Institute for Excellence in Writing

Youtube Video | Spotify episode

The Twelve Days of Christmas are fast approaching and this drives me to finally write about the Institute for Excellence in Writing (IEW) so I can encourage you to sign up for their offers. Last year I participated and was so inspired by their Teacher Training that I became a Registered Instructor. Since then I have waded through six units with my own children and tutoring students.

My first encounter with IEW was not so enthusiastic. Their website seemed confusing and their products expensive. The glowing reviews couldn’t quite shake my own deep-seated apprehension about teaching writing. Over many years Maths tutoring was my thing and I secured a place at a local tutoring centre. Desperately, they asked me to tutor remedial reading for dyslexic students as I am a native English speaker (by Australian standards). Some students responded well to the Barton Method, a respected Dyslexia program from the US, but others wanted help with writing in particular, which the Barton Method does not directly address. This puzzle of how to develop better writing skills became a preoccupation, preparing me to receive the IEW Twelve Days of Christmas Giving.

Each day a new presentation described a different facet of IEW’s well developed arsenal of resources. The premier resource is the Teacher Training course, entitled Teaching Writing with Structure and Style. This is the course which started the whole business and is still the core offering. The course is comprised of a series of videos and a Manual. One of the Twelve Days of Giving gave three months access to the videos and a variety of PDFs including a Spanish version of the Manual and English versions of the handouts required to complete the assignments. Completing the assignments helped convince me of the efficacy of the system. The discussions in the videos demonstrate the flexibility of the system, utilising any texts you may want to give your students. Annually your students cycle through the same system, building on last year’s skills to finally conquer the Complete Checklist! The picture comes together over time, making sense of the woolly topic of teaching good writing.

One downside of the IEW ecosystem is that they sell a wide range of tantalising resources. You can feel the salesy side of the website in tension with the simplicity of the Structure and Style system. Seasoned homeschoolers often warn against buying too many expensive books only to have them sit on your shelf. Fortunately IEW offers a 100% Satisfaction Guarantee, so you can return books, but then again, from Australia that is going to involve prohibitive postage. Making things easier for homeschool mums by preparing materials in a convenient format, they have video courses and printed materials on a range of topics. The new collaboration with Hillsdale College has produced some particularly tempting books. If you find something that fits your students, then this can be a great help, but I wonder if it would be better to stick with empowering parents and teachers to start with the basics.

Over time I have come to favour following the ideas in the teacher course, Teaching Writing with Structure and Style (TWSS), using materials we have to hand and topics we’re studying in other areas. The principles are very adaptable. Premium Membership gives access to the TWSS Videos and many other downloads, including a voluminous PDF by the name of Writing Source Packet, which gives copious quantities of sources adapted for getting started with the system. Although there are many other books and courses available, the Premium Membership gives you all you need to get stuck into TWSS and actually Teaching Writing with Structure and Style.

Hopefully they might include access to Premium Membership in this year’s Twelve Days of Christmas Giving. There are so many great ideas floating around in the IEW archives. Ideas from Suzuki and the Protogymnasmata as well as the years of teaching experience from Anna Ingham, Dr Webster and Andrew Pudewa. The Arts of Language Podcast is also a fantastic free resource, with over 400 episodes and new ones released every week. Episode 371: The Art of Telling Jokes is the first episode that really grabbed me. Mr Pudewa is a really interesting character. IEW headquarters are very close to Clear Creek Monastery in Oklahoma, Mr Pudewa is Catholic and some very Catholic choices in content crop up in some courses. Even their unusual accuracy in celebrating the Twelve Days of Christmas between Christmas and Epiphany points to some good Catholic influence.

I admit, I did start this off with a Key Word Outline, as per Unit 1 of Teaching Writing with Structure and Style. I have endeavoured to vary my sentence openers and close each paragraph with a good clincher. Looking up the links has reminded me of how much I have learned and am still learning about writing. If you would like a hand, you can Contact me. I can Zoom or Google Meet. I would love an excuse to get more IEW books, despite what my sensible side says about using already available resources. The main idea is to show my thoughts on IEW, so I have something to point to when I suggest people sign up for the Twelve Days offer, with the clarification that you don’t have to buy everything they offer, but they do have a great skeleton underneath all their different courses.