Being a member of the TOS Homeschool Crew has great advantages, this time was no exception. I received the Teaching Writing/Student Writing Intensive Combo pack from Institute for Excellence in Writing to review over this school year in order to give you my opinion on it.

The combo pack that I received included the Teaching Writing: Structure and Style, Tips and Tricks DVD and Student Writing Intensive. It also came with 2 sets of DVDs (one for the teacher, one for the student), Teaching Writing: Structure and Style Seminar Workbook, and Student Notebook with handouts and daily lesson suggestions. Plus, I also received the Portable Wall which is a single-pocket folder which contains all the Unit Models, several word lists including prepositions, substitutes for “said,” and more. If you do not have a lot of wall space then the portable wall is a nice extra to have along with the writing program itself.

When I first opened up my package I admit to have been slightly overwhelmed by it. Maybe because I homeschool eclectically and do not normally use complete curriculum packages. However, I did as suggested in the Quick Start Guide letter and watched the first Teacher’s DVD and then looked through the rest of the materials at a glance. I decided to take advantage of the student writing intensive DVDs and had my daughter watch them and work through the workshop while I watched. Mr Andrew Pudewa who teaches on the DVD does an excellent job of instructing and engaging the students throughout the lessons. You can read more about him on the IEW website HERE. His humor and sincerity really adds to the experience that you receive during the lessons themselves. At one point he made some type of comment whether or not any of the students knew of any clauses. My daughter piped up and said, “Santa Claus and Mrs. Claus!” I think she caught herself getting into the environment and mood of how the lessons can sometimes be when taught by Mr. Pudewa. Although my daughter is not thrilled about writing, she followed along and actively participated and achieved good success while watching the student DVDs. I had previously heard much praise about IEW and was excited to learn that I agreed with those comments.   Even though I received the B level of the writing curriculum,  I was able to use what I learned through the teaching writing portion of the product to also work with my 8 year old with her writing as well. She also watched the DVDs with her sister and learned along with her.

I could say much more and write a really long post on this product but I will give you some of my key points instead.

Pros:

• The classroom setting on student DVDs encouraged my daughter to feel like she was part of a classroom.  She was able to hear what other students were doing which gave her more ideas and allowed her to see what was done by others her age.
• I really liked that this program had an instructional video which allowed me to let someone else teach so that my daughter could experience learning from someone else in addition to myself. Andrew Pudewa’s examples and explanations were both engaging and clearly taught
• I really valued the  method of taking existing writing examples to have the student learn to take keynotes and re-write the passages. It takes away from the fear of not knowing what to write and starts students off with success right away. Not only do the students learn how to write well but also learn excellent note-taking skills.
• The writing course is open to allowing your student to select their own passages to use in the writing exercises which enables them to use selections from their history or science books.   This makes it a perfect way for them to incorporate their writing into all their subjects. It showed my daughter the importance  and necessity of  learning to write well.  She could see how she would use it not only in her English coursework but throughout all her subjects.

Cons:

• The only con was more of an issue with some parts of the DVD in the beginning where it was sometimes difficult to see what pages my daughter needed during part of the lesson.  Instead of just mentioning what pages the student needed to get out,  it would be nice to have that physical page be shown on the video so that you knew what you needed.   Also, when Mr. Pudewa was writing items on his whiteboard it would have been nice to see where it would be in the handout so that student could follow along a little better.

My daughter and I really enjoyed working through the materials.  I would highly recommend IEW to anyone looking for a writing curriculum for their children. I am planning on continuing to use what I learned through the teaching part of this curriculum and look forward to seeing all the results as our family continues to use what we learned.

I received the Teaching Writing/Student Writing Intensive Combo Pack Level B which is targeted for grades 6th through 8th and can be purchased for $239.00 from the IEW website HERE. The portable wall can be purchased for $7.00. You can check out all of the IEW products and pricing options from the IEW website and see what other products are available.

As always, please check out what my fellow TOS Crew members had to say about IEW’s products by visiting our Crew Blog HERE.

Note: I received this product for free as a member of the TOS Homeschool Crew in order to provide an honest review for my readers.

Filed under: Home, TOS Crew by Barbara
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