Review: Writing with Sharon Watson

I have been looking for a good middle school composition program for my soon-to-be-seventh grade son.  We found  Jump In, 2nd Edition from Writing with Sharon Watson through this review and it has been a great fit for us.  So much, in fact, that I am checking into their high school composition books for my oldest.  This is a keeper!

The Jump In, 2nd Edition Student Book retails for $40 and the Teacher’s Guide is $10.  I definitely recommend getting both to get a good grasp on this program.

Teacher’s Guide:

On one of the first pages inside the Teacher’s Guide, there are schedules for the Jump In, 2nd Edition program that can be tailored to your student and your time frame.  There are schedules for one year, two year, and three year plans.  Each daily lesson will take anywhere from five to twenty minutes to complete.  Students will learn how to write different types of paragraphs, topic sentences, and main ideas.  They will also be guided in writing nine types of essays and a research project.  This program is not designed as a stand alone program and you will need a separate grammar course to round out your English lessons.

Inside the Teacher’s Guide, there is “The Teacher’s Backpack” section that includes reproducible pages for constructing paragraphs.  There are also sample essays and examples on how to give grades.  I really appreciated this part since it helped show which sample essay paper would have received an A and compare it to an essay that would have received a C.

The 10-Minute Writing Plunges were my favorite part of the Teacher’s Guide.  There are enough Writing Plunges to last all year.  The guide recommends giving new prompts to students every day Monday-Thursday and then Friday choosing a paper out of those to proofread and turn in for a grade.

An answer key to the Daily Lessons and Assignments is also included. In the very back, there are Grading Grids for each type of essay and writing format.

Student Workbook:

The Jump In, 2nd Edition is filled with 286 pages of writing lessons, assignments, and lots of opportunities to improve writing.  Some assignments may be a persuasive essay, a book response, a haiku poem, a how-to paper, and even a newspaper article.  The student workbook is designed to be used by one student and consumed.  In the past few weeks, my son has learned about an opinion essay and has started learning about persuasive essays.

My son decided to write his opinion declaring that “Poppyseed Chicken is a Great Meal”.  I thought his topic was very creative and I loved reading his supporting sentences.  Later in the program, he wrote his essay that was almost all put together from the prompts in the book.

I like that it gives sample essays and has the students pull out supporting statements and topic sentences so that they can see first hand the different parts of the paragraphs or essays.  After they pull apart essays, they are guided through creating their own essays.

Our Thoughts:

I really enjoyed this review and look forward to continuing the Jump In, 2nd Edition this fall with my son.  He liked it as well since the work is broken down into bite size chunks to work on throughout the weeks.  This one will definitely be going on our homeschool plans list for fall!

For More Information:

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