When some argue that Institute for Excellence in Writing (IEW) is hopeless, I know otherwise, because IEW rescued our homeschool.
Purposely, IEW is designed for homeschoolers to apply the learned writing techniques to any assignments from other curricula and any life experience like college and work, writing to companies, writing to families and friends, etc, etc, etc.
A lot of mom’s prefer a package that has the teaching and source texts together, which IEW also provides.
Personally, I greatly appreciate that I don’t have to burden my busy kids, heavily immersed in other subjects, with having to learn yet another topic just to learn how to write.
Thus, we save lots of time by learning to write on topics from our other assignments.
My kids have used IEW techniques to write for our history and literature units, their science labs, even papers for Awana club!
Many homeschool moms, who had trouble using IEW with other curricula, have asked me: How do you do it?
Thus, this blog post is full of examples, photos, and links to my other blog posts about how we used IEW, most of which are from our Becoming History presentations.
Not that I think our Becoming History presentations are essential for IEW to work, but our history presentations easily showcase various topics that we used for our IEW studies.
By showcasing our presentations sequentially, I can show how my kids internalized IEW with consistent practice.
OUR FIRST YEAR LEARNING IEW
When we studied Ancient Civilizations, when they were ages 10 and 12, we were in our first year of learning how to write with IEW.
Each month we diligently advanced a unit in the IEW, building our writing skills.
Meanwhile, we showcased the results of all we were learning for extended family members in Becoming History presentations throughout the year.
Greatly impressed, our extended family finally got our homeschool endeavors, begging for more Becoming History presentations.
They also encouraged us keep on classically learning!
Throughout that journey, my kids’ speaking and writing skills progressed.
Even though I had always been considered a good writer, I learned a lot of new writing tips, myself.
ANCIENT EGYPT
At our Becoming Ancient Egyptians presentation, my kids had only studied IEW Units 1 and 2, so they presented one paragraph pop-up books as part of their written presentation.
Additionally, we each gave impromptu speeches to introduce our personas, at my son’s encouragement.
Minutes before the arrival of guests, my son pulled my daughter and me aside to encourage us to employ all we had learned from IEW Unit 1 to give a short intro of who we were.
So we did, and it was a hit!
The rest of the presentation was museum style, speaking as third person interpreters or docents, showcasing the work and answering the many questions that ensued.
HEBREWS IN CANAAN
Meanwhile, we were now studying IEW Unit 3, about writing 3 paragraph narratives, thus we were gleaning from lots of experience at writing paragraphs.
Following Andrew Pudewa’s model to teach IEW incrementally, I did the same with our Becoming History presentations.
When I saw how easily my kids slipped into character at the first history presentation, I assigned a Unit 1 intro for each of us.
Thus, each of us researched from the Bible our persona, creating a Unit 1 paragraph, that we then practiced retelling from note cards.
ANCIENT GREEKS
For our third Becoming History presentation on Ancient Greece, they gave longer speeches from their Unit 6 studies: summarizing from multiple sources.
My daughter gave an excellent presentation on Greek Classical Architecture…
…while my son gave an interesting presentation on hoplites.
Additionally, they wrote a play from Aesop’s The Tortoise and the Hare from IEW Unit 3: Retelling Narrative Stories to perform for the audience.
ANCIENT ROME
By the end of the year, they had completed all 9 IEW units.
Because family flew in to stay with us from out of town to join the local family in watching our presentations, we had little time for rehearsals, so I kept things simple.
We simply howcased several 5 paragraph weekly essays on the Roman Empire that the kids had written during our study of the last two IEW units.
Displayed as scrolls (printed on parchment), each chose one to read to the assembly (audience).
OUR SECOND YEAR WITH IEW
In our second year, we repeated the IEW units, while learning more deeply, as laid out in the Teaching Writing Structure and Style handbook.
My kids were now able to whip out lab reports for science, papers for Awana club, and basically anything that came their way.
Surprised to learn they had written essays for Awana club, I asked to see them and was quite pleased at how coherent they were…without any of my help!
Our newest IEW project for the year entailed writing super essays on Leonardo da Vinci and another about the thirteen colonies, based on our readings in our history studies.
