All types of communication is important in life, written, verbal, body language, etc. Writing is the hardest for me to teach. I don’t pride myself on my writing. My education in writing was not up to par. I often have to get over my fear of writing every time I write this blog. I am so lucky to have been chosen to review a program from Institute of Excellence in Writing. Teaching Writing with Structure and Style (the teacher materials) as well as Student Writing Intensive Level B (the student materials for grades 6-8) were sent to me as part of me being on The Schoolhouse Review Crew.
Institute of Excellence in Writing (IEW) is a program that makes teaching and learning writing fun.
Teaching Writing With Structure and Style ($169)is a DVD course taught by Andrew Pudewa. There are 9 DVDs for this portion. A 3 ring binder full of teaching materials is also included. An outline with a suggested schedule for the teacher training portion proved to be very helpful which is divided into 9 sessions. Each session is expected to take 2 hours. Practicum assignments are also included, while they are optional for the teacher to complete, you can become an IEW accredited teacher by completing them.
The 9 Units on the teacher DVDs are:
- Note Making and Outlines
- Summarizing from Notes
- Summarizing and Narrative Stories
- Summarizing a Reference
- Writing From Pictures
- Library Research Reports
- Creative Writing and Basic Essay
- Essay Writing
- Critiques
There are also Tips and Tricks for every Unit and some Syllabus in Style sections.
You start off by watching the teaching course yourself, before you teach writing to your students. You should do the units in order. They build progressively on each other. The teaching course is very substantial and while at first it may seem overwhelming, The importance of me watching the teaching DVDs proved incredible to me. The 9 sessions of teacher training in convenient for teachers to take the course during the summer. Which will help you to see the program as a whole. However, this is not necessary. You can do the teaching materials as much you can and stay ahead of your children. Often times my children would see me watching the DVDs and sit down with me.
The Student Writing Intensive Group B ($109) is set up similarly to the teacher materials, as far as it is a DVD course taught by Andrew Pudewa and a 3 ring binder full of assignments. Your student will start out by watching an overview DVD with you – similar to the first teacher disc. This will give an overview of the program along with expectations.
The Student Writing Intensive Group B comes with 4 discs.
- Disc 1: Outlines, Summary (Units I/II), Dress-Up
- Disc 2: Story Summary (Unit III), Dress-Up
- Disc 3: Reference Summary (Unit IV), Paragraph Structure, Sentence Openers
- Disc 4: Creative Writing, Sentence Openers
I really appreciated the quick start page that came with the student materials that made it easy to set up the student binder.
Lessons are then divided out. They look like this: watch the assigned section on the disc, use the provided checklist to complete the assignment.
One thing I asked myself is why do I have to do all the teacher course if my children are going to be learning from a DVD? I answered this question myself. Think of it this way, you get an education in writing yourself. As we got further into the program, I realized there were things I, the teacher, had to look over and discuss with my kids. There are lessons where you the teacher lead the students.
IEW makes it so you don’t have to feel l like you are alone in teaching writing. They offer a help page as well as an online support forum.
I am seriously shocked in how far I have come in my writing. Oh, right and of course how far my 2 children, ages 12 and 14 have come in their writing just in the short time we have been using this This is a very thorough writing program. I do plan to continue to use it through out the rest of our homeschool career.
You can purchase a value pack bundle for $249.
A very special thank you goes out to IEW and The Schoolhouse Review Crew for this opportunity. This writing program has given me and my children the confidence to take on such an intensive course with pleasure.
To see what others think of this check out this post. To see a wide variety of reviews check out our crew blog.
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