Smarr writing lessons?

[Quiver0f10]

We are planning on using Smarr medieval course this fall and was wondering if the writing lessons would be enough writing instruction or do I need to add to it?

[Quiver0f10]

Anyone? :-)

[TGHEALTHYMOM]

 

 

I was checking to see if you had any response. The forum is not bringing up any searches via the search engine for many topics. I googled this and saw a few threads. Here is one older one. HTH

 

http://forums.welltrainedmind.com/topic/116568-smarr-literature-guides-medieval-renaissance-qs/

[Quiver0f10]

I was checking to see if you had any response. The forum is not bringing up any searches via the search engine for many topics. I googled this and saw a few threads. Here is one older one. HTH

 

http://forums.welltr...renaissance-qs/

 

Thanks!

[Musicmom]

Hi Jean,

 

I don't know if this will help or not, but we did use Smarr Medieval interwoven with 2 other lit programs when my son was in 10th grade (so about 5 years ago). At the time, I had planned to use the writing instruction in Smarr and started off with it. Basically it centers around writing an argumentative papers on a rhetorical issue in literature--the kind of paper the author assigns after each work of literature in the program. It also has a lot of grammar instruction and exercises.

 

I thought the first part of the writing guide, introducing the structure of the essay and thesis statements, was reasonably good, and it was helpful to ds. He did a number of the assigned papers, but I did not critique them too heavily--he struggled with writing so I was just glad he was willing to try, and was glad for whatever he could get down on paper. We also used IEW's Teaching Writing with Structure and Style that year (their main seminar, which I had finally broken down and purchased) and that helped ds as well--though its focus was different.

 

I did not like the grammar instruction in the Smarr writing guide at all. Ds had done Abeka grammar from 4th grade through the end of their program, and it was excellent--Smarr's does not compare. So ds skipped all that--he was already great at grammar.

 

Anyway, as we went on through Smarr's literature program, I became increasingly concerned over the author's grammar and usage in the literture lessons (and the writing lessons too). It just grated on me, and I found numerous instances of grammatical errors and things that were just plain poorly written. So.... I really lost confidence in the author's writing program--did not want my ds learning to write the way the author did, and I jumped ship about a third of the way in. From that point we focussed more on the IEW. Perhaps others saw it through and had a better experience, I don't know.

 

I'd suggest going ahead and using Smarr's writing program--or parts of it, but keep an eye out for what it's teaching your dc. Look more at some of his advice that's specific about writing about a rhetorical issue, and organization, but then have some other better resources on hand for writing instruction to use as well. The Lively Art of Writing (which I used later with dd--who did not do Smarr) is a very good and inexpensive resource for argumentative essays--one idea would be to use that and apply the lessons to the Smarr literature at hand (instead of having to write about the topics the book suggests--which we found hard to relate to.)

 

If you're looking for your writing program to cover more than argumentative essays, then you'll definitely need to find other resources for the types of writing you want to cover.

 

Hope this helps!

 

 

 

 

[Quiver0f10]

Hi Jean,

 

I don't know if this will help or not, but we did use Smarr Medieval interwoven with 2 other lit programs when my son was in 10th grade (so about 5 years ago). At the time, I had planned to use the writing instruction in Smarr and started off with it. Basically it centers around writing an argumentative papers on a rhetorical issue in literature--the kind of paper the author assigns after each work of literature in the program. It also has a lot of grammar instruction and exercises.

 

I thought the first part of the writing guide, introducing the structure of the essay and thesis statements, was reasonably good, and it was helpful to ds. He did a number of the assigned papers, but I did not critique them too heavily--he struggled with writing so I was just glad he was willing to try, and was glad for whatever he could get down on paper. We also used IEW's Teaching Writing with Structure and Style that year (their main seminar, which I had finally broken down and purchased) and that helped ds as well--though its focus was different.

 

I did not like the grammar instruction in the Smarr writing guide at all. Ds had done Abeka grammar from 4th grade through the end of their program, and it was excellent--Smarr's does not compare. So ds skipped all that--he was already great at grammar.

 

Anyway, as we went on through Smarr's literature program, I became increasingly concerned over the author's grammar and usage in the literture lessons (and the writing lessons too). It just grated on me, and I found numerous instances of grammatical errors and things that were just plain poorly written. So.... I really lost confidence in the author's writing program--did not want my ds learning to write the way the author did, and I jumped ship about a third of the way in. From that point we focussed more on the IEW. Perhaps others saw it through and had a better experience, I don't know.

 

I'd suggest going ahead and using Smarr's writing program--or parts of it, but keep an eye out for what it's teaching your dc. Look more at some of his advice that's specific about writing about a rhetorical issue, and organization, but then have some other better resources on hand for writing instruction to use as well. The Lively Art of Writing (which I used later with dd--who did not do Smarr) is a very good and inexpensive resource for argumentative essays--one idea would be to use that and apply the lessons to the Smarr literature at hand (instead of having to write about the topics the book suggests--which we found hard to relate to.)

 

If you're looking for your writing program to cover more than argumentative essays, then you'll definitely need to find other resources for the types of writing you want to cover.

 

Hope this helps!

Thank you! This was very helpful!