Building upon skills lesson by lesson, WriteShop offers
a comprehensive, yet easy-to-use, teacher-student interactive course.
Lessons build incrementally, covering sentence and paragraph
construction skills and style in Volume I before the longer
essay assignments in Volume II. Lessons build on each other and should be
done in order without any skipping. The writing process is taught throughout
the program with Part I focused on descriptive, informative, and narrative
writing. Volume II continues with persuasive writing. Program
components include the Teacher Manual (for both Volumes I & II) and a
Student Workbook for each Volume.
Flexible schedule options allow you to complete one volume
per year, or for an older/more advanced student, you can complete both volumes
in one year. The program could also be used with motivated younger students as
well. The thing to remember is that the skills covered are what would typically
be considered foundational writing skills that prepare a student for the more
demanding academic writing of high school. Also, not all types of writing (for
instance, poetry) are covered.
The Teacher Manual (used with both Volumes I and
II) provides detailed lesson plans and instructions for teachers. These include
how to edit, how to make comments, description of typical student errors
along with probable solutions, and student sample writing (with edits). There
are also answer keys, reference sheets and forms, and essay topics.
The Student Workbooks (two volumes) contain
instructional content, skill builders, graphic organizers, self-editing
checklists, and teacher checklists for each assignment, and 17 word banks. Volume 1 focuses on
descriptive, informative, and narrative writing. Volume II focuses on
advanced narrative and descriptive writing, plus a heavy emphasis on
5-paragraph essay writing.
Copying
and Dictation Exercises are
incorporated into each lesson in Volume I. These are strongly encouraged and
tend to strengthen both writing and listening skills when done consistently. A
book with these exercises is available as a separate purchase. Overall, this is
an excellent writing program and a wonderful, comprehensive resource for
parents teaching one or more children at home or teachers in a co-op or class
setting.
