EIW vs IEW vs BW?

[Joannedisfan]

My son is 9 years old and finishing up 4th grade Essentials In Writing (EIW).  He is a reluctant writer and is not independent in any way.  I've used EIW for the past several years and thinking about switching to a different curriculum.  So far IEW and BraveWriter seem to be recommended by many and the ones I'm thinking about.  I keep going back and forth between the 2.  I prefer to find something and stick with it for a long time, rather than changing year after year.  So if I change I want to make sure I'm making it for all the right reasons and it is the right curriculum. 

While I'd love for my son to be independent eventually, I don't mind spending time with him if he will get it.  He gets bored easily and loses focus a lot.  I also like the idea of reading a book and then using that for the writing.  My son has never enjoyed copy work, so writing pages would not be a top choice.  What I don't like about EIW is it's very repetitive and kind of dry or boring.  I'd like to have something my son would enjoy and look forward to. He is a good reader and reads above his grade level. He prefers shorter books, but I think exposing him to some different authors and styles of writing would be good.

I probably would do the IEW SSS this year and possible switch to theme based next year or BraveWriter with an arrow subscription.  So tell me about IEW or BraveWriter.  What do you like and not like about either of these programs? We also school year round with typically 4 days of school work in a week.  Would either of these programs be easy to use on that type of schedule?

[Momto6inIN]

I haven't used EIW or BW so I can't compare, but we love IEW! I find it easy to implement on a 4 day/week schedule and my reluctant writer has thrived on it and now eagerly and proudly reads me her compositions. It also worked well for my prolific but very disorganized writer, although he was resistant to the IEW program and I had to sneak the lessons in stealthily, which I was able to do because I'd watched the teaching videos and made up my own lessons so they didn't look like IEW 😉

It was a great program for me as a teacher, which in turn has made it great for my kids.

[Lori D.]

I vote take a break from formal programs for a year and go with something light -- esp. since he's a reluctant writer. And taking a year to relax will give him more time to develop thinking skills, which will help later on with writing skills used in more formal curricula.

Wordsmith Apprentice is super. Very gentle, can be done largely solo, and you can assign as  small of a "bite" per day as fits your student. It covers all 4 areas of writing (Descriptive, Narrative, Expository, Persuasive) with the very fun concept that the student is a "cub reporter" writing for all the different departments of a newspaper. A silly and cheesy little cartoon introduces each new "department".

Another idea is to go "program-less" for the year and write across the curriculum in a variety of ways, and intersperse with with your idea of having DS "writing about books he likes" -- give him lots of ideas to choose from, like:
- write a book review (like a movie review -- what he liked/or found exciting, and why)
- make a book poster (like a movie poster) -- promoting the book
- make a powerpoint and give an oral presentation on the book
- make a Lego mini-figs animated short version of the book (writing comes in the form of writing a script for it)
- blog entries
- write his own story based in the world of a beloved book
- or halfway through the book, write what he thinks will happen

Edited April 1, 2020 by Lori D.

[My4arrows]

We have tried using both IEW and BW.  Here are my thoughts:

IEW is very well done, easy to implement and has great methods for repetition and building upon it.  I like how it teaches and teaches great organization.  But even so my reluctant writer hated it.  He found the videos boring and overwhelming.  I still needed to help quite a bit to make it more interesting for him.  So we put it aside in hopes we can revisit it later.  It's a program I wish had worked for my kids since I LOVED the ideas and methods taught.  It leans more towards formal writing vs creative.

I picked up BW and I have mixed feelings about it.  It is more fun for my kids for sure.  We use both the Arrows guides and Partnership writing (I choose these levels to best suit three of my kids ages 9, 10 and 12).  IMO its the opposite of IEW.  It's much more focused on creativity.  Partnership, the writing program-  I was very disappointed in how little it really consisted of.  It has 10 writing projects, minimal instruction given and then an assignment given.  For someone like me, who is not a natural writer, it is a struggle to implement.  I personally need more hand holding in teaching it and my reluctant writer needs a bit more instruction.  But it is fun.  This first lesson we are using is secret codes.  So they are working on writing ciphers and various codes presented, one per week.  Looking at the topics, my kids will enjoy the writing topics.  We will see how much they learn and grow in writing.  

The Arrows guides are based on literature (you read aloud the book) and it is used to teach grammar skills.  The student copies a passage, there is discussion and the guides are full of notes for teaching.  I had expected Partnership to be a bit more like this.

With that said, I am also beginning to use WriteShop lessons along with Partnership.  I feel like they are similiar in idea- one writing assignment per month that is worked on, more creative writing, fun projects...but it has more instruction- step by step- which helps me and my children.

 

[Erielle]

I have a 9-year-old in grade 4 and we're actually just switching from Brave Writer to EIW.

While I love BW, the philosophy and loveliness behind it all, and the lifestyle of it (which we just naturally follow in our family anyway), BW's LA & writing programs just weren't a good fit for my kiddo. He is very much a struggling/reluctant writer, who I suspect is dyslexic, and he needs structure and routine to *get it*. BW is very free-flowy and easy to tailor to whatever your schedule looks like, and that's fantastic but it doesn't work well for his learning needs. Though we are making the switch to EIW for our "core" writing curriculum, we will absolutely be continuing BW lifestyle (our normal life) and adding in some fun writing projects here and there.

BW Arrow's are the Language Arts program (though most of them have some writing project in it), but you can also purchase one of the separate writing programs they also offer.

Have you looked at Julie's blog and signed-up to receive the 7 Day Writing Blitz? There is a free Arrow for download, and you can also order the free sample of whatever BW writing program your child is ready for. Implement some freewrites. I believe there are some prompts for those also on her blog (and def. in the facebook group). I would start there and give it a go with your son and see if it's a good fit before committing to purchasing.

IEW gives me anxiety just looking at it. Can't imagine my little guy having to use it. It would be a meltdown & tears followed by a mutiny.

Edited April 10, 2020 by Erielle