Wondering why no one mentions Write With the Best...

[Janice Lyn]

I've been trying to decide on curriculum for my daughters next year. I'm stuck on the writing part. My youngest is doing R&S English and right now, I do not see anything further necessary other than her having fun with choosing her own copywork to go with this. My older daughter will be going into grade 7.

With all the talk on IEW, of course, I have been considering this for her. The expense is a problem for us. I sold Understanding Writing and have tried Writing Strands twice and failed miserably here with 2 children.

One thing I recall working well with my son, who is now in public high school (not my decision,) was Jill Dixon's writing course, Write with the Best. He was older at the time, so we did book 2, which focussed on expository and informative writing. I liked the way it modeled works of great literature, was challenging and I have felt that the essay preparation will help him in taking the SAT's in a few months.

So, I am considering Book 1 for my daughter for grade 7. So far, I've found out that it focusses more on descriptive writing, following the same idea of following good literature from varying genres. I'm thinking that the works within could start a good book/literature list for the year as well, as I'd want her to read them in full, not only excerpts.

Tell me..........I know that IEW is popular as is Classical Writing, but why are these books not mentioned? Are they just older and people go with the new? Does anyone have any opinions on them or experience? Anything one might have to offer may help me out tremendously.

Thank you so much for your time!

Janice

[Claire]

I have only very limited experience with book 1, which I purchased to use with my dd. The very first excerpt was from 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea -- a book I loved reading when I was young. The excerpt was a very long, wordy paragraph describing a monstrous octopus. I knew that my dd would be completely turned off by this paragraph -- both because it was an octopus, and because it was written in a very wordy and flowery style. The excerpt actually sounded dull when read out of context like that, and I didn't want dd turned off to the entire book. Taken in context, the paragraph would have just been part of the style of the book. Taken out of context, the writing was archaic and not something that I would want my dd to be copying stylistically.

To be frank, that first lesson turned me off so much I never looked beyond it. I did see some useful things in the first lesson involving underlining, etc. so the approach might actually be quite good. I just decided that it wasn't such a good idea to use excerpts from old books as writing models.

[skimerinkydo]

I saw this in a catalog and wondered if it would be a good match next year for my 6th grade dd. It sounds good but I don't have a source to actually look at it. I searched around but found little information to go on.

[Michelle T]

but when I looked at samples, I felt they were too difficult, too wordy, too out of date for my DS to even begin to comprehend.

I like the idea of Write With the Best though, and might have tried it otherwise.
Michelle T

[Janice Lyn]

Thanks. I'm really thinking of this still and am reviewing a copy now. I like the idea a lot, and actually I see what you mean about it taking the excerpts only, but it seems to do a good job of simple, step by step teaching and I don't think the samples in Book 1 are archaic. Book 2, I'd say is as it is more difficult and the works are too. Book 1 appears to be easier than some of the Writing Tales Samples and Classical Writing I've seen.

Not sure.......writing in my dilema here. I want my daughter to like it as I do, but I don't think any curriculum will do that for her.

Janice

[cajun.classical]

Thanks. I'm really thinking of this still and am reviewing a copy now. I like the idea a lot, and actually I see what you mean about it taking the excerpts only, but it seems to do a good job of simple, step by step teaching and I don't think the samples in Book 1 are archaic. Book 2, I'd say is as it is more difficult and the works are too. Book 1 appears to be easier than some of the Writing Tales Samples and Classical Writing I've seen.

Not sure.......writing in my dilema here. I want my daughter to like it as I do, but I don't think any curriculum will do that for her.

Janice

Janice,

I haven't seen it myself, but I have a friend who used it with her children, in the days way before CW. She liked it a lot. Her daughter was a natural writer though.

[Alphabetika]

I used Write With the Best I with my older dd, and I will eventually use the 2nd one with her and both with my younger dd. I actually LIKE that the writing examples are "archaic," because I like older writing. I would rather she learn from classic examples than anything else. As I recall, there were also suggestions for other selections to use for each topic if you didn't care for the example given or wanted extra examples.

I, too, am curious as to why this is never mentioned as a good resource. Maybe it is too unstructured for some who would rather have more structure? I can understand that, but I still think it's great as a component of language arts studies.

HTH!

[LizzyBee]

It was discussed occasionally on the old boards and the general consensus seemed to be that most people who had tried it ended up not liking it. It's good to hear that some of you have used it successfully.