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I have been thinking about this.   The biggest issue is dealing with copyrighted materials.  I might write a program on writing essays.  With essays, I could use public domain literature for instructional materials.   

I am not sure how much of use from government materials you might find useful, but I thought those weren't copyrighted.

 

??

 

Anyway, keep us posted. I'd love to see what you have for the next level up.

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I have been thinking about this.   The biggest issue is dealing with copyrighted materials.  I might write a program on writing essays.  With essays, I could use public domain literature for instructional materials.   

 

This would be wonderful. You don't mind starting after dinner, right?

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8FillTheHeart,  Today, 12:27 PM

warneral, on 27 Aug 2014:  oh how I wish I could see something for middle grades in the near future

 
I have been thinking about this.   The biggest issue is dealing with copyrighted materials.  I might write a program on writing essays.  With essays, I could use public domain literature for instructional materials.

 

 

 

 

Um, yes please!!!!!  ;)  :party:

 

:iagree:     Yes, please!

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My oldest (9 in two weeks!) has done WWE 1 and FLL1 and is almost done with WWE2 and FLL2, can those be followed up immediately by TC? Or would it be better to do WWE3 and FLL3 and follow up with TC? DS is getting a little tired of the WWE/FLL combo, so I thought this might be a nice change for him. And a separate grammar program is not needed with TC, correct? Thank you!

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My oldest (9 in two weeks!) has done WWE 1 and FLL1 and is almost done with WWE2 and FLL2, can those be followed up immediately by TC? Or would it be better to do WWE3 and FLL3 and follow up with TC? DS is getting a little tired of the WWE/FLL combo, so I thought this might be a nice change for him. And a separate grammar program is not needed with TC, correct? Thank you!

 

I think TC could be used after WWE2.  WWE3 gives general paragraph construction by finding a topic to use as the topic sentence and support it with 3 or 4 detail sentences about the topic, whereas TC seems to be more about specific paragraph construction.  

 

If you want to keep using WWE, you could start TC and then add WWE3 in as you progress further into the book to give some variety.

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I have been thinking about this.   The biggest issue is dealing with copyrighted materials.  I might write a program on writing essays.  With essays, I could use public domain literature for instructional materials.   

 

To tide us over, perhaps you could pin all of your writing posts into one post a la Ruth and science. Pretty please. <Bats eyelashes> :)

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To tide us over, perhaps you could pin all of your writing posts into one post a la Ruth and science. Pretty please. <Bats eyelashes> :)

I'm clueless as to what those posts even are. Most of the time I just type like I am chatting with someone, so I forget what I even wrote. ;) I can only ever go back and find posts when I can think of an unusual word to search via google.

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I have been thinking about this.   The biggest issue is dealing with copyrighted materials.  I might write a program on writing essays.  With essays, I could use public domain literature for instructional materials.   

Oh my goodness!! Yes please!! I'm joining in on the happy dance with a previous poster.... :party:

 

This was among the best $30 I have ever spent.

I agree!!

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I'm clueless as to what those posts even are. Most of the time I just type like I am chatting with someone, so I forget what I even wrote. ;) I can only ever go back and find posts when I can think of an unusual word to search via google.

 Besides, we can't take your time up by pinning past posts. You have an essay program to write.   :001_smile:

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I know you assign weekly papers. Can you include the list of suggested topics for grade level? Maybe by subject? I would love to know your "writing prompts." I don't know why it's so difficult for me to come up for age appropriate assignments. I would be willing to pay for such a supplement.

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I know you assign weekly papers. Can you include the list of suggested topics for grade level? Maybe by subject? I would love to know your "writing prompts." I don't know why it's so difficult for me to come up for age appropriate assignments. I would be willing to pay for such a supplement.

I pull topics from what they are reading. Since we do not use textbooks, they are always reading different history and science books. I select topics that I want highlight. For example, if my dd is reading a book on weather, a writing assignment might be on how do hurricanes form. I typically select 3 articles on a topic and give them the focus questions for their notes. The key is to make sure the assignment is a narrowed topic. I would not ask them to write a paper on hurricanes bc entire books are written on hurricanes.

 

What is the purpose behind what they are studying? Take that purpose and focus in on a topic that fits the size of a writing assignment. A paragraph topic needs to answer a simple, single question, etc.

 

Fwiw, I pre-read their books in a quick skim manner to determine the key areas of focus for writing assignments.

 

I'm sorry that is not the answer you wanted. But, it is the answer when everything is child specific and completely non-pre-fab. I don't think any of my kids have ever written papers on the same topics.

