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WriteShop Junior Overview

Using pre-writing activities, skill builders, and more, WriteShop Junior introduces students 8-13 years of age to genre while teaching important writing, editing, and grammar skills. Explore the WriteShop Junior overview to learn more.

Looking for Ways to Make Writing More Fun?

Writing doesn’t have to be a tearful experience for your child—or a hair-pulling one for you! When you replace boring workbooks with lessons that are enjoyable for both of you, your kids will beg for more writing time!

If the idea of teaching writing seems intimidating, WriteShop Junior holds your hand every step of the way. Lesson plans show you exactly how to guide your child through each part of the writing process.

Inspire Confidence in Young Writers

WriteShop Junior’s creative activities spark joy in both eager and struggling writers. And when fun replaces fear, a child’s confidence as a writer begins to blossom. Sprinkled with games, hands-on projects, and parent guidance, WriteShop Junior encourages success!

Children learn that a series of stepping stones make up the writing process:

1. Brainstorming

Topic suggestions, graphic organizers, and gentle parent guidance help unlock your student’s creative ideas.

2. Writing

Each lesson uses games to introduce skills such as replacing weak words with strong ones, forming sentences of different lengths, and using emotion words in writing. Children learn to use these new tools in their writing projects. Additionally, WriteShop Junior helps them use details and colorful description to write longer, more interesting stories and reports.

3. Self-Editing and Revising

WriteShop’s encouraging “job-well-done” approach sends intimidation packing! Simple checklists and a personal editor’s toolkit actually make the process fun. And kids discover creative ways to publish their final draft—loads of ideas included.

ZWriteShop Junior Features

  • Fiction, nonfiction, short reports, and poetry
  • Writing genres such as adventure, science fiction, mystery, personal narrative, and fables
  • Creativity and variety in each lesson
  • Multisensory activities that appeal to different learners
  • Incremental lessons that build on earlier skills
  • 5-paragraph writing (introduced toward the end of Book E and Book F
  • Positive focus on self-editing
  • Creative publishing ideas
  • Fold-N-Go Grammar to reinforce key skills
  • Flexible teaching schedule
  • Parent tips to help struggling writers
  • Suggested scripts to help parents model writing
  • Smaller Steps and Flying Higher that adjust writing to child’s level of ability
  • Effective for students with learning difficulties such as dyslexia or dysgraphia

dWriteShop Junior Skills Chart

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WriteShop Junior

FAQs

We’ve consolidated our most frequent questions about WriteShop Junior to help you fill in making your best selection.  But we also have these helpful tools for you to use.

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How long does it take to complete one WriteShop Junior level?

Each book has 10 lessons. When following the Three-Week Plan, most families finish one book in a school year. Activities vary from day to day, but you can expect to spend 30-45 minutes per day working 3 days per week.

Is there a lot of prep involved?

You’ll gather basic materials and do simple preparation for each lesson, such as cutting apart activity cards. Because Advance Prep text boxes are clearly marked, it’s easy to do this days or even weeks ahead. Most parents spend up to 30 minutes per 3-week lesson on preparation (less than 10 minutes per week). To save time, purchase a Time-Saver Pack of sturdy, ready-made props instead of creating your own game cards, spinners, and other tools for various activities.

Is it parent-intensive?

Because successful writing results from intentional instruction, we created WriteShop Junior with parent-and-child partnership in mind. Activities are designed for the two of you to work on together. For instance, you’ll play writing games together and guide your child through planning, writing, and editing.

Should my 3rd grader use WriteShop Junior Book D or WriteShop Primary Book C?

While either is fine, a struggling 8-year-old might gain more confidence using WriteShop Primary Book C. When teaching two kids together, choose Book C if they’re 8 and younger. Go with Book D if they’re 8 and older. Either way, activities called Smaller Steps and Flying Higher let you easily tailor lessons when children function at different levels.

We are new to WriteShop. Can my 5th grader start with Book E?

