Entries Tagged 'High School' ↓

Looking for a painless way to provide your family some with fun language-building activities? In just a few minutes, you can be sitting around the kitchen table enjoying a variety of printable word games that challenge you and your kids to use vocabulary in different ways.

• Word twists and find-a-word puzzles help young readers develop speed and skill by quickly spotting letters and letter clusters.
• Available at all proficiency levels, crossword puzzles offer clues and definitions to help students identify words.
• Games like Mad Libs® help everyone better understand and use parts of speech.
• And just about every word game helps improve spelling skills.

You can find hundreds of free, printable word games online. Most websites allow you to reproduce them for classroom or home use. Some websites even let you sign up to receive daily word puzzles by e-mail.

Getting Started

Here are a few handy places to get started. Have fun!

• Puzzles features challenging word searches, hidden messages, and easier puzzles specifically for kids. Solve each puzzle with pen or pencil and paper. 
• The Kidz Page offers learning games such as mixed-up words, fill-in puzzles, and word searches (some with holiday themes).
• Mad Glibs lets you create Mad Libs-type stories right on the computer. But for printable versions to use at home or on the road, each puzzle offers a “Printer Friendly” link that takes you to a free download.
• Word Search Puzzles: Here you’ll find puzzles by theme as well as by level of difficulty, from easy to hard.
• A bit more challenging, Printable Daily Crossword Puzzles offers seven new puzzles every day.

So sharpen those pencils, print out a few puzzles, and start the year off with some fun new writing games!

If your bookshelf looks anything like mine did when we were homeschooling, it holds an assortment of curriculum you’ve stopped and started at various times along the way. Some we just couldn’t get into for various reasons, and we ended up finding alternatives. But there were others that we fully intended to use—we just never got around to them.

For example, we were supposed to get through a foreign language to meet my son’s college admissions requirements. Time and again, it seems, we’d start fresh and then stop. Spanish kept sliding to the back burner because of everything else that vied for his time. Then one day I nearly had a stroke when I realized he would never be able to finish the course in time for graduation. He paid for my lack of perseverance by having to spend some of his college electives on a foreign language.
 
Do you find that writing is one of those subjects you keep starting and stopping? Does your child drag his feet, fail to finish assignments, or complain night and day? Or are you the one who has trouble following through with lesson planning or editing? Whatever the reason, it’s important that you start afresh, make a plan, stick to your guns, and don’t let your student whine, wheedle, cajole, or otherwise manipulate you into letting him lapse!

Start Fresh

Writing is one of those non-negotiable subjects that forms a basis for academic success. So make a commitment to see your writing program through. If you’re not using a formal writing curriculum, you must still commit to assigning writing on a regular basis.

Has time been the culprit? You may need to give up another subject or extracurricular activity in order to have the time to devote to writing. Your child will not survive in college without writing skills. 

Make a Plan

WriteShop’s convenient scheduling options can help parents stay on track. With older high schoolers, time is running out. So if you’re concerned about the SAT essay, for example, your student will need to complete the essay portion of WriteShop II well in advance of the test because he’ll need time to practice writing timed essays. But no matter what, arm yourself with a plan—and stick to it—or your student will slip into old habits of not completing his work. This means:

• Choosing a schedule to follow;
• Sticking with the schedule;
• Supervising your student’s work to make sure he’s doing it; and
• Editing and returning papers to him on time so he doesn’t fall behind in his writing assignments.

If your student can finish WriteShop II by (or before) 10th grade, you can devote the rest of high school to more advanced writing, such as longer essays, literary analysis, and a couple of research papers.

Stick to Your Guns

Now for the hard part! Help your child develop self-discipline. See that he follows the schedule. If he’s used to giving excuses for why he didn’t get around to doing his writing assignment, make him write first thing each day. Hold him accountable and don’t let him off the hook!

Likewise, if follow-through hasn’t been your strong suit in the past, recommit yourself to helping prepare your student for college by teaching and overseeing the lessons and adhering to deadlines. If your student knows you won’t check up on him, he’ll continue to fritter away his time. But if he realizes that you’re going to hold his feet to the fire and impose consequences for incomplete work, he’ll perform better for you.

You’ll both be much happier in the end, and just imagine the pride at being able to say that you reached your goal!

In Journaling . . . with a twist I talked about how much our family enjoyed using journaling ideas for writing across the curriculum. Even though the journaling tips and examples would work for all ages, they are especially effective with younger children, even pre-readers.

Studying Real Historical Journals

Here’s a great idea for for a project that springboards from actual historical diaries—true living books written by men and women who lived and experienced the times. 

Because of the more challenging vocabulary found in most old journals, this activity is probably better suited for your high-school aged students, though some junior highers with more advanced reading skills could do this as well.

