IEW for reluctant/inexperienced writers?

[tdbates78]

I'm still thinking about what to do about writing for next school year when my twins will be in 4th grade. We do WWE 2 right now. I like it but I want something less structured for next year so they learn how to actually write a paragraph. Of every subject we do writing stresses me out the most. I haven't been able to find something that really works. 

I'm interested in IEW but every time I look into it I get overwhelmed. But right now I'm watching a Youtube video review of Writing Intensive A and I'm definitely interested. How is it for reluctant or inexperienced writers? Is it pretty user friendly for the teacher? How are the DVD's? I'm looking at a sample and it looks like some of the video instructions are around 40 minutes long. Do the children watch the DVDs as well or is this just for the teacher? And if they watch it, does it keep their interest? Looking for opinions. 

Thanks!
Tracy

Edited April 8, 2019 by tdbates78

[2Peanuts]

My DD13 took Student Writing Intensive, Level B through IEW's online class. They used the SWI-B DVDs for most of the instruction, so I can tell you a little bit about that. The SWI-A DVDs will have a similar structure --- I think the main differences might be in the pacing (SWI-B is designed for middle school students so will go faster than SWI-A, which is geared toward upper elementary students) and source materials.

The DVDs are videos of Andrew Pudewa teaching the material to an actual class of students. Theoretically, the kids should be able to watch the video and then do the assignment. The lesson plans are quite detailed, telling you when to start/stop the video (students rarely watch the full 40 minutes in one sitting) and which source texts to assign, etc. There are checklists for each assignment to help students keep track of what they need to incorporate into their writing; these checklists also help the teacher check that the writing techniques were included!

Andrew Pudewa, by the way, is an excellent teacher! I really like his style --- he's engaging while imparting a ton of great info to students. He takes students through the whole process of developing outlines and writing sentences, so he demonstrates the skills your kids will need to learn from beginning to end in each lesson. He has, of course, an enthusiastic classroom of kids, but still...it's nice to see how he works with the suggestions that the kids give him and how he gently guides them toward better word choices. He's definitely not boring. (DD far preferred to watch the DVDs than attend her online class! She said she learned more from the DVDs than class, too!)

I really like the IEW system of writing because it is so scaffolded. The way they teach writing is almost like a recipe. By following the system, my DD has learned to write some pretty spiffy 5-paragraph themes and she's even spontaneously using more varied vocabulary and sentence structure in her rough drafts.

For reluctant writers, it could be very helpful because the early lessons teach the students how to take notes to create an outline. The outline then becomes their "road map" for writing complete sentences. The checklist then guides them through the revision process. So, there's lot of hand-holding to help kids who maybe aren't confident in their writing. In my DD's case, her writing was fine but it was really dry. Lots of subject-verb constructions that used the blandest words available. Because of IEW, she now loves going through the thesaurus and playing around with different ways to say something. 

You mentioned using WWE and wanting something less structured. I used WWE (or maybe it was WWS?) prior to using IEW with DD and I found WWE didn't give her enough structure! If you don't want structure, then you won't like IEW because there are lots of checkboxes to check. What I found was that WWE gave my kiddo the basic idea of how to put together different types of pieces (description of a historic event, narrative of a scientific discovery, etc.) but it didn't teach her how to write it with an interesting voice. It also didn't teach her how to organize her thoughts. IEW gave her those missing pieces, which is why we've stuck with it for 2 years now and will be doing our third next year.

DD took her first IEW class through IEW's online classes. She didn't enjoy the class, mostly because she had a teacher who was new to teaching online. As a result, there were some class management issues that diminished her enjoyment. This year, she's taking IEW-style lessons from Eva Goldstein, who runs Open Tent Academy and she loves it! She will continue taking writing with Eva next year. So, I'm sorry I can't speak to what it's like to actually teach the  lessons myself. However, I can say that after watching a few of the DVDs with DD, I felt comfortable helping her with her assignments and walking her through the revision process.

Hope this helps!

[Ausmumof3]

I started it with my grade 5 reluctant writer and it was absolutely perfect.  I think “reluctant writers” is where it shines - willing or enthusiastic writers might do better with something with more room for creativity and freedom.  We start with a themed unit only because it was a cheap way to try it out and this year we’re doing B.  

The only thing I’d say is at least when they first use the program it is fairly teacher intensive so don’t expect it to be hands off.