Please help me sort through these writing programs

[nutmeg]

Would someone please give me a hand at putting together a writing plan for my 12yo daughter, for 7th grade and beyond?

She is a reluctant writer, below average speller, but excellent reader. She is doing Wordsmith Apprentice this year. I not interested or worried about teaching creative writing at this point.

These are the programs I am looking over. If you have used these programs, I would appreciate hearing about your experience, and also suggestions for which order to do these, or if they are redundant.

Jump In
Wordsmith
Wordsmith Craftsman
Put that in Writing 1, 2

Thank you!

[ChocolatePrincess]

Don't know if I can help much but will give you a little bit of my experience with my 13yo dd. She also has no interest in writing, spelling is better but not great and she always has her nose in a book. I always thought that because she was such an excellent reader that the writing would get easier sooner or later. Well, at the start of this year (8th grade) we started with Put that in Writing 1. We made it through the 1st 12 weeks and it just wasn't what I hoped it would be. For us it was too much picking apart sentences and not enough teaching her how to write a decent paragraph. After Christmas I ordered Jensen's Format Writing. It is simple and straightforward. For my reluctant writer it has been terrific. She can finally sit and write a decent paragraph in a few minutes with no tears! We are just starting the essay portion so hopefully that will go well. Also, I started doing Spelling Power with her and her spelling has improved quit a bit. I can't tell you anything about the other writing curriculums because we have never used them, Jensens is cheap compared to some, you might want to look into it. Hope this helps some!

[nutmeg]

Thank you so much! That is exactly the sort of help I am looking for. I'll add Jensen's to my list to check out.

[Lynnatbeach]

Hi.
We started my dd in Write@home when she was 11, going on 12.
It has been a very beneficial program for both of us!
You may want to visit the website and check out their course objectives for each grade level. The best thing about this program is the personal writing coach. The evaluations,suggestions and corrections have been very helpful for my hard to please dd. Her writing skills have improved because the instruction is very clear. Writing assignments are graded with a point value system based on a rubric. This specific evaluation allows my dd to see her strengths as well as the areas she needs to pay more attention to.
I have to say that I have enjoyed reading all her assignments.:)

[LadyNancy]

I *had* a reluctant writer. Tried Writing Strands and R&S in the past. Switched to Put That In Writing this year with excellent results.

[Lori D.]

My struggling writer is also a below average speller, and also struggles with the physical act of handwriting (mildly dyslexic, a visual-spatial learner). Last year in 7th grade he did Wordsmith Apprentice, and actually did well with it. He finished it before the end of the year and so we filled in with skimming through the Scholastic series of writing books that I had (Descriptive Writing; Narrative Writing; Expository Writing; Persuasive Writing) and did various assignments in those.

This year in 8th grade he is doing Jump In. It is more in depth than Wordsmith Apprentice, but just as gentle; I feel it has been a good incremental step between Wordsmith Apprentice and Wordsmith. Next year in 9th grade I will have him do Wordsmith. (Just for what it's worth: my older son who does not struggle with writing went from Wordsmith Apprentice to Wordsmith without needing an intermediary step such as Jump In.

In addition, we do try to do other writing assignments -- last year in 7th grade he was also doing Lightning Literature 7, which has some longer writing assignments. This year, I am assigning the occasional longer assignment to go along with the science, history or literature. (These come about 1 assignment every 6 weeks.) I am trying to employ ideas from Institute for Excellence in Writing (IEW) for these assignments. I will continue to include additional writing next year while he does Wordsmith, as well. (I hope to make the additional writing assignments more like once a month next year.)


Put That In Writing 1 is *very* different from the Wordsmith series and Jump In:
- PTIW1 is formal, the others are informal in tone.
- PTIW1 is very structured and similar from lesson to lesson in layout; the others do have teaching text, exercises and assignments -- but there are varied depending on the type of writing they are discussing.
- PTIW1 has formal grammar exercises; the others do not.
- PTIW1 has (in my opinion) rather dull and repetitive examples of "good writing"; the others are more varied and interesting in their examples of good writing.

I attempted to use PTIW1 last year with my older son who is quite flexible and can use just about any writing program -- and we BOTH *hated* it (and I rarely feel so negatively about a program!) I almost sold it -- but, we decided to give it another chance this year -- BUT, by greatly modifying it:
- We dropped the grammar portion entirely.
- We skipped the first 9-12 lessons (all about basic sentences and paragraph structure).
- We don't use PTIW1's dull writing assignments suggestions.

What we *do* use is the teaching text (written, in my opinion, in unnecessarily elevated and formal language), which has some very good information. And then we make a writing assignment from our history, science, or literature to practice that type of writing.

The other good thing about PTIW1 is the *variety* of writing types it covers -- compare/contrast; character analysis; description; etc.


After my younger struggling son completes Wordsmith in 9th grade, I will probably use PTIW1 (greatly modified, as I've done with older son this year) with him in 10th grade. Just my 2 cents worth (and then some -- LOL!). BEST of luck in your writing journey with your reluctant writer! Warmest regards, Lori D.

[readwithem]

ANother vote for Jensens - it's not pretty but it gets the job done :)

[Lori D.]

Megawords has been very helpful in giving my struggling writer/speller the vowel patterns and syllabication patterns for understanding how to "attack" spelling. Megawords is also a great choice for spelling for jr/sr high students as it has a lot of great vocabulary words included. It is mostly done independently by the student, it takes 5-10 minutes per page, it starts gently in Book 1, and rapidly moves into more difficult vowel patterns by Book 3. You'll do more than 1 book a year -- about 1 whole book and 1/2 of another -- so even if you start Megawords in the later school years, you'll still be able to complete most of the workbooks. Just a thought for the spelling!


And based on what the ladies above suggested, I'm going to take a look at Jensen's Format Writing -- might be able to adapt/use along with what we're using in a similar way to PTIW. Thanks ladies! Warmest regards, Lori D.

[nutmeg]

Thank you Lynn, Lady, Lori, and readwithem - this has been very helpful! I've added Jensen's to my short list, and will try to get my hands on PTIW to see if it meshes with our style.

Megawords is on my shopping list, also. :)