Create Better Writers has many great products and I highly recommend you go to their site to check them all out. Our family has had the opportunity to review their, “How to Write a Paragraph”, “How To Teach The Five-Paragraph Essay” and “The Home School Writing Action Plan”.
Using their program, you take your child through the process of learning how to write properly, starting with the paragraph and moving up to research papers. The entire program will be finished within just a few years.
You can begin with the How to Write a Paragraph book as early as 3rd grade. That being said, you can start this writing program at any age. If you have a high schooler that needs help with writing, you would still start them at the paragraph level, they would just move through the program faster. Where it would take the 3rd grader a couple months to get through this first book, it will only take a 10th grader (for example) a couple weeks to master the paragraph.
Once the paragraph is mastered, your child will move on to essays and research papers.
The Home School Writing Action Plan book is an overview of the program and will help you determine where to start your child in the program. It also gives you great advice and lesson plans along your journey. Think of it as the ‘owner’s manual’ for the program!
Below is an example of a Pacing Chart for a 3rd grader. Notice the schedule is not set in stone. They want your child to master each thing before moving on to the next, but this is a guideline you could follow.
Another thing I like that I want to show you is an example of a lesson. In the picture below you will see an example of a lesson you will do with your child. As you can see, it is not a typical ‘boring’ program!
I haven’t had a chance to start this book with my kids yet, but according to the website:
How To Teach The Five Paragraph Essay is for you if your answer is “yes” to any of the questions below.
- Would you like to show your students how to write a strong five-paragraph essay to a timed prompt, and have them complete it in about an hour?
- Would you like to show your students a simple format that will help them write essays from any writing domain?
- Would you like your students to be able to write exciting introductions and conclusions?
- Would you like a detailed lesson plan that will show you, step-by-step, how to teach the five-paragraph essay?
Sounds pretty good and I’m excited to use it with my kids!
Information at a glance:
What is it? A writing program for grades 3-12
How much? You can purchase all the books separately, but the best deal is to get the whole writing program, for under $100!
Did we like it? Yes, we did. We are still using it, but so far we like it!!
