Wordsmith - Creative or Structure?

[Katie.Louise]

Hi,

I was wondering about the Wordsmith series. The cover of Wordsmith says a creative writing course. Is it a 'creative writing' course or just a course taught in a creative way. Does it teach the structure of good sentences, paragraphs, and papers.

 

I was thinking SWB recommends it, but she also doesn't want to force children to do creative writing unless it is natural for them. When I say creative, I mean make up a story. So, can any users tell me what this course teaches. I am looking for more of a structure of writing, and Wordsmith seems to appeal to me. Is this what I am looking for?

Thanks so much,

Katie

[Katie.Louise]

bump please

[Stacy in NJ]

The program is broken down into three parts.

 

The first is called Word Games and reviews the parts of speech (nouns,verbs, adverbs..) within the context of writing. For example an assignment on prepositional phrases asks the student to move the phrase to different locations within the sentence.

 

The second part is called Building Strong Sentences and covers: subjects/predicates, complete vs. fragments, active vs. passive voice, compound sentences, combining sentences, and other topics as well.

 

The last section is Now You're Writing and provides assignments that focus on descriptive and narrative writing, dialogue and point of view.

 

I've used Wordsmith with my now rising 8th grader and, we really enjoyed it.

 

I'd recommend it as introductory writing for 6th-9th graders.

 

HTH, Stacy

 

ETA: I would call this structure light, meaning it does focus on the structure of sentences, paragraph, papers, but it doesn't get overly detailed.

Edited August 13, 2010 by Stacy in NJ

[Katie.Louise]

Thank you Stacy!