Institute for Excellence in Writing

When I first began to homeschool the girls, I had a philosophy on how I should teach them writing. In my mind I felt the best way to instruct them on writing was to simply let them write. Whatever they were feeling in the moment that they found themselves with pencil in hand, they should write uninhibited and freely express what was in their mind. For our first year and a half of homeschooling instead of choosing a writing curriculum, I used a guide called The Writer’s Jungle (i.e., BraveWriter) that instructs the parent on how to coach their children as writers.  It served its purpose during our initial years of homeschooling while the girls were still becoming comfortable with putting words on paper. While I was comfortable with the girls expressing themselves on paper, there was the “structured” side of me that struggled with the lack of structure in the girl’s writing. It was difficult for me to gauge how well they were writing, how to grade their papers, and there was still the challenge of teaching them how to make their papers flow consistently from beginning to end.

I had heard about the Institute for Excellence in Writing (IEW) curriculum at the homeschool convention and from other Moms, but was a little nervous that it was too structured, to the point that the girl’s creativity might somehow get stifled with the all the structuredness (new word) of it all. I figured in my mind from what I had heard that it was a little uptight and detailed, taking the fun out of writing.

Boy, was I wrong. When I finally gave in after another fellow homeschooling-Mom-friend shared successes from her children, I not only breathed a sigh of relief to know that I could teach them structure, but I was floored at how complete, efficient, and effective the techniques are that are taught. Similar to the Sonlight curriculum, I thought, “Why didn’t someone teach ME this way when I was in school?”

IEW provides a foundational set of techniques that equip students with tools on making their writing more complete and thorough by teaching them how to write and structure their writing using key word outlines (KWOs). After going through the 12 DVD Teaching Writing: Structure and Style Video Course (TWSS), I felt simply empowered to finally instruct my girls in their writing. In addition to purchasing the TWSS DVD set, I also purchased the Student Writing Intensive, Level B, (SWI-B) which is the middle ground level writing course taught by the founder, Andrew Pudewa. In the videos he teaches a classroom of middle school age kids several of the IEW technical writing skills. My girls enjoyed listening to him teach and as he taught, because I had already gone through the TWSS course, I could pause the video when necessary and expound upon what he was teaching.

As a result of using IEW, I can already see the confidence growing in my daughters as they write their compositions. I love the checklists that are provided that enables me to grade their papers, the writing techniques that are taught add beautiful touches to the girls' vocabulary, and I can't say enough about the completeness I glean from their compositions. Gone are the stories that always start with "Once upon a time...", incomplete thoughts, papers that always end with happy endings because the girls can't think of anything else to say, and sentences that always start the exact same way. There is now variety and complexity, even from their young minds. Love it.

You just may love it too. Check it out here.

Pros:
- Covers how to write from pictures, summarizing multiple references, inventive (creative) writing, formal essay models, formal critique
- Provides a means for grading your student's writing assignments

Cons:
- Time is required on the part of the teaching parent to learn the IEW techniques (12 DVDs; 14 hour course)
- SWI B does not include all 9 Units, but the TWSS does; Continuation courses are available for purchase that cover the remaining units

 (I was not contacted or solicited for this review. Comments above are my own personal opinions of the product.)