I just want to let you know up front that this review is going to be quite long and it’s just that Institute for Excellence in Writing (IEW) has so much to offer.
They sent me one of their Deluxe Combinations. Since I have a 10 year old in 4th grade I received Deluxe Combo Teacher/Student Writing Package Level A [FIX-1 & 2] PLUS A Word Write Now and Portable Walls
About The Company:
IEW is a company that realizes in order for children to succeed they need to be able to communicate confidently and effectively. Their goal is to be able to assist you throughout the entire process of learning to write well.
IEW has a long interesting history which originally dates clear back to the 1930’s. Andrew Pudewa brought it to the United States in the 1990’s.
Ever since then Andrew Pudewa and IEW have taken the homeschool world by storm with not only their award winning programs but their 100% guarantee.
About The Product:
Like I said earlier I received a Deluxe Combo Teacher/Student Writing Package Level A [FIX-1 & 2] PLUS A Word Write Now and Portable Walls.
This seems like a mouth full. It also at first sight seems very overwhelming. I am going to try to make this review simplify it as much as possible so that you can see it doesn’t have to be overwhelming. I know when I first began using IEW I felt very overwhelmed. It’s just that they offer so much.
Let’s dig in!
The Deluxe Combo includes
- Teaching Writing: Structure & Style DVD set
- This DVD seminar will teach you how to teach writing the IEW way. The things you learn in this DVD can be used with any age child and therefor with any level in the IEW system. A total of 12 DVD’s are in this seminar. 9 of them are the seminar. Don’t worry, you don’t have to watch them all at once. Just watch them as you go. The other 3 DVD’s have student work samples from all ages and levels of students so you can understand and get a feel for how things look.
- Seminar Workbook
- This binder has a syllabus for the class as well as charts, word lists, sample lesson plans, and more. This is not a stand alone product. It is designed to be used with the Structure and Style DVD set.
- Student Writing Intensive DVDs Level A, including the Structure & Style Overview
- These 4 DVD writing videos are geared toward children at the level of grades 3-5. It is also worth mentioning that each level is based on your child having no previous writing experience.
- Student Notebook with handouts and lesson plans
- This is a 3 ring binder which includes student handouts, complete teacher's notes, source texts, assignments, and checklists.
- Fix-It! Grammar, Books 1 and 2 with downloadable student e-books
- These books make learning grammar simple. Each day you spend about 5-15 minutes grammatically correcting a sentence. The sentences will collectively tell a story.
- A Word Write Now
- This book is a thesaurus of sorts. I say of sorts because it is so much more in depth than many other thesauruses. There are only appropriate choices. The parts of speech are listed next to the words for younger students.
- Portable Walls
- No, not the kind of wall I can remodel my house with, but the kind of wall that can surround your student while they are doing their writing. This wall has great poster like features with out having to hang writing posters all over your house.
A day/week in our life:
It took me about a week to be able to begin using this with my daughter after I had received it. I immediately began listening to the Structure & Style DVD Set. I was able to do this late at night after I put my kids in bed while I was cleaning my kitchen. Once I had watched about 3 hours of it, I felt ready to dive into beginning to teach my 4th grader. I took the next few days to look over the materials and plan out our schedule. I have previously used IEW materials so I was somewhat familiar with them.
We decided to do the FIX IT Grammar program daily. Five days per week.
I would watch about 3 hours of the Structure & Style DVD a week.
Katey would do 1/2 of a unit of the Student Writing Intensive each week. Which isn’t intensive at all. Andrew Pudewa has a sense of humor and makes the writing fun and funny. He breaks it down into simple steps. That when followed create writers.
Our thoughts and feelings:
I was shocked at how well IEW worked for my 4th grader. I know I shouldn’t have been. I used IEW Level B with my older two children. My 10 year old learns different than my older two do and learns at a different pace. So I went into this review with the expectation of “ahh, well, I guess I’ll give it a try.” I am ecstatic to say that my non-writing 10 year old is writing things on her own now outside of our writing time. She is journaling and writing down lists and things. This program has worked for such a wide variety of learners just in my household.
IEW can be found all over social media:
https://www.facebook.com/excellenceinwriting
https://www.pinterest.com/iewriting
http://vimeo.com/iewtv
https://twitter.com/iew
https://www.youtube.com/user/iewtv
http://iew.com/help-support/blog
https://plus.google.com/+Iewriting/
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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