The Arts of Language Podcast

Andrew Pudewa and Julie Walker talk to Lisa VanDamme, founder of the VanDamme Academy in Southern California. Lisa is passionate about making meaningful works of literature part of everyone’s life. They are joined by Joseph Tabenkin, who began following her reading program and developed an app for it: Read With Me. Listen to this episode as Andrew and Lisa compare favorite novels and share the joy...

More than a podcast episode, this interview is a chance to listen to two friends share the story of how they met and the impact each has had on the other. Andrew Pudewa and Julie Walker talk with Adam Andrews about the history of the Teaching the Classics course and CenterForLit as well as the importance of using Socratic questioning to listen to and learn from authors as they speak through their...

Andrew Pudewa and Julie Walker discuss preparing to teach Unit 7: Inventive Writing. While most writing programs start with writing from a prompt, the Structure and Style method does not teach this until later in the course. Learn why this is and discover tips for helping even the youngest writers overcome the blank page. Referenced Materials Episode 398: Think like Shakespeare Cultivating Languag...

In this episode, Andrew Pudewa and Julie Walker talk with Sara Osborne, author of Reading for the Long Run: Leading Struggling Students into the Reading Life . Listen as they discuss her comparison of teaching reading to long distance running and the surprising rewards for both the teacher and the student when learning is hard. Referenced Materials Reading for the Long Run by Sara Osborne Learning...

After the fun we had with our 400th episode live question and answer, we invited some of our affiliates to join Andrew Pudewa and Julie Walker for this live Q & A episode. This week Mandi Malz asked for Andrew’s advice for preparing a student for college. Alicia Brown asked which of Andrew’s articles in However Imperfectly is the most vital lesson in the book and what aspects make it particula...

January is National Mentoring Month. In this episode Andrew Pudewa and Julie Walker discuss what makes a good mentor and some mentors that they have had. Listen in as they talk about memorable experiences with mentors. Dr. Webster, Andrew’s mentor, encouraged students to mentor one another. How does that work? Does a mentor have to be older than you? This month is a perfect time to consider these...

Listen to Andrew Pudewa and Julie Walker as they discuss the Unit 6: Summarizing Multiple References teaching process. Remembering that this is a process, not a product, teachers need to model the research and writing steps with their students. The skills taught in Unit 6 may seem simple, but they form the foundation for research reports and essays. Referenced Materials Teaching Writing: Structure...

What skills do students need to succeed in collegiate writing? Listen to Andrew Pudewa and Julie Walker discuss this brand new video course that will prepare your high school and college students for college writing. Hear why Andrew would have called this “How to spy on your professor and figure out his or her writing style and imitate it so you can get a better grade on every paper you turn in”!...

To kick off a new year, Andrew Pudewa and Julie Walker discuss IEW’s theme for 2024: Furnishing the Mind. Listen as Andrew describes how the idea of furnishing the mind with beautiful and good things relates specifically to cultivating the skills of language arts. Referenced Materials However Imperfectly by Andrew Pudewa Episode 54: What Are We Really Doing Here? Cultivating Language Arts – Presch...

At this time of year, many people take time to reflect. It is through reflection that learning and growing occurs. In this Homeschool 101 episode, Andrew Pudewa and Julie Walker have an inspiring discussion that applies to novice and seasoned homeschoolers alike about the benefits of applying the practice of reflection to homeschooling. They offer several things for parents to consider when they r...

Andrew Pudewa and Julie Walker talk about the purpose and history of IEW’s Twelve Days of Christmas Giving. They also give a hint about the gifts IEW is sharing. Join us! Referenced Materials Twelve Days of Christmas Giving Transcript of Podcast Episode 404 If you have questions for Andrew, send them to  podcast@IEW.com Perhaps your question will be answered at the next Ask Andrew Anything (AAA)....

Motivated by a desire to set teachers up for success, Denise Kelley, IEW Manager of Product Development, works tirelessly to ensure all IEW products and services are aligned with the company’s cornerstone product, Teaching Writing: Structure and Style . Join Andrew Pudewa and Julie Walker as they discuss with Denise how her over two decades of experience at IEW have shaped her philosophy of produc...

