I edited this today for typos. I had previously written this post in an email and then cut out the portions I wanted to put on my blog and pasted them here. Sorry that I did such a poor job of slicing it together. Hopefully it reads a little better now.
Here is a recommendation I came up with for my co-op on middle school writing. I reviewed a lot of writing programs and for various reasons narrowed the list down to what is here.
Our co-op may use Writing Tales 2 for grade 4 next year, but I had to make recommendations for the students assuming that most of them have not had any formal writing during elementary. My coop might go with something other than WT, though. I’m not really in the elementary dept., so I don’t know which direction they’re leaning. (They did decide on Writing Tales)
Also, I tried to introduce Classical Writing and it was too intimidating. I don’t know enough about the Lost Tools of Writing to recommend it. I may buy it next year and try it at home.
So I was left mainly with IEW. Many of our teachers own the program already, so the cost isn’t much of a factor nor is the learning curve. The big thing is that I recommended that writing paragraphs be taught in grade 5 but not required across the curriculum until grade 6. In grade 6, they’ll be expected to know how to write one-paragraph papers for history and science, but in their literature class they’ll be writing 3-paragraph papers. In grade 7, 3-paragraph papers will be required across the curriculum, but they’ll be learning the 5-paragraph essay format in literature.
High school is set because our co-op is matching state requirements.
Again, elementary is completely out my area. For elementary, I hope we use FLL for grades 1 and 2 and then Writing Tales for 3 and 4. I would have preferred that we use Write from History, but I don’t have the level our co-op needs available for sale yet. This is also why we’re doing history at home rather than at co-op. We’re on a different rotation than the co-op and I don’t want to mess up our rotation. But co-op is so much more than history, we love it.
But here is my recommendation,
Grade 4
Goal: Introduce grammar and have students able to write in complete sentences.
Writing: Need to know the fundamentals of writing a complete sentence. Copywork, narration, and dictation as in Write from History works well.
Grammar: Begin Growing with Grammar 4 or teach grammar from copywork. I’ve done both and they both work well.
Grade 5
Goal: Outlining a paragraph is the most important goal for this age.
Recommendation:
Writing: Wordsmith Apprentice or Writing Strands 4 (* Note)
Grammar: Growing with Grammar 5
Cross Curriculum: Assign students homework to write in complete sentences in
history and science, not short answers or fill in the blank. Assign simple outlining exercises
alternating weeks in these two classes.
Grade 6
Goal: Practice writing 1-paragraph papers in each class and learn to write 3 paragraph papers in their writing class.
Recommendations:
Writing: SWI B teaches up through the 3 Paragraph paper
Grammar: Taught with Growing with Grammar 6
Cross Curriculum: Assign paragraphs in history and science that don’t have to be graded by the teachers. EX: A paragraph of interesting facts about the culture of Russia or the metamorphosis of a caterpillar to a butterfly. Continue outlining sections of their assigned reading as method to note taking, as well as writing skills.
Grade 7
Goal: Practice writing 3paragraph papers in history and science and learn to write 5 paragraph papers in writing class.
Recommendation:
Writing: SWI C, or SICC which continues where SWI B left off. Teach up through the super
essay. Assign The Lively Art of Writing as mandatory reading.
Grammar: Taught with Growing with Grammar 7
Cross Curriculum: Assign outlining in science and history to help with studying. Assign
3 paragraph papers in history and science.
Grade 8
Goals: Begin writing small research papers, writing thesis states, quoting, and citations.
Recommendation:
Writing: Student’s should begin working on research. SWI C taught the super essay for
research, now it’s time to write term papers which are simply 2 or more 5 paragraph essays linked
together. Also need, Jensen’s Format Writing, only the unit on teaching the research paper and
citations and all that stuff. IEW doesn’t teach that in SWI C, I don’t think.
Grammar: Growing with Grammar 8 (last year of grammar instruction)
Cross Curriculum: Research or Term papers, one in science, one in history, and one in Starting
Points. Include citations and quoting. Assign 6 smaller papers, like 1-3 pages each.
No citations needed during grade 8, except in class teaching the material. Use Starting Points to teach the citation aspect.
In Grade 9 begin requiring formal research papers with references and citations. Maybe 1 in each class.
I tried to recommend the least expensive material to acquire the skills needed. IEW’s strength is in how it teaches students to structure their ideas.
For students interested in creative writing, a creative writing elective should be taught for 5 and 6th combined and for 7th and 8th combined and then one for highschool students, or whatever would meet the student body needs.
*Note: Wordsmith Apprentice seems easier than Writing Strands 4. If students are coming from a program like Writing Tales 2, then they would be better served by using Writing Strands or Classical Writing Homer if they want to stick with the progymnasmata. But for students who haven’t used a rigorous program like Writing Tales 2, then Wordsmith Apprentice is the better choice to help them bridge the gap and get them writing in well constructed sentences and paragraphs by the end of the year.
