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Can you recommend something to teach good essay writing?


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Have you ever looked at Write Shop? Judging from your other curriculum picks and the specific questions you've had about teaching writing, I think this would be a great choice for your family.

 

(I'm not an expert on it. My older boys have entirely different opinions on Write Shop. The older uses TOG's Writing Aids but the younger loves Write Shop. I do intend to use it for my third son, who is a fifth grader, when he gets to seventh grade.)

 

Write Shop is in no way elegant. It is very much a git-er-done curriculum, full of very specific nitpicky handholding stuff. You'll either love it or hate it.

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Have you ever looked at Write Shop? Judging from your other curriculum picks and the specific questions you've had about teaching writing, I think this would be a great choice for your family.

 

(I'm not an expert on it. My older boys have entirely different opinions on Write Shop. The older uses TOG's Writing Aids but the younger loves Write Shop. I do intend to use it for my third son, who is a fifth grader, when he gets to seventh grade.)

 

Write Shop is in no way elegant. It is very much a git-er-done curriculum, full of very specific nitpicky handholding stuff. You'll either love it or hate it.

 

 

Off to check it out! Thanks :001_smile:

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  • 2 weeks later...

We just finished The Elegant Essay. Pros - easy to use. Open and go. Very little prep work for instructor. It is simple and clear. The focus is learning the steps to writing an organized paper. Cons - I found the assignments a bit boring. Instead of using them, I had the kids write about literature they were reading.

 

We're moving onto LTOW . More work for the instructor, but also helps the kids learn to think more.

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We just finished The Elegant Essay. Pros - easy to use. Open and go. Very little prep work for instructor. It is simple and clear. The focus is learning the steps to writing an organized paper. Cons - I found the assignments a bit boring. Instead of using them, I had the kids write about literature they were reading.

 

We're moving onto LTOW . More work for the instructor, but also helps the kids learn to think more.

 

 

I just ordered this myself. We'll have to compare notes:001_smile:

 

Lisa

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BTW, we just finished the Elegant Essay. The content is great. I hated the presentation and teacher suggestions. Because it didn't resonate well with me, I'm afraid I may have messed up dd more than if we hadn't done it at all! I didn't find it all that teacher-friendly either. I had to pre-read the student lesson, then the teacher section, then tried to jot a few notes to use while dd and I discussed it and did the exercises. If I hadn't done "my" homework, it was a confused, useless session. Also, since dd didn't know much about or care much about the subject matter in the exercises, it wasn't relevent. Of course, when we didn't use her exercises, I didn't have her sample answers either -- so I had to fly solo. Again, we would have been better off doing something else.

 

I'm now searching for something else to teach me to teach essays to dd. Dd writes well for her age. It's me that's the problem. I'd love something that gives us the basic structures/models for the various types of essays then gives us lots and lots of examples of thesis statements and supporting topics for those various structures. Dd could take it from there.

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I am putting together a mishmash of materials, into a handbook for myself. I am using Paragraph Puzzles as my spine, and after mastering the paragraph I will stretch my paragraphs into essays.

 

There are so many parts of good essay writing that can be practiced on a paragraph. I'm hoping to cover everything that I can on shorter, more frequent papers, before tackling the more time consuming and longer papers.

 

No one has yet to answer my thread on writing a good title, that I posted on the k-8 board. It's the last big hole I have in my self-made handbook.

 

I even want to cover research report topics on these paragraphs.

 

Here is a link to an 11 sentence literature paper, that is meant to be the 1st step towards learning to write a typical literature essay http://www.myteacherpages.com/webpages/SHeckman/files/11%20sentence%20paragraph%20pdf.pdf

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I am on the fence about Elegant Essay. I asked on here and that review plus some others I have found since- I am not for sure if that is what we want to use- but I haven't totally ruled it out yet either! What can you recommend? TIA

 

I am so upset with myself with how the essay life is going with us. I am looking at Elegant Essay too. However, a veteran mom from my group told me that she used Write at Home. She does the 9 week workshop. I want to get into the next one for my son because it is about essay writing.

 

Blessings in your homeschooling journey!

 

Sincerely,

Karen

http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/testimony

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  • 4 weeks later...
  • 2 weeks later...
I am on the fence about Elegant Essay. I asked on here and that review plus some others I have found since- I am not for sure if that is what we want to use- but I haven't totally ruled it out yet either! What can you recommend? TIA

 

Are you doing Elegant Essay? A friend of mine loaned me hers to test out. I am not too impress with this so far. I am reading it all this weekend. I don't know. I am going to try it out on my older son. He is the guinea pig for this program.

