If you use IEW in the older grades, what for K-2?

[Meadowlark]

I'm just looking for a new direction in writing. I think I'd use IEW whenever it starts (3rd or 4th?) but not sure what to use, specifically for 2nd grade. Copywork? We did WWE a few years ago for my older kids but honestly, didn't love it and definitely didn't like WWE2 or 3, so I know I wouldn't go down that path anyway. IEW recommends PAL but that doesn't float my boat either. Is there something else good for 2nd?

[Mona]

Did you know that IEW has a theme book for 1-2 grade?

 

Edited March 13, 2018 by Mona

[Tess in the Burbs]

work on handwriting, cursive, doing longer bouts of copywork

 

[YodaGirl]

PAL Reading is different, but PAL Writing really does teach the basic understanding of IEW techniques.

 

Section 2 introduces the stylistic techniques such as who-which clauses, strong verbs, -ly adverbs, etc. It introduces the idea of KWOs by teaching specific summaraizing, then it begins to teach the concept of re-writing a paragraph and adding dress-ups.

 

By part 3, students are using the story sequence outline found in the upper level books to rewrite stories. They're encouraged to add dress-ups.

 

By lesson 7 of part 3, they're filling out KWOs, re-telling, then dressing up the paragraphs.

 

If you feel that your kiddo is ready to move on to the theme books, check out Bible Heroes or People & Places(?).

 

Or are you wanting something that isn't IEW-related?

[Ausmumof3]

We went over to iew in grade 5 for oldest. Prior to that we used a mix of diy, writing strands and writing with ease. He transitioned easily.

 

Writing with ease would work well as a lead in if you don't want something specifically IEW.

[Momto6inIN]

We just do copywork in 1st and 2nd, usually from something by E.B. White and/or C.S. Lewis. One short sentence/day to start with working up to longer sentences and eventually short simple paragraphs.

 

Then we do all Things Fun and Fascinating in 3rd, Fables in 4th, and Narnia in 5th.

 

6th - 8th is when we do the SWI-B and SICC-B because by then their hormonally driven brains need some of Andrew Pudewa's corny humor on the videos and they need to hear about writing from someone other than me :)

 

After that is Elegant Essay, Windows to the World, and the Research Paper and they are well prepared for college.

 

Sent from my Z988 using Tapatalk

 

Eta: grade levels

Edited March 14, 2018 by Momto5inIN

[Julie of KY]

I do handwriting, copywork, talk about the grammar of what is being copied.

I might do something like Climbing to Good English, but usually not.

[Julie of KY]

I do handwriting, copywork, talk about the grammar of what is being copied.

I might do something like Climbing to Good English, but usually not.

[Gabrielsyme]

Agree with others who have said they work on printing, spelling and cursive. My third grader jumped into IEW this year in 3rd (Fables) with very little writing experience beyond journaling one sentence a day in 1st and two in 2nd. It's been a smooth transition. I find in general that my kids sometimes burn out on years of incremental work and thrive when a subject is challenging and fresh. I think of writing a bit like learning to read. The mechanics are the hard part and the activity itself won't be meaningful until the physical elements are no longer a chore. We did try WWE in first and found it too dull to be tolerable.

[Mrs Twain]

For K-2 writing, I mostly had my kids do journal writing. I bought paper or journals from Miller Pads and Paper—the paper that has a blank top half and a lined lower half. Each day I had my kids write one or more sentences and draw a picture to go with it. I helped them correct the grammar so that the sentences started with a capital letter, ended with proper punctuation, and were a complete thought. I also had my kids correct all the spelling mistakes. If they wanted to know how to spell a word for their sentence(s), they brought me a white board or piece of paper. Then I wrote the word down, and they copied it into their journal writing. In addition, I had them complete handwriting workbooks to practice their penmanship. This was good writing practice for k-1. Of note, the journal writing makes an excellent keepsake. We still enjoy looking back at their old journals!

 

In second grade, my kids started Rod and Staff English as our grammar program and wrote longer journals (on journal paper that had more lines/narrower lines than the K-1 paper). After this my kids started IEW SWI-A in third grade.