Can't decide between IEW or Writing With Ease to teach writing next year...

[Sherri in MI]

I know Writing With Ease is new and no one has used it yet, and I downloaded the samples, but I have no idea how to evaluate a writing program. I don't even know what to look for, but I have narrowed it down to these two. Writing With Ease looks easier to use, but I don't know. Any thoughts/comparisons would be appreciated.

Thanks,
Sherri in MI

[happy2homeschool]

Let me start by saying that this is my first year of homeschooling, so I don't have a lot of experience with writing programs. That said, the reason we like IEW is that it sets out a structure/style to follow, explains why the structure/styler should be followed and then gives examples to support the explanation. This is important to us because my boys always ask "Why do I have to do that?" And now I can answer them. We use the U.S. History theme book and there are numerous examples of a boring sentence and then a sentence that is much more descriptive and easier to picture (you can see/feel/hear what the author is saying). This helps my kids because they see why one sentence is better than another. I hope this makes sense.

I don't have any experience with Writing with Ease.

Good luck with your decision! :)

[Johanna]

I know nothing about IEW...but have been intrigued by the discussion and i am still looking for a writing program for dd4th next year. We are doing UShist next year, so when i heard about this theme from IEW,,,,my ears perked.
Can you please detail for me what it is like, ie: set up/lessons/time/schedule?
thanks so much!!!

[TracyR]

Not sure . I have never heard of Writing with Ease. What is the website address ? I'd like to check it out myself .

[happy2homeschool]

First, I recommend joining the IEW yahoo group. The parents are a wealth of information and you can search for other comments on U.S. History based lessons.

We are also doing U.S. History this year, which is what led me to the U.S. History based writing lessons. I think it might be geared toward older children, but we simply slow it down to make it work for my 3rd and 5th grade boys.

The U.S. History theme book is written so you can read right from it to your kids so there is not much preparation time. It tells you what to write on a white board (is that the right name?) and how to work through lessons with your kids using the board, so that they understand the lesson before writing on their own. I read the lessons ahead of time because my kids are always asking me "why".

There are 32 lessons in the book. We schedule IEW between 2 and 3 times per week, usually about 1 hour per day, but this does not mean one lesson per day. We stay on some topics for extra days before moving on to make sure that it is understood -- for example, we did extra days of writing an outline, reading from the outline and then writing from the outline in your own words. If you go on the IEW yahoo website there are lessons you can download to help you (I think they are called the SWI lessons, named after the student DVD classes you can buy.) Or you can use any writing for extra lessons such as Aesop's Fables, etc.

We like the U.S. History book because it matches up with our history lessons -- Jamestown, The Mayflower, French and Indian War, colonial life, Boston Tea Party, Declaration of Independence, etc.

In my opinion you need to buy the teacher dvd's also (TWSS) and it comes with a teaching notebook.

Hope that helps! :)

[Johanna]

thanks, i appreciate the explanation. I think that i am not ready to invest the $$ just yet. Not till they are older and more developementally ready.
It does look good though!

[ELaurie]

you can't go wrong with books written by SWB :)

Here's a link (http://www.welltrainedmind.com/elementary.php)to an article by JW and SWB which describes their approach to teaching writing. Here's a link (http://www.welltrainedmind.com/J00review.html)to their review of IEW and other programs.

HTH a bit!

[Sherri in MI]

You can check it out at peachillpress.com

Sherri

[Sherri in MI]

SWB's review just now. One thing that was putting me off about IEW was all the time required for the parent and lesson plans. It just seems a little awkward to me - I like things to be more systematic. So now I'm considering Writing Strands or Writing With Ease.

The links you provided helped me in another way - the article said that Rod & Staff English provides enough writing practice through 4th or 5th grade. Since that's what we're using, I'll probably just stick with that, then add Writing Strands.

Thanks again!

Sherri in MI