I am excited to share another sneak peek with you from our upcoming American History guide.
Today's peek is about the composition part of the English credit for the upcoming guide. Just to give you a fuller picture, I'll share that the English credit in high school is typically comprised of literature, grammar, composition, and vocabulary. These areas can be covered in any combination of ways, however usually they are all represented somehow within the credit. The combined English credit often leans toward 150 hours or more in a year for a credit. With this in mind, the piece I am sharing today has to do with the composition and grammar portion of the English credit. Our plan for the new American History guide is to schedule Creative Writing That Puts You in Their Sandals for the area of composition. We will alternate this course with the first half of Rod and Staff English 8 so that students will do In Their Sandals twice weekly and Rod and Staff twice weekly.
Usually, we will plan for the time slot that these two alternating subjects share to take approximately 35-40 min. each day. Students will complete the first half of Rod and Staff 8 in the first American History Guide and will complete the last half of English 8 in the final high school American History Guide yet to come. Of course, students who are new to HOD (or who came to Rod and Staff late) may be on a different Rod and Staff sequence, however I just wanted to share our "ideal". The combination of In Their Sandals and Rod and Staff English 8 works well, since the first half of English 8 covers expository, persuasive, narrative, and descriptive paragraphs; outlining; writing compositions; proofreading; researching; note-taking; and developing oral and written reports. Yet, In Their Sandals is a strong program on its own as it takes students through the writing process (teaching many elements of literature and composition along the way) and guides them in writing from various styles and points of view. It includes note taking and writing from notes, summarizing narrative stories from varying viewpoints, summarizing multiple references, researching for reports, epistolary writing, and creative writing, as well as taking students through the writing process (i.e. research/prewrite, outline plot, develop descriptions, write, apply, revise). This composition course hits areas of writing that are often neglected, and also goes well with the New Testament Survey we will be doing for Bible in the upcoming American History Guide.
I am very excited about In Their Sandals, and the differing approach to writing provided in this course. I pray your students may be drawn into the creative writing process and be drawn closer to our Lord through the process. Publisher's Description of In Their Sandals:
God is a master storyteller, and for proof we need look no further than His Word. He gave us the Bible to share the best story of all—the one of His glory and love. As we read the Word and meditate on what we find there, God will give us a better understanding of Himself, the Author and the Hero of Scripture.
This study challenges you to look deep into the Bible, to read it, to meditate on it, to experience it like the characters you see, as if you were "In Their Sandals." You'll tackle creative writing exercises that ask you to think hard about Scripture. You'll learn writing disciplines that help you communicate truth clearly and concisely. And as you abide in the Word, you'll discover how God reveals Himself through it all.
By the end of this study, students will . . .
*Write eight stories based on events and characters from Scripture
*Read Scripture meditatively, with a mind to seek God's majesty in His Word, then share Him with others
*Research the historical and cultural context behind well-known Bible stories
*Approach writing systematically, with appropriate research, preparation, drafting, and revision
*Practice the disciplines of a good writer
*Build a basic literary vocabulary
*Understand the importance and use of certain grammar structures
Sample to "see inside" In Their Sandals Student Book: https://positiveaction.org/media/produc ... NuxWGU.pdf
Featuring reformatted content taken from the self-contained Student Manual, this free downloadable Teacher's Resource document allows the parent or instructor to follow their students through each lesson and writing exercise. Link to free downloadable Teacher's Resource: https://positiveaction.org/media/produc ... ources.pdf
Read Cathy Duffy's review of In Their Sandals below and also linked here: http://cathyduffyreviews.com/grammar-co ... andals.htm
Positive Action for Christ is best known for their great Bible study courses, but In Their Sandals is a gem of a book that launches from Bible study into composition. It might be used as an adjunct to Bible studies. But it really provides serious, structured work in developing composition skills, so it is better suited to that as its primary purpose.
Creative writing assignments are based on detailed study of biblical stories. For example, the first lesson is to write a story as if the student were one of the "hog farmers" whose herd of swine drowned in the story related in Mark 5: 1-20, while another lesson, “The Inn and the Stable,” is based on Luke 2: 1-20.
There are eight lessons in the book. Lessons are divided into sections so it's easy to figure out how much students should tackle each day. Suggested lesson plans offer schedules for spending either one or two weeks per lesson. Expanded lesson plans allow more time for each step of the process as well as time on the last day for sharing the story with classmates (for those in a group class).
