Zaner-Bloser GUM: Grade 8 Student Edition

It's said that good things come to those who wait. Well, we've waited a long time to be able to carry this series (and others from Zaner-Bloser), and I think you'll agree it's a "good thing" that's come. These books provide practice, application, and reinforcement for ALL (they claim 100%) of the conventions of Standard English. What's a convention? Conventions are "a way of doing things that is widely accepted and followed." This series delivers a cumulative progression of skills from grade to grade by teaching and then reinforcing those skills. Providing targeted, systematic, self-guided instruction and practice, the daily lessons will take only 15 minutes or so. Units are the same for each 2-6 grade level: sentence structure, parts of speech, usage (troublesome words), grammar, and mechanics (punctuation). Grades 7 & 8 have seven units: two on sentence structure, two on parts of speech, one on usage, and two on grammar (with punctuation incorporated in).

The daily format and the methodology for lessons is simple:

• - provide an example of the skill
• - give clear explanations
• - complete a practice exercise - in the context of high-interest nonfiction topics
• - provide opportunities to apply skill knowledge
• - conclude with writing, puzzles and other activities for reinforcement

There are twelve of these two-page lessons in each unit plus a review lesson, a spelling practice lesson, a proofreading practice lesson (with checklist) and an end-of-unit, take-home summary. There is also a pretest and a posttest for each unit.

The Student Editions are consumable and supply the daily lesson worksheets (with space to write), the pretests for each unit, a half-page of extra practice for each lesson, the unit posttests, and a Grammar, Usage, and Mechanics Handbook (GUM Handbook) that is referenced in the lessons.

The Teacher Edition provides short teaching sequences for each lesson (plus the answers). There is some additional information: program overview, scope and sequence, list of nonfiction topics by unit and the correlation to the conventions of Standard English. The teaching sequences include objectives, information for English Language Learners, and suggestions for speaking and listening activities. Answers for both pre and post tests are also in the TE as well as a copy of the GUM Handbook.

The Home School Bundle includes both the student and the teacher editions. Student books are about 265 - 397 pgs, pb. Teacher books are about 330 - 460 pgs, pb. ~ Janice

These materials offer a complete and comprehensive coverage of all three elements - grammar (i.e. parts of speech, complete sentences), usage (i.e. homophones, figures of speech, proper word choice to convey meaning), and mechanics (i.e. punctuation, capitalization).