Review of Excellence in Literature Handbook for Writers | #excellenceinlit

I was excited and a little nervous to review the Excellence in Literature Handbook for Writers by Everyday Education, LLC. This might sound a little funny coming from a written blog, but we struggle with the subject of writing in our homeschool! It is a close second behind spelling for every single one of my children. I think the biggest part of the problem is that I struggle with how to teach it. I know how to write in conversational style but essay style is not my strong suit.

 

I received the digital version of the Handbook for Writers, and oh my, it is a massive resource. It contains 420 pages of handwriting knowledge, helps, and exercises to help any student become a better writer. It is downloaded as a PDF file and targeted for high school and college students but parents like me will find it a treasured resource as well.

I found the best way to tackle what was inside was by scouring the table of contents (scroll to the bottom) which were 22 pages long by themselves!

Part 1 of this reference book includes teaching helps on the structure of essays including outlines, paragraph functions and structures, defining thesis statements, topic sentences, and conclusion paragraphs just to name a few. Students are given examples of many of the writing topics including sample essays from book reviews, live drama productions, Shakespeare, modern poetry and so many more. Exercises are included for students to put their knowledge into practice. There was even a unique visual guide given so that students could organize their writing papers.

Part 2 focuses more on grammar skills and style including basic punctuation, parallel structure, phrases, clauses, sentences, parts of speech, subject/verb agreement, comma placement and so much more. There is also an extensive section on references and bibliographies. A valuable resource that we found handy in our homeschool were the 52 pages on frequently misused words. Just a few examples of those included were - who's/whose, sit/set, may be/maybe. This is where I chose to begin with my 10th grader. We simply added in two sets of misused words a day to review.

I also loved the rubric that was included for writing evaluation. I need step by step instruction when it comes to checking my student's writing papers so this was a wonderful resource for me. This can be used with any writings by your student. As I am grading my student's writing paper and I notice an area that needs some refreshment, I can direct him to the handbook for help.  He just needs to look in the handbook under the table of contents to the page number and section.  For example, here was a sentence fragment which could be read about further in section 1.8, page 238. We also discuss it together during our weekly meeting time.

I know that we will be looking through Excellence in Literature Handbook for Writers for many years to come. This handbook contains almost everything you will need to help your writers have success. I would love to purchase the print edition as well because my brain just works better with physical books of this magnitude. Then my son could use the pdf file to quickly find the sections he needs to refer to.

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Review of Daily 6-Trait Writing Grade 6

It is well known that the way you get better at anything is through frequent practice. Writing has never been a strong subject area in our homeschool so having a resource to break down the writing process into bite size chunks is a must for us. Evan-Moor's Daily 6-Trait Writing from Timberdoodle has fit that description completely.

The Daily 6-Trait Writing book comes with 125 daily lessons in a 160 page paperback workbook. The six traits of writing are content, organization, word choice, sentence fluency, voice, and conventions. You will spend 5 weeks in each of the first five traits with the conventions (correct spelling, grammar, and punctuation) taught in each lesson. The workbook comes in perforated pages making it easy to photocopy but we just used the book as is since I will not have another child who will use it.

If you have concerns about your student looking at the teacher key, you may want to photocopy it. Course work is available on a Monday-Friday schedule but can easily be adapted to a 4 day school week. This workbook is for 6th graders but there are also workbooks available for K-5. There are 4 worksheets to complete each week which are broken into daily assignments and they take around 15-20 minutes to complete. On the 5th day, the student is given a writing prompt. Prompts correspond to the lessons learned for the week.

The teachers guide is also in the workbook at the beginning of each lesson and guides the parent/teacher in what to say to help the child brainstorm the lessons taught. So if you are at a loss for how to teach writing to your student, these pages will walk you through the process completely.

The concept is pretty simple. The use of daily writing in small increments has helped Sarah gain confidence in her writing. Each week builds upon the previous week so there is built in review as well. This workbook currently sells for $26.99 for a full year of writing curriculum. You can use it to supplement your current writing curriculum but I think it would be great on its own as well.   You can also see sample pages. 

