OVERVIEW - Immaculate Heart of Mary's IEW co-op class

Reading maketh a full man.

Speaking maketh a ready man.

Writing maketh an exact man.

~Sir Francis Bacon 

The IHM co-op will be offering an Excellence in Writing class in 2011-12. Excellence in Writing successfully equips students with tools to significantly improve their writing skills. Its methods not only build written and oral communication skills, but also improve critical thinking.  

Excellence in Writing methods can also be used across the curriculum to reinforce content area. Students learn to write as they write to learn. With diligent and consistent effort there is a wonderful transformation from immature or even reluctant writers to competent, confident communicators. It is possible to teach students with very high writing aptitude alongside those with undeveloped writing aptitude, and the system works magnificently at both ends of that spectrum.

Each lesson in our co-op class is carefully planned to be a step toward more sophisticated writing.  

Lessons build from one paragraph summaries to three paragraph essays and on to a five paragraph essay with introduction, conclusion, and bibliography. 
After mastering the five paragraph essay the next step is a “super essay.” A "super essay" consists of three 5-paragraph essays tied together with super introduction and super conclusion paragraphs.

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Required material for Immaculate Heart of Mary's  IEW co-op class

1)  Teaching Writing Structure & Style $35.00 at the IEW site 

2)  A medium 3 ring binder with @ least 7 dividers 

• class notes & exercises
• assignments
• vocabulary
•  "Fix-Its" grammar
• assignments
• tests
• extra paper

3) A large 3-ring binder for a work sample PORTFOLIO (to be submitted in December and again in the spring)

Suggested material for Immaculate Heart of Mary's IEW co-op class


Portable Wall 

This contains writing models and helpful, easily accessible information on a tri-fold pocket folder.




  

Here are the official units covered in the  TWSS  lessons:
 
Units 1-2
Note Making and Summarizing including Stylistic Techniques and Dress Ups
 
Unit 3
Summarizing Narratives Stories and introducing Sentence Openers
 
Unit 4
Summarizing Reference for Library Reports and adding in Advanced Dress-Ups: Decorations, Triples
 
Unit 5
Writing from Pictures
 
Unit 6
Reports from Multiple Sources (extension of Unit 4)
 
Unit 7
Creative Writing and introducing introductions and conclusions.
 
Unit 8
Essays: Basic, Expanded, Super-Essay, Persuasive (extension of Units 4 and 6)
 
Unit 9
Critiques, Book Reports, and Reviews


http://www.excellenceinwriting.com/usrdownloads/WhatAreWeReallyDoingHere.mp3 

A parent review from Curriculum Choice:
Writing with Their Own Voice: It has always been important to me to have my children develop their own voice in their writing, to have the paper sound like it is from their own thoughts and reasoning. IEW has helped my boys use the IEW tools in a way that makes writing in their own words easier. At first the checklists provided with the lessons seemed cumbersome and awkward. They did not enjoy all the “box checking”. For instance, as the sentence openers are introduced they had to go back and rewrite a lot of their sentences to make sure they had used each sentence opener tool .  The editing process was tedious and we all loathed that time of the week when we would review the writing and the checklist together. Progressively, each time we used the sentence opener tools in our writing, it became more natural. Now as the boys write an essay they can easily insert the sentence openers as they go along, they are on their mind. By incorporating the various style tools in the TWSS program, they have found their writing voice. 

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In order to succeed in every area of life, children must hone the skills needed to communicate confidently and effectively. 

How does the Institute for Excellence in Writing help students move towards this goal?

Through the process of learning to write well, students learn how to think clearly and to express themselves eloquently and persuasively.