Timed Essays and the SAT (November 2004)
SAT. A simple enough acronym. But for college-bound high schoolers and their parents…well, it’s amazing just how much power those three little letters wield. (Read more...)
Describing a Person: Adding Details (October 2004)
Lesson 3 presents a unique set of problems for students. They must describe a person in detail and place the subject in a setting; yet they must not end up writing a narrative, or story. Even with WriteShop’s careful guidelines and instructions, many still end up focusing on the activity and neglecting the actual description of their subject. (Read more...)
Writing across the Curriculum (April 2004)
“Writing across the curriculum” is a phrase homeschoolers hear more and more. With many students struggling under the weight of their various courses and moms juggling lesson plans and schoolwork for their large families, your response may well be, “That’s nice. But can it simplify my life?” (Read more...)
Encouraging Young Writers: Writing Ideas for K- through Third-Graders (March 2004)
Many of you have children who are not yet ready for WriteShop; in fact, they’re still in the younger elementary grades. Yet you’re already beginning to panic because you’re afraid they’re going to miss something. Am I speaking to YOU? (Read more...)
Choosing Appropriate Color Words (February 2004)
You have been working on concreteness. Your student is excited to discover a world of new words in his thesaurus and WriteShop word lists. As a parent, you want to allow him to flex his creative muscles, yet you want to guide him so he learns to choose suitable words. This article focuses on picking just the right color words. With so many tempting choices, your eager yet sometimes immature writer may be using color words that---well---do not exactly work. (Read more...)
A Curriculum Is Born: Behind the Scenes with the Authors of WriteShop (May 2003)
Attending homeschool conferences for many years, I became convinced that exhibitors and speakers were somehow superior to me. After all, they were the experts. Certainly they never hid stacks of schoolwork in the oven when company arrived. It’s unlikely they ever locked themselves on the roof while washing windows. No doubt their kids mastered Latin and read the classics with ease by age ten. And in their homes, nutritious home-cooked meals graced a lovely table without fail every night. (Read more...)
