Wordsmith Craftsman
$17.50
Wordsmith Craftsman
$17.50
Product Code: 045-379
Complete Course
Consumable
In a Curriculum Kit
Nonreligious
Awards & Endorsements
Cathy Duffy's 101 Top Picks
Typically counted as 1/4 credit for high school students.
Wordsmith Craftsman
The third and last of the Wordsmith series focuses on building, integrating, and polishing practical writing skills. This self-directed program allows students to take charge of their assignments and schedules. Strong in preparing the student for college, Part 1 addresses practical, everyday writing: notes, outlines, personal correspondence, summaries, business letters, and reports. Part 2 focuses on the power of language: paragraphs (principles, types, and organization), writing techniques, and developing a personal writing style. Part 3 concentrates on essay writing: descriptive, narrative, expository, and persuasive essays. Wordsmith equips young adults for a lifetime of excellence in communication skills.
About the Wordsmith Series
Have you ever felt overwhelmed with the slew of creative writing programs available for homeschoolers? As a curriculum provider, we have seen more writing programs than any sensible parent would ever want to see, and candidly, after a while, they all look pretty much the same. So what stood out about the Wordsmith line?
No Slick Promises
To start with, the engaging exercises and doable assignments are pertinent for reinforcing the systematic process of thinking, organizing, writing, evaluating, and re-writing that is critical to any creative writing program. But ultimately, at the very core of the Wordsmith program is the honest reality presented by the author, Janie B. Cheaney, a regular columnist for World Magazine, that while her books will not always produce an enthusiastic and prolific writer, the Wordsmith series, the actual skills of creative writing can be acquired by anyone. So if you need a language arts program that addresses creative writing in more depth, the Wordsmith series is the most effective, painless approach we have seen.
Part one of Wordsmith Craftsman addresses practical, everyday writing: notes, outlines, personal correspondence, summaries, business letters, and reports.
Part two focuses on the power of language: paragraphs, writing techniques, and developing a personal writing style.
Part three concentrates on essay writing: descriptive, narrative, expository, and persuasive essays.
See the Timberdoodle 12th Grade Handbook for a detailed suggested weekly schedule. Email us if you purchased Wordsmith Craftsman from us and did not receive a Handbook but would benefit from a detailed plan.
Confidence is what most young writers lack, and Wordsmith is designed to lead them to the place where they can read over their own work and think, “Hey—that’s pretty good!” Wordsmith is the core book in the series, the one that every student from age 12 and up should complete, especially if their writing skills lag behind the recommended level.
How to build confidence? Over many years of writing and teaching, I’ve developed a three-pronged approach:
1.Learn how to use the tools. That is, avail yourself of our incredibly rich English vocabulary and master the skill of manipulating sentences for greater effectiveness. What are the most important words of a sentence? How can you make those words pop? What are the sentence openers you should almost always avoid? How can you break out of the sentence-pattern rut? All these questions, and much more, are answered in Parts One and Two.
2.Learn how to tap your own experience for unlimited material. Have you ever heard the complaint, “I don’t have anything to write about?” Or have you ever stared at a blank page with a blank mind? You and your students will be happy to learn that everyone has unlimited subject matter to write about. And even better: one of the most important keys to effective writing, often overlooked, is personal connection. Through the seven core assignments in Wordsmith Part Three, students learn proven techniques for making personal connections with readers—and never running out of material.
3.Practice. No shortcuts here! Like any craftsman, a wordsmith hones her craft by learning the tools, becoming familiar with the medium, and practicing skills. Wordsmith provides plenty of opportunity by expanding on the core assignments with fun and imaginative variations.
But it doesn’t stop there. Writing is a TOWER process: Thinking, Organizing, Writing, Evaluating, and Rewriting. Wordsmith helps students begin to evaluate their own work to make it better. This is called revision, and reluctant writers hate it. Wordsmith details revision checklists for each assignment, allowing students to grow in proficiency and—here’s that word again—confidence!
A handy Appendix includes summaries of how to proofread and revise, a verb list, several examples of student writing, suggestions for blogging, and four review quizzes.
Author: Janie B. Cheaney
Publisher: Common Sense Press, 2003
Typical High School Credits Earned: 1/4 credit composition
Faith-Based: No
View a sample lesson of Wordsmith Craftsman
View a Lesson Plan for Wordsmith Craftsman
Awards and Endorsements:
2012 Cathy Duffy's 101 Top Picks
PART ONE: WORD GAMES
Nouns as a major "building block" of language; preferring concrete and specific nouns over general ones; proofreading.
Verbs
Verbs as the other "building block"; action and linking verbs; preferring strong action verbs over weak or linking verbs; using verbs to show emotion.
Adverbs
The function of adverbs; preferring strong verbs over weak verb/adverb combinations
Adjectives
The function and variety of adjectives; the difference between descriptive and qualitative adjectives; over-use of adjectives
Prepositions
The function of prepositions: to turn nouns into modifiers; the flexibility of prepositional phrases
Pronouns
How pronouns are used; the pronoun-antecedent connection; avoiding confusion with pronouns
PART TWO: BUILDING STRONGER SENTENCE
Basic Sentence Structure
Subjects and predicates; fragments
Successful Sentence Construction
Common "weak" constructions and how to avoid them (particularly "it has" and "there is"; sentence transformation techniques; preferring active voice over passive
Making Connections
Coordinating conjunctions; subordinating conjunctions; semi-colons
Combinations
Combining sentences through appositives, relative pronouns, relative clauses, participles and participial phrases
PART THREE: NOW WE'RE WRITING!
Exploring Sensory Experience
The importance of the senses in connecting writer and reader; writing sensory poems
Figures of Speech
What similes, metaphors and personifications are; how they are used
Special Places
The use of sensory impressions in describing a place; first steps in revision
Describing a Person
"Framing" a person at a particular time and place; descriptions of strangers and of people you know well
Narrative Writing I - Sequence and Detail
Telling events in order; the use of sensory images and details
Narrative Writing II - Focus
The importance of narrowing thoughts and impressions to a particular event; finding the focus and holding it; the difference between narrative and summary; writing about personal experiences; advanced revision
Dialogue
What dialogue and how it is indicated; using dialogue to indicate character traits, add interest, and move the narrative along; speech tags and when to use them; interviews; radio plays
Point of View
First, second and third person; imagining and including other points of view in personal narratives
Story
The difference between narrative and plot; basic story structure; re-interpreting personal experience as a story; effective opening sentences and paragraphs
Final assignment: incorporating word choice, strong sentence constructions, effective organization, sensory detail, dialogue, focus, and point of view, shape an incident from your life into a short story.
APPENDICES: How to Proofread; How to Revise; Action Verb List; Student examples; Four Review Quizzes
review by Pebblekeeper blog
"Nathan started working in Wordsmith Craftsman this year. I feel that this will be his go-to Language Arts Writing Course for the year – and possibly years to come as this book will guide him through the 12th grade...That was the surprise for me, that it wasn’t set out to be – Do this whole book in one year – but rather, do these parts each year... This is a thumbs up for Petra School!!"
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review by Eclectic Montage
"Wordsmith Craftsman is focused on the student alone. As a high school student, independence is key; however, I do wish there was an included parent guide for this book as well. The level and depth of material covered would benefit from parental guidance, especially for the weak writer...I could see this text being a good beginning in tenth or maybe eleventh grade; however, to really be prepared for college, your student needs to explore research in more depth in twelfth grade to be fully prepared for collegiate expectations."
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