BJU Press Blog

writing

How We Build a Solid Foundation in Our Elementary English

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building bricks
Building Bricks by Hannes Grobe/Wikimedia Commons/CC 3.0

Children love building tall towers. Their goals can be quite lofty (literally) and sometimes others are enlisted to complete the project. At some point, the simple tower always seems to come crashing down. For an unsuspecting child, his response to the fallen tower is often tears or outbursts of frustration. But a “demolished” tower made from building blocks can easily be rebuilt.

When it comes to your children’s education, the process of building their tower of success is more intricate and complex. It requires establishing a solid foundation before adding more levels of learning. Their future is at stake, and that’s not something to play around with.

One subject that affects your children’s educational success “tower” is their mastery of the English language. It plays a key role in preparing them to communicate clearly through their academic papers and projects now as well as for their meeting presentations in the future.

Did you know that all our BJU Press elementary English textbooks have been written with those goals in mind? Each textbook presents the parts of speech in a similar chapter order and includes alternating chapters on writing to provide immediate application. Every grade level also adds a more detailed explanation so that your children understand foundational concepts before their knowledge is increased.

  • Sentences are defined as expressing complete thoughts in English 2. This concept is then used to help students identify and properly use the parts of speech. By the time your child enters sixth grade, his grasp of the English language should allow him to form compound and complex sentences.
  • Nouns may be the easiest part of speech to understand in comparison to the others largely because they relate to what children are already familiar with—people, places, and things.
  • Verbs come next. They add another layer of understanding by showing action. Other types of verbs such as helping and linking also receive special attention in a separate chapter.
  • Pronouns are gradually introduced in English 2 to make sure students can distinguish between a noun and a pronoun. English 3 through English 6 include a separate chapter just for this part of speech.
  • Adjectives are explained in English 2 by relating them to the five senses—how things look, smell, sound, taste, and feel. Specific types of adjectives are included in later grades.
  • Adverbs come in English 3 where they are compared with adjectives. This pairing of the two parts of speech continues all the way through English 6.
  • Conjunctions appear in English 3. The role of this part of speech is outlined more thoroughly as your child learns to write compound sentences.
  • Prepositions are first presented in English 4 after the nouns and pronouns are clearly defined. They are connected with learning about phrases.

Children try to build their towers so that they reach the ceiling, and all of us at BJU Press want your childen to reach their full potential when it comes to using the English language.

Check out the “Look Inside the Book” feature for our elementary English products.

Something to Celebrate

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WP-Story-Journal-2-2015My teacher friend Mary Beth invited me to come visit her kindergarten classroom. She had been reading aloud one the children’s books I wrote, and her students were ready for the last two chapters. “We thought it would be neat if you could come and finish the book for us,” she said. “My students would enjoy meeting a real live author.”

Before I even entered Mary Beth’s classroom, I could tell that for her, writing was something to celebrate. “Here are our snowman stories,” she said with a twinkly-eyed smile. “Some of the students dictated their stories, but many of them wrote their own.” I scanned the hall bulletin board decorated with painted snowmen sporting an eclectic mix of outerwear. I even noticed a story about a snowdog. Most of these South Carolina children had probably not seen a single snowflake since last winter, but obviously, their imaginations were healthy and active.

She opened the door to her room and began showing me around. “We’ve been talking about weather in science,” she said, indicating a large hanging chart decorated with rain and snow scenes and sunny beach pictures. A poem was also carefully lettered on the chart. “This is my poem. Don’t be too critical—it’s probably not very good. But my students were impressed that I actually wrote a poem.” I paused to read the four-stanza poem about types of weather, using a variety of age-appropriate words—and it was good.

When I sat down in the rocking chair with the children gathered on the rug in front of me, I could immediately tell that they loved being read to. Silence settled on them right away, and almost every eye stayed locked on my face as I read aloud. When I finished and asked for questions, a sea of hands went up. “Where did you get the idea for the kitten?” “Why did you write in chapters?” “Who drew the picture on the cover?”

Mary Beth walked to a shelf and took down a stack of stapled pages. “They’re very interested in books right now,” she said, “because we’ve just finished writing our own books.” I oohed and aahed over the books while here and there a student burst out with an enthusiastic comment about his or her story. “How many of you like to write?” I asked. Nearly every hand in the room shot up.

