TWSS/SWI

[SW in IL]

Has anyone used Teaching Writing Structure and Style & Student Writing Intensive as part of their high school? So far, I think it'll work for DS better than any other programs I've looked at, but I bought it so long ago that I only have the Level A SWI program (and the TWSS dvds but that doesn't change with the level, right?).

DS is behind in writing (and a couple of other things), so I'm wondering if I can still use Level A. Or do I need to "upgrade" to Level B or C? He's never really done any writing other than what he absolutely has to. I was planning on using Windows to the World for literature but leaving out much of the writing component from that until he has some writing experience. In other areas of English/Language arts, he's doing 4th grade spelling and vocabulary (whizzing through it now that we're actually able to get school work done), and we'll be adding in 5th grade grammar on Monday (the books arrived today... Hooray!).

Any words of advice from those who have been there/done that?

Thanks,
Sue

[ma23peas]

I'm sorry Sue, I haven't seen SWI-A but you might be able to see samples of B & C online and compare them...I am using SWI-B and TWSS with my three (5th, 6th, 8th) and it's working fine...TWSS has some great tips but my golly! It almost drives me nuts (I watch it while I treadmill, and I almost wish I had a punching bag, he says in an hour what he could have condensed into 15 minutes) and I love his positive attitude but geesh, his voice can really get on my nerves, after an hour on the treadmill I have to make mental notes of what was very useful..then I go around the house talking like him for 15 minutes...the kids really are amazed at how much I can sound like him...I've also found that we are zooming through SWI-B...there are 3-4 practice samples per lesson and we rarely need more than 2, I think we'll be done with it in 10 weeks tops...then we'll move on to the history ones...hth!!

Tara