Writing...where do we go from here?

[Vintage81]

DD10 is currently in 5th grade. We used IEW materials for 2nd-4th grades and have been using Wordsmith Apprentice this year. 

Her writing has improved over the last few years and I think IEW has helped a lot. I’m also not super confident in teaching writing, so it has helped me too. Unfortunately she grew tired of it, especially once she became more confident in her writing. This year I gave her a break from IEW with Wordsmith Apprentice because it was totally different and seemed fun.

She enjoys creative writing. She writes her own short stories and “books” all the time. For school, in addition to Wordsmith Apprentice, she does a daily journal and I have her write paragraph summaries for history and sometimes science (once a week or every other week).  She doesn't love these assignments, but I want her doing more than just the creative writing.

I know there’s a follow-up to Wordsmith Apprentice (called Wordsmith), but Apprentice has seemed kind of light (at least compared to IEW) so I’m concerned it might not be enough. Maybe I just don't know enough about it yet? I don’t know if going back to IEW is the right path either because she doesn’t like it and I don’t want to kill her love of creative writing. 

Any suggestions or advice on where to go from here as we enter the middle school years? My goal is to continue to encourage and build on her creative writing but ensure we’re working on other forms of writing too. 

Thanks!

[Momto6inIN]

I've used both Wordsmith and IEW. I prefer IEW's approach, esp for a struggling writer, but Wordsmith Creative Writing followed by Wordsmith Craftsman was plenty for my natural writer to learn to write essays. He did Craftsman in 8th grade. Wordsmith Creative Writing is def a step up in difficulty from Apprentice.

[Vintage81]

9 hours ago, Momto5inIN said:

I've used both Wordsmith and IEW. I prefer IEW's approach, esp for a struggling writer, but Wordsmith Creative Writing followed by Wordsmith Craftsman was plenty for my natural writer to learn to write essays. He did Craftsman in 8th grade. Wordsmith Creative Writing is def a step up in difficulty from Apprentice.

Thank you!

[Lori D.]

About the Wordsmith series -- there are 3 books/levels. We used and liked the first two; tried but did not click with the third book:

- Wordsmith Apprentice (gr. 4-6)
Light program, informal tone, written to the student. Fun cub reporter theme touches on the 4 types of writing (descriptive, narrative, expository, persuasive); some grammar concepts as they pertain to writing (parts of speech); complete sentences; beginning paragraphs towards the end of the program. We found this one to be a great program for our "pencil phobic" DSs to gently encourage writing. I've also seen a number of people on these boards say that it works well as a lighter, fun, creative-writing-based change of pace from a more formal program such as IEW, Writing With Ease, Rhetoric & Writing, etc. YMMV. 

- Wordsmith (gr. 6-8)
Also a lighter program, also informal tone, and written to the student -- really can be done virtually solo by the student. More serious than the Apprentice book (i.e., no cartoons or goofy fun aspects). Touches on the 4 types of writing (descriptive, narrative, expository, persuasive); focuses on complete paragraphs; beginning multi-paragraph essay towards the end of the program. Another good one for struggling writers or students who hate to write, as it is very gentle and step-by-step. While DSs preferred the "fun" aspect of Apprentice, they did not mind this one, and even struggling writer DS#2 did well doing this one mostly solo. YMMV.

- Wordsmith Craftsman (gr. 8-10)
Written to the student. Includes note taking, and focuses on essay writing in the 4 types of writing (descriptive, narrative, expository, persuasive). We found it to be not detailed enough and too scattered in approach for us to be able to make it work as the spine writing program for teaching late middle school/high school essay writing and research paper writing -- however, we were using the original edition, and the newest (3rd) edition, may be much more detailed and orderly in approach. YMMV.

