Reflections on IEW Medieval History-Based Writing Lessons...

Late last summer, I did a curriculum preview, in which I shared that I would be using IEW's Medieval History-Based Writing Lessons by Lori Verstegen with Ruben. Today, I want to follow-up on that post with an end of year reflection.

First, a little about IEW...

There are nine structural models of writing taught in the IEW writing programs, which will take you from the early primary grades through high school writing. These include:

Note Making and Outlines
Writing from Notes
Retelling Narrative Stories
Summarizing a Reference
Writing from Pictures
Summarizing Multiple References
Inventive Writing
Formal Essay Models
Formal Critique and Response to Literature

Within these structural models, IEW has created lessons to guide the student in practice of different types of writing. The main essence of IEW is their Levels A, B, and C with continuation courses. As mentioned in the past, we dabbled in IEW Level B the year before and I was ready to branch out and try the History-Based Writing program. Each lesson in the History-Based Writing course is designed to take one to two weeks of study.

In addition to the nine structural models, IEW gradually introduces a variety of stylistic techniques to help the student develop more sophisticated writing. These include things like: dress-ups, sentence openers, and decorations. If you are not familiar with IEW, this most likely doesn't mean much to you. In order to teach IEW, you really should watch and participate in their Teaching Writing: Structure & Style course. As I mentioned in my former post, I did this many years ago, when I first began home educating.

I was on the fence about using IEW when I first learned about it, particularly with the girls. Angel learned to narrate as an older student, but did fine with it and the transition to writing. Riley's been narrating from day one and was an excellent oral narrator. She has also done fine with the transition to writing. I didn't want their writing to become formulaic by worrying about structure and style rather than their thought process. Ruben, on the other hand, has struggled with narration from day one. And, I'm not sure why. Sometimes, he does great with oral narration, but then sometimes not so much. There's no consistency. When we tried to transition to paper, there were major meltdowns and it just wasn't happening. This is what led me back to IEW. I felt he needed some structure to compose his thoughts. After testing with Level B, I knew we were on to something.

Next, a little about our experience...

Last fall, Ruben started really strong with key word outlining and retelling or summarizing narrative stories in the Medieval History-Based Writing Lessons. IEW offered a model of writing and then a way to break it down into manageable parts, which can then be reconstructed into a whole. This seemed to be the piece that Ruben needed. He worked the early lessons with ease and even starting improving in his oral narrations, which we continued along the way.

I also used the IEW suggested book list, tying together his history and literature study. This worked beautifully as most of the passages he was studying in his writing lessons were reinforced by story in the literature. The suggested books were as follows....

Beowulf by Michael Morpurgo
1001 Arabian Nights by Geraldine McCaughrean
King Arthur and His Knights of the Round Table by Roger Lancelyn Green
The King's Shadow by Elizabeth Alder
Otto of the Silver Hand by Howard Pyle
Robin Hood by J. Walker McSpadden
Marco Polo by Demi
The Kite Rider by Geraldine McCaughrean
Crispin: The Cross of Lead by AVI

We did not read The King's Shadow as I didn't own it and wanted to substitute something else, but we did read all the others. Many of which became new favorites. A couple of the books Ruben even picked up and read on his own!

We did run into a snag toward the end of our journey around structural model six, Summarizing Multiple References, which does take a higher level of skill. We continued into structural model seven, Inventive Writing, until it really became a fight. Somewhere around lesson 23, we decided to call it quits. I then had Ruben focus on simple written narrations for the rest of the year. 

Overall, I feel our experience with IEW's Medieval History-Based Writing Lessons was successful. I thought the IEW models and literature were excellent and gave Ruben a great spring board for his writing. I do plan to continue with IEW's U.S History-Based Writing Lessons in the fall, as this will again match our time period of history. This will allow Ruben the opportunity for more practice with the early structural models of writing and should provide some review and repetition, which is needed for mastery. I will also have him continue with oral and some written narration as well. 

The Kite Rider by McCaughrean...

We recently finished reading The Kite Rider by Geraldine McCaughrean. This was our second McCaughrean read this year, as we read One Thousand and One Arabian Nights in Term One. Both of these books are Beautiful Feet Intermediate Medieval History recommendations, as well as IEW Medieval History-Based Writing Lessons recommendations.

