Write It Your Way

As a primary teacher I would love to have these books! They are packed with ideas and activities to enthuse pupils about writing in a variety of genre. The worksheets are well illustrated and colourfully presented in an attractive manner which is likely to encourage pupils to take care to complete the activities to the best of their ability. The workbook is designed to promote composition, creative writing, literary analysis, narrative writing and opinion writing. It includes puzzles, many different formats and certificates for completing each section. It does use American spellings so would need some discussion/adaptation for use in the UK….

I highly recommend that parents and teachers of pupils aged 9 to 10 years old check out this and the associated online resources produced in conjunction with it.

Thanks to the author, publishers and NetGalley, too, for letting me read an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Write it your way is a colorful and friendly approach to creative writing. Starting with an overview of literary terms (which are then used for a crossword puzzle), the book covers a decent range of writing topics, from poetry to opinions, writing for a reader audience, or pure imagination.

Excepts from books like Alice in Wonderland and The Secret Garden are used to help students identify literary types as well as examining and evaluating writing. After that, it is all about the student's writing, using everything from expository to writing haiku.

The book is colorful but I did feel the images were a bit young/immature for the target age group of 4th grade (felt more like 2nd grade level appeal). And a certificate of achievement at the end of each chapter with a gratuitous plug for the publishing website (education.com)in bold letters was in incredibly poor taste.

Admittedly, my daughter did have problems with some areas. E.g., her instructions on writing a Haiku is that it has three lines, with the syllable pattern 5-7-5. No examples were given and we both just stared at each other as to how to write a bunch of Haiku after that. There were a lot of issues like that which make a self motivated learner frustrated since they can't do the book on their own without a parent/guidance.

The points/questions leading into the creative writing exercises are fun and engaging. E.g., a creative writing assignment asking, "Would you rather...be haunted by a ghost, or be chased by a monster" and it has a little Halloween scene underneath. Beyond the creative writing pages are needed exercises such as understanding support statements, brainstorming, etc.

It's a great book with some reservations as noted above. Definitely something to work with your child/student closely and not as independent exercises, though. Reviewed from an advance reader copy provided by the publisher.

'Write It Your Way' by education.com is a workbook with some great guided exercises to improve writing skills. The book is aimed at probably 4th or 5th grade, but has things in it that I didn't start learning until later.

This workbook is divided up into 4 sections with an answer key at the end. Each section has a certificate of completion. The first section is called 'Reading Like a Writer, Writing Like a Reader' and has some guided paragraph reading and questions from the books 'Alice in Wonderland' and 'The Secret Garden.' The idea is to get writers to analyze what they read. The second section are a series of 'Journal Prompts for Kids' and there are fun sections like creating a menu item or a superhero or wishes that a genie grants. The third section is on 'Opinion Writing' and could be the most dry, but it is handled deftly and teaches good skills for term papers and future business writing. There are quite a few worksheets on identifying opinion versus narrative writing, and they increase in difficulty, but I found these to be really good. The final section titled 'Heroes and Villains: Story Writing' lays out some good framework for creating characters and laying out a story or novel.

There is lots of color. The exercises are mainly writing, but there are chances to draw. There is a link to a website for more worksheets. This could be the workbook that a young, struggling writer could use to boost school skills. I think the skill sets taught in this short book are invaluable for writing.

I received a review copy of this ebook from Dover Publications and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you for allowing me to review this ebook.

Write It Your Way by Education.com is a completely different approach to literature or english. They encourage imagination as well as put English into a context that children can experience it through games and fun, instead of work. Children relate better to this method instead of opening the book, studying, and hoping something sticks. The book is colorful and appeals to those who are visually stimulated. For some the coloring may be loud, but from a child's perspective I would think they would choose color over predominately black and white.

While this may not work for an entire homeschool course, it is a great tool that could help your child find the fun in learning.

I received a free copy of this book from NetGallery for an honest review.

This is a fabulous resource to help young readers to become fantastic writers. Literary terms and information about creating characters, conflict, and determining a genre are all included. This is really not a book that would fit well in a library because patrons would be tempted to complete the puzzles and questionnaires. However, it would be a great book for elementary age students to use in order to build their writing skills for the state mandated testing which takes place in the middle elementary years.

This is a fabulous book. It is much more appropriate for an individual than for a library.

This is a great workbook for fourth graders. They have great lessons about fiction vs nonfiction, literature, genre, point of view, and parts of books - such as characters, imagery, etc. I like the fun ways that the kids get to test their knowledge, such as crosswords. There are small reading sections from age-appropriate classics that encourage the student to "Find the Clues." As they read, they learn to pay attention to what clues the author gives about the character, setting, plot, etc. They learn about and practice opinion writing and persuasive writing, keeping in mind their audience and what idea they want to get across. Toward the end of the workbook, there are a lot of journal writing prompts with fun illustrations and colors to help get the kids' imaginations flowing.

This would be a great book for public schools or for homeschooling.

Write it Your Way is a fantastic writing workbook, but possibly better for children a little older than targeted.

One of the more unique aspects of this book is that it doesn't just focus on writing, but also on reading. It offers samples from classic literature and explains different aspects of the writing. In part this makes a better reader, but this also informs a better writer. And of course, using Alice in Wonderland as one of the examples gets bonus points from me.

After learning a little about reading and what to look for, the book moves to a Journal Prompts section. Again, this is a wise move, as regular writing, and regular journal writing is essential for writers. The journal prompts tend to focus on things such as what kind of superhero power would you like to have, or what kind of wishes would you ask for from a genie. I felt that this was slanted slightly more to the young male audience, though I suspect that's a pretty stereotyped response. I think I would have liked to have seen some prompts that were more 'neutral' in tone.

There is a section on writing poetry, which I find difficult to assess. I'm not much for poetry, myself, though I've written and published some. And I found it odd that Haiku's were included as a writing assignment, though the definition of a Haiku was not. Okay...not entirely true... the books says that a haiku is:
Haiku is a Japanese style of poetry that consists of three main components, although they are not necessarily required: Haiku has three lines, with the syllable pattern 5-7-5. Haiku poems are usually about a contrast between two items. Many haiku poems have a seasonal reference.
This was a little confusing, even to me and I can't imagine an elementary school student making sense of this. So...a Haiku does NOT have to have a syllable pattern of 5-7-5? And would a third or fourth grade student know what a 'syllable pattern' means?

I did like, however, the 'opinion writing' section. Not everyone will write fiction, but most successful adults will need to write some sort of reports or forms, and essays and memoirs are a very popular form of writing today. This was handled well.

The book is very colorful, and will certainly attract a younger reader's attention, though some of the material inside will go over their heads. There is information on where/how to get more worksheets for free, from the internet, which is a nice addition and helps for teachers who may use this in class.

Looking for a good book? There are parts of this book, Write It Your Way, that I would find useful today, for myself, and parts of the book that I think could be beyond even the above average student's ken, but altogether I think this is a book worth using, and libraries and teachers should really find it helpful.

I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher, through Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review.