______________________

Your creative-writing-loving DD may enjoy one of these writing programs:
Adventures in Fantasy Writing (gr. 5-9) -- story writing; you could spread this out over 2 years and alternate it with something else
Cover Story (gr. 6-8) -- focus is on different types of creative writing but also includes other types of writing

For a change in pace from the IEW style of instruction, you might check out a more formal writing instruction program:
- Writing With Skill series (Susan Wise-Bauer) -- very formal and very step-by-step, and includes some beginning literary analysis (which aids with later on writing literary analysis essays)
- Writing & Rhetoric series (Classical Academic Press) -- possibly jumping in at book 4 or book 5

Write Shop is less formal, but your DD is probably right on the cusp of the levels -- just about at the end of needing Write Shop Junior (gr. 3-6), and not quite ready for Write Shop I & II (gr. 7-9).

Jump In (gr. 6-9)
If Christian perspective is okay for your family, you might check out Sharon Watson's. It is like a meatier version of Wordsmith (the middle level of the 3 Wordsmith books), and works on complete paragraphs and multi-paragraph essays in all 4 areas of writing (descriptive, narrative, expository, persuasive). Informal tone, written to the student, largely done solo by the student. The focus is helping the student think of what to say, and how to organize their thoughts/writing.

Some people find it too scattered in approach. (It worked extremely well for us, for our struggling writer DS#2.) The program is designed to take 2 years by interspersing 4 weeks of "free writes" (from prompts in the teacher guide) between units in the student book, but we disliked the free writes -- too similar, and most of them seemed very "lame" -- so we dropped that element, focused on the meat of the writing and instruction in the student book, and completed the program in 1 year. Just our experience, and YMMV.

ETA -- PS
While I really like the IEW approach of imitation of writing to start with, and the process of coming up with key-word outlines which you then flesh out as complete sentences, in my Lit. & Comp. co-op classes I can very often quickly spot the students who have used IEW for years -- while they do have complete sentences/paragraphs (yea!), their wording is unnaturally stilted due to feeling they have to constantly add "dress up" words for color (yikes!). Or they are trying too hard to never repeat words for variety's sake, and end up using a thesaurus so frequently that their writing suffers (ugh!). All that to say, I just advise caution in not going overboard with IEW, to the point where it adversely affects the student's natural writing voice and style. 😉 

Edited January 14, 2019 by Lori D.

[Ellie]

I have always liked Writing Strands, but I don't know how much Master Books has changed the actual writing instruction.

[Vintage81]

13 hours ago, Lori D. said:

About the Wordsmith series -- there are 3 books/levels. We used and liked the first two; tried but did not click with the third book:

- Wordsmith Apprentice (gr. 4-6)
Light program, informal tone, written to the student. Fun cub reporter theme touches on the 4 types of writing (descriptive, narrative, expository, persuasive); some grammar concepts as they pertain to writing (parts of speech); complete sentences; beginning paragraphs towards the end of the program. We found this one to be a great program for our "pencil phobic" DSs to gently encourage writing. I've also seen a number of people on these boards say that it works well as a lighter, fun, creative-writing-based change of pace from a more formal program such as IEW, Writing With Ease, Rhetoric & Writing, etc. YMMV. 

- Wordsmith (gr. 6-8)
Also a lighter program, also informal tone, and written to the student -- really can be done virtually solo by the student. More serious than the Apprentice book (i.e., no cartoons or goofy fun aspects). Touches on the 4 types of writing (descriptive, narrative, expository, persuasive); focuses on complete paragraphs; beginning multi-paragraph essay towards the end of the program. Another good one for struggling writers or students who hate to write, as it is very gentle and step-by-step. While DSs preferred the "fun" aspect of Apprentice, they did not mind this one, and even struggling writer DS#2 did well doing this one mostly solo. YMMV.

- Wordsmith Craftsman (gr. 8-10)
Written to the student. Includes note taking, and focuses on essay writing in the 4 types of writing (descriptive, narrative, expository, persuasive). We found it to be not detailed enough and too scattered in approach for us to be able to make it work as the spine writing program for teaching late middle school/high school essay writing and research paper writing -- however, we were using the original edition, and the newest (3rd) edition, may be much more detailed and orderly in approach. YMMV.

