Author: The National Writing Institute / Dave Marks
Price: varies but generally around $19 each
Overall Rating (1-10): 8
Value (1-10): 8
Flexibility (1-10): 8
Ages/Grades: All Ages
Review: I evaluated Writing Strands Volumes 1, 2 and 3 along with the Evaluating Writing book.
Writing Strands 1 is aimed at preschool-level children. The program comes complete with an audio tape and spiral-bound workbook. Level 1 is different than any of the other Writing Strands levels. At this level, the program is geared as much toward the parent educator as it is toward the child. The program gives supporting lessons on preparing children from the writing process.
Writing Strands 2 is for children around age 7 although if your child is reluctant to write or lacks confidence, I found this is a good place to start for any age. It is not written as if it is geared toward a young child which means any age child will not feel self-conscious using something written for younger children.
Writing Strands 3 is written for children age 8-12 or those who have completed Writing Strands 2. I have heard that many students who are enthusiastic writers can easily start at Writing Strands 4 although I have not yet reviewed it, myself.
Evaluating Writing is the parents' manual that is used in conjunction with all of the Writing Strands books. It helps guide the parents and instruct them on how to properly - well - evaluate their child's writing!
I was originally interested in reviewing this writing curriculum because I had heard such mixed reviews from the parents in my Homeschooling community. It seems you either love this program or you hate it! My son is an avid reader but a very reluctant writer. I was curious to see how this program might be received by such a child.
We started with Writing Strands 2 since my son is such a reluctant writer and seriously needed some small easily manageable and self-esteem building writing projects to begin with. Right away, he took to the program enthusiastically. I also found the book pretty easy to work with. I have heard that some children find the program to be very mundane but for my reluctant writer, it was this repetition and building up from a small sentence or fragment into a paragraph, etc that encouraged him and built his confidence in proportion to his writing length! Some children may be ready to jump into the writing process with two feet but that isn't my son so the slow baby steps pace worked wonders for his confidence. I will say, however, that the lessons are broken into weeks but only a few actual days lessons are given and the rest of the week is supposed to be spent discussing what you've learned. I was at a loss for what in the world we might still need to "talk about" so we often skipped this suggestion and just continued on to the next lesson. For this reason, we flew through the book much faster than intended by the authors, even for my slow-paced kid. My son found the lessons and writing projects interesting and inspiring although part of that was his positive attitude. It is entirely possible that a child who was not interested in the program would likely complain that they are uninspiring and dull.
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