At the end of the year, each of them had a five-paragraph essay published!
Meanwhile we continued implementing IEW into our Becoming History Presentations.
MIDDLE AGES
For the MIddle Ages, they entertained at the Medieval Feast by reading their IEW 5-paragraph essays about heroes of yore: St. Patrick, Charlemagne, King Alfred, Knights and their Code of Chivalry, and Marco Polo.
RENAISSANCE
For the Renaissance Becoming History presentation, my kids used IEW to help them prepare a slide presentation of famous artists.
While my daughter explained the artistic techniques Raphael used in The School of Athens…
…my son shared how Titian used color in The Assumption and Coronation of the Virgin.
THIRTEEN COLONIES
While studying the settlement of the thirteen American colonies, my kids wrote their second super essay (10 pages long) with IEW.
Then they used their super essay to create a power point presesentation to showcase during our Becoming History American Colonies presentation to extended family.
After the kids divided the colonies between themselves, each chose the photos they wanted to use for the slide presentation, then created the note cards they needed to present the information.
Together we put them in order according to the year in which they were founded.
As usual, they used IEW’s Unit 1 to prepare their speeches to tell about their personas.
Since we were so busy with the super essays and slideshow, I didn’t have time to assess their personae speeches.
During the presentation I heard them for the first time and they were wonderful!
AMERICAN REVOLUTION
Ending the year with the 18th century Becoming History presentation, we wrote a gazette (newspaper) to give to our guests as souvenirs.
Using the skills they learned from IEW, each of the kids wrote one article of their choice each week of our 18th century studies to ultimately include in the gazette.
News topics ranged from historical events to gardening and architecture…spanning time from the French and Indian War to the term of our first president of the United States.
On the last page my son wrote an advertisement.
Comprised of 10 pages, the gazettes were printed in double-columns on parchment paper, then folded in half.
OUR THIRD YEAR WITH IEW
Beginning our third year with IEW, we again reviewed everything we had learned by consistently writing, while adding more style to their structure.
For our Napoleonic Era Becoming History presentation, our first of the year, my son portrayed Meriweather Lewis, who explored the Louisiana Purchase and beyond.
As we read several interesting books about the expedition, my son was inspired to create his own nature journal, using IEW techniques, as if he were on the expedition himself.
Meanwhile, my older daughter had begun rhetoric literature studies with Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, for which she used IEW to write a literary analysis, which she read at our presentation.
My son also portrayed Commandor Oliver Hazard Perry of the War of 1812, for which he used IEW Unit 1 to prepare his speech.
COLONIAL WILLIAMSBURG ELECTRONIC FIELD TRIPS
For a Colonial Williamsburg Electronic Field Trip about the Battle of Yorktown, which effectively ended the American Revolution, my kids chose from the EFT list of writing topics for a mini-presentation at home.
My daughter chose to write a letter about the Battle of Yorktown from an 18th century perspective, using Unit 7: Creative/Inventive Writing.
Meanwhile my son chose an 18th century historical figure to write about, Lafayette, so he used IEW’s Unit 6: summarizing multiple references.
For the next EFT, Making History Live, they each chose 18th century personas meeting on the street, which they scripted with the help of IEW, while also using proper deportment learned during the EFT.
MANIFEST DESTINY
When it suddenly became our ‘manifest destiny’ to move from Texas to Virginia, requiring us to prepare our house to sell, we kept our Manifest Destiny Becoming History presentation simple.
Using IEW’s Unit 1, they created their persona speeches of Narcissa Whitman and Davy Crockett based on books they read during history.
Further using IEW’s Unit 1, they prepared for a shared power point presentation comparing Texan to American Independence.
CIVIL WAR
Carrying on with homeschool during the move from Texas to Virginia wasn’t easy, but it was doable…because we had been consistent with homeschool routines from the beginning, for 9 years.
Now that we were in our third year of IEW, at the dialectic level, my kids have internalized many concepts…so it was easy to pick up where we left off.
After settling in our new home, my kids used IEW to help them create their personas for our Civil War Becoming History.
