is awesome, but it doesn't always work as well if you rigidly insist on following lock step with everything presented in the program. It depends on the teacher/student.

That is good to hear. Thank you. I tend to tweak things anyway so I’m not afraid to change things up. I appreciate the encouragement.

[Trilliumlady]

Following, as I’m planning on on IEW next year for fifth grader and am planning on using SWI with Pudewa teaching and I’d love to hear other’s ideas.

[mirabillis]

We tried a Theme book once and didn't like it. There's something about Pudewa's teachings. They're great, and my kids have become fantastic writers. We now go from SWI-A to SICC-A to SICC-B and spend some time with Elegant Essay (though we have a love/hate relationship and wish Pudewa taught it) then we're moving onto SICC-C. We also have research paper & advanced communication series for later high school we have yet to try. To be honest, I never watched the TWSS videos though I did buy them. That was 5 years ago. I finally re-sold them. I didn't feel it necessary and didn't have 9 hours of free time to devote to it. I'm more a learner by reading rather than video-watching. ;) My oldest takes AP Eng Lang next year, and I feel he's well prepared going the IEW route (even w/o me watching them)

[Momto6inIN]

I use theme books for elementary and then have my middle schoolers do SWI-B followed by SICC-B. It's a nice intro to writing with the theme books but not too overwhelming. By middle school they are ready for a different writing teacher than me and they like Pudewa's quirky humor. :)

 

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[JudoMom]

The only way it got done here was SWI. My boys love Pudewa.