**I received a free copy of this product through Timberdoodle in exchange for my honest review. I was not required to write a positive review nor was I compensated in any other way. All opinions I have expressed are my own or those of my family. I am disclosing this in accordance with the FTC Regulations.

Review of Here To Help Learning

You would think since I am always writing here on this blog that I would be fabulous at teaching my children to write, wouldn't you? Well, teaching writing has never been a subject that I have felt confident to tackle. So when Here to Help Learning offered their course to review, I was so excited!

We were given a subscription to their online membership for this review. Online memberships allow you access to all the writing programs available from Here to Help Learning. We choose Flight 1 Paragraph Writing after taking the placement test to guide us.

There is so much to say about this wonderful program so I will do my best to walk you through! Writing is taught and modeled to the students with video instructions first. You will definitely want to be by your child's side as you watch the video instructions because you are instructed to pause the film at certain times to help your child perform the tasks that were just given in the video. Those actions include placing worksheets in their binder for the lesson, games, writing warm-up activities, webbings, and more. All items mentioned in this review are included in this curriculum.

There are 3 flights to choose from for paragraph writing and 3 flights to choose from for essay writing. Each flight contains 32 lessons for a full year of instruction. The paragraph writing flights are recommended for grades 1-3 or higher, and the essay flights are recommended for grades 4-6 or higher. Writing types include narrative, descriptive, expository, persuasive, and poetry. You can find out more on the different types here.

This is the scope/sequence for paragraph writing to help you choose which flight is best for your family.

As I mentioned earlier, we started Sarah who is in 7th grade in Paragraph Writing Flight 1 and I'm so glad that we did. Each lesson builds upon the next and I think she would have missed some valuable information had I choose to just place her by grade level instead of skill level. Since she had some experience already with paragraph writing we were able to move through the course faster than the recommended schedule. The recommended schedule says to complete 1 lesson per week which amounts to about 2 days of work per week. You take one day to watch the videos and one day for the writing projects. We would often do 2 lessons per week since Sarah felt comfortable doing so. That's the beauty of the online membership - you can choose the pace and level for your student because they are all available to you.

All lessons are Biblically based and students are reminded over and over to use their God-given gifts, talents, and learned skills to grow in the image of God. Colossians 3:17 is the key verse that students memorize and recite during each lesson.

The video lessons are fun, informative, and it's great to see how lessons are done in a co-op setting. We would often find ourselves laughing out loud at some of the tactics of the Captain Knucklehead aka the basset hound. 

  
Each video lesson included 5 sessions:

• Pre-Flight Checklist - This is when you would make sure you have everything needed for the lesson.  This is also found on the worksheets 
• Flight Check In - Here you would turn in your work from the previous flying solo lesson, put in your new worksheets, and collect a discovery ticket (see below) for doing so. 
• Take Off - This is usually a fun writing warm-up that students complete. They usually have a fun picture included for the students to write about. They also go over the steps of the writing process during this time. 
• Full Throttle - This is where the current part of the writing process is modeled for the student/teacher. 
• Flying Solo - This is where Captain Knucklehead gives your writing assignment for the week.

When students turn in their writing assignments, they earn a discovery ticket. Tickets can be collected and you can decide on a prize to give after achieving so many. We decided that Sarah's reward would be an ice cream treat of her choice after collecting 20 tickets.  

The worksheets included scripted lessons for myself as we played games or practiced writing warm-up challenges. Students also had their own check list sheets to keep track of for writing assignments. At the end of the 32 lessons, students will have completed 6 full writing projects. 

Here is a fun peak into Sarah's writing notebook:

 

 One of the assignments was to decorate your key verse page.  You can also see the discovery tickets that Sarah has earned.  Ice cream trip coming soon!

The writing process sheet and a writing warm-up.  See that skateboarding dog?  All of them have fun pictures like that!

Since Sarah is older, I had her type her final writing project and she always loves to add an illustration.

The online membership is only $6.99 per month! For everything included in this curriculum, we think that is a steal! If you are looking for a unique way to teach writing, check out Here to Help Learning. We would highly recommend them! The Mora's are also a homeschooling family with 20 years experience and 8 children of their own. You can read more about their story and how Here to Help Learning was born here. 

