Create Better Writers
I have been, or can be if you click on a link and make a purchase, compensated via a cash payment, gift, or something else of value for writing this post. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers.
If you have read this blog for any length of time, then you know that I have a few boys that struggle with writing. Or, at least I think they are struggling and not making progress.
Reviewing Create Better Writers is helping me see that some of the concepts are sticking well with my older boys and that the younger one needs to start investing more time in learning this valuable skill.
For this review, we received three different ebooks:
How To Teach the Five Paragraph Essay
The Home School Writing Action Plan
How to Teach the Paragraph is the newest edition to the Create Better Writers list of will help you student learn how to write a paragraph. Once this building block is mastered, ( by using one simple trick) they will be able to write reports, essays and stories. Writing does not have to be painful with this $7.99 eBook.
How To Teach The Five-Paragraph Essay contains a step-by-step plan for teaching the five-paragraph essay. Teachers will be able to show their students how a simple outline will help students master one of the most important skills a student can acquire.
The format of this book leaves nothing to chance. The teacher is given everything needed to help students master essay writing. Students will be able to organize their ideas, then format and write a five-paragraph essay in about an hour. Every student will be prepared for any class, district, or state writing test. The ebook is $17.95 if purchased individually or free with The Complete Writing Program at $59.
How To Teach The Five-Paragraph Essay contains a step-by-step plan for teaching the five-paragraph essay. Teachers will be able to show their students how a simple outline will help students master one of the most important skills a student can acquire.
The Home School Writing Action Plan
This book is basically a road map that will guide the educator with multiple ages to gain the skills needed to be an effective writer.
“Whether you are comfortable with your writing skills or not, you want a writing program that gives you confidence that your students will be successful. A great feature to this program is that it teaches you, the home school teacher, right along with your children. It will guide you step-by-step as you cover every aspect of writing. The Home School Writing Action Plan is that first step.
What makes this program so powerful is that it starts with one simple writing technique and builds. Before you know it, you and your students will be writing amazing paragraphs, essays, stories, and reports. You won’t believe how easy it is to teach, and you’ll be amazed at how far your child can go. Even the reluctant writers thrive with this program.” The ebook format is $15.95.
Our Thoughts about Create Better Writers~
I spent some time reading through The Home School Writing Action Plan which gave me a flavor of using this as a complete curriculum. There are a few other books that need to be purchased to use with the curriculum which I do not currently own. However, the website indicates that you can use it as that road map and integrate other materials you already possess.
Recommended for those of us doing the review was to begin with How to Write a Paragraph at the speed we needed to go and then move into How to Teach the Five Paragraph Essay.
Since it is summertime and the boys are not as cooperative about doing schoolwork when outdoor fun calls them, we did not get beyond How to Teach the Paragraph. For my rising 4th grader, this is a crucial concept to learn and something that he had not really come across in other writing programs to date. My rising 7th grader seemed to grasp when we did discussions as a group, yet struggled putting it into practice when working on his own. The high schooler ‘got it’ quickly as he was familiar with most of the material. I was planning to have him move into the Five Paragraph Essay for me, but being gone for a high adventure trip with the Boy Scouts put a damper in my plans.
Actually, I could grasp their understanding of forming a good paragraph based on an initial assessment when given the assignment to write about something they did this summer. Only my high school student had a paragraph that stayed close to one main idea. The other boys rambled with their focus more upon having several sentences rather than having sentences that worked together.
If anything, using this product from Create Better Writers has emphasized to me the need to continue dedicating a good chunk of time this coming year so they have the skills necessary to communicate effectively. While part of me feels bad that it is taking far longer to progress through the first ‘step’ of writing a paragraph, I am hoping that taking the time now will pay dividends in the future.