 

Blessings,

Karen

http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/testimony

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BTW, we just finished the Elegant Essay. The content is great. I hated the presentation and teacher suggestions. Because it didn't resonate well with me, I'm afraid I may have messed up dd more than if we hadn't done it at all! I didn't find it all that teacher-friendly either. I had to pre-read the student lesson, then the teacher section, then tried to jot a few notes to use while dd and I discussed it and did the exercises. If I hadn't done "my" homework, it was a confused, useless session. Also, since dd didn't know much about or care much about the subject matter in the exercises, it wasn't relevent. Of course, when we didn't use her exercises, I didn't have her sample answers either -- so I had to fly solo.

 

 

You're right--EE is not user-friendly. The pages of the TM do not line up numerically with the student book, so one has to continually flip back and forth when covering a unit. And the boring topics! And the moralizing tone!! And the stories about her dog!!! (Can you tell that I find EE somewhat annoying?) Although I've used it more than once now in co-op classes, I have always altered the writing topics. The only reason I did use EE was that it provided students with step-by-step instructions for a particular essay model, but in future I may simply instruct directly without a text.

 

A couple of great additions to EE (or even substitutes) would be The Lively Art of Writing (very engagingly presented, but not as step-by-step as EE, and the writing topics are dated, but other exercises are good) and The Pen Commandments (more about style and very humourous).

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I am putting together a mishmash of materials, into a handbook for myself. I am using Paragraph Puzzles as my spine, and after mastering the paragraph I will stretch my paragraphs into essays.

 

 

 

/QUOTE]

 

 

A Writer's Guide to Powerful Paragraphs by Victor Pellegrino presents instruction on multiple paragraph formats and examples--eg, chronological, physical analysis, comparison, contrast, anticlimactic, cause and effect, etc. Geared more towards logic stage and up than younger students, though.

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No one has yet to answer my thread on writing a good title, that I posted on the k-8 board. It's the last big hole I have in my self-made handbook.

 

QUOTE]

 

 

I found this list a few years ago but unfortunately do not know the source. Some of the ideas are much better than others but they can all get you thinking....

 

Twenty Titles

 

1. Copy out of your draft a sentence that could serve as a title

2. Write a sentence that's not in the draft to use as a title

3. Write a title that is a question beginning with what, who, when, or where

4. Write a title that is a question beginning with how or why

5. Write a title that is a question beginning with Is/ Are, Does/ Do, or Will

6. Pick out of the essay some concrete image--something the reader an hear, see, taste, smell or feel--use as a title

7. Pick another concrete image out of the essay--an image that is unusual or surprising

8. Write a title that begins with an -ing verb (like "Creating a Catchy Title")

9. Write a title beginning with On ("On the Titles of Essays")

10. Write a title that is a lie about the essay. You probably won't use this one, but it might stimulate your thinking.

11. Write a one-word title--the most obvious one possible.

12. Write a less obvious one-word title

13. Write a two-word title

14. Write a three-word title

15. Write a four-word title

16. Write a five-word title

17. Think of a familiar saying or title of a book, song, or movie, that might fit your essay

18. Take the title you just wrote and twist it by changing a word or creating a pun on it

19. Do the same with another saying or title of book, song, or movie

20. Find two titles you've written so far that you might use together in a double title. Join them with a colon.

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Are you doing Elegant Essay? A friend of mine loaned me hers to test out. I am not too impress with this so far. I am reading it all this weekend. I don't know. I am going to try it out on my older son. He is the guinea pig for this program.

 

Blessings,

Karen

www.homeschoolblogger.com/testimony

 

 

 

No. I actually ended up buying SWB Writing lectures and she won me over. I got dd WWS1. We are going through that in hopes WWS 2 will be out soon. I want to be done with WWS1 before high school if possible.

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No. I actually ended up buying SWB Writing lectures and she won me over. I got dd WWS1. We are going through that in hopes WWS 2 will be out soon. I want to be done with WWS1 before high school if possible.

 

Tell me how that goes for you. I know we both have eighth graders. I am doing Elegant Essay while you are doing WWS1. It sounds like you made the better choice. I really want to know how it works out for you because after reading Elegant Essay over the weekend, I was not having any hope. If you want to know how it turns out, let me know.

 

Sigh!:tongue_smilie:

 

Blessings,

Karen

http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/testimony

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We used Analytical Grammar's Teaching the Essay. It was the best basic essay writing program we have tried. It is short and direct. The student will learn the basics and the concept of good 5 sentence paragraphs and can then transition into 5 paragraphs essays.

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Tell me how that goes for you. I know we both have eighth graders. I am doing Elegant Essay while you are doing WWS1. It sounds like you made the better choice. I really want to know how it works out for you because after reading Elegant Essay over the weekend, I was not having any hope. If you want to know how it turns out, let me know.

 

Sigh!:tongue_smilie:

 

Blessings,

Karen

www.homeschoolblogger.com/testimony

 

 

 

I sure will. We are very early into it but so far I am very happy with it. My daughter is not a writer (if that makes sense) and she is really getting this. After listening to SWB's writing lectures it really made sense to me. I will keep you updated!

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