Sentence Composing for High School...

[Michelle in AL]

If you've used this did you find it useful? Did it improve your students writing and understanding of grammar? I have Sentence Composing for Middle Students, but never used it. I guess I just wasn't convinced it would work, there seemed to be too much emphasis on breaking sentences into parts accurately and I couldn't see how that was terribly helpful to good writing.

 

I like the sample of the high school level better.

[Peela]

I have the elementary and middle school books. I realise many people here have had great results with them, but with my two, they were just busywork. I have kept them and may try them again later. I guess my kids just didn't engage with them. For my older what has worked better is an online writing class- feedback from someone other than me, on her sentences and paragraphs. I don't know yet what will work for my younger :)

[Janice in NJ]

I own the middle, high-school, and college level texts.

Love 'em!

But I use these books to teach, not for self-study.

 

Hmmm... How does this look at our house?

Overall, we have the BEST teaching sessions when I use this book to reinforce grammar with an eye toward improving the child's own writing. The text is full of great examples.

My only complaint is that too much education goes on when we pull out this book. ;) An author or an idea will show up, and we end up spending time on Wikipedia discussing current events, history, science, ethics, etc.... instead of working with the sentence.

 

Then we get back to it.

We pick an example to work with. We diagram it. We erase the words from the diagram. We put in our own words. We write our new sentence. We decide if we like it. Why or why not? What could we do to make it better? DOES it improve the sentence. WHY or why not (with the correct terms, please!!!!)

 

We might try another example.

Then I'm forced to stop because we are out of face-time. I have to move to the next subject with another sibling.

"Here - go try out some of these exercises on your own. Let's see what you can come up with. What works? What doesn't? Pull up your composition for this week. Incorporate this structure somewhere. Does it improve it? Why? Why not? Off you go. Come back in 1/2 hour and show me what you discovered."

 

I really like these little texts. They're winners here. A pick-up-and-go launch pad that moves us into bigger and bigger rooms. I love materials that allow us to draw the box as big as I need it to be for that child for that day. We need those! They keep me sane!

 

(Note I have the small volumes. I noticed that a friend has a big 8 1/2"x 11" book with a similar title.) I don't have those; can't comment on them.

 

Peace,

Janice

 

Enjoy your little people

Enjoy your journey

 

P.S. Oh - I don't want to be misunderstood. My kids are all working through writing curriculums and classes too. I use this to improve one aspect of their writing skills.

Hmmm... a metaphor! It's a bit like building a house. Their writing teacher is teaching them how to build the house. I use this book to focus on their hammering skills. If they know how to pound with power and precision, then ultimately they will become a better builder. Hammer practice in isolation becomes really BORING! But when you use what you've learned, it's gratifying and it sticks! So our "writing" program has a lot of sides to it. Tinkering with the sentence is only PART of what we are doing.

These books are part of my "hammering skills improvement program." :001_smile:

Edited October 19, 2008 by Janice in NJ