You can also find out more on their Blog, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and YouTube Channel.

Review: Fortuigence Persuasive Essay Writing Course

I can't wait to share today's review product with you.  It is the Essay Rock Star Persuasive Essay Writing Course by Fortuigence.  I have struggled often on knowing how to teach my children writing.  We've used many programs and I've always wished for feedback on their work.  Well, the Essay Rock Star Persuasive Essay Writing Course by Fortuigence does just that!  

Fortuigence offers several different short courses as a part of their online homeschool writing curriculum.  Each short course costs $57.  The courses available in the Essay Rock Star curriculum are:

Essay Rock Star Personal Statement Writing Course

Essay Rock Star Persuasive Essay Writing Course

Essay Rock Star Textual Analysis Writing Course

Essay Rock Star Expository Essay Writing Course

or you can also purchase the full Essay Rock Star curriculum that contains all of the courses above for $197.  If you are giving high school credit, each short course is worth 0.125 in credits or 0.50 in English credits for the entire curriculum. Please see here for more detail on assigning high school credits.

Course Details

As I mentioned earlier, we chose the short course, Essay Rock Star Persuasive Essay Writing Course.  This course is ideal for ages 12-18 and teaches them how to write the persuasive essay which is a skill they need to show while taking many college entrance exams.  

This course consisted of 7 lessons. 

1.  Pre-assessment
2.  Brainstorming
3.  Organizing Ideas
4.  Free Writing
5.  Revision
6.  Editing
7.  Wrap-Up

For each lesson, your student will watch an introductory video explaining the lesson and giving an overview.  Then, the student can read the lesson themselves or click on an audio recording of the lesson and follow along.  

Included in each lesson are links explaining concepts even further with examples for the student to show them what is expected.  Each resource article can be downloaded as a PDF document as well.  We found the student samples to be a wonderful resource for us.

Once your student has completed the lesson, they have an assignment to send in to their teacher.  You can send in the lesson by copying and pasting it into an assignment box given or by attaching the original file.

Your student will then receive feedback from their live trained teacher telling them if they need to complete any thing further in this lesson or if they are ready to move on to the next lesson.

This is a self paced course.  However, once an assignment is sent to the teacher, you will need to wait for their feedback before continuing on to the next lesson.  Usually, you receive feedback within 24 hours during Monday-Friday.

How we used this course and what we thought

My 8th grade son worked on this course.  We did the first 2 lessons together until he felt like he was ready to do it on his own.  It's not that it was hard at all.  He was just nervous for someone else to be evaluating his work besides me and I loved the fact that someone else was!  Yay, take writing off my check list! He worked on this course usually Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.  I used my email address for him so I would get the email responses from the teacher and read them to him. You can set up an email account just for your student although you would want it to be one that you monitor.  Fortuigence highly recommends that so that the emails do not get lost in the sea of other emails you receive. Stephen would always smile at the feedback.  Below is an example of feedback from one of his lessons.

Hi Stephen,

Even though your essay draft is brief, it’s to the point. You’ve got all your reasons, supporting details or stories, and counterarguments covered! Please move on to the next assignment in your online classroom whenever you’re ready.

Thanks,

Ms. I :)

Writing is a difficult subject for him and I think he puts more pressure on himself than he needs to so having positive feedback from someone other than me really helped him to gain confidence in his writing.

Here he is completing lesson.  Does anyone else's child sit like this to study?  

Sarah, age 11, is a little younger than the recommended age but she saw how much Stephen enjoyed the course and wanted me to sign her up as well.  We do plan to do that but I might let Stephen continue through the other courses first seeing as he would benefit from the most at this time.

We would recommend this course to other homeschool families.  It is always nice to have feedback from someone else and knocking a subject off my teaching to do list isn't so bad either!.  

Other places to find Fortuigence

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Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/user/fortuigence


Click the banner below to find out more about each Essay Rock Star course offered by Fortuigence.