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I recently read her suggestions on this thread: http://forums.welltrainedmind.com/topic/239259-bringing-karens-mention-of-essay-writing-to-a-new-thread/?do=findComment&comment=2363522

 

It was very helpful. I'm curious what this curriculum covers of what was mentioned in the thread? Does it guide us through parts of pre independent writing, into independent writing?

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I recently read her suggestions on this thread: http://forums.welltrainedmind.com/topic/239259-bringing-karens-mention-of-essay-writing-to-a-new-thread/?do=findComment&comment=2363522

 

It was very helpful. I'm curious what this curriculum covers of what was mentioned in the thread? Does it guide us through parts of pre independent writing, into independent writing?

 

I apologize for not responding yesterday, but we were out of town all day and didn't arrive home until close to midnight.

 

I had to go back and read the description in the link to remind myself what was in it.  To give an idea of how long ago I wrote that, the 2nd grader I described is now a 10th grader.   ;)

 

While the curriculum does not follow that link's description exactly, the premise behind method is still the same.

 

The curriculum starts off with grammar instruction similar to what is in the link.   The purpose behind the grammar instruction in TC is multifaceted: to introduce grammar concepts in order to understand how the English language functions in writing, to teach the importance of word selection in order to convey the correct meaning, and to learn to write strong sentences correctly.

 

The second section focuses on learning to write paragraphs.   The progression to independent paragraphs is not the same as in the linked post, but the instruction is still fully scaffolded (step by step support) and the ending point is the same.

 

The third section introduces the methods for simple note taking and writing simple paragraph reports.   The curriculum itself does not directly teach multi-paragraph reports, but it provides the foundation for making that the next logical step. 

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I pull topics from what they are reading. Since we do not use textbooks, they are always reading different history and science books. I select topics that I want highlight. For example, if my dd is reading a book on weather, a writing assignment might be on how do hurricanes form. I typically select 3 articles on a topic and give them the focus questions for their notes. The key is to make sure the assignment is a narrowed topic. I would not ask them to write a paper on hurricanes bc entire books are written on hurricanes.

 

What is the purpose behind what they are studying? Take that purpose and focus in on a topic that fits the size of a writing assignment. A paragraph topic needs to answer a simple, single question, etc.

 

Fwiw, I pre-read their books in a quick skim manner to determine the key areas of focus for writing assignments.

 

I'm sorry that is not the answer you wanted. But, it is the answer when everything is child specific and completely non-pre-fab. I don't think any of my kids have ever written papers on the same topics.

 

8, forgive me for my ignorance, but when you mention "focus questions" are you referring to a generic set of questions, or are they specific to the assignment? If not generic would you mind taking your example of an assignment on how hurricanes form and showing us how it's done? Thanks so much for sharing!

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8, forgive me for my ignorance, but when you mention "focus questions" are you referring to a generic set of questions, or are they specific to the assignment? If not generic would you mind taking your example of an assignment on how hurricanes form and showing us how it's done? Thanks so much for sharing!

 

They are the specific questions students are asked to focus on while reading a selection and the prism they use to determine what information is pertinent for taking notes.

 

Students are walked through the process 6 times in the third section of the curriculum.

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I apologize for not responding yesterday, but we were out of town all day and didn't arrive home until close to midnight.

 

I had to go back and read the description in the link to remind myself what was in it. To give an idea of how long ago I wrote that, the 2nd grader I described is now a 10th grader. ;)

 

While the curriculum does not follow that link's description exactly, the premise behind method is still the same.

 

The curriculum starts off with grammar instruction similar to what is in the link. The purpose behind the grammar instruction in TC is multifaceted: to introduce grammar concepts in order to understand how the English language functions in writing, to teach the importance of word selection in order to convey the correct meaning, and to learn to write strong sentences correctly.

 

The second section focuses on learning to write paragraphs. The progression to independent paragraphs is not the same as in the linked post, but the instruction is still fully scaffolded (step by step support) and the ending point is the same.

 

The third section introduces the methods for simple note taking and writing simple paragraph reports. The curriculum itself does not directly teach multi-paragraph reports, but it provides the foundation for making that the next logical step.

Thank you for responding! I have a second grader now and I would like to survive through (& beyond) the 10th grade year ;) i need hand holding so I am definitely loving this for us next year.

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Quick question. We did Week 2 day 2 today. My DD 8.5 took forever to complete the copywork. Am I able to reduce the amount she copies per day but still have her identify the nouns etc by circling them on her printed sheet she is copying from, or do you think it takes away from the overall goal?