Definitely! When a child is ready for the skills taught in Book E, you won’t have to do Book D first. Don’t fret about “holes” in their writing experience. Relax knowing that because WriteShop is a cyclical program, anything important from previous books will show up again in future levels.

My child has some learning challenges. Would WriteShop Junior work for us?

WriteShop Junior lessons appeal to multiple modalities (visual, auditory, and kinesthetic). So hands-on learners and children with mild to moderate learning difficulties—including ADHD, autism, dyslexia, and dysgraphia—can gain confidence and experience success. They’ll benefit from clear boundaries; short, specific assignments; tasks broken into bite-size chunks; frequent repetition and practice; and skill-building games that require no writing—all core features of WriteShop Junior. Also, you can easily tailor each lesson to meet your child’s needs.

Does WriteShop Junior teach grammar?

The 2-part Activity Pack has a component called Fold-N-Go Grammar. Printed on brightly colored paper, pages form 10 lapbook-style grammar and writing guides. Each focuses on a different skill such as parts of speech, self-editing, dialogue, or sentences. Learning or reviewing grammar becomes fun because of the simple rules, examples, and clever practice exercises.

Fold-N-Go Grammar is not a comprehensive grammar program. Activities introduce and review grammar rules but don’t give enough practice to qualify as a full-blown course. Therefore, most parents and teachers use these to introduce new skills or supplement their current grammar curriculum.

To see what each Fold-N-Go Grammar Pack covers, visit the store page for Level 1, Level 2, or Level 3. Then scroll down and click the Scope & Sequence tab.

Can I teach WriteShop Junior using just the student Activity Pack?

Unfortunately, it’s not possible to teach WriteShop Junior without a Teacher’s Guide because the Activity Pack has no writing instructions. It contains dozens of graphic organizers, journal pages, editing checklists, and other worksheets. These support lesson instructions and make them practical. To explain each genre to your kids and actually teach them to plan, write, edit, and publish a story or report, you’ll need both the Teacher’s Guide and Activity Pack.

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Samples

Sample Lessons

Book D  | Download
Book E  | Download
Book F  | Download

Scope & Sequence

Book D  | Download
Book E  | Download
Book F  | Download

WriteShop Junior Book D

WriteShop Junior Book D Teacher's Guide

WriteShop Junior Book D
Teacher’s Guide

WriteShop Junior Book D Teacher's Guide

WriteShop Junior Book D
Time-Saver Pack

WriteShop Junior Book D
Activity Pack (w/Fold-N-Go Grammar)

Fold-N-Go Grammar Pack
Level 1

WriteShop Junior Book D
Set

WriteShop Junior Book E

WriteShop Junior Book E - Homeschool writing curriculum for 4th or 5th grade

WriteShop Junior Book E
Teacher’s Guide

WriteShop Junior Book E - Homeschool writing curriculum for 4th or 5th grade

WriteShop Junior Book E
Time-Saver Pack

WriteShop Junior Activity Pack E

WriteShop Junior Book E
Activity Pack (w/Fold-N-Go Grammar)

WriteShop Junior Activity Pack E

Fold-N-Go Grammar Pack
Level 2

WriteShop Junior Book E
Value Pack

Junior Writer’s Notebook 1
Fun w/Story Planning

Click here for a list of the most up-to-date links found in the WriteShop Junior Book E Teacher’s Guide

WriteShop Junior Book F

WriteShop Junior Book F Teacher's Guide

WriteShop Junior Book F
Teacher’s Guide

WriteShop Junior Book F Time-Saver Pack

WriteShop Junior Book F
Time-Saver Pack

WriteShop Junior Book F Activity Pack

WriteShop Junior Book F
Activity Pack (w/Fold-N-Go Grammar)

Fold-N-Go Grammar Pack | Level 3

Fold-N-Go Grammar Pack
Level 3

WriteShop Junior Value Pack

WriteShop Junior Book F
Value Pack

WriteShop - Junior Writer's Notebook 2: Fun with Genre

Junior Writer’s Notebook 2
Fun w/Genre

Click here for a list of the most up-to-date links found in the WriteShop Junior F Teacher’s Guide