Review of Analytical Grammar's Beyond The Book Report

We recently were given the opportunity to review Beyond the Book Report by Analytical Grammar.  
We added in Analytical Grammar to our course load this year for all 3 of my children.  It was just what I was looking for to continue teaching my children grammar and classical sentence diagramming.  I did find that my children needed more training in basic grammar, punctuation, and usage. They did not take Jr. Analytical Grammar but I think it would have helped fill in the gaps if they had in hind sight. 

Since we were already big fans of Analytical Grammar, I was really excited to receive Seasons 1 and 2 of Beyond the Book Report.  Even better, when I received my package Season 3 was also included! Again, it is the perfect fit and exactly what I was looking for!  Stephen, who just finished 7th grade and is headed into 8th, used Beyond the Book Report along with myself.  Often, I like to go through courses with my students.  I really like to do this when I don't feel confident teaching the course myself.  Teaching literature and writing is an area where I can use much growth!

Beyond The Book Report is available in 3 different seasons for middle school aged children.  There are suggested schedules to follow depending upon your child's level.  Even though Stephen is headed to 8th grade, we chose to follow the 3 year schedule.  This schedule allows us to finish our Literature and Grammar studies in just an hour or close to it. For my oldest, who is in high school, we will be following the 1 year schedule. 

You can see the schedules clearer here and also see exactly what is covered in each season of Beyond the Book Report here.

Season 1 covers:

The Basic Book Report

The Pamphlet Book Report

The News Article Book Report

Some of the activities you will complete are paraphrasing a favorite scene, completing a reading log, making your own answer/question crossword puzzle, literary terms worksheet, making your own pamphlet book, news article on favorite scene. 

Here is a sample of how the reading log works:

Season 2 covers:

The Poetry Book Report

The Drama Book Report

Some of the activities you will complete are a reading log, writing 4 different types of poetry, plot summary, dramatization of your favorite scene, and crossword puzzle.

Season 3 covers:

The Oral Book Report

The Essay

The Research Paper

Some of the activities you will complete include a reading log, plot summary, power point presentation, essay, and research paper defending your thesis statement.

The activities in all 3 seasons come with a sample in your teacher packet visually showing you what to expect from your student.  You can find some samples of each season's different activities here.

Each season includes a DVD that contains video instructions, video lectures, power point presentation slides for note taking, PDF rubrics, activities, and assignments allowing you to print out the necessary items for each child in your family.  Also included is a teacher packet with a step-by-step teaching schedule and guide, examples of all the student work, and a glossary of terms. 

The combination of video lectures, printables, and samples were valuable resources to me as the teacher.  They helped me to know exactly what to look for in my student's work and truly gave me step by step directions.  I cannot express to you how much I loved the rubrics included!  Maybe it is my checklist personality but those were exactly what I have been looking for and didn't even know it!  I have always struggled in knowing how to give a grade for writing assignments but with this rubric, I know exactly how to grade.

The book Stephen chose to use for his reports was The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe.  We watched the video instructions together and he used the step by step rubric instructions to complete Season 1. We are still working on Season 2 currently. We should be able to start season 3 for the upcoming fall school year and I plan to let Sarah, my 6th grader, and Jonathan, my high schooler, begin with Season 1 in the fall as well.  I looked through all 3 seasons and watched some of the video lessons.  The lessons are clear and concise on what is expected from the student.  

I loved the introduction to independence that is given in these lessons.  Your student could take the lessons and rubrics and complete each activity completely by themselves.  You would need to print out the worksheets, but your teacher packet tells you exactly what is needed for each lesson.  Not only are there video instructions for the student but there are also a few video instructions directed to the teacher that you would also benefit from watching.

Combining Analytical Grammar, Beyond the Book Report, and a vocabulary of your choice will complete your middle school Language Arts.  I also think this is a great program for high school if your student was never taught these skills. They do have a High School Reinforcement set for high schoolers as well.

You can purchase each season of Beyond the Book Report for $24.95 each or purchase them in a bundle pack for $69.95.  I think these are well worth the price considering the tutoring you receive for both your student and yourself!

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