Writing

Writing Strands from Master Books: A Review of the Updated Material

March 10, 2018 Grace-Filled Writer

I’m an English teacher and writer. Teaching my daughters to write at home seemed like it would be a piece of cake. Imagine my surprise when it wasn’t! My background in middle-grades education left me ill-equipped to know how to teach writing in the early years. I browsed lots of curricula, but nothing felt right. It was all so complex and overwhelming to me… The ENGLISH teacher! I knew there must be something simpler available. Then I discovered the Writing Strands series through Master Books! I was hooked from the moment I opened the package. Its simple and efficient format led me to not only love it for myself, but recommend it to everyone who asks my thoughts on writing.

Rose choosing names for her the characters in the story she is writing.

I wrote my initial review in the fall of 2016. Since then Master Books has worked to revise the curriculum and republish it for their customers. WOW! The updates are incredible and only make me love the program more. We received Writing Strands: Beginning 1 and Writing Strands Beginning 2.

Here are some of the fabulous updates…

1. Daily Schedule – The format has been simplified even more so that it is easy to assign work each week. The original format was a little wordy. This new streamlined format and scheduling guide makes the excellent content all the more user friendly.

2. Work-pages – Whether you purchase the traditional book or e-book format you will find that most of your student’s writing can occur right on the page. This is nice for kids who need less clutter on their desks and a more defined work-space.

3. Assessments – Writing assessments are available to the student to fill out for their own writing. Again, this was also included in the original version, but having a page ready to go is very helpful.

4. Updated Level Breakdown – I think the new levels are a bit more understandable because they do not feel as tied to grade-level as the original books do. There is also a separate, updated teacher’s edition which is helpful to parents. The following levels are currently available:

Beginning 1 (5th-8th)

Beginning 2 (5th-8th)

Intermediate 1 (6th-9th)

Intermediate 2 (6th-9th)

Advanced 1 (High School)

Advanced 2 (High School

Although these are the recommended grades, I am using Beginning 1 with my 2nd grader who was already forming simple sentences. As with all things, assess your child’s ability and choose accordingly. For writers not quite yet ready for Beginnings 1, I highly recommend the original Writing Strands: Level 1. It’s a great way to help your child think creatively and begin to learn about the writing process while having a ton of imaginative fun!

5. Literature Woven is Throughout – In the previous books the literature study was a separate book which parents would read and learn about for themselves, then teach their children from that knowledge. I love that the writing and literature units are included in the new books. They are scheduled to be used on alternating weeks, but we tend to do a unit of each at the same time. There are also work-pages for this portion as well.

6. Biblical Worldview – There was nothing unbiblical in any way with the original versions, but as with all Master Books materials the company has intentionally included Scripture as a part of the studies. This is done in a lovely way which addresses character and heart issues while still fully exploring literary elements and writing prompts.


Rose and I editing her Writing Strands assignment for the week.

Overall Assessment

My overall assessment has not changed except that I love the program even more! My oldest and youngest are continuing to write on their own outside of scheduled school time and their writing is at a very high level. My middle daughter is more of a math-girl, and she too is excelling with the program. Because of the step-by-step nature of Writing Strands they learn about the building blocks of writing in a very meaningful way which is transferring well to other areas.

The girls were recently assessed with Woodcock-Johnson Tests of Cognitive Abilities. Their scores on writing blew me away and I credit it to our use of Writing Strands and reading lots of rich literature. Below are how my girls scored on the writing assessment.

My 7th grader: College

My 5th grader: 7th grade

My 2nd grader: 7th grade

(While my middle daughter is advanced, she had some health issues this fall that put her schooling on hold for a couple of months and we’d just gotten back to pushing at our regular pace about the time she tested. Since this official test I have seen a greater jump in her writing ability once we were again using Writing Strands.)

It is imperative for the writing lessons a child completes to apply to other areas. This curriculum is gentle and will not feel excessive, which is perfect. The current trend in public school education is to get children to write more, more, more. While there is truth in the fact that writers become more skilled in their craft the more they practice, elementary school is not the place to apply this principle! I firmly believe this course will suit everyone’s writing needs no matter what ability level.

Disclaimer: I received Writing Strands Beginning 1 and 2 from New Leaf Publishing in exchange for an honest review. The opinions here are my own. I was not required to write a positive review.

The Bears on Hemlock Mountain E-Guide from Progeny Press: A TOS Crew Review

September 11, 2017 Grace-Filled Writer

Literature is one of the most important subjects for me as a homeschool teacher. That is probably because my background is in teaching literature and writing. I love good books, especially classic children’s literature that has stood the test of time. We usually take a very relaxed approach to literature, simply reading and informally discussing the work through elementary school, but I have several friends who use Progeny Press and I was very interested to give The Bears on Hemlock Mountain E-Guide (Grades 1-3) a try with Grace. She was eager as always and really enjoyed the study!

