5 paragraph report, essay, research writing

I am a huge IEW fan. The theme based writing lessons are designed well enough that a student in highschool could use them in a self directed way. Last year, our eldest daughter (then 16) thought it fairly unnecessary for me to “teach” the lessons to her. She had access to the Teacher’s edition, but the Student Book and Student Resource Notebook were usually plenty for her to tackle the assignments on her own. The best part…the assignment completion checklists teach the student how to edit and grade the paper on their own (if you aren’t going to do it.) My kids always know their “grade” before I even read the paper. ;0)

Our 12yos is doing the Medieval TBWLs this year. He’s not doing them completely independent of me as we start the assignments out on Monday with three other families. He completes them with some direction (accountability is very important) from me during the remainder of the week. Some lessons take him more time than others depending on his focus, but he has done a great job so far this semester. We started the 9th assignment this week. The lessons are coordinating very well with SCM Module 4, so I’m super excited about that aspect of it, too!!!

Hth,

Becca<><

I am an English Lit major and I wouldn’t feel completely comfortable grading their papers.  I don’t find the technical things as challenging as writing style.  With so much writing and reading in that major, I found I became pretty snobbish about what styles that I liked.  Not that mine were something to write home about – 🙂 …. and I think everyone has their own style too.  That bogs me down when reading the writings of a 4th grader and 6th grader.  I get caught up in how I would have made the point differently, or used a different phrase.  I would vote for extra sets of eyes!  That works for me.