This is exactly what I have done when dd complains about the length of copywork.  I usually have her write two sentences.

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Quick question. We did Week 2 day 2 today. My DD 8.5 took forever to complete the copywork. Am I able to reduce the amount she copies per day but still have her identify the nouns etc by circling them on her printed sheet she is copying from, or do you think it takes away from the overall goal?

 

I think that is fine, but I would gradually increase the length over time.   You have to gauge your own child and her abilities, but I would make that length a goal over the period of several weeks.  

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I think that is fine, but I would gradually increase the length over time.   You have to gauge your own child and her abilities, but I would make that length a goal over the period of several weeks.  

 

 

She CAN do it... she just can't focus long enough to do it so it took her over 30 mins just to write it out.............. I will try shortening it by a couple sentences and adding in one per week. 

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We are finishing up week 7 here as we've been doing it double pace as we had a fair background in grammar (completed MCT Island level and are a good ways into Town) anyway, I would say this is deceptively challenging. I love that there are concepts that are bit hard that they aren't expected to get, it makes such great teaching moments and then when they do get them, great as well. My son loves a challenge so if he misses one of the hard ones I'll have him go back and analyze again telling him to look for the challenging ones, so then we go through the dialogue again, what great teaching moment! I'm slowing down next week to regular pace and we will finish part 1 and then go onto part 2, which I'm very excited to see how the next section goes.

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Quick question. We did Week 2 day 2 today. My DD 8.5 took forever to complete the copywork. Am I able to reduce the amount she copies per day but still have her identify the nouns etc by circling them on her printed sheet she is copying from, or do you think it takes away from the overall goal?

TBH, I would trudge through. We are in week three and the copy work length has diminished. My oldest took forever with those week 2 passages. I'm glad they've lessened some because she was complaining about it, but now the smaller paragraph (that she would've complained about before) is a welcomed change. I also tell her, "You have 10 minutes" which seems to light a fire under her.

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I started on section 2 yesterday with my 5th grade dd. I decided to skip the grammar section since she has been through FLL 1-4, MCT Island and some Town, and is now working through R & S 5. However, I could probably be convinced to go back to the beginning with her. Anybody who's been through it care to weigh in? Would it be overkill for a student who has a pretty good grasp of parts of speech already?

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Being used to WWE where the selections come from a "real book," dd#3 asked me today if I would get her "the book ... you know "the Bushy book."  :lol:  :hurray:

They love the story. Wonder how it'll go when they have to write the ending...

My dd LOVES Bushy, and she would absolutely read a series of books about Bushy.  She writes stories about Bushy in her free time with no prompting from me.  :D  (She is sad when the selections are not about Bushy.  lol)

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I started on section 2 yesterday with my 5th grade dd. I decided to skip the grammar section since she has been through FLL 1-4, MCT Island and some Town, and is now working through R & S 5. However, I could probably be convinced to go back to the beginning with her. Anybody who's been through it care to weigh in? Would it be overkill for a student who has a pretty good grasp of parts of speech already?

 

My 5th grade DD and I are working through the first section now.  She already has a good basic grammar understanding, so I see it as a quick review.  Yes, they are grammar lessons, but it's more than that.  It gives the student the opportunity for creative writing, which my 5th grader always chooses as the more 'mature' option on the 'Your Turn' day versus drawing a picture, it fine-tunes her attentiveness to parts of speech within a selection, and it gives her copywork practice of bigger selections for writing stamina.    

 

So, yes, the daily work is very simple and brief for her at this point.  Does my DD need section 1?  No, but I'm fine slowly introducing TC because it gives her a sense of ease that will hopefully carry through to the rest of the sections.  Is it overkill?  Maybe a bit, but who wouldn't benefit from seeing grammar from another prospective/layout/whatever... And, if your daughter is motivated, and/or you need to speed through due to time constraints, you could double or triple time through the grammar section.  

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Sorry if this explained somewhere above, but why can't we order it from Canada?

:(

 

I have read conflicting information about selling things in Canada.  I really need to understand all the legal issues connected with selling internationally. I had thought it was going to be simple with Canada, but the more I read, the more confused I become. My acct does not know the answer, so now I need to find someone who can answer. I was also going to have to sell it without the third section b/c I also need to understand copyright laws in Canada.   I have decided to wait until I can get both questions answered. 

 

 

Just emailed about having a printed copy mailed to me.  :hurray:

 

We are currently stationed in Japan with dh's job on a Naval base. Please?!