Bears on Hemlock Mountain, The - E-Guide

We took one week to use this unit because Grace is a very fast reader. It could be stretched out longer without any problem, but since I knew she would want to read the short book quickly I wanted to make certain she completed it at the same time she read the novel. I wasn’t sure how she would respond to completing the reading questions because of our typical way of studying literature. I shouldn’t have been surprised that she was eager for “more work” as she puts it. This little girl loves school and eagerly jumps into new learning styles. She seemed to like writing the answers write on the worksheets I printed. There were a couple of frustrating moments for her when she could not find the answer to a question.

I really love it when resources are available in a downloadable format because that means I can use it with younger children. It also saves shelf-space which is a huge benefit for us. I also really like the option of printing the entire file or a selection of needed pages. Since some of these are for the teacher and some are for students this is a great option when you may be studying the novel with more than one of your children. Please note the downloadable files are for an individual teacher or parent to use within their home or classroom. You should always strictly follow the company’s guidelines and use the material in an ethical way.

I really liked the reading questions. Some were straight forward and factual, but others were deeper and provided more thought or inference. I’ll be honest, Grace was not a fan of these more thoughtful questions in particular. She is still only 7 and very concrete in her thinking, but it is time for her to be able to delve more deeply and be able to make inferences about motives or emotions. This was exactly why I loved the questions. Not only did they serve this purpose, but they also showed me an area of weakness in her literature studies I had not yet pinpointed.

In addition to the literature questions which I found to be so valuable, there are a number of other fun resources and activities. There a number of pre-reading activities which are all highly engaging and Grace particularly liked the mystery word work page and the vocabulary word pages. She adores learning new words so this was perfect for her. There are also several post-reading activities and even a recipe to go along with the unit! The easy to navigate answer key is another plus in this wonderful unit!

I was highly impressed and am exploring some other studies from Progeny Press. I appreciate their solidly biblical world-view and the inclusion of this via Scripture study themed to the novel. It was a great way to help my daughter look at her literature through a Christian worldview.

There are several other levels and titles my Crewmates have reviewed including Charlotte’s Web E-Guide (Grades 4-6), The Silver Chair E-Guide (Grades 5-7), and Macbeth E-Guide (Grades 9-12). Make sure you click below to see what they have to say about these excellent units!

Jensen’s Format Writing: A Moms of Master Books Review

February 7, 2017 Grace-Filled Writer

When I talk to homeschool moms about their least favorite subject to teach, one of the top answers is writing. It’s also the one subject about which I’m asked to give advice about most. I’m always on the lookout for what current resources are available. I look for several things in a curriculum before I recommend it. First, it should be printed in an easy to use format. Second, it should be simplified so that students are only working on small bits of information at a time in order to have better retention. Third, practical examples and practice are incorporated. Jensen’s Format Writing incorporates all of these!

http://www.masterbooks.com/jensens-format-writing

I previously reviewed Jensen’s Grammar which I will be using with my own daughters and highly recommend for middle school and high school students whether they already have a strong background in grammar or not. I was super excited to have the chance to review the newly reformatted Jensen’s Format Writing as well! It is incredibly user friendly for the teacher or student if you would like for them to use this on their own. Some kids just work better if they have a different teacher than mom and the DVD allows for that. I also would feel completely comfortable recommending this without the DVD for moms who prefer they have the majority of the teaching. The instruct is very clear and understandable.

What I like best about this writing program is that the writing assignments are completed in small segments. Learning to write non-fiction is a daunting tasks for most students, especially if a large assignment is given all at once. These bite-size daily tasks will guide the students to understand how to craft beautiful works of creative nonfiction.

One of the best things about Master Books curriculum is every subject helps point students to a Christ-centered world view. Disciplines which are often considered secular or at the very least non-spiritual are taught in such a way as to inspire students to look at them from a biblical perspective. Many of the writing assignments have specific prompts which are intended to guide the student to think for themselves. Subjects such as the pro-life movement, capital punishment, and debt are explored. Students are instructed to gather research on these and other topics before writing on them. I love that my daughters will be encouraged to research and then form an informed opinion rather than merely relying on the opinions of others. I do not want my children to be parrots. I want them to learn how to seek out truth and decide which way they will follow for themselves.

I highly recommend this writing program for junior high and high school students alike. It is an excellent, solid program that has one of the simplest layouts for using I have seen. It is also incredibly affordable compared to other writing programs for this age.

Disclaimer: I received Jensen’s Format Writing in exchange for my honest review. I was not compensated in any other way. I was not required to write a positive review. All opinions are my own.

Writing Strands: A Moms of Master Books Review

October 1, 2016 Grace-Filled Writer

I am so so so very excited to share a new writing program with you! Writing Strands actually isn’t new to the homeschool scene, but it is very new to me. I’d never heard of it until Master Books started carrying it in their homeschool store, but I’ve since talked to others and know now just how popular it really is and how long it has been around.

I have looked at a lot of language arts curriculum. It’s sort of my “thing” you could say. Before I had kids I taught 7th and 8th grade English in a private school and when my daughter started Kindergarten I began teaching middle school English once again, only to homeschooling this time. I have always been passionate about literature and writing and so it is of course my favorite part of our day. My daughters are very advanced in their language arts skills and I wanted to make sure anything I chose would fit their needs and not bore them. I also wanted to continue with a gently approach to learning this subject. I firmly believe that quality over quantity is vital when teaching writing.

