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Archive for the ‘General’ Category
Summer Specialty Issues
Summer is around the corner which means good things at Brave Writer. Every year, I produce specialty issues for our language arts subscription programs to give moms a burst of inspiration for the coming school year. * This year, I’m thrilled to announce the contents of SIX big issues of the Arrow, Boomerang and Slingshot.
Before we get to the meat of those issues, though, I need to go over some housekeeping. The Brave Writer website is being overhauled this summer to make it more up-to-date and user friendly. We’re also installing new classroom software which will make classes a richer experience. As a result, the language arts subscription programs are also being revised and deepened. That means two things: 1) your current subscriptions will all end July 20 in anticipation of the new subscription programs to begin in August, and 2) if you don’t have a current subscription, you’ll need to purchase the June and July issues separately. These issues cost more than the typical Arrow, Boomerang and Slingshot as the content is much beefier than usual. (Those who have current monthly subscriptions through paypal will have access to these issues for no additional cost.)
Those who have purchased the Platinum package or have subscribed with a year long subscription but began that subscription some time after August will be contacted with information about how to retrieve the issues of the 2006-2007 school year that will fulfill your subscriptions. Not to worry. That information is coming to an email in-box near you some time before the end of May.
In the meantime, if you are looking for a burst of energy and inspiration for your coming school years, I commend the Arrow, Boomerang and Slingshot summer issues to you. They’re chock full of good ideas, insight and technical value. We’re selling them in pairs (cannot be purchased individually) and all six for a reduced price.
The Speciality Issues of the Arrow, Boomerang and Slingshot
Each June and July we create specialty issues to enhance your homeschool’s writing program. I’m very pleased to announce a full suite of products that are sure to add both creativity and substance to the teaching of writing as well as the atmosphere of living literature in your families.
Click here to order.
The Arrow: June and July Issues (2007)
(Grades 3-6)
June Issue – Non-Fiction: How do you know that the non-fiction your kids read is high quality? What are the literary elements of non-fiction? How much non-fiction should your kids be reading (or listening to)? Non-fiction lays a foundation for future expository writing. Reading quality non-fiction develops your child’s writing voice in ways that fiction doesn’t. We’ll explore this neglected genre of reading and how it influences writing in the June issue of the Arrow.
July Issue – Myth and Legend: Greek and Norse Gods, the Odyssey and the Illiad, the legend of Robin Hood, Beowulf… There is much rich material for young imaginations in our classic myths and legends. I’ll pick several to discuss in this issue, including the primary features of myths and legends. Also included will be a myth-making project for your young creative writers.
The issues are sold as a pair: $19.95
The Boomerang: June and July Issues (2007)
(Grades 7-9)
June Issue – Freewriting Frenzy: This issue will explore a wide variety of creative writing prompts and the goals of each one. You can use this issue to create an atmosphere of freedom and play around writing so that you aren’t always wondering how to recharge the writing battery. I’ll also discuss more about the theory of freewriting to help you grasp its value and how to better use it as a technique in your homeschool.
July Issue – Booking It: Tired of dreary book reports? Why write them? Your child read the book and you know it because you saw her curled up on the sofa reading. Still, there is value in narrating a book’s contents in written form. Instead of calling for those tedious book report formats, change pace and create fresh writing responses to a favorite novel. We’ll look at several ways to respond to novels and non-fiction that include writing and creativity.
The issues are sold as a pair: $19.95
Click here to order.
The Slingshot: June and July Issues (2007)
(Grades 10-12)
June Issue – Sources: This issue will focus on how to evaluate sources (credibility, use of Internet versus texts, the role of news media versus scholarship and so on) and how to cite them in academic writing. We’ll also look at the difference between primary and secondary sources. I’ll also give some tips on how to ensure proper use of the MLA guidelines for both citing sources and paper formatting.
July Issue – Textual Analysis: In writing about any topic (historical, religious, literary, philosophical, political), the writer is usually called on to comment on an original (or primary) text. In this issue, I’ll give you guidance on how to read a primary text and interpret it. We’ll use an interrogative approach that helps the reader engage the text both analytically as well as to generate meaning.
The issues are sold as a pair for $24.95
Click here to order.
The Arrow, Boomerang and Slingshot June and July issues are digital products and available through a private folder on the Brave Writer forums page of the website to those who purchase them. Each issue will be available online on the first of each month and will be left in the folder until the end of July. When you purchase these issues, you will be instructed to create user IDs on the forums page of our website. Then you will be added to the private permissions list of the folder that will house your issues. You will have all of June and July to retrieve your issues which can be downloaded to your computer via email or printed using a printer friendly button. These issues cannot be mailed overland and are not available in printed format.
*I realize that this blog is northern hemisphere centric and I apologize to my wonderful Brave Writer Mums down under who faithfully read this blog and participate in the BW community. I know you’re there and your school rhythms are different from ours. Thanks for bearing with us.
From the trenches
I hope you all had wonderful Mother’s Days. That date always sneaks up on me and I never quite expect it to be wonderful and for some reason, it just usually is. In addition to Mother’s Day, I went into deep recovery mode. As many of you know, I spent the last four years in grad school, taking it one class at a time (usually) with summers off (except one). As I tallied up how much writing I’ve done for grad school in those four years, it turns out I’ve written 600 pages of double spaced academic writing. 600 pages (I was kind of surprised the number was so round, actually).
I got to thinking about all that writing and what I learned from it (beyond the obvious content analysis that the writing was meant to generate). I want to share a little of that here.
