StoryTime Treasures Student Guide Second Edition

Please note that a brief synopsis of many of the books included here are provided in our Library Builders section. Study guides for the same book are often available from several publishers, so we found it more efficient to give a description of the book only once.

Just the right stuff! Thats what youll be thinking as you use this warm and inviting reading program from Memoria Press. The guides are well-organized, user-friendly, academically challenging, and graphically pleasing. Memoria believes that reading is not a passive activity, but that it requires an active, discriminating mind, one that has been challenged to think, compare, and contrast. That philosophy is evident in these guides.

Student Guides are consumable at the lower levels, providing space for the student to write. Each book/story/ poem is approached in much the same way, although with increasing depth vocabulary, comprehension and discussion questions, quotations, composition, and miscellaneous literary analysis activities (sequencing, literary terms, dictation, poetry connections, etc.). Upper level books (Gr. 2 and up) are organized around the Trivium, and activities are grouped into Pre- Grammar (preparation prior knowledge or experience), Grammar (presentation essential facts, elements, and features), Logic (dialectic reasons with the facts, elements, and features), and Rhetoric (expression explains in own words with supporting details). Although there is consistency from lesson to lesson, there is also an extra activity provided with each lesson, and these are quite varied. Background information on the author and book is included. Several high school level guides have transitioned to Second Editions, which are smaller-format (6"x 9") with a focus on student activities without lined spaces. Students would record their work in a separate notebook.

Teacher Guides provide valuable teaching information and full-text answer keys at all grade levels. Beyond this there are variances within the guides. Discussion talking points, reproducible quizzes and final tests (with answers) are included in numerous guides especially at the upper levels. The first grade program (StoryTime Treasures and More StoryTime Treasures) differs a little bit in content due to the lower grade level. The second-grade level includes pre- and post-reading exercises that focus on continued phonics development, syllabication and vocabulary for the emerging independent reader. For grades 2-9, we are now offering literature guide only packages that include all the student and teacher guides for each grade, no books. ~ Janice

The Student Guides at this level are a bit different than those at the higher grades. They feature a horizontal orientation for ease of writing and provide the student with vocabulary and comprehension worksheets. There's writing involved (7/16" lines with dotted midline) but the top binding makes it easy for either right-handed students or lefties. The teacher needs to take a quick peek at two pages at the beginning that give the plan for the Word Study, Read, Comprehension, and Language (introductory grammar) segments of each lesson. The Just For Fun section is self-explanatory. StoryTime covers four classic children's books in 14 lessons, while More StoryTime provides another 15 lessons and seven children's books.

New to the 2nd edition, there is a separate Teacher Guide for each volume. These contain a model lesson plan, a teacher overview, daily assignments for each lesson (which highlight phonics and vocabulary activities) and also include answers to the student pages. Packages are available for StoryTime Treasures and More StoryTime Treasures which include both student and teacher guides as well as the literature resources. Packages of literature resources only are also available. Separate Lesson Plan books are still available and cover phonics and spelling.