Today someone asked me more specific questions about how to implement IEW with TOG. Since I often answer the same questions each year, I thought I'd post my answers here for others to easily access.

     When I got my TWSS I read through it and found a chart suggesting a time frame for using it. Basically, there are 9 units.  There are 9 months in a traditional school year. Therefore, schedule one unit each month. Because my kids were 10 and 12 when we started, they were the right age to do all of the units in one year. As you go through each unit, there are suggestions for how to extend the unit for older kids. Furthermore, it has guidelines on how far to go with the younger age set. 

     The basics are taught in the beginning units and are constantly reviewed while advancing through the rest of the units. The units tend to alternate between expository and creative. The reason for this is to give the kids a break with creative writing assignments after a month with more analytical work. It is extremely important not to get bogged down in any one unit for months, waiting for perfection. Simply move on to another unit and the kids will continue to improve each month, while continuing to learn interesting new things. It can get boring staying in any one unit for too long.

     Another concern I've found moms to have is the time required to watch the TWSS DVDs.  I completely understand how this is a huge sacrifice of time for busy moms to try to fit into a busy schedule.  However writing is one of the most important skills we can teach our students. They will always need to be able to communicate, not only in written form, but also orally. Both go hand in hand. Making time to watch these DVDs to learn how to implement this program should be a priority.  For me it was best to wait for everyone to go to bed before I watched the TWSS.  No interuptions.  Watching an entire unit with my TWSS, notebook paper and pen in hand, I took notes and did the assignments. I only had to do this once a month, so that wasn't so bad. Also Andrew is entertaining so it certainly wasn't drudgery.     

     TWSS was initially designed to give teachers the big picture of how to use the structural models with any conceivable writing assignment.  Usborne books are loaded with descriptive paragraphs for each of the colorful pictures on the pages. TOG recommends a lot of Usborne books for spine texts. My kids are not fans of these books because the information is disjointed instead of flowing from one idea to another, and I can't blame them. However they are ideal for learning how to KWO.  We have an Usborne book that we used when we studied Ancient Greece.  Sometimes I assigned the paragraph I wanted them to KWO, because I wanted them to master a major historical concept or cultural aspect.  For example, when we studied Ancient Greece, I had them write about their special pottery.  Other times I let them choose.  They would KWO on day 1 and write the paragraph on day 2.  In the beginning, I would help them with the KWO.  I would write on the whiteboard while they copied onto their notebook paper. We would read the paragraph and discuss it together, agreeing on how to KWO, writing it out as we went.  (Andrew does this very thing on the DVDs of the TWSS.  Bascially, after watching the DVDs, I would teach my kids in the same way Andrew taught us on the DVDs.) Then the kids would form sentences from their KWO.  (Andrew uses this on the DVD to teach speech giving skills.) On day 2, I would teach the kids a stylistic technique and challenge them to use it in the paragraph they would write from the KWO.  After doing several of these the first few weeks, I let them try the KWO on their own.  After my kids do their KWO, I have them form it into sentences for me. I listen to make sure they stay on topic. This is the best time to catch any mistakes and redirect them. If it flows well, they can put the KWO into their writing notebook. Then on day 2 they write their paragraph.

     Before they learned how to write 5 paragraph essays, I let them make pop up books for their single paragraphs, to make them more special.  Here is one my son made when he was 10.

 This was my daughter's when she was 12.

 Here's one my son did on a comet seen by the Mesopotamians.  He even made a moveable comet.