My daughter became Florence Nightengale, while my son became a soldier of the Civil War.
GILDED AGE
Thus, we finally completed our third year with IEW in the late summer, with a Gilded Age Becoming History presentation.
Meanwhile we busily explored Virginia on numerous trips while painting the house and finishing homeschool.
Again, we kept our presentation more simple, but IEW style paved the way for oral presentations.
My daughter portrayed Anne of Green Gables…
…while my son portrayed a dual role, a cowboy (telling his story on the range) who became one of Theodore Roosevelt’s Rough Riders (then sharing that experience).
Nevertheless, while the painting of our new house was underway, my kids studied Impressionist Art, which they greatly enjoyed.
By now they have so internalized IEW concepts aka good speaking tips, they explained art technique while showcasing all the art assignments they did from an Impressionism art history book…without notecards or special preparation.
OUR FOURTH YEAR WITH IEW
Our fourth year with IEW opened with huge excitement when one of the producers of the Colonial Williamsburg Electronic Field Trip invited my kids to be the first Skypers for their show, Emissaries of Peace, which would show live on PBS!
After resuscitating my kids that they would, surely, survive their upcoming experience on live television from our house, I helped them remember all they learned from IEW as we looked through the EFT resources.
For the first time in their lives, they had a time limit, two minutes!
Check this blog post about how we put this fun presentation together.
For the rest of the year, we once again reviewed IEW while learning new skills, as suggested in their Teaching Writing Structure and Style manual.
And again, the kids incorporated all they learned into their Becoming History presentations, now showcasing the 20th century.
By now my kids are relying less on me to prepare for their presentations, since IEW has yet to fail them for preparations.
Thus, I forget all the ways they used IEW, since so much of it is now internalized.
They are currently in 8th and 10th grades, still learning lots about writing, even though their skill set is much improved from four years ago.
PROGRESSIVE ERA
For our Progressive Era presentation which included a fun vaudeville theme, you can see the infamous note cards to help them tell historic stories.
While my daughter portrayed missionary Amy Carmichael…
…my son told the story of the Wright brothers’ newest invention, the airplane, then later he presented the story of Sgt. York in WWI.
After using her notecards for the history of In Flander’s Fields, she gave a recitation of the famous poem.
WWII USO SHOW
For our WWII Becoming History Presentation, my daughter portrayed Gladys Aylward, missionary to China during the Great Depression, using IEW Unit I to prepare her speech.
Portraying marine Corsair Ace Lt. Kenneth A. Walsh, my son used IEW to incorporate details of Walsh’s life with fascinating characteristics of the corsair plane.
COLD WAR
For our Cold War Becoming History presentation, my kids weren’t super inspired to become anyone, and we were quite busy finishing our school year, especially now that they were busy with higher maths and sciences.
Meanwhile, they continued to write weekly, with IEW help, on various historical topics, which always cements information better in their brain for future recall, than only reading or listening.
So they drew from that databank of information for our fun quiz show, which we replicated in the style of the 1950s.
Then posing as Jacqueline Kennedy who famously redecorated the White House, I reprised her former role as interviewer by interviewing the kids, who answered from a 1950s perspective.
The interview questions were aimed at their thoughts on the fears of the Cold War while growing up in the fifties and their hopes for the future.
This left room for creativity and opinion, as long as it fit within the context of the era we had historically learned.
POST-MODERN
Culminating the year with our Post-Modern Era Becoming History presentation, my daughter portrayed missionary Heather Mercer (without note cards)…
…while my son choreographed a realistic briefing for his stealth bomber presentation, assigning roles for each of us to play…and I had nothing to do with any of this!
Removing our costumes, we gathered for an interview of the impact four years of dialectic classical history study brought to us.
IEW AT THE RHETORIC LEVEL
As we next enter our rhetoric years with history, we shall with IEW, as well.
With the key goal of internalizing the checklist, we will talk more and more of the benefits of usage of the various elements to prove points.
IEW’s Teaching Writing Structure and Style will continue to be our guide with all the helps to gradually teach more while honing writing skills.
Consistency is key.
For more homeschool photos of our dialectic years, check my Flickr set.
