The Write Foundation

Sentence to Paragraph Writing Instructions
The Write Foundation
By Rebecca Celsor
http://www.thewritefoundation.org/



Teaching my children to write well has always been a challenge. Over the years, I have tried numerous writing curriculum and have never found one that both my children and I love. Well, that was until The Write Foundation sent me a copy of their Level One: Sentence to Paragraph Writing Instructions to review. As a member of the TOS Review Crew, I received a free copy of this writing program to use with my children in exchange for my honest opinion.

The program includes three components; Spiral Instruction Manuals, Student Worksheets and The Sentence to Paragraph Additional Resources CD. Materials not included are the optional Mind Bender Books A1, A2, A3, and A4. which are available at http://www.criticalthinking.com/ and a three ring binder with 8 dividers.


The Level One program is geared to students ages 11-14 or students who exhibit any of the following issues: If your student has any run-ons or incomplete sentences when he writes on his own; If your student hates writing; or If your student primarily writes simple sentences. Based on my son's age and his dislike for writing, I chose to use The Write Foundation Level One Program.


At first, I found the directions in the instruction manual a little confusing. However, once I read through the manual a second time and actually began to use the program, I found the format to be very appealing. Although the objectives of the curriculum are the same as most writing programs, the method used to obtain the goal is quite different. Here the emphasis is on writing detailed sentences with the use of descriptive verbs, adjectives and adverbs. The students also write a variety of poems to reinforce the use of descriptive vocabulary. The student is gently led through the writing process, slowly building up from simple to more interesting sentences and then writing paragraphs. In conjunction with the items included, they suggest the use of Mind Benders as an important part of the program. We have enjoyed using the Mind Benders and I can see how these exercises help with developing organizational skills.


I have been very pleased with the progress my son has made using The Write Foundation Level One program. He is using more descriptive language and he is not complaining as much about having to write.
The one aspect of the program that I am still struggling with is the notebook that is required as part of the first lesson. They ask that you set up a binder with 8 dividers, however, I haven't figured out their organization system yet. Otherwise, I would highly recommend this writing program. I plan to complete all of the 30 lessons in Level One. Next year we will continue with Level Two: Paragraph Writing and then Level Three: Essay Writing the following year.


Sentence to Paragraph Writing Curriculum is available in 3 different packages:

Curriculum Package 1: Sentence to Paragraph Complete Lessons 1-30 which cost $100
Curriculum Package 2: Sentence to Paragraph Lessons 1-15 is $65
Curriculum Package 3: Sentence to Paragraph Lessons 16-30 is also $65
The Sentence to Paragraph instruction manuals are also available separately for $75 for Lessons 1-30 or $40 each for Lessons 1-15 or 16-30



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