The Kite Rider is set in 13th Century China. It's the coming of age story of Haoyou, a young Chinese boy who needs to earn a living to provide for his widowed mother and baby sister. Haoyou begins making fanciful kites in the hope of selling them. However, an evil sailor burns him out in an effort to marry his mother. Together with his cousin, Haoyou sends the drunken sailor out to sea and joins the circus as a kite rider. Unfortunately, the money he earns and sends home doesn't make it to his mother because his greedy Great-Uncle Bo intercepts and gambles it away. There is much more to this adventure story, but I don't want to give away the ending.

As a family, we have come to love McCaughrean's writing. Her characters develop and show much growth as the story progresses, making them seem real and very interesting. Also, McCaughrean's language is beautiful and not dumbed down. We all found ourselves rooting for the protagonist, hoping for a happy ending to their plight.

Another McCaughrean title the kids have enjoyed in the past is Stop the Train, which is set in the American west. We would frequently get the audio from the library when they were younger, as they wanted to listen over and over again. If you haven't tried a Geraldine McCaughrean book, we highly recommend you do so!

Robin Hood by J. Walker McSpadden...

I finished reading aloud Robin Hood by J. Walker McSpadden. It was a suggested literature read for Ruben's IEW Medieval History-Based Writing Lessons. I initially thought about substituting The Adventures of Robin Hood by Roger Lancelyn Green, which is the suggested Beautiful Feet Intermediate Medieval History book and the version of Robin Hood Riley read. I want to say, I'm so glad I didn't, but without reading Green's book, that would be unfair. However, I will say, I am very pleased with McSpadden's work.

Robin Hood is a wonderful story. For those of you who don't know, Robin Hood is a hero to the poor in English folklore. He and his loyal circle of 'merry men' fight for the oppressed against the Sheriff of Nottingham and the king. Robin Hood lives in Sherwood Forest. He and his band dress in 'Lincoln green' and it is said, Robin takes from the rich and gives to the poor. There is speculation that Robin Hood may have been a real man. However, exact details are unknown and most certainly have been dramatized over the years.

One of the first known accounts of Robin Hood is in William Langland's Piers Plowman in 1377. The brief mention may indicate the tale was popular in the oral tradition. Although, it wasn't until 1883, when Howard Pyle published The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood as a children's version that Robin Hood became popular in literature. There have since been many renditions of Robin Hood. I really did love the edition, pictured above, written by J. (Joseph) Walker McSpadden. The rich language and alliteration are lovely and the inclusion of excerpts from other famous retellings such as Andrew Lang's Robin Hood and the Butcher were wonderful.  The Dover reprint pictured above was created as a replication of text originally published by World Publishing Company, New York, in 1923. The original McSpadden retelling was authored in 1891. You can read it online here or listen to the audio here.

The reading of McSpadden's Robin Hood was highly anticipated in our home each evening before bed. Steve and I loved it as much as the children. Ruben was disappointed when it ended. I can anticipate re-reading it in the future or at a minimum, reading other early versions of the work such as Pyle's, which we are blessed to have on the shelf. Whether you are studying the Middle Ages or not, I believe Robin Hood is a must read tale, simply for the discussion of character and virtue. Is it ever right to take something that's not yours if you are well meaning to give it to someone in need? I'll let you read and decide...

Otto of the Silver Hand by Howard Pyle....

Otto of the Silver Hand by Howard Pyle is a charming book, originally published in 1888, about a motherless boy who grew up in the safety of a monastery for the first twelve years of his life. It's set in Medieval Germany at a time of robber barons. Eventually, the boy's father comes back for him and takes him home in the hope of training him in warring. However, Otto has been taught up to that point in the way of the Lord, where kindness and mercy abound. Upon leaving the monastery, the reader quickly finds young Otto out of his element. There is definite evil, brute force, and cruelty in his father's world. However, good prevails as Otto manages to overcome.

Pyle's story is engaging, albeit simply written. Otto of the Silver Hand would be suitable for younger elementary students as a read aloud or older students as an independent read. Pyle's illustrations are fabulous and really compliment the story. We were slightly disappointed with Pyle's lack of character development, but the illustrations do help the story come alive. The book is pretty fast paced as there is a lot of action so it felt like you never really got to know the characters like in a book such as Black Fox of Lorne by de Angeli, which we finished reading before Otto. We liked the characters in Pyle's tale, but were left wanting to know more about them.

Overall, we enjoyed Otto of the Silver Hand. It was our first book written by Pyle. I look forward to reading his other books in the future.

2017-2018 Reflections - Week Four...

At Home

Last school year, I wrote 2016-2017 Weekly Reflections, reflecting once a week on our academics, as well as various happenings at home and linking articles around the web. Since these were popular posts, this year, I hope to continue in that same vein. However, the posts may or may not be weekly, depending. I'm undecided at this point. I'm actually hoping to spend less time on the computer and more time with my nose in a book this school year, so we'll see how it goes.

