Writers on the Way Debuts!

We're in the middle of our 2012-2013 school year at Constellation Academy Home School Resources Network and well on the way to being an adventure packed two semesters of teaching, learning - and writing on the way!

As I anticipated my students to be doing a lot of writing in various forms, I also had planned to start this blog journal of some of their remarkable works in the second semester.  However, I simply could not resist kicking off the WRITERS ON THE WAY blog this first semester, after seeing some of the creative and thoughtful works already coming off the tips of their pens!  To that end -

WELCOME TO

WRITERS
ON THE WAY . . .

A Journal of

Remarkable Compositions 

by Student Writers at

Constellation Academy!

Inspired by our STARLIGHT STORY STUDIES this semester - literature driven unit studies encompassing whole language skills with an emphasis on comprehension, articulation, composition, critical thinking and Biblical reasoning of materials studied, connecting the dots toward whole thought - there is plenty of inspiration to spark "remarkable compositions" from these homeschool students!

Our Primary (K-4, K-5 to Grade 1) have already wrapped up seven weeks of discovery exploring literature, language arts, history, art, and Bible through select picture books from My First Little House Series - adapted stories from the Laura Ingalls Wilder classic, Little House in the Big Woods.  They learned about "narration" and practiced their penmanship through weekly Goal Sheet activities worked on at home with mom, and then reviewed on class day with Miss Kathy in a Show & Tell style.

Elementary students (Grades 2-4) have been enjoying the unabridged Little House in the Big Woods, in addition to associated studies in American history - specifically, the many inventions that came of age during the long lifetime of Laura Ingalls Wilder from the mid-19th to the mid-20th centuries.  Weekly Goal Sheet assignments include foundations for writing skills through the in-depth and critical language study of the book text.  Students become "story detectives" discovering HOW the writer has crafted the tale through the proper use of grammar, punctuation, parts of speech, and the colorful figures of speech that make the written word really "pop" with dynamic!

A SMART READER MAKES A GREAT WRITER!

Intermediate level students (Grades 5-9) have traveled through time to the Middle Ages with Marguerite de Angeli's Newbery Award winning The Door in the Wall.  By this age, students are spending a great deal of time writing and writing and writing - outlining and writing - breaking down the text chapter by chapter to mine every paragraph for the treasure of quality language usage hidden there.

Second semester - beginning in January 2012 - will bring more of the same, this time centering all studies on the Civil War era for both Elementary and Intermediate, in addition to a seven week springtime series for the Primary students on the life and writings of Beatrix Potter.

Launching in January, too, will be the focus group, WRITER ON THE WAY, where students will exercise all their language skills to write and publish works of word art.  And, therein lies the purpose for this blog - an extension of our home Constellation Academy blog - designed specifically to publish the written works of our homeschool students.

Constellation Academy is proud to create a forum to highlight the growing skills of all our Writers on the Way, and hope to see great fruitful trees of prose, poetry, and journalistic accomplishment grow from this humble blogging seed.

With ink in the pen . . .

Miss Kathy