I am excited to share another sneak peek with you from our upcoming World Geography guide.
Today's peek is about the composition part of the English credit for the upcoming guide. We are so excited about this choice and are glad that we have worked out the details of carrying this particular product! 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 English credit is often at the upper range of hours logged, leaning more toward 150 hours in a year for a credit. This is because it must contain so many subjects within the 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 geography guide is to schedule Matthew Stephen's Essentials in Writing: Grade 10 for the area of composition. We are thinking that we will alternate this course with Rod and Staff English 7 so that students will do Essentials in Writing twice weekly and Rod and Staff twice weekly.
Usually, we will plan for the time slot that these two subjects share to take approximately 30 min. each day. Students will complete half of Rod and Staff 7 as a freshman and the other half as a sophomore. 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". There is much to love about Stephen's Essentials in Writing: Grade 10 course.
Our own oldest son is completing it this year, doing the Grade 10 even though he could have easily handled the Grade 11. This is because the Grade 11 course was delayed in its release, and so we simply began with the just released Grade 10 to give our oldest son a different approach to writing than he has had in the past. Essentials in Writing has a DVD component for most lesson days, with the video lasting 7-15 minutes. Matthew Stephens enthusiastically teaches these video lesson with the aid of a whiteboard, clearly sharing the writing process step-by-step as he teaches the lesson.
The Student Book is well laid out, including a summary of notes from the lesson, samples of effective writing, samples of ineffective writing, and clear rubrics to aid the parent in grading the student's work. Lessons are broken down into incremental steps, keeping the writing process from becoming intimidating. 
We prefer the Grade 10 writing lessons to the grade 9 writing lessons for two reasons. First, due to the fact that HOD students have done much writing in the past, they are more than prepared for the level of writing taught in grade 10. Second, we much prefer the topics in grade 10 used for the writing sessions, and were more comfortable with the grade 10 focus than with some of the topics in grade 9. This makes Grade 10 Essentials in Writing an excellent fit for the upcoming World Geography guide.
As you can see by the samples linked below, we are also thrilled that the Grade 10 EIW covers the writing of a research paper by breaking this large task down into incremental steps. What a blessing for all the families who worry about how to cover this very important skill! The cost is $40 for the DVD (which includes a printable PDF of the Student Book). You also have the option of buying a pre-printed workbook for $20 (if you prefer a printed and bound copy). HOD will carry both of these product options. The Student Books are currently undergoing a few needed revisions and corrections, but they will be done by the time we begin carrying the grade 10 EIW in our HOD store!
Here is a link to the scope and sequence of the Grade 10 guide. Link: http://www.essentialsinwriting.com/reso ... ntents.pdf
There is no link to the interior of the high school Student Books yet, however here is a glimpse at the interior of a grade 8 lesson so that you can get an idea of what the Student Book looks like. (Keep in mind this is two grades below the grade we will be scheduling.) Link: http://www.essentialsinwriting.com/reso ... agraph.pdf
Here is a link to the grade 8 sample of a DVD lesson for the Student Book linked above. Again, there are no samples yet online for the high school guides (as they are so new), however this will give you an idea as to what the teaching looks like on the video lessons. Scroll down to the bottom of the link to see the video. Link: http://www.essentialsinwriting.com/eighth-grade.php
We hope that you will be as excited about this selection as we are! Stephen's EIW is truly an answer to our prayers for a high school composition program for our World Geography guide. The Grade 10 was just released in late September, 2012.
Blessings,
Carrie