SEPTEMBER
Week 1: Pp. 4-6. Buy or borrow a major
newspaper and have the student find examples of all the categories
listed on page 3 (or as many as he can).
Week 2: Pp. 9-13. For extra practice, ask
the student to circle proper nouns in a newspaper article and explain
what they "name." To reinforce the concept on page 12, try this: think
of a "specific noun" (such as Bible) and write 2-3 clues. The
first clue should be the general-noun category the object belongs to,
and the next should be something that distinguishes it from that
category (1. a book. 2. God's word). The student guesses the specific
noun from the clues, then writes a riddle for you.
Week 3: Pp. 14-16. For extra practice, ask
the student to write a poem about Grandma or Grandpa on the model
given (and give it to them for Grandparents' Day!).
Week 4: Pp. 18-21. For extra practice, help
the student examples of action, linking, and helping verbs in a book
she is reading. You may wish the student to write some of these
examples in her notebook.
OCTOBER
Week 1: Pp. 22-24. On the model given on pp.
23-24, ask the student to write additional descriptions for vocabulary
words found in assigned reading, or in a list of spelling words (nouns
and verbs only).
Week 2: Pp. 26-28. Understanding sentences
is crucial to good writing, so further sentence work is desirable. For
instance, have the student copy complete sentences from a newspaper or
a book he is reading and locate the essential subject and predicate.
Week 3: Pp. 29-31. Together with your
student, find examples of all four sentence types in a newspaper or
magazine. Don't skip over the ads--lots of exclamatory sentences
there!
Week 4: Pp. 32-35. For extra practice, ask
the student to write a note to grandma or a friend, using all four
sentence types. Before sending the note, ask her to re-read it and
change any general nouns to specific nouns and weak verbs to strong
ones. Copy and send.
NOVEMBER
Week 1: Pp. 36-38. For extra practice, have
the student write three headlines about recent events in your house.
Then ask him to choose one and write a short article (1-2 paragraphs)
about it. Save the paragraph for later revisions.
Week 2: Pp. 41-44. If you have time, write a
short news story about a recent event in your house, double-spaced.
Include no adjectives, or very few. Then ask the student to add
appropriate adjectives in the spaces between the lines.
Week 3: Pp. 45-48. Ask the student to write
a cinquain poem (review p. 15) about Thanksgiving, OR a news article
on the planned celebration in your house. Pay special attention to
verbs and adjectives.
Week 4: Pp. 52-56.
DECEMBER
Week 1: P. 57. Review nouns, verbs,
modifiers, prepositions and basic sentence structure. Determine if the
student needs extra practice with these concepts.
Week 2: Pp. 58-64. This is plenty of
material to cover in one week, but if your church is planning special
holiday services, consider having the student write an invitation to
the service for a friend or family member. And then mail it!
Week 3: Pp. 65-68. The "travel piece"
exercise on p. 67 may be about a special holiday excursion or shopping
trip.
Week 4: Take a break!
JANUARY
Week 1: Pp. 69-70. We're moving from short
exercises to real writing assignments. This month, you might consider
starting a monthly school/family newspaper, as suggested on p. 118.
Much of the burden will fall on you, as editor-in-chief, motivator
(i.e., nagger) and probably typist, but it's well worth the effort,
and "writing for publication" often motivates a student to do his best
work. The book review the student will write this week may be part of
this month's paper, and further assignments may be incorporated as we
get to them.
Students should be encouraged to double-space their
assignments, or at least the first draft, so that corrections can be
easily made later. Corrections should reflect principles they've
already learned: specific nouns, strong verbs, adding adjectives and
adverbs, making sure sentences are complete, etc.
Week 2: Pp. 73-75. For extra practice, find
the topic sentence or topic idea in several newspaper or magazine
stories. Retrieve the "extra-practice" paragraph the student wrote in
the first week of November and analyze it for structure: is there a
topic sentence or topic idea? Are there any sentences that don't
belong? Any other improvements that could be made?
Week 3: Pp. 76-78. The student may write a
two-paragraph "news report" about a recent event, such as a special
holiday activity, for inclusion in the monthly newspaper.
Week 4: Pp. 79-83. For extra practice, write
a recipe or "hint" for the school newspaper. (No more "extra practice"
suggestions--if you're writing a class newspaper, that should be
enough. Allow the student or students to make their own suggestions
for the paper--and incorporate at least some of them!)
FEBRUARY
Week 1. Pp. 84-86.
Week 2. Pp. 87-88.
Week 3. Pp. 90-93.
Week 4. Pp. 94-96.
MARCH
Week 1. Pp. 97-100.
Week 2. Pp. 100-103.
Week 3. Pp. 104-106.
Week 4. Pp. 107-109 (interview and notes)
APRIL
Week 1. Pp. 110-111 (write story from
interview)
Week 2. Pp. 111-112 (interview and write
story in the same week)
Week 3. Pp. 113-116 (notes for editorial)
Week 4. Pp. 116-117 (write editorial)
MAY
Week 1. Pp. 117-118 (write second editorial)
For the rest of the month, review concepts and work
on the end-of-term newspaper.
