BJU Press Blog

Teacher's Editions

English 2: Developing Young Writers

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Writing has always been one of my favorite things to do. My mother would transcribe oral stories I retold as a preschooler. (It’s true! You can read about it here.) Then when I was in the elementary grades, we would “publish” a book each year as a compilation of all my homeschool writing projects. I loved sharing my stories, haikus, and book reports with adults. It made me feel important when they would comment on my work.

Now when I learn about a new language arts textbook that teaches children why writing is valuable and shows them how to do it successfully, I get pretty excited! The new edition of English 2 is one such textbook. It brings together both the writing and grammar elements that your child needs to be an effective communicator for God’s glory. Included in the English 2 Subject Kit are the following pieces.

 

Student Worktext

The strength of this student worktext is in its alternating chapters of grammar and writing instruction. You can read more about how the BJU Press elementary English curriculum builds a solid foundation with this approach. There’s also a strong biblical worldview connection between understanding what God communicates through language and how your child can use this gift to serve God and love others.

It appeals to visual learners with the cheerful colors, consistent icons, and engaging activities that prompt critical thinking. The illustrations are done by some of my favorite in-house artists and capture interest on each page.

The student worktext also provides hands-on learners with writing project examples to use as models and grammar exercise pages to practice new skills.

You can get a more detailed look at the grammar and writing chapters when you watch my English 2 walkthrough video.

Grammar focus: These chapters develop critical thinking skills as new concepts are introduced and applied in exercises. Each chapter follows the same model: learn, apply, and review. Also included are journal pages where your child has the opportunity to do some free writing without the constraints of a specific project and without receiving a grade.

Writing projects: These chapters come in between the grammar ones so that your child is prepared to use correct grammar needed for his projects. We introduce literature links to some published works as real-life examples. The five-step writing process and sample writings provide a framework to follow so that your child knows the step-by-step process for completing his goal—whether it’s a poem, personal narrative, letter, or research report.

Teacher’s Edition

This book takes your child’s learning to another level while simplifying your life at the same time! It shows materials needed for each lesson, provides questions and prompts to engage your child, and gives you all the answers for each student worktext page in one easy-to-find location—right within the reduced student pages for the corresponding lesson. View the teaching resources and Chapter 1 of the English 2 Teacher’s Edition.

Tests and Answer Keys

These two pieces provide the assessments your child takes to gauge his understanding of the concepts being taught as well as the correct answers for you to measure your child’s comprehension. They also offer you suggestions for grading.

Explore all the BJU Press English and Writing & Grammar subject kits on our website.

The Easy Way to Plan Your Homeschool Year

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When I was a kid, at the beginning of every homeschool year, my mom would buy several spiral-bound lesson planning notebooks. She would spread all our textbooks out in front of her on the kitchen table, and she would meticulously handwrite all our assignments and lesson plans into her blank notebooks. It took hours.

Now you don’t have to create an entire semester’s worth of lesson plans all by yourself. BJU Press does most of the busywork for you so you can do the important things, like focusing on your child’s specific educational and spiritual needs. But if your homeschool is going to run smoothly, you’ll still need to do some planning at the start of each semester.

Just One Step

When you look at the dozens of textbooks and Teacher’s Editions for all the subjects and think about all the projects and papers and homework pages and lessons for the entire homeschool year, you’ll feel overwhelmed—so don’t think that far ahead. Just take one step toward an organized schedule, and then take the next step, and the next. Before you know it, you’ll have it all planned out, and your day-to-day tasks will seem much more manageable.

Days On, Days Off

First, take a look at a calendar and mark the days when you plan to have school. In a different color or with a special symbol, highlight days when you plan to have field trips, holidays, or vacation days.

The Weekly Schedule

How many subjects will each child be studying this year? Decide which hour of the day should be devoted to each subject and make a general weekly schedule. Also, think about when you might need to be available to give help to each child. For instance, if your high school student struggles with math, you may want to have your fourth grader working independently on reading during that time period, so you can be available to help with algebra.

The Daily Plan

Now you’re getting down to the details of daily lesson planning. Good news—if you have the BJU Press Teacher’s Editions for the textbooks, most of this has already been done for you. You don’t have to handwrite or type out a bunch of lesson plans yourself, because the learning objectives, engaging introductions, assignments, and activities are all right there. You can make notes and adjustments and tweak each lesson as you like, but the hard, time-consuming part is already done. Hooray!

Last-Minute Prep

Every day set aside time to finish your preparations for the next day’s lessons. During this time you can finish collecting supplies for the activities, craft any extra materials you need, or simply think through how you’re going to explain a tough concept. Perhaps you can do this while your kids are doing their work or after they have gone to bed at night.

If you’re using the BJU Press Distance Learning program with your children, you won’t have as much daily preparation to do since the Distance Learning teacher takes care of the lesson presentation. But you’ll still want to look over the video lesson guides in advance so that you can note any potential areas of struggle or activities that may need to be tailored to suit your child’s individual needs. After all, you’re the one who knows your child best.

What works for another homeschooling family may not work for you, and that’s OK—but it is important to have structure for your homeschool. Time is precious, and so are your children. Plan for success so you can teach those precious kids to the best of your ability in the time that you have.

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Rebecca is a work-at-home freelance writer, novelist, wife, and the mom of two bright-eyed little ones. She credits her success in writing and her love of books to her own mom, who homeschooled three kids from pre-K through high school.