______________________

Your creative-writing-loving DD may enjoy one of these writing programs:
Adventures in Fantasy Writing (gr. 5-9) -- story writing; you could spread this out over 2 years and alternate it with something else
Cover Story (gr. 6-8) -- focus is on different types of creative writing but also includes other types of writing

For a change in pace from the IEW style of instruction, you might check out a more formal writing instruction program:
- Writing With Skill series (Susan Wise-Bauer) -- very formal and very step-by-step, and includes some beginning literary analysis (which aids with later on writing literary analysis essays)
- Writing & Rhetoric series (Classical Academic Press) -- possibly jumping in at book 4 or book 5

Write Shop is less formal, but your DD is probably right on the cusp of the levels -- just about at the end of needing Write Shop Junior (gr. 3-6), and not quite ready for Write Shop I & II (gr. 7-9).

Jump In (gr. 6-9)
If Christian perspective is okay for your family, you might check out Sharon Watson's. It is like a meatier version of Wordsmith (the middle level of the 3 Wordsmith books), and works on complete paragraphs and multi-paragraph essays in all 4 areas of writing (descriptive, narrative, expository, persuasive). Informal tone, written to the student, largely done solo by the student. The focus is helping the student think of what to say, and how to organize their thoughts/writing.

Some people find it too scattered in approach. (It worked extremely well for us, for our struggling writer DS#2.) The program is designed to take 2 years by interspersing 4 weeks of "free writes" (from prompts in the teacher guide) between units in the student book, but we disliked the free writes -- too similar, and most of them seemed very "lame" -- so we dropped that element, focused on the meat of the writing and instruction in the student book, and completed the program in 1 year. Just our experience, and YMMV.

ETA -- PS
While I really like the IEW approach of imitation of writing to start with, and the process of coming up with key-word outlines which you then flesh out as complete sentences, in my Lit. & Comp. co-op classes I can very often quickly spot the students who have used IEW for years -- while they do have complete sentences/paragraphs (yea!), their wording is unnaturally stilted due to feeling they have to constantly add "dress up" words for color (yikes!). Or they are trying to hard to never repeat words for variety, and end up using a thesaurus so frequently that their writing suffers (ugh!). All that to say, I just advise caution in not going overboard with IEW, to the point where it adversely affects the student's natural writing voice and style. 😉 

Thank you Lori! This is turning out to be a difficult decision, so I really appreciate all of the helpful information you provided.

[Vintage81]

8 hours ago, Ellie said:

I have always liked Writing Strands, but I don't know how much Master Books has changed the actual writing instruction.

Thank you! I will check it out. 

[Lori D.]

1 hour ago, Vintage81 said:

... This is turning out to be a difficult decision...

But hopefully difficult because of good reasons -- DD is a good writer who LIKES to write, and, there are SO many more curricula options out there to choose from. (:D

Also, just wanted to encourage you that DD is at a perfect age/stage for taking a year out (6th grade) to let her get solid with writing through personal projects and writing about subjects she is interested in. You can use some of those pieces of writing to practice the revision and proof-editing stages of writing, and practice doing multi-paragraph and multi-page pieces of writing (taking a week / several weeks to complete longer pieces of writing at a good working pace for DD).

That also allows the analysis and logic portions of her brain more time for developing so that when you come back to a more formal writing program and starting to write more formal/academic types of writing  (7th/8th grade), that she's got a solid foundation of doing lots of writing, AND she has started developing the "thinking tools" needed for the types of writing assignments she'll encounter in late middle school/high school.

Just a thought! BEST of luck, whatever you decide on, and hoping both of you enjoy the writing journey! Warmest regards, Lori D.

 

Edited January 14, 2019 by Lori D.