I have been seeing more and more families recommend Essentials in Writing, but have not had the opportunity to check it out myself. That is until the Schoolhouse Review Crew presented me just such an opportunity. But then I had to decide which of my children to use it with. They have courses available by grade for 1st – 11th (12th grade is coming this fall as well as 2 other high school level topic specific courses). After checking out samples and reading the scope and sequence, I decided the fourth grade level would be where to start both my 3rd and 4th grade daughters.
Essentials in Writing comes as a DVD containing the lessons with accompanying worksheets and print-outs as a pdf ($40). The student pages are also available printed and bound for $20. I printed two copies of the pages the girls would need for several weeks, 3-hole punched them and placed them in their own 3-prong folder. The recommended pace is that a page or part is done each day. Some lessons have many pages/parts. For example, Lessons 1 and 2 each have a part A and B, while Lesson 3 has parts A, B, and C. According to the suggested schedule that means those first three lessons should take 7 days. Obviously, that will be adjusted as needed to not move ahead until your child has good understanding of the lesson.
Essentials in Writing is a complete language arts curriculum. The lessons begin with subjects and predicates and moves into simple, complex and compound sentences. Then the parts of speech are individually covered. We went through these first grammar sections concerning sentences before getting into writing lessons. I can see we will be completing the grammar lessons in a much quicker manner as the girls show understanding. The student pages please my worksheet-loving girl, but are only tolerated by my more hands-on daughter. We will add in a lapbook as we cover the specific parts of speech for her.
The writing lessons begin with writing a friendly letter. My girls have really gotten into this with writing letters to their grandmothers and great-grandmothers. I love the relationships they are building with written communication (not to mention the practice they are getting and the thrill of a letter in the mailbox!). The lessons then move through narrative writing, parts of a paragraph, descriptive and persuasive writing and writing an informational report. The last two lessons cover other written communication (thank-you notes, lists, etc.) and poetry (stanzas and rhyming).
The lessons are arranged with grammar for the first 28 lessons. Writing instruction is found in lessons 29 through 58. We have not done formal grammar so we spent some time exclusively on this section. Then we started adding in the writing lessons. You could complete one section then the other or combine them. With them clearly separated, it is easy to schedule the lessons in whatever way works best for your child’s needs.
I can already see that my girls are enjoying writing. The steps to the writing process though, not as much. There is much emphasis on the process of pre-writing, draft writing, revisions and editing. All of this before publishing. Like many children, they want their writing to be finished that first time. We will keep working through the process practicing with more narrative writing before moving on to other types. I think they took it personally when I suggested changes or that it should be written again. With the lessons from Essentials in Writing, it is a teacher telling them and not quite as offensive.
Having someone else teaching this process has been wonderful – from both the parent and student point of view. My girls really like the independence of doing their lessons on their own. They do work together, but they don’t have to wait for me. I am enjoying someone else instructing them; I am not confident in writing instruction. Mr. Stephens is a great instructor. I love that this is filmed with him teaching in front of a class, writing on a whiteboard. There is not extra noise or flashy graphics, but Mr. Stephens’ personality drawing them in. It is not just Mama telling them to pre-write, then do a draft, then revise, but a “real teacher”.
There was a time or two when writing an example that a mistake was made. When it was seen and corrected by Mr. Stephens, it made quite an impression on my girls. People make mistakes, fix them and it is no big deal. Mama can try to show them this numerous times, but once that “real teacher” does it, it is more true. That lesson will have a lasting impact on both of my girls: the perfectionist who takes offense if you suggest something needs to be rewritten and the daughter who feels like she is never “good enough”.
The DVD layout works best for us on our DVD player. We are able to access a menu to move directly to the desired lesson. What we didn’t like so much was that it moved right into the next lesson. There was text over the scene, but no real break or stop. If the girls weren’t looking at the screen, but listening and writing on their worksheets they would be into the next lesson without realizing it. Thus far, that is our only complaint. Not bad!
Obviously, other levels will cover other aspects of grammar and writing instruction. The website has both scope and sequence and samples for every level. This was very helpful as I was determining which level to go with. Be sure to read more of our reviews to find out more about different levels, too!
