Writing Tales curriculum

I used it with my oldest two boys (together) when they were around grades 4 and 5 respectively.  It was “ok” but not all that exciting because we are book lovers here and they’d heard almost all of the stories before (many, many times).   It’s been a while so I may be mistaken but I believe most of the tales are found in the various collections of Aesop’s Fables, and as well, in Fifty Famous Stories.   Again, given that by gr 4-5 my boys had devoured these two books time and again, Writing Tales was a bit ho-hum.

Having said all this, my boys (like your student) were negative during this time on anything involving pen-to-paper.  And Writing Tales was bang on for giving us just the right amount of written work.  No complaints on aching hands…

The bigger question is whether Writing Tales actually helped them become better at written narrations in later years.  And for this, I have to say – not really.  Mine are approaching grade 8 and 9 now and are finally writing more, and writing decently.  Not brilliantly, but decently.  If I look now at what they used in the way of curriculum versus how they actually developed as writers (and how they write at this point) it is quite clear to me that it was the day-after-day, steady dedication and commitment to good literature and oral narrations in grades 3-5 that brought them to where they are.   Grade 6 was a painful waiting game for me.   But by grade 7 and 8, the fruits of all those years of oral narration were blossoming.

As I write all of this, I am asking myself why I am not following my own advice for my younger children, gr. 4-5!   For my upcoming 5th grader we’ll be using the new program by Apologia, Writer in Residence, along with Reader in Residence.   The reason for this is that due to the time constraints and my life of juggling 4 students at such completely different levels, we do not spend as much time  on our read alouds and we don’t spend as much time doing oral narrations – very sad!  I know I need to do it more – get my younger children doing oral narrations more – but I just cannot find the hours in the day with my two oldest boys still needing me so much! Sooo, as much as my message is about trusting that oral narration is “enough” and will produce decent writers without any other writing curriculum, I only recommend it if you are really spending the time on it (to the tune of 3 oral narrations per day), making lots of time for questions, probing, discussion, etc.  Outside of that scenario being possible, you could give Writing Tales a try or try the new Apologia program mentioned above.

HTH!

Angie