Writing Strands Reviews

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  • September 12, 2020 at 3:33 pm
    CrystalN
    Participant

    I was just wondering if anyone has used Writing Strands in the new format published by Master Books.  I like the idea of writing and light literature analysis. And I like that you read whatever books you want and not a list someone else selected.  We tried WS many years ago when it was much less attractively formatted.  My oldest hated it, but when I look back that year was the best writing he ever produced, so maybe there is something to be said for perseverence.  I was just wondering if anyone has used it over multiple years and saw real benefit in using it.  Also if anyone has used the literature portion of the new publications.

    September 12, 2020 at 4:21 pm
    retrofam
    Participant

    My oldest used the old version for many years and liked it. He’s a good writer.

    Wordsmith series is what some of my others used and preferred.

    My junior prefers Writing Strands because it has more structure. I looked at the new version, but wasn’t impressed.

    September 12, 2020 at 4:49 pm
    CrystalN
    Participant

    Thanks Retrofam.  Would you say you could use it in a CM way?  I really want to follow CM methods but I am completely incompetent at teaching writing.  My oldest is a junior and I had to put him in an English class to make up for my weaknesses.  Hoping to do better with the other two.  What did you not like about the newer versions?  The writing instruction is the same right?

    September 13, 2020 at 7:32 am
    retrofam
    Participant

    Cathy Duffy has a review of the new one.

    I prefer the older version mostly because I don’t need the reading, vocabulary or spelling parts. We use other curriculum for that.

    Also, in general when Masterbooks changes old curriculum they switch to their style which is more worksheets. It can be tweaked, but we went with the older one.

    Cathy Duffy said the older one wasn’t organized well and was difficult to use. I didn’t like or use levels 1 and 2, but 3 on up worked well for my son.

    As far as being CM, I don’t start formal composition curriculum until junior high, and I don’t worry much if it’s CM because we don’t do composition curriculum constantly throughout junior high(middle school) and highschool. We do just enough for my teens to feel comfortable with formal writing, which varies for each.

    I used some IEW with some of them too.

    My current 6th grader is using an out of print curriculum called Understanding Writing, and my teen uses Writing Strands.

     

     

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