Has anyone used Writing Tales and NOT liked it?

[Lovedtodeath]

Why? And what age and grade do you think it is best for? How does it go (or where does it go) along with/inbetween other LA programs? I plan to use FLL as long as I can... (that's 4 I guess) and WWE plus we will start IEW at some point (I was thinking WT first). TIA!

[JaniceO]

*Quietly raises hand* I am using it and don't like it much, at least for my kids. It seems like it would be a really great program and I was excited to use it, but my boys just aren't getting the connection. My 5th grader is doing fine with it (actually he just wrote a really good final draft today), but it's repetitive and he's bored with it. He's doing WT2.

 

My 3rd grader started the year in WT1, but got so frustrated we had to give up. I just don't think he was ready for it, coming out of public school. He needs work on his narrations. The passages were too long for him to remember. He is behind grade level for reading comprehension though. I ordered WWE 2 for him and he's going to finish the year with that before starting Writing Strands next year with his older brother.

 

*I* understand learning to write by modeling good writers, but they don't seem to get it. I need something that will walk them through the process more. And they really need something with more variety.

[Melissa in CA]

We are finishing up WT 2 this year. Started it last year, mid-year, in 5th grade. I can't say I dislike it, I actually like it, but I do dislike some of the wording in the grammar. For example:

 

"An Adjective is a word that decorates a noun or pronoun." Using the word "decorates" was just goofy confusing to my son. He had already learned that an adjective describes a noun or pronoun. And this is how many (most) grammar curriculum teach adjectives. To use the word "decorate" was not helpful. Why not use the wording the child will find in most curriculum? The average child understand the word "describe," I think. They also teach that adverbs "decorate."

 

I would have also preferred they teach the four kinds of sentences as the child will see them in other curricula, and standardized tests, for their age-range. Instead of teaching the sentences as declarative, imperative, interrogative, and exclamatory...they learned statement, question, command, and exclamation. Great for the WT 1 book, but I thought for the WT 2 book they should have used the "real" sentence names kids will encounter elsewhere. My son learned them back in 3rd grade...or was it 2nd? :blink:

 

Other than those tiny pet peeves of mine, I think the curriculum is great! I personally would not use it as a stand alone grammar program for 4th & up, but that is just me. I know that some do and are quite happy with it.

 

As for the writing assignments, my son enjoys them and has not gotten bored yet. We do do other writing assignments outsdie of WT though, so perhaps that keeps boredom at bay? He enjoys the WT assignments over any others we do. I am sure that helps. :D

[PeterPan]

The meat of WT2 is 2nd semester, so some people may not have gotten to it yet. The terms? Yeah, those were issues, but they were so minor. (Just say them the way you want when you teach, use both terms.) What I LIKED was that the kids came out UNDERSTANDING the concepts as a result of the terms and careful teaching. But no, I didn't say "decorate" hehe and I did use the real words for things. ;)

 

As far as when to start, I wouldn't put a dc into WT before they can COMFORTABLY write their own narration. Until then I would do WWE and fable rewrites using Imitations or the Milo fables book. It's not either/or with WWE and WT. Do WT in the school year and do WWE in the summer. Or run them parallel.

 

The techniques you learn in WT2 are very similar to the dress-ups of IEW, so a student could cross over quite easily. You could do WT2, then whiz through the non-fiction units of IEW SWI A in a summer. I personally don't think it's good to get locked into just doing narratives and have a 7th grader who can't even write a paragraph, so you really do have to run both types of writing and once. I just haven't figured out the most intelligent way to get there, lol. To me, it just means in some fashion you keep doing your WTM style writings (WWE, history and science compositions, outlining in 5th, etc.), while using WT for your writing program in the spots where WTM says to do a writing program. At least that's my current theory. That's what I'm in the middle of trying to accomplish this year (not very well, new baby and all), so we'll see.

 

As for when? Well we did those fable rewrites and Imitations in 1st, WT1 in 2nd, WT2 in 3rd, which was all a year early and insane. Some kids can do that, prolific writers, but my dd is NOT one of those. I ended up allowing her to limit her WT2 compositions to 1 page, which was still fine and allowed her to accomplish the skills. We've been taking a breather year this year and are doing Wordsmith Apprentice, which has the delightful side effect of working us up into paragraph and essay writing in a whitty, non-threatening way. I'm hoping with this off-year she'll be ready to go into CW Homer and write the full rewrites, ugh. We'll see.

[Tree House Academy]

I LOVE writing tales. I am doing level II with my older and he enjoys it too. He doesn't love the writing aspect, but I think it is definitely helping to build his skills. :)

[Lovedtodeath]

As for when? Well we did those fable rewrites and Imitations in 1st, WT1 in 2nd, WT2 in 3rd, which was all a year early and insane. Some kids can do that, prolific writers, but my dd is NOT one of those. I ended up allowing her to limit her WT2 compositions to 1 page, which was still fine and allowed her to accomplish the skills. We've been taking a breather year this year and are doing Wordsmith Apprentice, which has the delightful side effect of working us up into paragraph and essay writing in a whitty, non-threatening way. I'm hoping with this off-year she'll be ready to go into CW Homer and write the full rewrites, ugh. We'll see.

 

 

We have officially started 1st grade. We are starting WWE 1 with FLL 1 and DD is doing very well. Easy Peasy. The informal stuff we did in K must have worked. (or are these programs meant to be easy peasy at this level anyway?) I looked at the samples and I was thinking about doing WT 1 either between FLL2 and 3 or FLL 3 and 4. So halfway into second grade halfway into 3rd grade maybe. How does that sound? I was under the impression that it is a full year program? I want to use the entire setup, grammar and all and I am afraid that it will be too easy if we do it any later than that... from a look at the samples. DDs only problem with LA work is ADHD and motivation issues. She is doing amazingly well with all LA, and we both love doing it, so speeding up and adding more would be great. I find she knows things that I don't remember teaching her. (We won't talk about math, I will just let you all think she is a whiz at everything. ;))

 

I was also wondering how much hand holding there is for me. It seems telling her to re-write the story and letting her have a go at it is not enough. Or maybe it will be after we get to a certain level in WWE.