IEW

Hi Lindsey,

We started with IEW last year and I have seen a huge improvement in the kids writing. A good thing, because I was starting to be really concerned.

TWSS is only for the parent, this is what I purchased the first year along with some ebooks for each unit. I then took one month for each unit and wrote up my own lesson plans. Each week or two I would add another dress up for them to include in their writing. The grading I used was each paragraph had to have one of each type of dress up and or sentence opener, spelling and grammar learned had to be correct. My week plan was Monday we discuss the new source text, write out an outline, and find adverbs, adj. and strong verbs that could be used in their writing. Tues and Wed. were spent writing the rough draft, Thursday was a final copy and Friday we did not have writing.

If you are looking at wanting a program that teaches the kids directly, they have the and theme based writing books. I am using two of theme based books now. In the book the source text is included along with a list of banned words, dress ups, sentence openers, punctuation lessons and a grading rubric. It is very user friendly.

Personally it is the best money I have spent, but I know a lot of families have the opposite opinion. I guess it really depends on your kids natural ability to write.

I hope it helps.

Tiffany

We are big iEW fans here at our house.  My kids writing has greatly improved.  I am not sure what we would have done without IEW. We have used both the DVD’s and the theme based books. Both were perfect for what we were doing.  One thing that really extended the blessing of IEW was joining the IEW families yahoo group.  They have tons of free files to help and following the questions and answers of others has given us great guidance.  We have even asked some of our own questions.  Jill Pike works for IEW but has helped people on the yahoo group and her answers are extremely helpful.

I’ll tackle a bit of the basics for IEW, but others please chime in!

IEW focuses on equiping a child to write about something by giving them source material to work with.  In the beginning this may be a paragraph such as a fable from Aesop.  The child learns to outline the paragraph by writing down 3 key words for each sentence.  Then they retell the story to someone using their outline.  Next they write the story using their outline. 

Along the way IEW teaches the child ‘dress ups’ like using quality adjectives and strong verbs.  Once they learn a technique a child is expected to use it once in every assignment they write because practice makes progress.  They are given a checklist to remind them of what they need to have in there.  This week my daughter (5th grade) is learning to us a who/which clause to combine two sentences.  A simple example:

Christian carried a heavy burden.  He was walking down a steep path.  My daughter combined these two (and gave it a stronger verb and used an -ly word) as follows:

Christian, who carried a heavy burden, trudged slowly down a steep path.

As you go through the units IEW teaches both fiction and nonfiction writing assignments and techniques, and the source text is adjusted based on your child’s age (a 10th grade works with much more difficult sources than a 5th grader). 

IEW offers several products I’ll try to explain in brief.

Teaching Writing Structure and Style (TWSS) – This is a 9+ hour course to the parent on how to teach writing using the IEW methods, covering all 9 units.  After watching this you are able to choose your own source text that fits your child and create/run your own lessons using the IEW framework.

Student Writing Intensives (SWI) – These are classes taught to the child on DVD by Andrew Pudewa himself.  You are involved as the parent too.  Basically, the child watches the lesson and then goes to work through the steps of teh assignment with you.  Once they finish that they can do the next lesson on DVD, but you’ve already taken a piece of writing through to a final draft, so they start something new with this lesson.  YOu’re given a binder with the source text for each assignment, extra source text for a child who needs several practice assignments before moving to a new lesson/unit, and things to print for the child’s use. 

Theme Books – These are similar to the SWI in that the lessons are planned and laid out for you (with source text chosen, checklists, assignments broken into smaller steps) but you do all the teaching, there is no DVD. 

We’ve done all 3 with my oldest.  I have the TWSS and love that I get immersed in how to teach each unit.  I chose source text about things that interested my daughter and created my own lessons.  We used the SWI dvd classes for a few months and that kept us moving while getting into the IEW groove.  Currently I print the lessons from a theme book, All Things Fun and Fascinating, and teach my daughter using that.  

Is IEW for everyone?  No.  If you have a natural writer who loves writing and would hate being limited by the key word outlines and being given a source text to work from this could kill their love of writing.  But if you have a child who wants some guidance (doesn’t want to think up a topic) or is a reluctant writer (like my daughter) it’s wonderful. 

I had looked at IEW but kept resisting my desire to order it.  I kept thinking I could teach my dc to write bec I like to write and have even done it in a publishing capacity.  I also listened to a lot of other hs mom and took their advice that it was too much formula writing.  Finally I broke down and went iwth my gut and ordered it.  I felt better about it as I saw it recommended on AO and other more CM friendly sites.  It was the best money I have spent! 

I agree it isn’t necessarily for everyone.  But, for my 7th and 10th graders it’s been great.  My 7th grader is dyslexic and dysgraphic and HATES to write —but he really likes IEW and says it makes sense.  I like that it frees me to be the “helper” and not the teacher.  I did purchase TWSS and SWI — I listened to a lot of TWSS over the summer – but I prefer to pop in SWI and let Andrew teach my dc tell them what to do.  My 9th grader has always done well at report writing but hated creative writing.  IEW is helping with that, but it’s also giving her skills to improve her research writing and helping w/ out-lining and written narrations of her work.

The one thing I appreciate is that if you purchase from IEW and the program doesn’t work for your family you can return it at ANY time!

Laura

You would need a grammar program.  It talks about adjectives, adverbs, verbs, and such in reference to writing but there isn’t really any grammar teaching going on.  (If that makes any sense.) 

Depending on the ages of your dc and what specifically you’re looking for or needing for grammar, there are some different options. 

K

We have this course but gave it up fast, it was not a good fit for my girls, it was way to rote for them, they both like writing and it started to really stifle their creativity – so we just stopped. Instead to that we used Writer’s Inc as a guide and Write for College, and then in high school did EpiKardia’s Essay and Research Paper course and some things from Write with the Best and we have had good success with that. The girls love to write, so for those that don’t and dread writing IEW may have the structure they need. Linda