Writing Diary Entries 

1. Historical journals, narratives, and diaries abound, both in books and online. Have your student read the actual narrative or journal of a person you’re learning about in history.
2. Ask her to choose five key events or times in this person’s life.
3. Then, in her own words, have her write five diary entries for those pivotal times or incidents.
4. She must include the time and location for each entry.
5. If the incident is a major historical event, she must show the role the person played.
6. In addition, she needs to weave into her diary entry any background information that’s needed for context and understanding.

Below you’ll find some links to resources for online journals. As always, parent preview or supervision is recommended.

The Diary Junction - Internet resource linking to hundreds of historical diaries. Search alphabetically or chronologically

American Slave Narratives: An Online Anthology

First-Person Narratives of the American South

American Journeys: Eyewitness Accounts of Early American Exploration and Settlement - Columbus, Cartier, Sir Frances Drake, Lewis and Clark, many more

Copyright © 2008 by Kim Kautzer. All rights reserved.

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Looking for a more structured program to incorporate writing writing across the curriculum? WriteShop lessons can help your teens learn important writing skills while offering flexibility of topics. Visit our website at writeshop.com to learn more!

I’m sure it’s no secret that your kids don’t like to edit their compositions. Unfortunately, by not editing their own papers thoroughly, they place themselves in a “Catch-22″ position; that is, though too lazy to edit their own work carefully, they fall apart when they see all the changes you suggest! Sound familiar?

This is how they think:

I don’t like editing. It takes too much time. Besides, I like my paper just the way it is. It sounds good to me. Anyway, if I don’t proofread, Mom will find my mistakes. Why go to all that time and trouble to find mistakes and (perish the thought!) correct them when someone else will do it for me?

However, when their parent-edited composition comes back, they sing a different tune!

You’re always so critical! I can’t do anything right. My paper is too marked up. I thought my composition was fine. I didn’t see all that stuff when I read it!

Granted, not all students think this way. However, in our experience over our many years of teaching writing to nearly 200 students, we have learned that many, if not most, do become lazy as time goes on, self-editing less and relying on our comments and suggestions more.

Here’s how we began to think!

What’s with all the ‘to be’ verbs? She used six but only circled two. And she marked her checklist saying she didn’t use more than two. Hmm.

Wow! Look at all the weak words–very, really, had (twice), went (three times), and a lot. That’s odd–he marked off the box on his checklist saying he avoided weak words. I wonder why he didn’t underline them on his rough draft?

There’s no sentence beginning with a present participle, and I can’t find her simile. But she checked the box saying she used all required sentence variations.

Once upon a time, we used to find these errors for our students and suggest ways to fix them–and then we got smart! We began to realize that we were doing them no favor by spending an hour poring over each paragraph rather than requiring them to make greater editing efforts themselves.

Here’s the bottom line: put the responsibility back on your students to do their part in this learning process! When they turn in their self-edited draft to you, give it a cursory glance. If you find too many problems showing evidence of poor self-editing, return it for additional proofreading before editing it yourself.

Specifically, look for overused “to be” verbs (is, am, are, was, were, be, being, been), repeated or weak words, failure to use all required sentence variations, too many spelling errors, and failure to follow the assignment’s directions for content. If you find that even one of these areas has been neglected, send it back! You will teach students to improve their own editing abilities, and you will save yourself a great deal of time as a bonus!

Copyright 2008 © Kim Kautzer. All rights reserved.

From the archives.

As students enter junior high and high school, it’s time for them to practice writing business letters. Whether writing to a company to offer praise for a product or addressing a city councilman about a neighborhood eyesore, using a  more formal business-letter format adds credibility to the sender’s request, position, or opinion.

In WriteShop II, we teach students how to write a letter to the editor of a newspaper. The example composition in the student workbook urges the governor, by way of a letter to the editor, to take action on a bill. With a few word changes, the letter could just as easily address the governor himself.

The point of the lesson, of course, is to help students articulate a concern and seek or suggest action. The audience can be a member of any political, social, or commercial group as long as the student is learning how to address such a person with polite conviction.

Who’s the Audience? 

But if your children need an audience for their letters, and the daily newspaper isn’t the outlet that seems to work for them, you might suggest a different audience. Some ideas that spring to mind:

• City council member
• State legislator
• State representative
• Governor
• Owner or developer of a property (eyesore, maintenance issues, health and safety concerns, etc.)
• Owner of a local business
• President or CEO of a corporation
• College or university admissions department
• Chamber of Commerce (to request brochures or travel information)

If you shift away from the letter to the editor and instead have your student address her letter to one of the above-suggested recipients, consider teaching her how to format a business letter. Since WriteShop doesn’t teach business-letter structure, this would be an added tool in her writing belt.