As I left Mary Beth’s room that day, I realized I was the privileged one—because I had met not just one, but an entire roomful of “real live authors.” I hope those students never lose the joy of writing that their teacher has worked so hard to instill in them. I hope they will never view writing as merely a chore to be done and a grade to be tallied. I hope they’ll always see writing as an art to be celebrated.

Journaling: Tips to Get Started

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I wrote my first journal entry when I was ten years old. It wasn’t particularly interesting. Life as a ten-year-old was pretty mundane, and at that time I was not very skilled at expressing my inward thoughts and emotions. But it was a start, and I was excited about the prospect of filling up all the blank pages in the lovely green journal that I had received just days earlier as a birthday gift.

person writing in a journal

I filled up all the pages of that green journal, as well as the pages of many other journals over the years. Sometimes I wrote fairly regularly, but sometimes hardly at all. Now, when I occasionally thumb through the pages of those old journals, I can see the benefits of them. I am a better writer because of all the practice. I learned how to express the emotions, dreams, and innermost thoughts inside me. Best of all, I have a record of many answers to prayer, many unexpected blessings, and many dark hours. I can clearly see the faithfulness of God.

If you want to encourage your children or students to journal in this new year, here are some tips.

  • Buy each of them a nice, lined journal.

Journals themselves can inspire writing. I always got excited whenever I received or had the opportunity to buy a new one. Look for one with a spiral binding or one that will lie flat when opened.

  • Assure them that you won’t read what they have written without their permission.

Resist the temptation to grade their writing. If you do evaluate it, they will never feel free to express themselves.

  • Set aside times to write.

Your children or students should be free to journal whenever they wish, but at the beginning it is helpful to have them set aside a dedicated time once a week.

  • Let them write about whatever they want to.

Don’t assign topics. If your novice journalers don’t know what to write about, you can offer suggestions, but you should encourage them as much as possible to just start writing. The ideas will come.

Do you keep a journal? If so, how has it benefited you?

Write a Novel in a Month?!

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Looking to inspire those budding novelists under your tutelage?

November is the perfect opportunity to get them to stretch those creative muscles. By introducing them to National Novel Writing Month, you just might see even timid and procrastinating writers start baby-stepping their way to literary greatness.

 

While the average novel is around 100,000 words, National Novel Writing Month (or NaNoWriMo as it is called) cuts that requirement in half, asking writers to produce a 50,000-word short novel in thirty days. By producing a shorter work, your writers are being trained to make it “meatier”—with no droning on about superfluous details or patience-testing fillers. This project calls for cutting to the chase, keeping things moving, and only letting in the important stuff. NaNoWriMo is all about getting a story on paper and worrying about fine-tuning it later.

Writers are also forced to map their strategy and organize their time. We all have other stuff to do, especially during the holiday season. Not many of us would choose to skip Thanksgiving dinner to write. So your writers will have to divide the number of words they need by the number of days they will actually be writing throughout November. A realistic goal would probably be a chapter a week.

Needless to say, having a firm grasp of the basics of fiction writing will go a long way toward your students’ success with this project. A review of plot, characterization, description,and so on before plunging forward will give added direction and confidence. Who knows where the journey will lead, once the first step is taken? NaNoWriMo mini-novel today, best-seller tomorrow.

NaNoWriMo Writing Project Tips

      1. Decide on the required number of words. Your students have other classes and projects, so you may need to make your minimum word count smaller than 50,000.
      2. Choose the start and end dates for the project. You can go with the traditional month of November time frame, or you can have it go shorter or longer if you need to. Whatever you decide, make sure it’s a reasonable period of time to meet your word-count requirements.
      3. Determine the grading criteria. Will you grade based on completion only or will you also check the quality of writing—sentence structure, spelling/grammar, and such? Be sure to let your students know this at the beginning of the project. (NaNoWriMo is typically focused on completing a rough draft.)
      4. Implement weekly (or other periodic) checks. If left alone, some of your students will fall behind in their writing. Help them out by giving occasional due dates and telling them what you will be looking for in those checks.

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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.

Have you ever participated in NaNoWriMo or adapted it for your students? Tell us about your experience in a comment.