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Wordsmith Apprentice was created with two basic purposes in mind:
1) To supplement and apply grammatical principles.
Many students learn punctuation, parts of speech, and basic sentence
structure as workbook "exercises" but don't necessarily see the
relevance to actual writing. Every grammatical principle taught in
Wordsmith Apprentice will be applied to several unusual exercises
and at least one writing project, reinforcing the idea that there's a
reason we learn this stuff!
2) To introduce the student to several types and
purposes of writing, in an imaginative way that will create enthusiasm
for the subject. The newspaper theme provides a practical, relevant
format for exploring the many ways we use the written word.
PART ONE: NOUNS, VERBS AND SENTENCES
Nouns
Principles taught: how to recognize nouns by
"noun markers" (articles); the difference between proper and common
nouns; the importance of specific nouns over general ones.
Projects: "For sale" ads, cinquain and other types of "form" poetry
Verbs
Principles taught: the difference between action,
helping and linking verbs; preferring vivid actions verbs
Projects: "Help wanted" ads, action poetry, writing definitions
Sentence structure
Principles taught: the two basic sentence forms;
subject and predicate; compounding; the four sentence types
Projects: picture captions; invitations; letters; newspaper
headlines
PART TWO: MODIFIERS
Adjectives and adverbs
Principles taught: how to recognize adjectives
and adverbs and how they are used
Projects: games and word puzzles; diamante poems
Prepositions
Principles taught: what prepositions are and how
they are used
Projects: expanded picture captions, display ads, real-estate ads,
travel writing, book reviews
PART THREE: ORGANIZING AND REPORTING
Paragraphs
Principles taught: recognizing topic sentences
and sentences that don't belong; good organization
Projects: recipe writing, household hints, writing synopses for
movies and TV shows, organizing a contest
Reporting
Principles taught: the five "W's" (who, what,
when, where, why), plus "how"
Projects: fictional and actual news stories
Dialogue
Principles taught: what dialogue is and how it is
represented on paper
Projects: comic strips
Introductory sentences and paragraphs
Principles taught: what makes an interesting
"hook"
Projects: writing original articles from pictures; interviews
Fact and Opinion
Principles taught: the difference between
reporting and opining; steps to writing an opinion piece
Project: editorials
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