English writing curriculum
Jul 9, 2019 14:03:05 GMT 9
Post by Tatyana L on Jul 9, 2019 14:03:05 GMT 9
English is our ML and for one summer I have decided to tackle the kids' ML writing skills. A friend of ours recommended a curriculum for homeschoolers. It's called Institute for Excellence in Writing (iew.com). The reason I decided to recommend it for ml English speakers is because I think it's fantastic resource that I wish I had for our ml.
It upends the whole idea that children should create their own writing. In fact what it does is teaches them how to paraphrase someone else's work. This is good for children who, like mine, have issues coming up with an idea, and also for those that may lack the necessary vocabulary to create a completely original piece writing. It also takes all ambiguity of what is needed out of the equation and gives a child a specific checklist of items they need to have.
My oldest (10) has the theme of Ancient History and my youngest (6) has People in our Community. It's usually a paragraph about a topic. We generally start reading it out loud (my daughter's teacher said she needs to work on that), highlight the words we don't know, and then read it again once they know all the words. Then the child creates an outline of 3 keywords per sentences and practices retelling the story. Then they write a rough draft of a retelling of the paragraph based on the checklist provided. I correct the rough draft. Then they copy the finished product focusing on the handwriting. Plus each lesson comes with a few relevant vocabulary words that are a little more advanced than the text but relevant to it. Then as a child progresses through units more complex structures are introduced and the checklist gets more full. For example the first big thing for the kids was the -ly adverbs, and then the who/which clause.
Until my homeschooling friend recommended this, I had no idea that such a thing existed. After a challenging first essay when we were all trying to figure things out, the kids have decided that they love the workbooks and are already talking about what themes they want to buy next. It's roughly a 30 week course per book, so I don't have the heart to tell them that it'll take a while.
Having done the primary level (Kindergarten-2nd grade) and level A (3rd to 5th grade), I'd say that for those whose English is a weaker level, it might make sense to take things a level down from suggested grade. I could totally see my older daughter doing the primary workbook and still getting enjoyment out of it, but the vocabulary would be a bit easier, and the style concepts would come a bit slower. The shop on their sites has previews for each workbook, so it's great to see what I'm talking about.
As a bonus, in resources/audio they have great little podcasts with the creator of the curriculum who totally reminded me of Adam. It's the same basic idea that children need to be immersed in a rich linguistic environment, but also that at the core of it all, they need to have fun and enjoy what they are doing.
It upends the whole idea that children should create their own writing. In fact what it does is teaches them how to paraphrase someone else's work. This is good for children who, like mine, have issues coming up with an idea, and also for those that may lack the necessary vocabulary to create a completely original piece writing. It also takes all ambiguity of what is needed out of the equation and gives a child a specific checklist of items they need to have.
We use theme-based writing. There are other more full and expensive curriculums, but this workbook is perfect for a 10-15 minute a day writing assignment.
Until my homeschooling friend recommended this, I had no idea that such a thing existed. After a challenging first essay when we were all trying to figure things out, the kids have decided that they love the workbooks and are already talking about what themes they want to buy next. It's roughly a 30 week course per book, so I don't have the heart to tell them that it'll take a while.
Having done the primary level (Kindergarten-2nd grade) and level A (3rd to 5th grade), I'd say that for those whose English is a weaker level, it might make sense to take things a level down from suggested grade. I could totally see my older daughter doing the primary workbook and still getting enjoyment out of it, but the vocabulary would be a bit easier, and the style concepts would come a bit slower. The shop on their sites has previews for each workbook, so it's great to see what I'm talking about.
As a bonus, in resources/audio they have great little podcasts with the creator of the curriculum who totally reminded me of Adam. It's the same basic idea that children need to be immersed in a rich linguistic environment, but also that at the core of it all, they need to have fun and enjoy what they are doing.
Very positive podcast review of my book Bilingual Success Stories Around the World at Kletsheads 
