← Hillsdale College K-12 Classical Education Podcast
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- [00:00]
A
Hi there, it's Bill Gray from Hillsdale College. Before you skip ahead, can I ask you a quick favor? Next year marks the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. 250 years that the greatest country in human history, the United States of America, has been dedicated to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. But to secure these rights, we need an education that helps citizens to be self governing. From kindergarteners to lifelong learners, we need more people to understand the principles of liberty that make America great. In fact, we're seeking to educate millions and millions more through efforts like the podcast you're listening to right now. Hillsdale College has been expanding its educational outreach through free online courses, free issues of imprimis, free help for K12 schools all across America, and yes, free podcasts like this one. However, these efforts are not without cost and Hillsdale College is a non profit institution that doesn't take a single penny from the TaxpayerNot One penny to remain proudly independent. So your tax deductible gift before December 31st can help us make a difference. With your generous gift, you'll support our work to reach and teach millions the principles that make our country so free and so prosperous. You'll be making a real difference for liberty in America. Please make your tax deductible gift of $25, $50 or even $100 today by texting GIVE to 71844. You'll immediately receive a secure link to make your donation. Thank you for standing with us. Now back to the show.
- [01:43]
B
Welcome to The Hillsdale College K12 classical.
- [01:46]
C
Education podcast, bringing you insight into classical education and its unique emphasis on human virtue and moral character, responsible citizenship, content, rich curricula and teacher led classrooms. Now your host, Scott Bertram.
- [02:02]
D
Thanks for listening. The Hillsdale College K12 Classical Education Podcast is part of the Hillsdale College Podcast Network. More episodes at podcast hillsdale.edu or wherever you get your audio. You also can find more information on topics and ideas discussed on this show at our website, k12hillsdale.edu.
- [02:24]
E
We're joined today by Jennifer Jacket and Julia McNeely. Jennifer is a fifth grade teacher at Seven Oaks Classical School in Ellettsville, Indiana. Julia is title one director at Seven Oaks. Thank you so much for joining us. Thanks for having us discussing today how IEW helps students enjoy writing. And before we get into the details, I think best to define a term. People are unfamiliar. What does IEW even stand for?
- [02:52]
B
Yes, iew. So it stands for Institute for Excellence in Writing. And it is a writing curriculum designed for all ages, all abilities, and it focuses on the structure, style, and in confidence building for our students.
- [03:06]
E
So what aspects of IEW's step by step structure are able to help students feel less intimidated by writing assignments?
- [03:16]
B
So traditionally, when we ask students to write something for us, we give them a blank sheet of paper and tell them, right? And this is really intimidating. Where are they supposed to start? How are they supposed to organize their feelings? And IEW takes this problem, this blank page problem, and offers a solution. So we give them a clear process that we're going to follow every single time we write. It's going to remove their anxiety since they have this process that they know how to follow and they're going to do this, like I said, with every single paper paper that they are writing. We give them checklists so they can check their work as they're going through and as they are finished. They know exactly what is expected of them and there's no chance of failure for them because we can have as many drafts as we need to until they get it correct.
- [04:05]
E
Julia, how do key word outlines make writing more manageable for students, especially those who struggle to even get started?
- [04:13]
C
Yes. So at the very beginning of the program, a keyword outline is designed for students to look at a source text, identify keywords, and then make an outline based on those keywords. Initially, students will write this outline sentence by sentence, and eventually they write it based on ideas rather than sentences. Keyword outlines are very helpful for students because they don't have to write full sentences at first. They're focused on identifying the most important information or what is interesting and relevant. What this does for students cognitively is it breaks writing down into smaller, more manageable steps so students of all abilities are able to get something on the page. This keyword outline allows them to organize their thoughts, and it provides an outline for writing a rough draft. Then what they can do is work from that keyword outline to write a rough draft and eventually add in what IEW calls dress ups, things like ly adverbs or quality adjectives to then improve the quality of their writing. And it allows students to form thoughtful sentences so that they're not coming up with things from the top of their head.
- [05:23]
E
Jennifer, can you share any specific examples of how IEW's incremental approach can build students confidence over time?
- [05:34]
B
Sure. So like Julia said, it begins with just simple retelling where we are going to give them a very simple source. A one paragraph source text is what we call it, and they just are going to simply retell this story. And then we're going to move into more complicated, more complex, difficult sources where again, we're looking at ideas, we're not going sentence by sentence anymore. And so these sources are going to be maybe multi paragraph or just longer paragraphs. And eventually we're moving into full on stories and we're not asking them to identify relevant information. Now I want to know the different elements of the story. Who are the characters, what is the setting, what is the climax, what is the, the resolution. And then eventually students are moving into writing full on research papers and the final goal is to get them to write about what they know. So through these simple, you know, incremental steps, we're helping them become full fledged writers. And then another thing that we do is we have a rule, the easy plus one rule, meaning students are only ever working on mastering one item at a time. So they're working on everything that has come easily to them. And then we're adding in one more element for them to work with. And this doesn't overwhelm the students and it really builds their confidence and they feel like they could be successful.
