Penny Posted February 9, 2009 Share Posted February 9, 2009 We are currently progressing through IEW Student Writing Intensive B and just finished the reports section. The kids reports are not very good (both 5th graders). We've spent a long time on reports, and I'm still not getting good results. (These are one paragraph reports!) I think they need practice on paragraph construction. Does IEW ever cover the different methods of constructing paragraphs? What do you think the best resource is for this? Thanks in advance! Penny Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jules Posted February 9, 2009 Share Posted February 9, 2009 Penny, If you want some good advice on IEW, you should join the Yahoo group. I don't have the link, but it is IEW Families. Jill Pike (who wrote the lesson plans) and other reps on the group are very, very good at answering all your questions and I'm sure they would be able to help you. If you can't find it, let me know and I can get you the link to join up there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G5052 Posted February 9, 2009 Share Posted February 9, 2009 I've used IEW for awhile now and teach it in a co-op, and frankly most grammar-stage and early logic-stage kids are not very good at constructing paragraphs that truly "flow" logically. That's a usually a logic-stage skill, and I always tell the parents of the kids in my class to refrain from picking apart the content. If they have their topic/clinchers and all of the sentences fit under the topic, then that's enough, especially for a first-year student. As Andrew Pudwa would say, "Hands on mechanics, hands off content." Have them read their paragraphs out loud and ask them if they can think of anything else they want to say, but I wouldn't dig too deeply.:D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HollyinNNV Posted February 9, 2009 Share Posted February 9, 2009 We are currently progressing through IEW Student Writing Intensive B and just finished the reports section. The kids reports are not very good (both 5th graders). We've spent a long time on reports, and I'm still not getting good results. (These are one paragraph reports!) I think they need practice on paragraph construction. Does IEW ever cover the different methods of constructing paragraphs? What do you think the best resource is for this? Thanks in advance! Penny Penny, I've taught IEW to students grade 1-12 for 6 years. What I have found in observing many children is that you need to move on. Your children will only get to be "so proficient" in one year and then the improvement stops for the year. As you continue to work on paragraphs over the next several years, your children will improve. But, sitting on it for too long this year will be decidedly unhelpful in many ways. I'm not sure what you mean by "different ways of constructing paragraphs." However, I think that you should check out the Purposeful (or is it Powerful?) Paragraphs that IEW offers. I've used it with middle schoolers with good success. Your fifth graders are too young, right now. The best thing you can do is make sure you try and cover all 9 units and keep moving.:D Good luck Holly Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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