Tweaking IEW

[joannqn]

I emailed the company via the website but haven't gotten a reply yet so I thought I would ask here.

 

I've been using IEW SWI-A with my 9 year old. I like the program overall but noticed a problem that I hoped would get better as we moved further into the program. My daughter creates the outline of the paragraph per the lessons. Then a day or two later, she writes her rough draft...which usually has no errors that need to be corrected so could easily be a final draft. The problem is that her draft is almost word-for-word identical to the source text even though she is using only her outline.

 

Since learning from imitation is the point of the program at the beginning, I was hoping this would resolve when she got further along. Now that she's been doing the story sequence outline rather than the sentence by sentence outline, I was hoping her drafts would be less identical. They aren't. Her stories are still nearly identical to the original. To test that she really wasn't using the original when she wrote, we gave her the outline she wrote a week ago and asked her to verbally tell us the story. As she retold the story to us, using only the outline, it was still almost word-for-word identical to the original in our hand....a week after she last read it!

 

How would you resolve this?

[Mandamom]

I have only used the TWSS and not the SWI programs so that's the perspective I'm answering from.

 

What are you using for source material? Using simplistic sources makes it easier to add the dress-ups and require that she use very interesting dress-ups. If the source is more complex it might be easier to use the words that are already there.

 

My suggestion is to increase the dress-ups and openers and require more interesting word choices (and banning simple words) so that her work looks more like her own.

[FlockOfSillies]

I'm using SWI A w/ my 9yo dd as well. We're not as far along as you are in the program, though.

 

I can see how your dd's ability to recall it in detail from the outline, almost word-for-word, would be great for taking notes in science and history. To me, that's a feature, not a bug!

 

OTOH, if you want it to sound more original, consider requiring her to change the main elements of the story. Pudewa covers this on Disc 1. Instead of "The Boy and the Nuts", you could have "The Girl and the Skittles" or some such thing.

 

HTH.

[rafiki]

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[Rhonda in TX]

I've always found everyone there very helpful. I think, though, that this is just something that will change over time. I wouldn't worry about it too much at the age of 9.

[PollyOR]

I think I've seen something similar come up recently on the YahooGroup. You will get quick answers there - no waiting.

[PollyOR]

I found it ... message #34844. The message pertains to an older child. Basically, the IEW rep said that not to worry about it with younger children.

 

That's my take on it. I encourage you to join the group. :)