For now, I want to report that we are four weeks into the 2017-2018 school year. Riley has begun in earnest. You can find her Year 8 books here. She's enjoying most of her studies, particularly her science selections. She's made some great notebooking pages based on her readings. She also likes that her online math class is two days per week this year, versus one day last year. She said it's good to be able to touch base more frequently with the teacher, particularly if you have questions.

Riley's also loving her Beautiful Feet Medieval History study. She drew by hand, this beautiful world map on tag board over the first couple weeks of school...

I have been reading the following titles along with her as part of my Mother Culture. Also, in order to be able to understand her narrations and have more meaningful discussions...

The History of English Literature for Boys and Girls by H. E. Marshall - AO Year 7
The Once and Future King by T. H. White -  AO Year 7
Watership Down by Richard Adams -  AO Year 7
Ivanhoe by Sir Walter Scott -  AO Year 7

This week, Riley and I have jointly decided to drop The Once and Future King. We had just finished chapter six in week three, when she came to me and wondered how it was going. Truth be told, my enthusiasm started strong, but quickly dissipated after week two. I was disappointed when they turned into sea creatures. At this same time, Riley was also reading King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table by Roger Lancelyn Green for her BF study. She decided to continue one more week of The Once and Future King, reading chapters 7 and 8, at which time, we talked again and decided to drop it. My thought is, there are too many great books to read a just so, so book that's not sparking ideas. To some, The Once and Future King is excellent. To us, it is not. I believe we gave it a fair shot and who knows, maybe down the road, we will revisit it. For now, the BF King Arthur book is satisfactory.

Ruben is also reading Ivanhoe and Watership Down along with us via audio. Ivanhoe is going just OK, but I feel it's too important to give up. I want us all to have a Sir Walter Scott experience and so we shall keep plugging on with this book. We are all loving Watership Down! Ruben actually got way ahead of Riley and I, which was OK since we had to return the audio to the library and wait our turn to get it back again. I may just break down and use my Audible credits for it.

Ruben and I are also reading Beowulf by Michael Morpurgo as part of his IEW Medieval History Themed Based Writing Lessons. Riley already read this same version of Beowulf through Beautiful Feet. Ruben's written two papers so far with IEW and he's doing a great job! I'm really glad I chose this program for him. It seems to be a good fit. Here are Ruben's paragraphs....

Week 2

 Life in the Middle Ages

          In the Middle Ages, knights and kings were thought to have lived in massive castles. It was not a glorious time for Europe. In the 400s the Western Roman Empire was crumbling. Sadly, warriors stormed and seized parts of it. They were not interested in arts or learning so it was called the Dark Ages. Knights and castles did not appear until the late 900s. Peasants worked from sunup to sun down for the noblemen. There were many hardships. Education and the glorious Roman culture were forgotten.

Week 3

The Anglo-Saxons

When the Western Roman Empire fell, the Anglo-Saxons crossed the North Sea. They invaded Britain. Angles settled the southern part of the island. They called it Angleland, which is modern day England. The Angles gave us the English language. Anglo-Saxons brought pagan gods. Woden, who was an Anglo-Saxon god, gave us our word Wednesday. In 598 AD, a monk named Augustine intrepidly came and enthusiastically preached to the Angles. He converted many of them to Christianity. The Anglo-Saxons proudly ruled England until 1066 AD.    

I have not officially started math with Ruben yet. I've been so busy working on the Journey: An Education for Life retreat among other things that I didn't have time to get organized. However, we will begin soon. His Year 7 book list is here. 

In regard to Morning Time, I need to do some reassessing. You can see our original 2017-2018 plan here. I'm really on the fence about How to Be Your Own Selfish Pig by Susan Schaeffer Macaulay. We're three chapters in and I don't really feel it's applicable at this point. I think I may wait until Riley and Ruben are older and revisit it. I also dropped Idylls of the King by Tennyson this past week, which makes me a little sad. I couldn't find the beat and we were all suffering. However, I may bring this one back when life slows a bit. I think it's an important read and I want my kids to experience it, but with the busyness of life, now may not be the time. 

All things considering, we are off to a good start. I really do look forward to some down time over the next couple of weeks to focus more on our studies. We have also opted to take a semester off from participating in our local homeschool choir. This is bittersweet as it's such a great opportunity. Yet, as mentioned, we really need some down time right now. Riley actually thanked me when I shared our decision to wait until spring. This solidified that it was the right decision for now.