While many of us have reluctant writers, a few of us have passionate writers! These students find excitement in IEW’s creative Units 3, 5, and 7 and may have written a novel on the side with dreams of one day becoming published. This week Brett Harris, co-author of Do Hard Things, joins Andrew Pudewa and Julie Walker. Listen to their discussion about how to make it possible for high school and col...

In this week’s podcast, Andrew Pudewa and Julie Walker take a closer look at IEW’s Unit 5: Writing from Pictures. This unit teaches students to pull information from the brain by asking questions about a picture as a source for inspiration. Andrew points out that this same skill is applicable to looking at situations in the world and thinking about them. Join Andrew and Julie as they explain how D...

On November 13, 2023, Andrew Pudewa and Julie Walker celebrated the 400th episode of the Arts of Language podcast by hosting a live event with nearly 400 guests listening. Andrew answered questions from the live audience on topics such as AI, college preparation, and the long-lasting legacy of IEW. He even told a joke. Listen to this extended podcast and hear about new products that IEW will relea...

Andrew Pudewa and Julie Walker continue their conversation with Dr. Scott Newstok, author of How to Think like Shakespeare: Lessons from a Renaissance Education . In this episode they discuss additional chapters. These fundamental habits of mind embody IEW’s mission “to equip teachers and teaching parents with methods and materials which will aid them in training their students to become confident...

Andrew Pudewa and Julie Walker welcome Dr. Scott Newstok, a professor of English and founding director of the Pearce Shakespeare Endowment at Rhodes College in Memphis, Tennessee. In this podcast they discuss his book How to Think like Shakespeare: Lessons from a Renaissance Education. The discussion centers around how the habits of the mind that shaped the writers, inventors, and thinkers of Shak...

To kick off National Gratitude Month, this podcast episode highlights Ron Clark’s book The Essential 55: An Award-Winning Educator’s Rules for Discovering the Successful Student in Every Child . Join Andrew Pudewa and Julie Walker as they discuss how teaching students the concepts outlined in the book can help students express gratitude in a myriad of situations. Referenced Materials The Essential...

In this week’s episode, Andrew Pudewa and Julie Walker discuss Unit 4, the linchpin of the structural units. As students summarize longer references, they learn important skills that they will use in subsequent units: dividing subjects into topics, limiting facts, and following the topic-clincher rule. Andrew and Julie explore how these important skills help students choose interesting, important,...

While our Homeschool 101 episodes are generally curated for people who are new to or are considering homeschooling, this episode offers wisdom for anyone who is impacting young lives, including teachers, grandparents, siblings, as well as parents. During this episode Andrew Pudewa and Julie Walker explore what this wisdom entails. Andrew outlines two powerful measures to take to help students furn...

In a recent study, a majority of students selected redoing assignments as their top motivation to work harder in school. Intrigued and inspired by the study’s results, Andrew Pudewa and Julie Walker engage in a delightful and wide-ranging conversation in this week’s podcast about the ways that the Structure and Style checklist approach provides a concrete method for teachers to motivate students t...

Andrew Pudewa and Julie Walker welcome Kathleen Ray and Drew Stafford to this special podcast edition of Where Are They Now? Kathleen and Drew were classmates in the filming of Structure and Style for Students: Year 1 Level C (SSS-1C), one of IEW’s high school video courses. They join Andrew and Julie in the studio to discuss their experiences with the production and what they have been doing sinc...

Join Andrew Pudewa and Julie Walker as they bring to light the creative and imaginative aspects of Unit 3: Retelling Narrative Stories. They provide some history of how Unit 3 came about and how it became what it is today. Explore how students of all ages can retell, elaborate, and write variations of fables and short stories while expressing extraordinary creativity. Referenced Materials Teaching...

In this week’s podcast Julie Walker asks Andrew Pudewa how imitation applies to teaching writing along with other questions about his talk From Copywork to Composition. Imitation is the cornerstone of excellent writing. Just as no music teacher hands a new student a blank sheet of manuscript paper and expects an original composition, writing instructors should not expect students to write without...

Every tenth episode features questions submitted to Andrew Pudewa by our podcast listeners. Julie Walker begins this podcast by asking Andrew to tackle a question regarding the emerging AI chat technology and its effects on writing. Listen in as Andrew and Julie continue with a question about using IEW while learning English and living in a non-English-speaking country. Finally, they wrap up this...