- [06:54]
E
Julia, Jennifer mentioned a little earlier, these checklists. What role do the checklists play in helping students revise and improve their writing?
- [07:04]
C
The checklists are very helpful for students every step along the way, whether they're writing their draft or they're going back to revise, because they make expectations very clear for students. If a student does everything that is outlined on the checklist, then that student is going to get a 100% A. And that is the ultimate goal of IEW. We want our students to learn to write based on structure, but it's a program that also puts confidence in students that they are getting, they're capable of getting an A. So students who follow the checklist will do just fine. And then students who may maybe have missed something can go back and they have the opportunity to fix it. So students will rewrite a piece until they've done everything that they need to on the checklist. Like Jennifer mentioned, IEW has a rule called easy plus one. So the expectations can change slightly from student to student and the checklists allow you to do that. For example, if a student has mastered incorporating ly adverbs, then they're ready for the next dress up. Whereas if you have a student who still has not been able to accomplish that, then their checklist may not have the next dress up, which would be quality adjectives. And that allows you, the teacher, to teach to all of the needs of your students as well.
- [08:26]
E
Talking with Jennifer jacket and Julia McNeely from Seven Oaks Classical School in Ellisville, Indiana, about how IEW helps students to enjoy writing. Jennifer, how does IEW's focus on structure and style, such as strong verbs and sentence openers, make writing even more enjoyable for students?
- [08:49]
B
So our students find that they are having success with writing. So even our low students, they can feel confident that they're writing. It's beyond basics. They're incorporating these stylistic techniques, they're incorporating these strong verbs, they're incorporating different sentence openers, which helps their writing flow more fluently, and they feel like they've accomplished something. We make it very easy for them to write a piece that seems a lot more complicated than the work, you know, that they feel they've had to put into it. And then with our high students, we want to challenge them, and this really challenges our high students to make their pieces, you know, the best that they can make it. We give them a list of ly adverbs or of different prepositions that they can use, and they're really working to hone and refine their writing, choosing the very best that they can. And it's just across the board, our students enjoy this program and are having lots of success with it.
- [09:47]
E
Julia, in. In what ways does IEW source material? You've got there's fables, historical anecdotes. How does that source material engage students and make those writing assignments more fun to complete?
- [10:01]
C
Well, the content is both diverse and very interesting. So there's a variety of different pieces and source text that students will read. They will start off with, in some cases, nonfiction works, but it's always about an interesting subject that the students want to learn more about. And the content is also very interesting because it covers anything from scorpions to. Jennifer will tell you in a moment about a story about a hagfish. One of the blessings we've had the past few years is that the Hillsdale schools have been able to work with IEW to now have a curriculum in which our subject is integrated into the source text. So if students are learning about ancient Rome, then they may learn about the Coliseum within iew. If they're learning about the Norse culture and the Vikings, they might read about Leif Erikson. And students really love to learn something new about a subject they've already encountered. And they also like to learn more about something that we've already looked at within a different subject. And in some cases, teachers get to choose source text. And Jennifer has an interesting story about teaching her class something about hagfish yeah.
- [11:18]
B
So I was looking for an additional source to just kind of help the students along. I realized we needed just one more example. And the website has a wonderful cache of extra sources. And so I pulled a story about hagfish, and I read through it and thought it was fine. But when I got in front of the classroom and started reading about it, it's just absolutely disgusting. They're slimy, and it's. I was. The students thought it was the greatest thing in the world. I was just trying to keep. Keep it together, which just entertained them even more. They thought it was great, but so the sources are. There's just really great sources to pull from.
- [11:59]
E
Jennifer, how does the IEW program encourage what we call higher order thinking skills, Analysis, synthesis, beyond just retelling information?
- [12:11]
B
So we're not asking students to just retell this information verbatim for us. First, they need to analyze the text. So in fluent writing, students are able to see the connections between different ideas. So they need to be able to see these connections and then in their own writing, reconnect these ideas. Then they need to synthesize also what has been read. So they need to determine, like, how do they want to present this information in their writing? They have got to take out what they find interesting and relevant and write it in a way that the reader is also going to find it interesting and also understand the relevance of it. And then they also have to worry about what message do I want my reader to walk away with and how am I going to convey that? So we're training students to think. We're training students how to organize their ideas and writing. We're training them how to just be all around great writers in this way.
- [13:04]
E
Julia Every classroom is going to have writers at different levels of their journey. For those who might be more reluctant writers, maybe they. They're not confident in their skill or they're not mastering the material. They don't think they've mastered material, or they're shy at expressing themselves in some way. How does IEW help them thrive?
