IEW

Friday morning the boys and I were out the door by 7:15. Eating our breakfast in the car,we drove an hour south to Albany where the boys would attend an Institute of Excellence in Writing class. The topic was Story Writing.

We are at the beginning of our third year using the IEW curriculum. It is an excellent program and the boys have learned a lot. Their approach to writing is to teach techniques that make something interesting to read. Then, instead of asking the students to “think up a story and use what you have learned”, they use existing good writing and have them rewrite it in their own words. It is much less scary.

Mr. Pudewa taught on the story sequence and reviewed the multiple ways to make a story more interesting all of which were familiar to the boys. They were then given the task of writing their own story on a topic of their choice. This is what they wrote in just about thirty minutes:

Joshua:

The Amazon Adventure

Once upon a time there was a boy who was writing an essay in an IEW class. He was ten years old. Sadly he was not doing very well. He desperately decided to streak away to the Amazon Rain Forest. When he got there he met a group of Indians they were hunting huge panthers. They captured him and tossed him in a dark, smelly cave. At that time the sky became dark and rain poured down in sheets.

As he sat on a crude stool in a corner he contemplated his chances of survival. All at once he saw a badger which had crawled through a tunnel in the wall. The boy immediately exclaimed, “If I can enlarge that tunnel a little then I could crawl through.” He was very happy. Suddenly he heard the door rattling. The natives had come to take him to a huge campfire where they would roast him and eat him. When the native came in he bashed him over the head. He quickly crawled through the tunnel and came out in the forest.

Suddenly he heard a deafening yell. The natives had spotted him. He rushed toward the ocean where a tiny canoe was beached. When he reached the boat he found it was well equipped for travel, and had food and weapons inside. He leaped into the little boat which rocked terrifyingly from his weight. He escaped! When he came home his parents scolded him but they were happy he came home alive from his adventure in the Amazon Rain Forest.

Nicholas:

The Battle for Scotland

Once upon a time there was a king of Scotland called Robert the Bruce. Robert, who was a brave and wise king, was at war with England. The king had fought six battles and sadly he lost them all, no matter how hard and swiftly he charged. Now his strong army was scattered. The king was hiding in a cave.

Feeling hopeless, Robert started to watch a spider as it spun its web. Now this spider, who was spinning its web, was no ordinary spider but a jumping spider. This spider tried six times to quickly leap its web to another wide ledge but six times it failed. On the seventh time it fantastically made it to the other side.

Robert shouted, “Yes! That spider has done it on the seventh time and so will I.” Robert quickly went to gather and inspire his troops who where also scattered. Then he found where the English were camping and prepared his troops for the battle. Robert, who was leading his armed troops, won the battle. Robert, the King of Scotland, won the battle.

It was such a great opportunity to be taught by Mr. Pudewa. He doesn’t come to the PNW very often so I am glad I decided to sign them up. They both really enjoyed it and think that Mr. Pudewa is hilarious. I completely agree with them.

Sorry I didn’t get any pictures of the class. I’m still not in that “take a picture of everything mode”.

Enjoy,

Karen