The 2013 edition of In Their Sandals has added more instructional information in the introduction. That information is so useful that you should plan to add additional lesson time to go through it with students before tackling the lessons themselves. The lessons themselves really walk students through the writing process with many brief writing prompts to help students develop their story bit by bit. Students really learn how to construct a story!
Some helpful details and background information are provided for some of the biblical passages. While this enhances understanding of Scripture, it also makes it easier for students to “put themselves into the story" and write in a more interesting fashion.
At the same time, the course helps students who already know how to construct a story to refine their writing skills. For example, the "Rough" section in one lesson presents five different strategies each for beginning and ending a story, with an explanation of each one.
The fourth part of each lesson has students step back from the writing process to do some spiritual application using the Scripture passage used for the story and other passages—essentially a Bible study. Design of this section in each lesson seems much improved over the original with more subjective questions for the study itself, and good personal application questions.
The final part of each lesson is revision of what the student has written. This section always has the students revise for "economy, variety, and clarity." But each revision section also has a unique "Tools of Grammar" lesson that reviews a particular grammatical or usage concept then directs students to apply it in some fashion to the piece they have just written.
I expect that in most situations the teacher/parent will work through at least the first lesson with students to help them understand the methodology. Once students have experienced a lesson, they might be able to work independently a good part of the time, although some discussion is still required. This course design makes it ideal for a homeschool group meeting once or twice a week.
The final lesson in the book differs from the others. Students are free to select their own Bible passage from which they will develop their story. The lesson includes general prompts rather than the specific questions found in the rest of the lessons. This is an excellent way of ensuring that students are able to apply skills and strategies they have been learning with little assistance.
Two pages of "Extra Exercises" at the back of the book provide suggestions for nine additional writing projects from other genres such as a monologue, a poem, and a brief article.
I really liked the original version of this course, but this latest version is even better with the additional instructional material and improved questions throughout the lessons that should really help students become enthusiastic story writers. And the fact that this happens by using Scripture as the source material is a real bonus. In addition, the price is unbeatable; the student book is inexpensive, and the teacher manual is a free download at the publisher's website.
Table of Contents of Rod and Staff English 8 (first 5 chapters):
Chapter 1 - Sentence Elements - Writing Letters
1. The Gift of Language
2. Writing Friendly Letters
3. Complete Sentences
4. Subjects and Predicates
5. Subjective Complements
6. Writing Business Letters
7. Object Complements
8. Objective Complements
9. Appositives and Independent Elements
10. Chapter 1 Review
Chapter 2 - Sentence Structure - Writing Paragraphs
11. Sentence Types and Word Order
12. Phrases and Clauses
13. Paragraph Unity and Topic Sentences
14. Simple and Compound Sentences
15. Complex Sentences
16. Compound-Complex Sentences
17. Sentence Styles
18. Achieving Paragraph Coherence
19. Transition Between Paragraphs
20. Chapter 2 Review
Chapter 3 - Mechanics - Developing Paragraphs
21. Capitalization
22. End Punctuation
23. Commas
24. Types of Compositions
25. More Comma Rules
26. Quotation Marks
27. Colons and Semicolons
28. Methods of Developing Paragraphs
29. Dashes, Parentheses, and Brackets
30. Italics (Underlining) and Numbers
31. Apostrophes and Hyphens
32. More Methods of Developing Paragraphs
33. Chapter 3 Review
Chapter 4 - Nouns - Using Outlines
34. Nouns and Substantives
35. Outlining
36. Plural Nouns
37. Possessive Nouns
38. Developing an Outline From a List of Notes
39. Using an Outline to Write a Composition
40. Verbals and Verbal Phrases Used as Nouns
41. Noun Clauses
42. Proofreading Your Composition
43. Chapter 4 Review
Chapter 5 - Verbs - Preparing and Giving Reports
44. Gathering Information About a Topic
45. Identifying Verbs
46. Principal Parts of Verbs
47. Organizing Your Notes
48. Simple Verb Tenses
49. Perfect Verb Tenses
50. Simple, Progressive, and Emphatic Forms of Verbs
51. Giving an Oral Report
52. Transitive Verbs
53. Intransitive Complete Verbs
54. Writing a Report From Your Notes
55. Intransitive Linking Verbs
56. Proofreading and Rewriting a Report
57. Chapter 5 Review
Blessings,
Carrie
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While it would definitely be of benefit to use In Their Sandels, it is worth pondering how writing heavy your student's work load already is and to consider how your student feels about writing overall. 