The Write Foundation: Review of its level 2 writing program
The Write Foundation created a writing curriculum which provides the student with practice in the fundamentals of writing. I was provided a copy of the Level 2: Paragraph Writing curriculum, which is suggested for ages 12-15, in order to provide a review as a member of the TOS Homeschool Crew.
The level 2 material starts with the basic steps of paragraph writing and instructs the student on the entire process of writing including brainstorming, working with outlines, rough drafts and editing. Included within the lessons, the student refines their sentence structure and learns various styles and techniques each week. The student progresses from one simple paragraph to a multiple paragraphs within the Write Foundation’s level two writing curriculum.
You can find more specific details for this level – the syllabus and samples of it here on their website.
My daughter and I are still going through the lessons for this program but I can tell you some of my impressions at this point of what we have completed. Write Foundation indicates that their system is easy to follow and “designed as a “grab-it-and-go” curriculum.” However they also indicate that you should study and become familiar with the curriculum before you start in order for this to be true. I agree with that statement because I admit it took me some time before I felt comfortable with how to teach and what my daughter needed to do with each lesson. Even after that, I still had some issues where the instructions did not seem as clear to me and I had to re-read and try to figure out what to do as we went along. The text in the teacher’s guide also is written in different areas for students to discuss and work together on parts of the lessons. This makes it easier for a co-op type of situation or where you have several children of your own working on the same level program. You need to change that up a little if like myself you have only one student going through these lessons. Just something to realize when you are going through this program. It does a decent job of providing a very structured writing program for your child since there are step-by step lessons, sample outlines and checklists that your child uses throughout the various stages of the lessons. If your child needs structure and organization help for their writing this seems to be very good at nurturing that in your child. Also the lessons tell your student what they will be writing about so they do not need to stress over ideas and can work on the actual process of writing instead of spending time coming up with topic ideas.
When you purchase this curriculum, you receive three different items: a spiral-bound teacher guide which contains your lesson plans, one set of notebook-ready student worksheets, and a CD with additional resources ( Grading System, Grading Record Sheets, Word Games, Checklists, Teacher Presentation Sheets, Weekly Assignments, and an Extensive Reading list.)
The level 2 curriculum has three different ways that you can purchase it. I received the package which includes the materials for Lessons 1-15 and sells for $65 plus tax/shipping. The next ordering option is a set that includes the materials for lessons 16-30 and costs the same as the first set. Finally you can purchase the entire lesson set which contains all 30 lessons for $100 plus tax/shipping. You can go here to the Write Foundation website to order any of these sets for level 2. From their website you can also check out the other levels of writing that Write Foundation offers you.
I generally liked what the Write Foundation curriculum has to offer. I do feel I have to mention that it does take a little time up front to get to know how the lessons are written as well as adjusting to the fact it is written more for a co-op type setting. However once you get past that, I believe you will be pleased with the lessons themselves.
You can check out what my fellow Crew members had to say about the various levels of Write Foundation’s writing curriculum here on our Crew blog.
Note: I received this product for free as a member of the TOS Homeschool Crew in order to provide an honest review for my readers.
[...] 15 lessons of Write Foundation’s paragraph writing curriculum. You can find that review here on my blog. I later received the remainder of the lessons in order to provide a review of them as [...]