Customer Reviews

Jump In: A Workbook for Reluctant and Eager Writers (student workbook only)

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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!

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.

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.