Jump In, IEW or The Power in Your Hands

We loved the Power in Your Hands.  I taught the creative writing class at a co-op this year and I’ll be teaching the non-fiction course next year.  Even the kids who hated writing seemed to enjoy it and I found it very easy to teach.  She gives very clear instructions and the assignments aren’t overwhelming.

I’m struggling to find a tactful way of evaluating my experience with IEW, so please don’t take offense. I know that IEW is popular with homeschoolers, but my kids hated it and every kid that I had in my class who had taken it hated it as well.  Also, when I evaluated the kids in my class who had taken years and years of IEW, I did not find that they were better writers than the kids who had no previous writing experience. However, after a year of The Power in Your Hands, I saw a marked improvement in their writing.

I am sure others have had a different experience with IEW or it wouldn’t be so popular, but to me it seems like a lot of effort (watching the videos, making sure to follow all the rules) and expense and I didn’t see it paying off in better writing.

My 14YO DS has just completed his second year of IEW.  He did the US-Based History one and then Story Starters.  Writing is not at all enjoyable to him, and IEW gave him the perfect guidelines and suggestions to improve his writing.

Because he had the experience, when it came time for him to write a report for his American Sign Language class earlier this year, it was not difficult for him to do.  When I read it, I was impressed by the quality of his writing and the fact that his paper was enjoyable to read.  IEW is a course I wish I had been able to take before I went to college (and I have a degree in English!)

My son was able to take it at a local co-op with an excellent teacher.  If I were teaching it at home, I can’t be sure that he would have had such outstanding results.

This post was helpful to me as I’m making curricula decisions for fall as well. I have an 11 year old dyslexic boy who is also a reluctant writer. I’m between IEW and Writing & Rhetoric by Classical Academic Press, which I bought over the weekend at a conference.

I have another question about IEW. I’m familiar with the method and have sat through the entire Teaching Writing: Style and Structure DVD series. I dabbled in IEW with an older child, but didn’t use faithfully. I actually like the look of their history based lessons better than the leveled program. Could one use the history based lessons without going through the entire IEW program?

Thanks,
Melissa

This is a fun thread to read because we all have different children with different needs at different times!  I’ll share what little experience I have with these:

1. Jump In – Can’t contribute, I have no experience with this one.

2. IEW – Makayla, my oldest, used this years ago.  She loathed writing at the time and was paralyzed by a blank page and open ended writing prompt.  Because IEW begins with you just rephrasing short paragraphs line by line from your key word outlines she could do it without being paralyzed.  However it wasn’t fun for her, she didn’t suddenly love writing, and her writing was completely formulaic and just copying someone else’s composition in her own words.  We used it for a year and that was enough.

Then we opened ourselves up to writing for joy, about what we are interested in, a la Brave Writer.  Really really good.  She became a writer.  We gave her tools to be a real writer (a laptop with no internet to write on whenever she wanted, notebooks, pencils, pens, freedom to write about what she was passionate about, fun challenge invitations she could accept or ignore, etc).  She began writing poetry, short stories, and novels.  And still writes today.  She was just setting up her ‘cabin’ (online writer’s group) for her second Camp NaNoWriMo yesterday.  She’s completed the adult version of NaNoWriMo (50,000 words in a month).  She’s got friends across the country who write and share writing together.  She’s had a story published on TeenInk’s website.  She’s got local friends who write together, trade stories, etc.

She spent this school year using One Year Adventure Novel by her own choice to learn more about the craft and plotting out of a novel.

3.  Next fall she’ll be doing a non-fiction course for homeschool while continuing her own fiction writing.  We have The Power in Your Hands on our shelf to use.  We also have Help for High School from Brave Writer.  Both focus on teens writing academically (non-fiction, essays, etc).  I generally leave it up to her to choose what she’s using because she’s old enough she needs to really buy in on the curriculum and take ownership.  She’s not decided officially which she is going to use.  She’s making that decision soon.  I like the look of both.

Not sure that helped anyone, but there you go!

Hey guys. Jumped on for a few minutes and thought I’d throw my 2 cents in.

Written narrations have been fantastic for dd15. DS12 does ok, but definitely needed some help organizing thoughts and putting it all together.

Jump In – DD15 used this in 7th/8th. It was fantastic for her. We did it with a group setting and me as the facilitator. Highly recommend.

Power in Your Hands – DD15 is using now finishing up 9th. She won’t finish the book, but she has enjoyed it. Honestly, due to my dad’s illness and passing, I’ve not kept up with it, but she has. She will likely continue with this into next year.

IEW – DS12 used with a class through currclick for 6th. It was very, very helpful for him. The step by step approach really appealed to this non-writer. The actual class platform was not a favorite, though. Next year, I’m having him continue but using Writing Foundations Independent Study course. I’m in an overwhelmed phase of homeschooling and need to farm out some things. He will continue with written narrations for science and history as well.

Bravewriter – Love, love, love the idea. I have never been great at the follow through.

DD15 loves to write on her own – journal, blog, stories, etc. Next year, she chose to take Center For Literature’s American History Lit class with writing. The Power in Your Hands will supplement for next year along with written narrations. In 11th, she wants to focus on fiction and creative writing, so we will see what turns up there.