IEW - Guide to Surviving IEW

Mrs. Elliott’s Guide for Surviving (and even thriving) in IEW

Things you should know before you start:

1. IEW is a skills-based, not a product-based program. Your child may not cover every detail or include every fact that you want them to. However, that is not the point. The point is that they learn how to write.

2. Your child’s writing may sound awkward at first, especially as they learn to include stylistic techniques. That’s ok. It will sound smoother as they gain experience.

3. Allow your child to write the first draft without worrying about penmanship or spelling. Those techniques use a different side of the brain than the creative writing side. It may make writing more difficult for your child if they have to worry about all these things at once.

4. If your child still struggles with writing, you may choose to have her dictate her work while you write (or type).

5. Have your child write in ink and croos cross out her mistakes, rather than taking time to erase.

6. You can use KWOs (Key Word Outlines) to teach almost any subject. Writing shouldn’t be just a class that is segregated off to itself. Rather it should be integrated into everything that you teach. (KWOs especially help with reading comprehension.)

7. It is helpful to have your child edit her own paper before you do. Many times she will catch her mistakes on her own.

8. It is also helpful for your child to go through the checklist herself, underlining and identifying stylistic techniques, as well. She needs to take ownership of the paper, rather than depending upon you to take care of it for her. (Obviously, a lot of this depends upon the age/level of your child. You are the teacher; you know what’s best for your child.)

9. It will become easy to get overwhelmed as we add new stylistic techniques. You need to go at your child’s pace. While we should gently push our children into uncomfortable areas of learning, at times, we don’t want to move on to new techniques before the old techniques are completely mastered.

10. Read through page 21 in your Essentials Guide for information on how to do IEW alongside EEL.

How to: Rewrite a paragraph using a KWO (Keyword Outline)

1. Choose 3 words from each sentence to write on your outline.

- underline the keywords in any order, but write them in correct order (to make rewriting easier)

2. Put the original aside and have your child recite the paragraph verbally from the KWO. This step is very important. If your child cannot remember enough to tell you the gist of the paragraph, you may want to help her choose some other words for her KWO.

3. Write a rough draft from the KWO, adding stylistic techniques that you have learned up to this point.

- your paragraph doesn’t have to be exactly like the original

- it’s ok if the paragraph is very close to the original, as long as it was made from the KWO, not

the paragraph

- you will want to double space to allow room for corrections

4. Use checklist to make sure that you’ve included everything.

5. Correct your work. Then, have your parent check/correct your work.

6. Rewrite your paragraph (now’s the time for good penmanship) or type it (or ask a parent to type it – it’s up to the parent).

7. Underline and identify the stylistic techniques and have your parent assign points using the checklist.

How to: Summarize one or more paragraphs

1. Choose 3 – 7 facts from the original

- these facts can be the most interesting or the most important – (let the child choose)

- the number of sentences/facts depends on the grade of the student. i.e. 4^th grade – 4 facts

2. Follow the instructions from above to finish your paper, starting with step #2.

~More helpful hints to come as semester progresses~