Transitioning from IEW to WWS

[bnb82]

My oldest is 9, and we're wrapping up third grade in the next couple weeks. She's got a November birthday, and she's a smart little thing, so she's got a mix of 3rd-5th curriculum this year. We've done PAL, Bible Heroes, and Myths/Fables. She's a natural and enjoys writing, and I had a writing intensive career, so I enjoy teaching writing. I've got no major complaints with IEW (other than the way they emphasize ", who/ which), but I'd like her to have a little more writing freedom.

I'm considering switching her over to WWS for 4th grade. Thoughts? Start with Book 1?

[SilverMoon]

I wouldn't do WWS with a 4th grader. SWB says 5th grade is probably too young for most kids. My oldest daughter was a beta tester for the original and my 7th grader is currently using WWS; 6th is the youngest I'd go. 

This link has more info and some other curricula you may want to consider in the meantime. 🙂 It's a pdf file. 

 http://downloads.peacehillpress.com/samples/pdf/WWEandWWSexplanation.pdf

[Lori D.]

Welcome! I see by your post count you are new.

Agreeing with @SilverMoon -- most people find they have more success with Writing With Skill by waiting until 7th or even 8th grade to start that series. For a smart student working at grade 3-5 level for writing, you might consider Writing With Ease, level 3 -- *possibly* level 4, although I've heard it's a big jump up from WWE3.

However, if specifically looking for more writing freedom... WWE/WWS are VERY formal and structured, and are even less likely than IEW to give you that freedom you're looking for.

You might check out some of these options, and just take a year to enjoy writing, and develop some writing stamina:

- Evan Moore Daily 6-Trait Writing -- grade 3, grade 4, grade 5
You'll need both student and teacher book, and for an advanced student, you'll probably want grade 4 or 5. This could be the daily "lesson" and then do a wide variety of writing assignments and projects of high interest to you and your student -- news articles, poetry, short stories, informational reports, posters, book reviews, letters, blog entries, create a notebook of findings about a science subject or countries of the world or a history time period, etc.

- Spectrum Writing Workbook -- grade 3, grade 4, grade 5
Similar to Evan Moore -- use this to introduce topics about writing as the daily lesson, and then do assignments of your choosing.

- Wordsmith Apprentice (gr. 4-6)
Independent, fun "cub reporter" theme that has the student writing in the various newspaper departments, and using all 4 types of writing (Descriptive, Narrative, Expository, Persuasive). Can break it into as big or small of a "bite" per day as you want to cover.

 

[PeterPan]

12 hours ago, bnb82 said:

but I'd like her to have a little more writing freedom.

Writing Tales 2 would be wonderful for this. Like the others, we did WWS later. I get that your dd is whippersnapper smart, but WWS is so dry, oh my. There are so many other better materials for this age that wouldn't steal her joy. Do what you want, but I wouldn't. 

Have you gone through the basics like

-Don't Forget to Write

-the poetry writing series from PHP

-any type of writing prompts (Jump In teacher's manual, Unjournaling, etc.)

-the narrative writing tasks listed for her grade and the next in WTM

-learning to outline (only more hip, using whiteboards, mindmapping software, markers and paper, whatever she likes) using well written children's magazine articles (Muse, etc.)

Does she have any bents or thought processes you see happening developmentally? Going into 4th was when my dd's argumentative side started. We enjoyed doing Scholastic's 40 Debate Prompts that year. 

 

Edited March 16, 2021 by PeterPan

[caffeineandbooks]

I feel a bit like an evangelist on here sometimes, singing the praises of whatever curriculum my own family has used!  The three posters who have already replied are well respected voices on this board.  I have not looked at many of the options they suggest but expect they are awesome based on who is suggesting them.  Nevertheless, I would like to throw in a plug for Classical Academic Press's Writing and Rhetoric series.  We're doing Fable this year and it has been a great match for my budding engineer as well as my budding artist/writer.  In a homeschool situation you can do a lot of it orally - playing with sentences, working on stronger word choices, summarising fables - and it gently covers some grammar and original writing (you change or expand on a fable each week, and then at the end of the semester write your own entirely new one).  Fable is billed as suiting 3rd-5th graders, standard pacing is two books per year, and if you continue on with the series you will find yourself hitting essays in book 4, Chreia and Proverb.  (I plan to jump ship to Writing With Skill for my older kiddo at that point.)

[bnb82]

Thanks for the responses. She's already done WWE 1-4. Four was a pretty big jump on the dictation side, so I let her do them as cursive copywork this year instead, but the rest of it was just fine for her. I'll look at some of these other options.