Hi everyone! I’ve had a ton of requests to do a review for our homeschool writing curriculum. We’ve been using the Institute for Excellence in Writing program for a few years now and really love it. We started out with the Group A Student Writing Intensive, and this past year we moved on to the Group A Continuation Student Writing Intensive program.
IEW does offer several different courses depending on the ages and needs of your students, so you’ll want to check out the IEW Website to decide which program is best for your student. They also have themed writing units if you don’t want to do the writing intensive curriculum like we are. I really like how this program works. The instructions for your students are really clear and they know exactly what they need to do to create a properly formed paragraph along with dress-ups, and sentence openers that will really improve their writing style.
I didn’t do the Teacher course called Teaching Writing: Structure and Style, but they have that as an option if you’re really nervous about trying to teach writing. I’ve found that watching the videos with my kids has been enough for me to be able to facilitate the writing lessons. They also provide checklists for your student, along with a grading sheet that makes the whole process really easy for both the teacher, and the student.
Most of you also know that we started using the IEW Fix It! Grammar curriculum this year as well. They go really well together and use similar terminology and methods which make it easy for me to teach both.
Check out my video review of the IEW Student Writing Intensive to learn more about why we love this curriculum!
For more information, visit IEW below!
Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links. I want to make it clear that I will NEVER refer a product to you that I do not use and love myself! That said, I am sometimes fortunate enough to receive a small compensation from products that you purchase through the links in my post. So thank you!
Thanks for the review. Do you feel like with using the writing course and the fix it grammar this was enough to be considered a language arts program at home?! Or did you feel Iike you needed a language arts program in addition to these two?
Thank you!
Yes, we did both together and it worked great for us!
You refer to this as Student Writing Intensive, however, on the IEW website I am only seeing Structure and Style. Is this the same product or am I looking in the wrong place for the Intensive unit?
Hi, Yes this post is older, they’ve updated their SWI and it is now the Structure and Style 🙂 It’s updated, improved, and now streaming as well.
Hi Erica,
Do you think it is necessary for the students to watch the video/DVD (video course) when doing the program? Or can they just skip it and do the student packet? Also, do you think the video/DVD engaging for the kids?
Thanks for reading!
Stephanie
Wanting to know the same!
Hi Stephanie, yes they need to watch the Video lessons. They are the core of the instruction. I also watch the videos with my kids so I know what is expected of them as well 🙂