Our Student Resource Packet is a pretty nifty item. Broken down by the nine IEW units and including sections dedicated to writing about literature, dress-ups and word lists, sentence openers and transitions, decorations, triples and advanced style, punctuation and usage, and MLA style and citation, it is filled to the brim with templates, word lists, samples, references, and reminders for the IEW student and his instructor. In short, it’s a resource that will aid the student throughout his writing career.
Many of you have let us know how much you appreciate the SRP. In fact, we were delighted to receive a poetic homage to the SRP recently and knew immediately that we wanted to share it with you. Janie Groth, an IEW instructor at Valor Prep, a classical university model school in Waco, Texas, recently put pen to paper and crafted a delightful little sonnet. We think the Bard would agree! Without further ado, we present to you:
To Whomever is Responsible for the new Student Resource Packet That Made Me Tear Up in Its Fabulousness:
Shall I compare thee to a school planning day?
Thou art more thoughtful and more determined.
Rough students do shake the darling hopes of August,
And summer’s lease hath all too short a date for teachers.
Sometime too hot the tempers of frustrated minds erupt,
And often are their pleasant aspects dimmed;
And every draft sometime declines,
By chance, or IEW Units changing course, untrimmed;
But thy steadfast assistance through the SR Packet shall not fade,
Nor lose possession of that help thou ow’st,
Nor shall the blank page brag our students wand’rest in its shade,
When in eternal lines to Time thou grow’st.
So long as drafts are labeled, or checklists modified,
So long lives this thanks, and this thanks shall only increase.
We hope you enjoyed reading Janie’s poem. If you haven’t yet checked out the Student Resource Packet, we offer it in three different formats: printed and in a binder with tabs, printed (without the binder or tabs), or as a PDF. Additional binders may be found here. While you may not respond by writing a poem about it like Janie did, we do think you will find it very helpful as you work through IEW writing with your students.