Writing Strands is the only curriculum I have worked with which engaged all of my daughters at their various levels. They have never dreaded writing, but since we started using this about a month ago they can’t wait to get to this part of our day.

There are 7 levels of writing instruction in Writing Strands as well as a literature component called Reading Strands. The idea is to use the Writing curriculum one week and the literature curriculum the next. This plan didn’t really work for me so I chose to take two weeks to cover one week’s lesson of writing and continue our literature path as we have been, reading daily. I’ll talk more about Reading Strands at the end of this review.

Each of the 7 levels intends for the students to progress upwards and they aren’t grade leveled which I LOVE. I’m all about ability based curriculum rather than grade-level based. Students need to work at their own pace and not be pushed ahead merely because of a grade-level assignment. I also do not want to hold my girls back if they are able to move at a faster pace. In our case that has been true for language arts, but I still kept them in the suggested levels of Writing Strands and I’m glad I did because they are doing incredibly well.

Level 1
Grace is working in this level right now and thinks it is super fun! She is six and can write sentences, but we haven’t worked a lot intentionally on writing yet as she is only in 1st grade. This has been a really fun way to start the process! Level one is all about creativity and imagination for young learners. I love the way this is presented. Language games are a beautiful way to teach young children to be creative with their words. We love the rhyming game and she had so much fun creating a new animal. Sometimes we talk, sometimes we draw, but we always engage through language and I enjoy seeing her imagination wheels turning around in her mind.

Level 2
Beth is working through level 2. She is actually a bit old for this level, but I wanted her to give it a try and I think it has been a very good fit for her. I will feel better about her moving forward into the more independent level 3 after we work together through this. One aspect of this series which I find beautiful is students take their own writing and improve upon it rather than merely emulating the writing of another. There is a time and place for this, but I love seeing my girl move beyond that method. Beth has really jumped into this with both feet. She never really disliked writing assignments, but it also wasn’t something she got overly excited about. Not anymore!

Level 3
Rose declared these writing assignments were the best she had ever done just after one day! She is the oldest and of course the guinea pig so we have tried a variety of writing curricula. None has compared to this in her enthusiasm. Something I really like about this program is that after the first two levels the books are written to the student so they can work on their own for the most part. I check over her work and we discuss it, but having her complete this on her own did something I didn’t expect. When I was working with her more closely on her writing her writing voice never really came through. I believe that her perfectionist tendencies led her to try and emulate what she thought I wanted her to do to the point that her own personality in writing couldn’t really come through. This has changed dramatically since starting Writing Strands.

Levels 4-7
These levels will take my girls all the way through high school level writing and I intend to complete the entire program with each all three, prrogressing from the basics into formal expository writing and beautiful creative writing. I’ve spent extensive time pouring over these levels and can’t wait to see my girls grow in their writing. The process has a flow to it which I have not seen in other programs. It is simple, yet meaty as students clearly learn how to organize their writing and create pieces which are both informative and engaging.

Beth and Grace working on their novels

The biggest way I have been able to assess that this program is doing its job is something that happened earlier this week. I went upstairs to check on the girls who were unusually quiet one afternoon. I didn’t know what they were up to, but the quiet had me curious. They are past the stage that quiet concerns me, but it was very out of character to the usual chatter I hear coming from their bedroom or playroom. I walked in to find all three busily scribbling into notebooks. It took them a minute to realize I was there and then they all started talking to me at once…about their novels. Yes, all three of my little sweeties have begun writing their own novels without even a suggestion from me. This is why I know Writing Strands has changed the way my girls look at writing. It is now more than just another school assignment. Now my daughters look to writing as one of their creative outlets.

Evaluating Writing
Another incredibly useful book in the series is Evaluating Writing which is written as a guide to teach parents how to best evaluate writing. Included is a handy review of grammar which is clear and concise. Also included are examples of how to include questions to help students further develop their thoughts. I do a lot of these kinds of things when I evaluate the writing of my 7th and 8th grade homeschooled English students. I have gained a few more ideas in this area as well, however, and look forward to using these new insights in my evaluations.

Reading Strands
This portion of the program is also very different from other literature curriculum as it is written to instruct parents in how to teach reading, or literature. Geared towards parents who have finished phonics instruction this is the next level. The information in this section is very valuable, but was a little difficult to wade through organizationally. I think the content is excellent, but the presentation was a bit overwhelming.

Because I have studied to be an English teacher I was very familiar with the methods taught in this book and I would recommend it to anyone who feels uncertain about how to teach literature. Unlike other curriculum this does not include answer keys or teaching guides. Instead this will allow parents to confidently master teaching literature to their students no matter what their background. One of my favorite parts of this was the extensive list of books arranged by grade-level. There are many wonderful novels to choose from in this section.

Overall Perspective
I only wish I had learned of this writing curriculum sooner! It fits nicely with our Charlotte Mason based approach to learning. I also know it is recommended for those pursuing a classical education.

Disclaimer: I received Writing Strands Levels 1-7, Reading Strands, and Evaluating Writing from Master Books in exchange for an honest review. The opinions here are my own. I was not required to write a positive review.