Around the Web

I hadn't been reading blogs or listening to podcasts for about 4-6 weeks prior to the Journey retreat because I didn't want my talks to be skewed by someone else's thinking. However, today, I broke my fast and read a few articles that I really enjoyed....

Will This Curriculum Prepare My Student for College Level Writing? by Lisa Kelly is a commonly asked question. As a matter of fact, I was asked it last Saturday after one of my talks. So many mamas want to know if a CM education really will prepare their kids for the modern world. My answer is there is no better time than the present for a Classical Christian Charlotte Mason education!

I really liked Karen Glass's post on The Perfect Charlotte Mason Curriculum. Again, this was right in line with my first talk last weekend, in which I outlined 5 key ideas of Charlotte's philosophy on education. Personally, Vol. 6, A Philosophy of Education, is my favorite so far, but our CM Study Group is currently reading Vol. 1, Home Education, and it's a close second. 

Have you seen Celeste's Reading Journal? It's beautiful!...and something I've been desiring to begin this year as I read along Riley and Ruben. I actually did something similar for a bible study a couple of years ago, but it became too time consuming so I gave it up. However, I'd like to get back at it this winter. I'll keep you posted on my progress. 

Lastly, I'm working through Richele Baburina's 3-part Physics series at Sabbath Mood Homeschool. I look forward to hearing Richele's ideas. I greatly appreciated her Mathematics guide published by Simply Charlotte Mason. 

2017-2018 Curriculum Preview - IEW Themed Based Writing Lessons and Literature....

I'm trying a new approach this year for writing with my Year 7 child. I'll be using Institute for Excellence in Writing (IEW) Medieval History-Based Writing Lessons with Ruben. I don't typically use writing curriculum. Our children simply narrate. Beginning orally and transitioning to written. However, Ruben has a bit of trouble getting started. We briefly tried Writing & Rhetoric by Classical Academic Press for a term last year unsuccessfully. I then pulled my dusty IEW Level B off the shelf and tried it.

IEW is something I collected years ago after completing a seminar with a local homeschool group, watching the Teaching Writing: Structure and Style together. Once I learned the method, I dabbled in it with our high school graduate, but didn't stick with it as she was a fine narrator and I didn't see the need. I have since heard many success stories of people using IEW with their dyslexic kiddos. Ruben and I had the pleasure of meeting and hearing Mr. Pudewa speak at the CiRCE Regional Conference back in January. Ruben enjoyed Mr. Pudewa immensely so I thought maybe I'd give IEW another try.

We completed several lessons of IEW Level B in the spring. Ruben bought into it and enjoyed writing as much as he could. Having dysgraphia, writing has been a consistent struggle alongside reading. However, while using IEW Level B, I saw growth. This was very encouraging. I want to continue. Since we are studying Middle Ages, Renaissance, and Reformation this year for history, I decided to try the IEW Themed Based Lessons for this time period.

The Theme Based Lessons come with a Teacher's Manual and Student Book. The Teacher's Manual includes the lesson pages from the Student Book, along with teaching notes, sample key word outlines, answers to questions and vocabulary quizzes, as well as ideas for motivating the student. There are 30 lessons. It is suggested that one lesson will take approx. one week at 4 days per week. However, a few may take 2 weeks. I'm not as concerned about timing of a lesson as much as whether Ruben is understanding the material and showing continued growth in his writing. In addition, the Student Book contains vocabulary cards to accompany the writing lessons. However, I'm undecided as to whether or now we'll use these, as Ruben's vocabulary is very strong. I attribute this to years of classic book and literature read alouds.

Something that I really like about the Medieval Theme Based Lessons is the suggested literature list. In the scope and sequence, Lori Verstegen, the author, has included a list of titles to accompany the writing study. The suggested books look wonderful and many of them are the same books used in BF's Medieval History Intermediate study, which means Riley and Ruben will be reading many of the same titles.

The suggested books are:

Beowulf by Michael Morpurgo
1001 Arabian Nights by Geraldine McCaughrean
The Legend of King Arthur by Roger Lancelyn Green
The King's Shadow by Elizabeth Alder
Otto of the Silver Hand by Howard Pyle
Robin Hood by J. Walker McSpadden
Marco Polo by Demi
The Kite Rider by Geraldine McCaughrean
Crispin: The Cross of Lead by AVI

These will be Ruben's literature books for the year. I will throw in a few other history titles and that will be covered as well. So there you have it, our writing, literature, and history base for Ruben's Year 7!