Getting Started with IEW

If you missed the gifts given for Day 1, you can still access these resources.

• the first three weeks of Structure and Style for Students
• Podcast Episode 339: Teaching Writing with Confidence

It only makes sense that IEW’s Twelve Days of Christmas Giving began with resources to help with teaching writing. After all, IEW is the Institute for Excellence in Writing.

Nearly twenty-three years ago, I was given a set of the original Teaching Writing: Structure and Style video tapes. After viewing the first video, I immediately responded, “Why wasn’t I taught to teach this way?” I have a degree in elementary education with a focus in English, yet I had no idea how to teach writing. I was immediately sold on this method and have enthusiastically taught the Structure and Style method ever since. It is no exaggeration to say that IEW’s Structure and Style writing method changed my life.

Portions of that first life-changing video, now available as part of our Structure and Style Overview, are included in the first day of gifts. The Structure and Style Overview briefly covers the nine units of Structure and introduces several stylistic techniques. Not only that, but Andrew also provides the audience insight into why this method is so effective for teaching even the most reluctant writer. Furthermore, the video is an ideal resource for tutors and teachers to give to their students’ parents.

While Teaching Writing: Structure and Style and the Structure and Style Overview are for the teacher, Structure and Style for Students (SSS), in the words of Andrew Pudewa, is “the best thing that we’ve ever done.” With engaging humor Andrew Pudewa teaches your students how to write. In the process he also serves as a mentor and model for instructors to emulate. As a part of the first day’s gifts, IEW provides sample writing lessons from the SSS to use with students. It includes the video instruction and teacher and student materials. If you missed the first day, those free lessons are still available for you to request here.

Teaching writing can be frustrating for teachers who are natural writers yet cannot explain how they do it. Most students simply do not know how to get information out of their heads and down on paper. We have more resources that will help you meet your students’ needs. You can help your reluctant writers by utilizing the ideas presented in the video from our summer conference Reaching the Reluctant Writer. Another personal favorite that has prevented tears in my classroom and home is Andrew Pudewa’s talk The Four Deadly Errors of Teaching Writing. Finally, as a teacher I found it was essential for me to understand that the process of writing is actually made up of many different processes. Andrew Pudewa explains this more in “Teaching Writing with Confidence” (Podcast 339).

No matter what day of the year, IEW offers a wide array of resources to assist you as you help your students become confident and competent communicators and thinkers.