My 11 y.o. ds (with AP, much but not entirely remediated) is having problems writing beyond 2 or 3 sentence short answers. Writing creative stories is also not a problem. But he can’t put together a paragraph on, say, the basic life facts of Bach. His homework assignments like this drag on forever, so I have no time during school year to work on writing with him.
I was hoping, though, that I could do a writing intensive with him over spring break—a couple of hours a day. The Institute for Excellence in Writing has a week-long 10 hour student workshop on tape, which could be just the thing as it wouldn’t be just me teaching him, but also the teacher on the video. I am attracted to the key word concept used as my son complains, “I don’t know what to write” and that is just the thing the IEW creator says the key word concept works around.
Has anyone used these student workshop tapes? Would they be appropriate in my situation? If I get these, should I also get the parent tapes? Together, it is somewhat expensive, but I don’t mind spending if it’s worthwhile. Thanks for any advice.
Marie
(P.S. I want to give writing a shot now to help with the rest of the school year and to leave summer free for PACE or Brainskills to address slow processing. He has begun to complain about having to do too much remediation stuff over his summers.)
Check out IEW
The website is writing-edu.com. On the left hand side you will see Newsletters and once there you can click on the article “Writing without Tears.” This explains the creator of the program’s key word concept, which is aimed, in his words, of separating thinking of what to write from learnng how to write. As he says, he doesn’t think a child’s opportunity to learn how to write should depend on his ability to think of ideas to write about. The IEW parent program has gotten good reviews on the vegsource.com homeschooling board. Unfortunately, I am not a homeschooler (and work full-time) so can’t put in the time that would probably be needed to do it. That is why I am seeking views on the student writing skills intensive also offered by IEW. I have tried Inspiration (on free 30-day trial from the company) but I don’t think it is structured enough for where my son is at now. (Also he types like a turtle—big drawback to the computer programs. Means I have to be the typist and he doesn’t feel it’s his own work.) Be interested to know what you think of IEW. (By the way, I think the website could be a lot better at explaining things than it is.)
Hello. I too have a son who experiences difficulties in writing. I have not heard anything about the program you wrote about. However, I know that there are many writing software programs you can purchase that are relatively inexpensive that prompt writing strategies until they become automatic. I’m looking into purchasing one for my son. I will prompt the main idea to begin the story and then ask for supporting details, etc. Hope this helps.
Linda