When to Write a Business Letter

• To praise a product, service supplier, or staff person
• To compliment a speaker
• To compliment or praise an author
• To praise someone for an achievement
• To complain about poor product quality or poor service
• To ask for political or social action or change
• To write a letter of recommendation
• To request information

Would you like to teach the business letter to your kids? Here’s a link to a site that models several kinds: WriteExpress.com (Business Letters)

WriteShop II teaches advanced descriptive narration, persuasion, and beginning essay writing (including timed essays). To learn more about WriteShop II for your high schooler, visit our website at www.writeshop.com.

Here’s another popular question that shows up in our WriteShop mailbag with regularity!

As parents plan their students’ schedules, they often ask us to help them figure out how much time each day’s activities take. Our answer? The ever-popular: “It depends!” Continue reading →

Some of the most popular questions we receive in our mailbag regard assigning high school credit for WriteShop I or II.

Common Questions about High School Credit

• Is WriteShop I considered an English course?
• My daughter will be starting WriteShop II. Would this count for high school English credit?
• My 10th grader has almost completed both WriteShop I and II. How much credit can I expect to assign him?
• I’m teaching a WriteShop co-op class. How much credit should enrolled high schoolers receive?
• Can I give high school credit to my 7th grader upon completion of WriteShop I?

Know Your State’s Requirements 

A course can be content- or hours-based. Your student must complete a prescribed course of study or log a certain number of hours to receive credit. And requirements for high school credits differ from state to state. For hours-based courses:

• In many parts of the United States, a semester of study (65 hours) equals 1/2 credit and one school year (125 hours) equals 1 credit.
• California requires a student to invest 65 hours (one semester) to receive 5 credits and 125 hours (one school year) for 10 credits.

Options for Assigning High School Credit

Option 1: 1/2-Credit Composition Elective

• Based on hours alone, WriteShop I or II qualifies as a one-semester, stand-alone composition elective, separate from English or other language arts credits.
• The average student spends about 4-5 hours on each lesson (more in WriteShop II), or 64-80 hours per WriteShop level. If your student completes both books in one school year, you could consider each semester a 1/2-credit composition elective.

Option 2: 1-Credit Complete English Course

• WriteShop assignments may be figured into a student’s total language arts or English grade (along with literature, grammar, and/or vocabulary).
• One WriteShop level, plus grade-appropriate grammar and literature, would together comprise a 1-credit English course.
• Since most students will spend about 65 hours completing one WriteShop book, we recommend that you give writing (WriteShop) at least 50% weight when determining your child’s grade.

Option 3: 1-Credit Composition Elective - Co-op Class

• Many students are enrolled in WriteShop co-op classes. Depending on class length and frequency, a class effectively adds 1-2 more hours per lesson to the 4-5 hours a student spends at home.
• This can amount to an extra 30-60 hours per level of WriteShop, which would make each BOOK qualify as a 1-credit course.

7th and 8th Graders

When my son took WriteShop II in 8th grade, I did not give him high school credit. He worked hard and wrote decent compositions and essays, but he needed a great deal of help from me and certainly did not produce what I considered high-school quality writing. He wrote like a junior higher.

On the other hand, a 10th grader working through the same book is 1)  actually in high school; and 2) more likely to write compositions that reflect his or her age and maturity.

So even though some homeschool umbrella schools or ISPs will allow an 8th grader to get high school credit for a course that is considered high school work, please make this call with care. Remember that even though WriteShop may be used with students as young as 6th grade, it is the rare 12- or 13-year-old indeed who can actually write at the high school level.

For more information on the WriteShop program for your junior high or high school student, visit writeshop.com. Or give us a call if you’d like to ask specific questions about using WriteShop. Debbie and I are glad to help!

Did you know historical fiction is growing on your family tree?

Every young writer of historical fiction has plenty of inspiration just waiting to be plucked from his or her family tree. Family Tree enables students to harvest this vast crop by producing short (or long!) stories that are not only thoroughly researched and well-written, but heirlooms to be treasured by your family for generations to come. Continue reading →

I’m sure it’s no secret that your kids don’t like to edit their compositions. Unfortunately, by not editing their own papers thoroughly, they place themselves in a “Catch-22″ position; that is, though too lazy to edit their own work carefully, they fall apart when they see all the changes you suggest! Sound familiar?

This is how they think:

I don’t like editing. It takes too much time. Besides, I like my paper just the way it is. It sounds good to me. Anyway, if I don’t proofread, Mom will find my mistakes. Why go to all that time and trouble to find mistakes and (perish the thought!) correct them when someone else will do it for me?

However, when their parent-edited composition comes back, they sing a different tune! Continue reading →

Last week I taught you to play Boardless Scrabble as a way to build spelling and vocabulary skills while having a blast with your family. Here’s another great pre-writing activity that uses a thesaurus to help strengthen vocabulary choices. Continue reading →