NOTE: This item is the student workbook ONLY. When purchased as a 2-volume set, one copy of the student workbook is included with a teacher's manual.
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Review
Jump In is a two-year writing program for middle school students (grades 6-8), although it might also be used with high schoolers who need more work on basic writing skills or need a user-friendly approach to motivate them to improve their skills. Written particularly for Christian homeschoolers, it is designed for students to work independently most of the time, and it assumes a Christian audience, with references to favorite Bible verses, church activities, judgments about Greek gods and goddesses, spiritual motivations of characters in stories, and similar Christian experiences and attitudes.
The course consists of a student book plus a teacher guide titled The Lifeguard's Locker: A Parent/Teacher Manual for Jump In. Both are essential. The 248-page student work text includes instruction, activities, and assignments plus helpful reference tools at the back. Assignments are presented in seven sections of varying length: pre-writing skills, opinion, persuasion, exposition, description, narration, and poetry. Within each section, lessons are presented as a series of skills so that students approach each type of writing in bite-size chunks. For most of the activities student will write directly in their workbook, spending from five to twenty minutes per lesson on writing activities. I particularly like the way Sharon Watson has interspersed activities throughout the instruction to ensure that students are processing and applying as they learn. At the end of each section of skill lessons, students are given a number of writing assignments from which to choose. These lengthier assignments might take anywhere from two to ten days to complete and will likely be done either in a notebook or on the computer.
The teacher manual has answers for the activities when they are predictable answers, and it also has an extensive section on evaluating lengthier student work with reproducible forms and samples of completed forms -- very helpful for the inexperience parent/teacher.
The student workbook itself might be completed in one school year. What transforms Jump In into a two-year program are the '10-Minute Writing Plunges' found in the teacher manual. These are a number of writing prompts -- four per week for September through May -- that are the basis for ten-minute writing assignments to be completed Monday through Thursday. You are free to substitute your own writing prompts if you wish. On Friday, students select their favorite of the four papers and polish it to be turned in on the following Monday.
The Writing Plunges are not to be used at the same time as students are working through their other lessons. They might be used on their own as the second year of the program or you might break up the workbook lessons by spending a month or more on Writing Plunges between sections of the book.
A fairly comprehensive course, Jump In provides instruction from brainstorming, topic selection, and construction of a composition with an introduction, body, and conclusion all the way through the use of citations (either included within the text of the composition or at the end of the quoted or referenced material) and creation of a bibliography. Note that the 'exposition' section of the workbook expands to include lessons on writing biographies, book reports, book responses, newspaper articles, how-to articles, and compare and contrast essays.
The student workbook is very attractive. Printed in full color, it includes illustrations and graphics that break up the print content and keep students from getting overwhelmed. Students will also need a grammar reference book or they might need additional grammar instruction if they are weak in this area; suggestions are included in the teacher manual.
I expect this [course] will be a popular choice for homeschoolers. --Cathy Duffy, cathyduffyreviews.com
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
23 of 23 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Finally - A Composition Course that Works!,
By Cynthia E. Downes "Cindy Downes" (Broken Arrow, OK, USA) - See all my reviews (VINE VOICE) (TOP 1000 REVIEWER) (REAL NAME)
= Durability:5.0 out of 5 stars = Fun:5.0 out of 5 stars = Educational:5.0 out of 5 stars
This review is from: Jump In: A Workbook for Reluctant and Eager Writers (student workbook only) (Paperback)
Jump In: A Workbook for Reluctant and Eager Writers by Sharon Watson. I LOVE this book! Finally, a composition course that REALLY teaches your children how to write! Most "Grammar and Composition" courses spend more time on grammar than composition because they are written for classrooms. it's difficult and time consuming to evaluate writing, especially in a class of 20-30 students. As a homeschooling parent, however, you CAN take the time to do this and here is a resource that will help.
Jump In covers all kinds of writing: prewriting, opinion pieces, persuasion, exposition, description, narration, and poetry. Because it's easier for children to write their opinion, the author begins by teaching students how to write an opinion piece and persuasive articles. She takes the student step-by-step, one lesson at a time. She covers: brainstorming to choose a topic, listing reasons why, choosing the right order, and then writing an introduction, body, and conclusion to complete the project. The course is designed to be completed in two years, but it can be used for as short or as long as needed. Sharon includes writing samples written by her classroom students. She explains the good and bad of each sample and then gives your child an opportunity to critique the sample by answering guided questions. After each lesson, Sharon includes additional writing assignments for practice and a suggested writing schedule to complete the assignment. The teacher's manual includes information on how to evaluate and grade your child's writing as well as course objectives, a list of assignments for each category, information on how to help a reluctant writer, 10-minute warmups (She calls them Writing Plunges), and answer keys. By the end of the course, your child will have learned how to write an opinion piece, a persuasive paper, a cause and effect paper, a science report, a biography, a book report, a book review, a newspaper article, an essay, a compare and contrast paper, a description, a short story (narration), and poetry (haiku, cinquain, diamante, limerick, hymn, poem, lyrics to a song). If I were homeschooling today, this would be one resource I would not do without. Don't buy that traditional "grammar and composition" textbook. Instead, buy this book and a separate resource for teaching grammar, such as Easy Grammar. Teach grammar two days a week; spend the other three days on composition. You'll end up with accomplished writers instead of students who know a lot of grammar but can't write!
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent, but does have religious/political content,
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This review is from: Jump In: A Workbook for Reluctant and Eager Writers (student workbook only) (Paperback)
I really like Jump In! for middle school writers, especially those who are reluctant writers, or need a bit more interest in their assignments. Jump In! explains the writing process very well, breaking everything down into small chunks. It also gives the writer freedom to pick a topic of interest, rather than just assigning something specific. Excellent.
My only complaint is that there are several assignments/topics were abortion (and how terrible it is) is used as an example, or as a choice of topics. Whatever one's viewpoint on abortion, I don't consider it to be a topic I need my 11 year old son to dwell on, or read about. There are a few other religious areas, such as that the Roman gods were false, while the Christian god obviously loving and true. I went through with a black marker and just crossed out all the content that bugged me. And it is only a small portion of the book. If you are very against religious content in a middle school writing course, this isn't for you. If you LIKE that, or can work around it, it is a great curriculum for the reluctant writer.
0 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Below Par,
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This review is from: Jump In: A Workbook for Reluctant and Eager Writers (student workbook only) (Paperback)
My sister oozes brains. Super knowledgeable and whatever she can't answer her other half can. He remembers how to do everything
on a computer and helps me via long distance. (This is the background info for the review.) My sister homeschools her special needs son. In fact, I ordered books through a company that we love. The amazing Amazon. This particular book was to help my nephew learn how to cobble his thoughts into a nice paragraph. In speaking with her earlier today, she would only rate this a "C". Ergo, I will be perusing the textbook section later this evening. The book is ok but for a 5th or 6th grader, perhaps. My nephew is now a teenager. That's all for this book.
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