I lack confidence when it comes to writing, so I find it difficult to teach my boys how to write. When we were given the opportunity to review WriteShop, I was overjoyed at the thought of finally having a resource I could use to help my boys learn to write. For the last few weeks, we have been using the WriteShop Primary: Book C Set from WriteShop. If you have never used this program before, like us, I suggest you take a look at WriteShop Primary: Help for choosing a starting level, to help you choose a level for your children.
WriteShop is an award-winning writing resource for kindergarten through to Grade 12. The step-by-step lessons that include pre-writing brainstorming, writing, revising, editing and evaluating, help students gather the confidence they need to enhance their writing skills.
We received the ebook version of the WriteShop C Teacher’s Guide and the WriteShop C Activity Book. Both of these are also available in print form. WriteShop C contains 10 fun and engaging lessons, each with eight parts, that help teach your child self editing, planning and organising skills as well as the knowledge to choose ‘better’ words.
In the front of the Teacher’s Guide (pictured above), there are three suggested schedules that you may choose to follow as well as an introduction to the methods of the program. We chose to follow the three week option, which allows around 30 weeks to complete the book. This guide also explains how to teach and to prepare for each of the lessons.
In each lesson, there are eight Activity Sets:
*Guided Writing Practice
* Pre-Writing Activities and Picture Book
* Brainstorming
* The Writing Project
* Editing and Revising
* Activity Set Worksheet
* Publishing your Project
* What to do More?
The activity set pack (pictured above) contains the worksheets for the children to complete. It also includes evaluation charts at the back where you can track your child’s progress. This pack is also reproducible for single-family use, which is great when you have more than one child.
How did we go?
Our boys loathe putting pencil to paper and will try their best to get away from it. Because of this, they were reluctant to use this program. But, after completing a few parts of the first lesson, they were really getting into it. By following the longest schedule, it meant that the lessons were kept short (about 15 – 20 minutes per day) and interesting and there was not too much writing for our reluctant writers.
In the first lesson, they made a details wheel which they have enjoyed reviewing when writing their stories. They like to look at it as they write or discuss their story, making sure they don’t forget any of the components in their story.
They also enjoyed making these magnifying glasses and their mini Top Secret Books from Lesson 1.3.
We found WriteShop C to be a great structured program, full of fun activities that help children learn and want to write. I liked the way, WriteShop have simplified the steps of the writing process, making it easier for our boys to learn and remember: guided writing, pre-writing, brainstorming, writing the project, editing and revising and publishing. The additional notes in the teacher’s guide are very helpful, giving you optional activities to complete, some of which we found better suited our boys learning style. WriteShop also provides detailed instructions for each of the lessons, which make the program easy to use and helps greatly with the prep work. Yes, there is a bit of prep work involved and the further along we got, the more I found that I needed to have a place to store and organise all their work. Overall, we have found this to be a great writing program that our boys have really enjoyed. The variety of the activities and the way they were able to turn their writing into projects that they are able to share with others, helped make it very enjoyable.
Details At a Glance!! Name: WriteShop Website: WriteShop Product: WriteShop Primary: Book C Price: (Currently on sale)
The eBook versions:WriteShop Primary Book C: Teacher’s Guide is $29.50 and the Activity Guide is $4.50
The print versions: WriteShop Primary Book C: Teacher’s Guide is $35.95 and the Activity Guide is $5.95
Ages: WriteShop C is for Grades 2 through 4, though WriteShop have materials for K through to Grade 12
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Making Butter
A lovely review. I love the magnifying glasses idea! Will you continue to use the program?
We will definitely continue to use the program, though the boys are starting to write longer stories and want to add more things when publishing, so it is taking a bit longer now.