- [13:24]
C
I think this is an area that I have really appreciated as an educator because I grew up loving writing and I didn't know anything different. And so when I went to teach writing, one of the biggest challenges for me was finding a way to encourage these reluctant writers to want to write. And so what I've appreciated about IEW is that its structure and its methodology provides scaffolding that builds confidence in these reluctant writers. As we mentioned before, one of the biggest challenges for writing is the blank Page problem where you give students a blank page, a question, maybe, and you ask them to write. With iew, we take all of that anxiety away from the blank page by teaching students how to form the keyword outline. And then we give them the opportunity to first retell their story by reading a line of notes, thinking of a sentence, looking up, and speaking. And this progression from the notes to then speaking in complete sentences shows students the natural step from speaking in complete sentences to then writing incomplete sentences. And the writing part becomes the easier part. What we've seen with reluctant writers as well, because of the easy plus one rule, is that they're able to learn to incorporate stylistic elements through the dress ups. And rather than feeling overwhelmed, this also helps them to feel confident in their writing and they can celebrate small victories. And these students are often very excited to share their stories with their peers or family members.
- [14:59]
E
I want to ask about advanced writers in a minute, but Jennifer, first, how do IEW's video lessons that are provided and the teaching style help to contribute to a positive learning experience for your students?
- [15:14]
B
So, on the IEW website, Andrew Putua has lots of video lessons, and it is him teaching a class of his students. And these are great for teachers. The first year I was going through, I made sure to watch these videos and it really helped clarify exactly what you're supposed to be doing with your students, what types of questions you can ask them, how you can guide them. And then I just tried to emulate Andrew Putua as best I could in the classroom. And his excitement is so catching for the program. He is very high energy. You could see that his students are engaged. And these were just a great resource for, you know, helping me get through that first year and helping me understand, like, the way the program is supposed to work. And it also just gave me the confidence that, like, I am doing this correctly. And I could see the success with my students and they were just a really valuable resource that is available to our teachers.
- [16:09]
E
So, Julia, I was a lot like you. I loved writing. I loved writing different styles, short stories and journalistic writing and opinion writing. Even when I was K12, I'd write columns that would never be posted or published anywhere but just for fun. So I was a little more advanced in the writing process. How could IEW help a student like me or a student like you who perhaps is a little more advanced already in those skills?
- [16:36]
C
IEW gives a lot of flexibility for the teacher to challenge those more advanced writers through the easy one method. And also just the structure of introducing dress ups so students will go from incorporating what seems like simple dress ups, like ly adverbs, quality adjectives, and strong verbs, to then thinking more about sentence openers and the way that they can vary their sentences in their writing. And I think one of the greatest tools that IEW provides is word lists for each of those types of dress ups. And so your more advanced writers, I like to think of good writing as you have to be a wordsmith. And so these writers will challenge themselves, as Jennifer said, to find the perfect word. And in that way, we're really teaching students to master command of their language, both in speech and in their written expression, so that they're thinking about words deeply and they're writing well. In addition, they will take the ideas that they're learning in IEW and incorporate it across multiple subjects, not just composition. So we start to see these students naturally incorporating the dress ups and the sentence openers within other subject area writings. And some of them will even do it in their homework. And this is very encouraging to see that they're able to do it independently.
- [17:57]
E
Talking with Jennifer jacket and Julia McNeely about IEW helping students to enjoy writing. As we close, a question for either of you, perhaps both of you, been talking about how IEW helps students with writing. How does helping with their writing make the students stronger throughout the curriculum, even in other subjects?
- [18:18]
C
I think this also goes back to just building confidence. So the mark of a good educated citizen. And what we believe in classical education is that students should be able to write and express themselves in ways that others can understand them clearly. So ultimately, we're trying to help our students be able to compose a senior thesis in their senior year. And when we think about that goal as composition teachers, and then we know that IEW is preparing them for that and teaching them a solid structure and then slowly introducing different stylistic elements. So when I think of what I want my students to be able to do their senior year, IEW is the step by step program that is going to set them up for excellent writing. And across any subject, they can feel confident in being able to discern the major ideas of a text, break it down into smaller parts, and then synthesize and rewrite it in their own words.
- [19:16]
B
And like Julia had mentioned, I see it as well in my students across the curriculum. Even in fifth grade, I'm not asking them to write a thesis yet, but we are writing in every single class. We're writing in history, we're writing in science, we're writing in math class. And these students truly are they're taking these ideas and they are incorporating it into their writing. At first it's very purposeful, but as they get the practice with this, they're doing this without having to think about. And so their writing just across the board improves, not just in composition class.
- [19:48]
E
Jennifer Jacket is fifth grade teacher at Seven Oaks Classical School in Ellettsville, Indiana. Also, Julia McNeely, Title 1 director at Seven Oaks, talking about how iew helps students enjoy writing. Jennifer Julia, thanks so much for joining us here on the Hillsdale College K12 Classical Education Podcast.
- [20:08]
D
I'm Scott Bertram. We invite you to like us on Facebook search for Hillsdale College K12 classical education. You also can follow us on Instagram hillsdalek12. That's hillsdalek12 on Instagram. Thank you for listening to The Hillsdale College K12 classical education podcast, part of the Hillsdale College Podcast Network. More at Podcast Hillsdale Edu or wherever you get your audio.