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Kumon Writing Workbooks
Attractive and easy to use, these workbooks provide writing (appropriately intertwined with grammar) and vocabulary skills aligned to state writing standards. Instruction is minimal and relies on examples, but concepts are presented in a logically sequential order that promotes both understanding and competence with lots of opportunity for practice and reinforcement. There are 34 lessons, each with 3-4 sections, plus 2 review lessons. A complete answer key is included in each book. To give you an idea of the instructional progression utilized in the series, consider this lesson Writing Two Paragraphs - from the end of the 3rd grade book. The first section has the student complete a two paragraph description of a bakery by choosing descriptive words from a list. The second section asks questions What does the bakery smell like? How are the cookies shaped? What can you hear inside the bakery? What does the writers favorite doughnut feel like? These questions are obviously designed to get the student to think about what he "experienced" as he read the bakery description. The third section has the student complete (fill in the blanks) another two-paragraph description by using information in a chart that has a set of descriptive words for each sense (i.e. sight - brightly colored flowers). The final section asks the student to write two paragraphs (from scratch) describing the lunchroom and to include details detected by each of the five senses. This kind of progressive instruction is repeated in each lesson and throughout the books. 90 pgs, sc. ~ Janice
