What’s the Wordsmith series?
Wordsmith, originally titled Wordsmith: a Creative Writing Course for Young People, is the core book of the three . The target age is grades 6 through 8 (ages 11-14). Wordsmith Apprentice, for beginners, is geared toward grades 4 and 5, ages 8-10. Wordsmith Craftsman is for high-schoolers.
But there’s a lot more to consider besides age or grade level. Each book in the series is designed to meet specific needs in the journey toward competent writing. Read on:
Click here for free sample lessons –
delivered to your Inbox
WORDSMITH APPRENTICE: Building Enthusiasm
Here’s our editor!
Writing is a tough subject to teach and, for many students, an even tougher subject to learn. Not every 9-year-old is ready to tackle 3-point essays or 2-page short stories. Pushing students to do so may well be counterproductive. The purpose of Wordsmith Apprentice is to expose youngsters to many kinds of writing in short bites, through the medium of a local newspaper.
True, the newspaper business is changing rapidly and the morning edition or Sunday comics may not be a part of your family routine. But in the little world of Wordsmith Apprentice, our faithful editor is keeping his staff in line and is eager to take on a new cub reporter. The student gets into the spirit by filling out an application (using lots of nouns, both proper and common) then moves on to writing help-wanted ads (action verbs, anyone?), captions using declarative, interrogative and exclamatory sentences, ads with lots of descriptive adjectives, household hints, and much more. Cub reporters even get to contribute to the games and features page! Along the way they’ll learn how to apply the basic parts of speech and sentence structure. They’ll also enjoy the frequent comic-page tutorials from the editor.
For instance, here’s our editor’s introduction.
Get a free sample lesson from Wordsmith Apprentice, downloaded right to your Inbox!
WORDSMITH: Building Confidence
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.
Get free sample lesson from Wordsmith, downloaded right to your Inbox!
The Teacher’s Guide to Wordsmith helps you help the student. After a deep dive into the Wordsmith philosophy, the Guide breaks student material into 36 weeks of assignments (four per week) with extra help in evaluating students’ work and encouraging their progress. At the end of the course, the Guide suggests even more ideas for practice, including adapting the core assignments to other curriculum areas, starting a writers’ club, and publishing students’ work online and in print.
WORDSMITH CRAFTSMAN: Building Skills
Confidence gained, the young writer tackles practical skills that will be needed throughout life. Again we start with experience: the simple task of taking notes—first on daily tasks, then on lectures and study materials. Outlining, summarizing, and writing business plans are all organizational skills. An extensive section on letter-writing, both personal and business, reinforces communication skills. Part Two builds upon techniques begun in Wordsmith, addressing such principles and problem areas as parallel constructions, making transitions, paragraph organization and selective detail.
Part Three of Wordsmith Craftsman is a master class on The Essay, pulling together thought, organization, logic, personal connection, and style. A well-written essay is rightly considered the mark of an educated, thoughtful man or woman. A student will learn how to apply the TOWER process (Think, Organize, Write, Evaluate, and Rewrite) to a variety of essay types, namely descriptive, narrative, expository, critical, and persuasive. The expository section includes a primer on the all-important first step in writing research papers (which will save a lot of freshman-comp angst later!).
The Appendix includes a handy reproducible form for note-taking and summary-writing, a warning essay about plagiarism, a summary of all the steps for each type of essay (with writing and revision guidelines), and a three-page roundup of common logical fallacies to be avoided (especially when writing persuasive essays).
Letter writing (or any form of everyday written communication), note-taking and outlining, summarizing, and essay writing—whether or not one becomes a writer—are all essential skills to prepare a young adult not only for school but for life.
Get a free sample lesson Wordsmith Craftsman downloaded right to your Inbox.
And if you already have Wordsmith Craftsman but aren’t sure how to use it, here’s a handy lesson plan for a two-year course.