“Wow, that’s a big investment.” Whenever I see this comment online, I am compelled to jump in and offer my story.
It began in the early 2000s. Although I had yet to hear of IEW, I first experienced their method while I was a music major in college. Recognizing my heart for teaching, my piano instructor encouraged me to learn the Suzuki Method™. Part of that training entailed a crash course called “Every Child Can.” During that course, every participant read and then wrote reflections on Shinichi Suzuki’s two books Nurtured by Love and Ability Development from Age Zero. Have you ever read anything and thought, This is purely and completely true? Internalizing Suzuki’s ideas felt like discovering a law of the universe, and they were formative to the way I’ve taught music lessons ever since.
I graduated and began homeschooling my son, but writing quickly became a hurdle for him. (Looking back it baffles me, but I had somehow failed to assimilate the fact that Suzuki techniques were applicable to writing.) For years I tried to cram my son into the same box that I had thrived in—I surrounded him with loads of books, both fiction and nonfiction. We worked on creative writing projects, reports, and essays together. However, his writing barely improved, and I was constantly exasperated that he couldn’t learn to write intuitively. Enter IEW.
I bought IEW’s curriculum because it had a high reputation, not only online but also among homeschoolers in my local community. I bought it because I was struggling with teaching my son, whose aptitudes were completely different from mine, how to write in a way that made sense to him. I bought it because I believed it was the magic pill that would fix all my shortcomings. Turns out—it was, but at first I didn’t take it as prescribed.
To this day, my most grievous parenting mistake is the fact that I didn’t initially give IEW my best shot. Writing had always been my strongest skill, so I believed that I could make use of IEW’s materials without a single regard for their suggestions on how to best use their program. It’s so embarrassing for me to admit this since I live, eat, and breathe IEW nowadays, but it’s also a crucial part of my story.
In 2014 I took the plunge, buying up every resource that looked interesting. However, I only purchased the student materials: $200 worth of product and not a teacher’s manual in sight! No training videos either! I don’t think I’ll ever forgive myself. I had no idea at the time that I shouldn’t be overcorrecting or flooding my son with writing “tips.” I had never heard of the four deadly errors of teaching writing, and I had failed to familiarize myself with EZ+1 and the benefits of IEW’s methodical approach. In short: I still didn’t know how to help my son.
To my chagrin, my son and I only made it through Unit 1: Note Making and Outlines and Unit 2: Writing from Notes. When we hit the Story Sequence Chart in Unit 3: Retelling Narrative Stories, I misunderstood the assignment, and we gave up. It wasn’t until 2020 that the scales truly fell from my eyes, and I beheld IEW for what it really was: the Suzuki Method.
I had been teaching more and more English language arts classes to fill up my music studio hours, and eventually a piano student’s mother requested that I teach her daughter Structure and Style® for Students: Year 1 Level B. Fortunately, she loaned me her IEW teacher training videos, which have now been updated to become Teaching Writing Structure and Style, Third Edition. I didn’t realize at the time that the training seminar would totally change the course of my life.
As I watched the very first Teaching Writing: Structure and Style video, I was hit by Suzuki’s truth, now proceeding from the mouth of Andrew Pudewa. In less than the time it takes to watch a movie, I discerned what I had been missing, and my entire teaching strategy changed. Not just as a music teacher, not just as a writing teacher. I had to realize that this same exact method, which IEW refers to as EZ+1, worked for two disciplines before I understood that surely it must work for all disciplines!
Since learning the EZ+1 philosophy and all that it entails, my team of teachers and I have served hundreds of students. Except for those who give up too soon, I have never encountered a single student for whom the IEW method didn’t eventually click. However, this happy outcome will always be overshadowed by my overwhelmingly egregious mistake. It’s difficult to tell you this without tears because I feel it from the depths of my soul: I sorrowfully regret that my son was nearly sixteen years old before I learned how best to teach him—not just writing, but everything!
Allow me to reiterate for the sake of clarity: the IEW methodology is applicable to teaching any skill. That is the truth that I wish to impart to you. It is the reason why I share the Teaching Writing: Structure and Style training videos with anyone who will come and sit with me for a while. I’ve had my dad, husband, son, sister, and brother watch them for the wisdom the videos offer. I urge my friends, students, acquaintances, Facebook users, and the teachers who work for me to educate themselves by watching Teaching Writing: Structure and Style.
Over the years, IEW has continued to dedicate itself to excellence, updating and streamlining their products to make them easier to understand and implement. Just as the Structure and Style for Students video courses and the fourth edition Fix It!® Grammar books are better than their predecessors, the third edition of Teaching Writing: Structure and Style is superior to the second edition. IEW has had ten years to consider what clarifications, simplifications, and tweaks would improve their flagship product, and they succeeded in outdoing themselves—again!
The second edition was already the best of its kind, but the third edition makes it more accessible. Its modern simplicity makes it easier to read, absorb, and apply. The colored ink clarifies sections, highlights details, and brings information together in a way that allows at-a-glance comprehension. I cannot praise it enough, but I’ll post some of the other improvements I noticed below.
In conclusion, I urge you not to be like me, waiting until the kids are nearly grown and gone to discover the best training materials that will ever grace your shelves. While it might seem like a lot for a single purchase—it’s actually the most inexpensive way to teach yourself not only the how but also the why of methodically progressive instruction. Is it quite the investment? Yes! It’s quite the best investment you could possibly make for you and your family.
I appreciate a number of improvements.
- Shortened videos—offer essential info but don’t overwhelm beginners
- Full-page model charts containing pertinent information
- Cleaner margins
- More white space—pleasing to the eye
- Concise instructions that get straight to the point
- Clearer exemplars
- A formula for easy thesis creation
- “Length Dictates Structure” as a chart instead of prose
- Side-by-side comparison of Unit 3 and Unit 9
- Much improved Critique Thesaurus
- In-depth coverage of the TRIAC model (complete with exemplar)
- Fact Arrangement Chart—introduced, explained, and shown in action
- Shorter Seminar Workbook
- Closer correlation with IEW® Gradebook
I do hope you are encouraged by my story about the best investment I almost wasted, and I wish you all the best in your writing journey!
by Amy Lee Bell