 

That I can do.  :)

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I started on section 2 yesterday with my 5th grade dd. I decided to skip the grammar section since she has been through FLL 1-4, MCT Island and some Town, and is now working through R & S 5. However, I could probably be convinced to go back to the beginning with her. Anybody who's been through it care to weigh in? Would it be overkill for a student who has a pretty good grasp of parts of speech already?

 

My 4th grader did very well with MCT Island and we are still going through the beginning of TC quickly.  When the sentences ask her to label just nouns and verbs she is labeling almost everything the way we did in Island.  Going through quickly is making it not be boring, but the approach to teaching the writing with the grammar is so good that I would go through it anyway.  You could probably go triple or quadruple speed.  

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We have found TC Part 1 to be worthwhile even though we did all of MCT Island, Grammar Town, half of Paragraph Town and a fair chunk of KISS grammar prior to starting it and ds seems to do fairly well with grammar. We did Lesson 1-7 double speed, reducing the copywork. We found the later lessons of TC to be challenging at parts but challenging in different ways than MCT, it was definitely worthwhile. 

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I have read conflicting information about selling things in Canada.  I really need to understand all the legal issues connected with selling internationally. I had thought it was going to be simple with Canada, but the more I read, the more confused I become. My acct does not know the answer, so now I need to find someone who can answer. I was also going to have to sell it without the third section b/c I also need to understand copyright laws in Canada.   I have decided to wait until I can get both questions answered. 

 

Oh, Canada, I love you and hate you at the same time.

 

8, is it legal for me to purchase a printed copy from you?

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I have read conflicting information about selling things in Canada.  I really need to understand all the legal issues connected with selling internationally. I had thought it was going to be simple with Canada, but the more I read, the more confused I become. My acct does not know the answer, so now I need to find someone who can answer. I was also going to have to sell it without the third section b/c I also need to understand copyright laws in Canada.   I have decided to wait until I can get both questions answered. 

 

 

 

That I can do.   :)

 

 

Oh, Canada, I love you and hate you at the same time.

 

8, is it legal for me to purchase a printed copy from you?

 

What about selling print editions on ebay? Or is that no different regarding PayPal? Just thinking out loud here. OK, OK, I'm meddling. I admit it.

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Oh, Canada, I love you and hate you at the same time.

 

8, is it legal for me to purchase a printed copy from you?

  

What about selling print editions on ebay? Or is that no different regarding PayPal? Just thinking out loud here. OK, OK, I'm meddling. I admit it.

I don't think legally there is any difference. I am sorry I don't understand any of the legal issues. And, after watching Susan's concerns the past few days, I am even more reluctant to move forward without every i dotted and every t crossed. I wish I could.

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Can I walk through this with DD8 and DS10 and consider grammar and writing covered for awhile? In other words, do I have to teach grammar separately or will we get enough within TC? My kids have had some grammar but not a thorough treatment.

This is the approach I am taking.  The grammar is solid for a mid elementary aged student, IMO.  My student is an 8 year old 3rd grader.

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I don't know a thing about Canadian import laws.  If someone in the US (a random citizen, not 8 or someone like her who has published and is selling a program), mails something like TC to someone in Canada, is this permissible?  Are import taxes paid on it?  Does it have to be declared a specific way?  I am not familiar with how this works so excuse my ignorance, please.

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DH is fairly knowledgeable about copyright law and he says it's a better idea to check everything before sending abroad. As for the third section, he says to be careful that something that is out of copyright here is not still in copyright elsewhere. Selling through a service like Amazon Canada still puts the onus on the seller to be in compliance with all laws and they have to agree to be liable before they can use the service.

 

 

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We are moving at a fairly quick pace through part 1 as dd has a strong foundation on grammar. 

We are also still working on finishing WWE 3. Today dd revised one of her old narrations, replacing boring, general verbs with stronger, more precise ones. She is seeing how to improve her own writing. I love this!  :hurray:  :hurray:  :hurray:

Thanks, 8!

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*Embarrassed*.. may I get some help with one of the lessons? I'm grammar incompetent - I can usually string sentences together, but never learned the basics like parts of speech.

 

Today in TC's Lesson 4, Day 1, there was an exercise to find the nouns and action verbs in the copywork. There was a sentence similar to this:

"The cat's wide eyes sparkled in the dark."

 

The answer identified 'eyes' as a noun, but not cat. Going off the "person, place, thing or idea" definition, why wouldn't it be? 

 

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