Literature study with a struggling writer

[JustGin]

My dd (14) is reads voraciously and well, but her writing skills are behind. I'm having trouble finding a literature analysis program for her that will give her what she needs to deepen her reading without overwhelming her with the amount of writing. I'd like to use an anthology type curriculum rather than individual book studies because she will be already be reading a lot for SL 100 and Starting Points. Any thoughts or suggestion would be much appreciated. :)

[MIch elle]

look at samples on the IEW website.

[JustGin]

look at samples on the IEW website.

Interesting you should mention this first. DD and I looked at it a couple of months ago at the homeschool store in our area. We both liked it a lot, but my hesitation was/is the writing. Could we adapt the writing portion and not feel like we were gutting the program? Oh and thanks for the quick input. :)

[nrg]

I used Memoria Press's list of stories from their online class with the Teaching the Classics and Teaching the Classics Worldview programs. We did lots of talking (Socratic approach is Teaching the Classics), detailing the story chart, and then however much writing you choose to assign. I also added some of my favorite classic short stories and the poems from Memoria's list to the mix. The discussion is the heart of the learning, with the writing taking whatever shape is most important to you.

[Carol in Cal.]

It is more 'tailorable' wrt writing than a lot of other literature programs that I have seen, and it's hard for me to imagine a better thing to study than the LOTR.

[MIch elle]

Interesting you should mention this first. DD and I looked at it a couple of months ago at the homeschool store in our area. We both liked it a lot, but my hesitation was/is the writing. Could we adapt the writing portion and not feel like we were gutting the program? Oh and thanks for the quick input. :)

Yes, adapt it to fit your dd!! Another IEW product I have but haven't used yet is The Elegant Essay. You could start with The Elegant Essay and then use WttW and if needed complete them over 2 yrs.

If you like IEW WTTW look at Jill Pike's new syllabus on the IEW families yahoo group (files, lessonshare,"Lit.Analysis"). It uses several resources for literature study and it's only $10 (the needed resources are more expensive than using WttW alone)! This could be used at a slower pace to fit your dd too.

[Cedarmom]

This was my son. When he was 13-14, we did a lot of discussion. And there was lots of hand holding on the papers. We would talk about what he would write. Then, I would help him with an outline. Then, he would begin the paper. At various points he would ask for help. Then he would turn in the paper. I would pick a couple of things for him to edit on the paper, and he would do that. It was very teacher intensive. But by the end of the year, he was much more independent. He had writen factual,report type, papers before. But literary analysis was a new world.

Sinceshe is a good reader, my best suggestion is to talk about the books with her twice as much as she writes about them. As she learns to formulate her words out loud, then she will be able to take the next step and do them on paper.

[JustGin]

You guys are great! You've given me good ideas and encouragement thanks!