Showing posts with label WriteShop. Show all posts
Showing posts with label WriteShop. Show all posts

Friday, April 17, 2009

Learning to write properly with WriteShop Primary.


WriteShop is well known among high school homeschoolers with the WriteShop series. Well the exciting news is that they are coming out with a writing curriculum for K-3rd graders. Each day, you will have easy activities to do with your child! The strength of WriteShop is that it teaches the skills of the writing process. This time you will find a multitude of activities and subjects to write with your kids as well as crafts and picture books. It is easy to adapt the WriteShop Primary to accommodate the beginners or more advanced writers in your family. You can even use it with pre-writers as you help them to start the thinking process of putting words on paper.

I had the opportunity of reviewing the WriteShop Primary Book A as well as the activity set worksheet pack both in the e-book edition. This product is recommended for students in Kindergarten or first grade but I adapted it for my 2nd grader during the review. I let him decide which subject he wanted to write and he thought it was fun to do. This review introduced my child to the process of organizing your thoughts before writing something. He loved sitting down with me and writing about a topic he had previously picked. It made him think and look for the right words. I love hearing his laugh when he thought of something funny to write. So precious!

The early lessons have the option of being done orally for the child and mom (or dad) would write what the child is dictating. I think this is very interesting because it forces us to slow down and speak to one another on a specific subject and to listen to what the child is saying. Then if the child can do copy work, he/she could easily copy the words the parent has written previously. My child was older so he was able to write directly in his book the sentences he wanted to include.

The objective at the end of Book A is to have your child to be able to learn how to plan, create, and publish simple stories with your help. Throughout the book, the child will learn to generate ideas, plan a story before writing it, gather information about a specific topic, use a story web to organize the information, identify the parts of a story (beginning, middle, and end), choose a title, think on how to improve the story, and publish the story.

I think this series is amazing. I could easily adapt it to do the same thing in French. It’s easy to use and fun to do. Sitting together bring togetherness and laughter when your child tells you what he wants to write. Yes I do recommend this writing curriculum for K-3rd graders.
In addition to the Teacher’s guide, I also received the Activity Set Worksheet Pack that completes the program. This Activity Set is an integral part of the program and offers 20 reproducible activity pages to introduce and support the skills taught during the lessons. If you intend to get the writing program, do consider getting the Activity Set as well as they go hand-in-hand together.

The WriteShop Primary Book A is available at their website in two versions. The print version is 26.95$US (plus shipping) and the e-book version is 24.25$US (shipping included). As well the Activity Set is available in print for 4.95$US (plus shipping) or e-book for 4.50$US (shipping included). The advantage of having an e-book version is that you can get the books right away without waiting or paying for shipping. You just have to print the document whenever you need it. And you have the option to print in a whole or just print a little bit at a time. I really like this option as I don’t have to wait for a package to arrive at my door! *grin*
The good news is that WriteShop is planning to release Book B and Book C later this year (2009). Book B is planned to be released in June while Book C is schedule for August or September. I personally look forward to the day when these will be available. I think I have discovered a gem to introduce creative writing for my kids.

It is possible for you to look at the scope and sequence of the WriteShop Primary Book A by going to http://www.writeshop.com/writeshop_primary_scope_sequence.htm . If you are wondering which book would be better for your student, you can visualize the placement chart at http://www.writeshop.com/writeshop_primary_placement.htm .

Sample lessons are also available. For the WriteShop Primary Book A simply go to http://www.writeshop.com/images/WS-Primary-A-Lesson-5-Sample.pdf and for the Activity Set go to http://www.writeshop.com/activity_set_worksheet.htm . Look into it, you will be very surprised and pleased by what you will see.

Sunday, March 22, 2009

A wonderful writing tool to help the creativity of your children.


WriteShop is a company who wants to help student to write well. And as part of their products they have create something called WriteShop StoryBuilders. What is WriteShop StoryBuilders you might wonder? It’s simply a stack of card decks that help the student to use creative writing by giving him/her basic elements of a story – character, character trait, setting, and plot. Whether you have a student who loves to write or one who needs a little push in the back to do so, StoryBuilders will help!

These are so versatile that you can use them in addition of your writing program or just for a fun activity to do with your student. Guarantee that you will have some little surprises and the student will have fun with them. Anyone can use them – from a kindergarten to a high school student and I would say even mom and dad can join the fun at writing a story! Each StoryBuilders are e-books that you can download easily on your PC. No shipping involved which is fantastic! Your e-book will contain 192 StoryBuilder card either in black print or colored print as well as 48 blank cards for your imagination! You will also find instructions and ideas on how to use the StoryBuilders cards.

The instructions are very simple and you can use the cards in various ways. Every card included in a StoryBuilder is different which means you can easily mix them and create a wonderful story… By mixing the different decks of cards of other WriteShop StoryBuilders, the student can have more character options, settings, or plots.

We had the opportunity to review the World of Animals which features animal characters and the World of Sports which features sports characters. My 2nd grader is enjoying them so well that the first thing he does in the morning is to pick the envelopes containing the different elements of a story. He sits down for 5 to 10 minutes with his notebook and creates new sentences. He told me that he really like doing this. Afterwards, I take his creation and make corrections if necessary and try to direct him in modifying his sentences a little bit. Here are some of his creations:



“An aggressive body surfer competes in a foreign country track while an ignorant
wrestler forgets the uniform or gear to go to the golf course. A snowboarder
tests his skills of underwater snowboarding and he’s in danger because there are
sharks. An unfriendly football player enters a football race in the park. A
moody surfer with a black top invents a new kind of energy food. An
argumentative fisherman competes in his own hometown in a boat while a spirited
sailor left behind a letter that said he’s going to a sport camp.”


From the WriteShop StoryBuilders World of Animals:

“ A curious snail meets a man in blue disguise under the couch. A restless
eagle went to school because he was trapped in a sudden storm. A puzzle octopus
in an amusement park can turn into a human. A nervous worm under a tree stump
becomes a stuffed toy. A shy raccoon hiding in the pantry was stalked by a
predator. And a ridiculous spider went in his spaceship with his toy box and
landed on the moon.”
I know the text doesn’t make sense but to see his smile when he comes to me with his new sentences is priceless. This morning, he even asked his younger brother, who is 3 years old, to choose some of the elements from the piles. They had fun together. What a great way to include the little ones!

I can easily see the fun of bringing these on a trip just to practice writing and creativity. I realize that I need to sit down with my son and help him to expand more on his paragraphs in the future. I’m really impressed on how easy to use the StoryBuilders are and how little it takes to sparks the imagination of a 7 years old!

Other WriteShop StoryBuilders are available on their website. You will be able to find People which feature a bunch of human characters and a mini-builder about Christmas. However, the authors didn’t want to encourage children to re-write the true Christmas story so the creativity will be more holiday-themed oriented with characters like snowman, nutcracker, etc. Also, the World of Imagination is announced as coming soon on their website which will include fantasy and fairy tale characters.

You might be wondering how much the StoryBuilders are. Their regular price is 9.95$ US but right now on the website they are on sale for 7.95$ US. Seeing how much my son enjoys them, I will go get the People StoryBuilders since it is the one we are missing. Please note that the price of the Christmas mini-builder is less because it is smaller than the other StoryBuilders.