Institute for Writing Excellence - Structure and Style® for Students Year 1 Level B Review

Disclaimer: I received a FREE copy of this product through the HOMESCHOOL REVIEW CREW in exchange for my honest review. I was not required to write a positive review nor was I compensated in any other way.



We recently had the opportunity to review the Structure and Style® for Students Year 1 Level B from Institute for Writing Excellence (Grades 6 - 8).  This has been a great way for Lydia to really look at writing and improve on her writing skills.

Lydia struggles with writing, and yet it is one of her past times that she really enjoys.  Her stories are awesome.  She loves writing science fiction and dystopian society stories. The plot and characters are there, and yet she struggles with sentence structure, run-ons, and creating paragraphs. I had heard that Institute for Writing Excellence was a very Intense program that would allow children of all learning styles to progress in their writing.  I was honestly not expecting the package that we received.  I guess in my brain I am used to needing to do a certain amount of research and extra work with most curriculum.  Structure and Style® for Students Year 1 Level B is extremely user friendly, and takes the load off of my planning.

Structure and Style® for Students Year 1 Level B is specially designed for help students who are struggling with writing to catch up where they need to be. It is written for Grades 6 - 8.  The package we received the Student binder with packet of worksheets, forms and charts, the Teacher's Manual, and 24 Forever Streaming videos.  

When I first opened this package I will admit there was a feeling of being very overwhelmed. There is a video that you can watch to help you get your binders set up.  The instructions on how to use Structure and Style® for Students Year 1 Level B are also included and is very easy to use and plan out.  

Lydia could really work independently on her assignment.  I would write out on her daily list, what materials that I wanted her to use.  She could log into our IEW account and easily access the videos that she needed to watch for the lesson.  She could also see on the checklist inside of her binder what she needed to be working on.

Mr. Pudewa is a very easy teacher to watch.  He has a kid humor that can get a student to laugh, no matter how corny the pun is.  

The Student binder is meant to help students to organize themselves better.  I created a few extra tabs for Lydia since she has Executive Functioning Disorder. This puts her at a disadvantage at trying to wade through her schoolwork independently. 

Each video guides through students on a roughly 40 minute video.  During each video, Mr. Pudewa allowed them to check for the answer to his question in the included reading passages.  Then he reviewed the material with them to see if they had picked the write words.  

You can easily adapt this program to your schedule.  Lydia currently is using  Structure and Style® for Students Year 1 Level B roughly 3-4 days a week.  On the weeks she only does 3 days, she does writing a little longer. 

 

The Structure and Style® for Students Year 1 Level B is a great addition to both homeschool and public school households.  If a student in public school is struggling, they could easily work on this program outside of school hours to get the extra help that they need really breaking down the steps to creating sentences and paragraphs.

So far all of the materials that Lydia has been using to write about has been about animals, so that is definitely keeping her attention as she is an animal lover, and animal facts definitely keep her attention.  

We will continue using Structure and Style® for Students Year 1 Level B.  I plan on ordering Structure and Style® for Students Year 1 Level A to do with Caty, since she is struggling to understand sentence structure.

Several members of the Homeschool Review Crew were given the opportunity to try out various products from the Institute for Writing Excellence.  Click below to see how families used these materials in their homes.