Where on earth to start - WWE & FLL

[priodfab 0]

Hi all, I have two boys, aged 10 and 11, who are way behind where they should be. Really unsure of where to start them with Writing with Ease and First Language Lessons, I'm new to the curriculum so don't know if they should start at the beginning and whizz through to make sure there are no gaps? That's what I'm leaning towards rather than trying to place them part way through the series. Any advice would be very much appreciated, thank you. 

[hs03842 377]

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Edited December 9, 2020 by JoyKM

[maptime 88]

I’ve used the first three levels of both programs, and I definitely don’t think you need to start from the very beginning.  You can find the mastery evaluations for each level of WWE here:

http://downloads.peacehillpress.com/pdfs/samples/wwe/wweevaluations.pdf

Each evaluation gives you an idea for what type of work is expected of the student at the end of that level; if the kid does well, move on to the next one, etc.  This should give you a good feel for where to put them.  

In terms of FLL, I’ll just say I put my ds9 (with no formal grammar experience) right into FLL 3 last year, and it was totally fine.  The pacing is a bit faster than that of other levels, but it starts from the beginning with nouns 🙂

[maptime 88]

I also wanted to add that in FLL 3, a student workbook is introduced to go along with the regular text.  This helps give a visual component as the kid follows along and then applies what they’re learning in the written exercises (no colorful pictures though).

Edited October 6, 2020 by maptime

[Ordinary Shoes 7,281]

On 10/6/2020 at 11:12 AM, priodfab said:

Hi all, I have two boys, aged 10 and 11, who are way behind where they should be. Really unsure of where to start them with Writing with Ease and First Language Lessons, I'm new to the curriculum so don't know if they should start at the beginning and whizz through to make sure there are no gaps? That's what I'm leaning towards rather than trying to place them part way through the series. Any advice would be very much appreciated, thank you. 

Are you sure that you want to use WWE and FLL? Since your kids are older, you might want to start with a grammar program designed for older children than FLL. FLL goes a bit slow because it's intended for younger kids. 

Grammar programs always start the beginning regardless of the grade. The difference between grades is that they go faster and add new material. 

What kind of grammar do you want? Old school with diagramming or a more modern approach? I assume you've read TWTM. Keep in min SWB is old school about grammar and not everyone agrees with her. There are many people who believe that grammar should not be taught isolated from writing. 

A good program for you might be Treasured Conversations which was written by one of the posters here (8fillthe heart). Here is a link to the FB page where you can buy it. It goes through grammar, writing sentences, and then moves to writing paragraphs. It's not a workbook program that would be done independently. It expects you to sit with your children and go through it. 

There are plenty of workbook based grammar programs that can be done independently at that age. An old school one is Climbing to Good English which is published for Mennonite schools. 

Your kids might hate WWE at that age and it might feel really strange to them based on their background. The child reads a passage and then narrates using 3 sentences and there is dictation and copywork. My kid hated it because it's dry. I think narrating is very useful but I don't think that is where I would start with a 10 or 11 YO. 

You can buy SWB's talks on writing for the logic stage for only a few dollars. They're excellent and provide an overview of what she sees as the process. But keep in mind that many other people disagree with her about teaching grammar and writing. To see the opposite view, you should check out Bravewriter.