- Weekly essays are too frequent.
Several of my professors liked assigning weekly writing topics. They would give us something to read and then ask for 2-4 pages of writing to a prompt related to the reading. Usually we were narrating the content and then bringing a bit of personal insight or an interrogative point of view to the topic. I found that in classes where I had to generate original writing about brand new material without the benefit of a lecture first every week, I did not learn as much as I did when I was given time to read, think, listen, discuss and then write about that topic. I often felt I was prematurely offering my thoughts before they had had time to grow inside of me.The plus side to weekly writing is that you get over the intimidation factor pretty quickly. I did get into a groove and could produce weekly essays without much angst.
- Academic writing benefits from mingling personal experience with scholarly analysis.
I usually found a point of contact between myself and the material whenever I could. My professors not only valued this, but several of them specifically asked for it from us as students. My final MA thesis has six pages at the start that trace my journey theologically which leads to the thesis and why I chose to write the paper. These introductory remarks were requested by my advisor. I want to point this out because there is still a feeling among so many homeschooling moms that academic writing is meant to be objective and impersonal. Certainly the analysis must have the air of scholarship and considered opinion, but situating the argument contextually and relating it to personal experiences is valid and in some cases, encouraged in the humanities, in particular. - Introductions need to include a “word map” of where the paper will go.
When I teach the essay, I tell my students that they need to include both a thesis and a sentence or two (at least) that suggest the direction of the paper (what points they will cover in the essay). I can’t emphasize this point enough. Scholarship depends on clarity of organization more than any other element. The reader must know where he or she is being taken and how he or she will get there. - There’s a difference between textual analysis and the use of secondary sources in analytical writing.
Usually academic writing in the humanities (philosophy, literature, theology, history, sociology, theater arts, political science) means analyzing primary sources (reading original documents and doing textual analysis) and then cross-checking that analysis against secondary sources (scholarship that offers insight into the primary source). Using tools designed for textual analysis and examining arguments of secondary sources helps you create your unique take on the topic. It’s strange, but given how many of us went through college and spent hours writing papers, I’m surprised that I have never read in the homeschooling market a book or tool that breaks this all down and helps kids understand what they are doing when they write a paper. For the June and July issues of the Slingshot, I’ll be writing tools to help you determine source credibility, how to do textual analysis (primary source work) and how to use secondary source material. In the fall, I hope to offer an essay class that works with primary and secondary sources to give your kids a feel for how it’s done.
I have many other insights to offer and will do that over the next few weeks. In the meantime, feel free to ask questions in the comments section. I can’t wait to expand what we offer through Brave Writer. It’s been such a wonderful experience being a student and I think my experiences can translate to real benefit to all of you, particularly those worried about how to prepare your teens for college writing.
So sorry about no freewrite!
I thought I had one prescheduled and didn’t even notice until now that there was no Friday Freewrite for you today. Please forgive me.
For those interested, yes, I did successfully pass my oral defense of my MA thesis and I have now officially earned the two capital letters to go behind my name: Julie Bogart, M.A. theology, Xavier University. What a thrill! I’ve started a blog entry to discuss academic writing and some of what I learned “in the trenches” for next week’s reading. Also, I will now have the time and focus to get the important fall schedule nailed down and posted. There will be book lists and important news about the language arts subscriptions coming your way soon.
In the meantime, I’m taking the weekend to unwind and celebrate. I hope you have sunshine where you are and that all is well.
Sleepy reflections on mothering…
I did what any mother would do. I manned the After Prom* trampoline from 11:15 p.m. until 5:00 a.m. After Prom needed volunteers and I needed to be where I could steal glances of my soon-to-be off-to-college daughter. I can’t stop looking at her.
Sometimes when her long red hair swings by, I see redheaded baby curls so tight, I couldn’t squeeze the fine toothed comb through them. When I catch her pointing the camera at herself, ripping off an America’s Next Top Model pose, I flash back to the careful smile and erect posture of her six year old self posing for a studio photo. And when she’s laughing her head off on the cell phone outside on the deck, I suddenly see the three year old girl jumping in circles shouting the ABC’s at the top of her lungs.
So while I stood at the head of a line of trampoline-bound teens, I kept my eyes open for Johannah. She’d fly by in the middle of a pack of friends and they’d shout, “Hey Johannah’s Mom!” And my heart skipped a beat, snapping another mental picture of Johannah at this stage which will be gone in the blink of an eye, aware that she is about to go out of our house and into her life and I can’t do anything to stop it. Nor would I.
Last night, she sent me to her Face Book where all her friends’ prom photos are posted. I discovered a place where she wrote a stream of consciousness piece that described what she loved about her life. It was filled with the wonderful details that mean a lot to anyone who knows her, like the way she loves to do Sudoku every day while she watches Oprah, or the fact that she is passionate about spelling words correctly. Right in the middle of that big long list, my heart stopped.
She wrote, “I love that my mom used to sing me lullabies and I love that I can still remember them.”
So she’s remembering too. If we can remember together and write these memories down, perhaps the baby, little girl, teenager, young woman will go with us into the future as she becomes whoever she chooses to become. I’ll miss all the girls she’s been, but I am finally looking forward to the woman she will be, too.
*After Prom: The parent-funded public school post-prom extravaganza of food, bounce houses, casino games, trampolines, movies and raffles that keeps teens off the streets and out of trouble after midnight on prom night.
