The Write Your Roots Student Book contains all 30 steps, each one containing exercises to learn, practice, and apply the skills while writing a book chronicling your family’s stories and history.
Write Your Roots
Write Your Roots not only makes writing meaningful and gives students practice in all writing skills, but it is a book that every family wants to own. By researching and interviewing family members, students (who have more time and energy than their parents) record all those stories that parents wish were in print. Thus, the record goes on.
Write Your Roots will have your students write 12 stories that will be tweaked several times for excellence in writing. More advanced students can continue to write a story per week while revising previously written stories. Some benefits of using Write Your Roots:
- Write for a reason
- Have the joy of discovering your family’s uniqueness
- Watch God’s hand at work in His own history
- Practice the thrill of investigation
- Learn how to research online
- Learn how to do historical research in libraries and government offices
- Spend time with family members, building and collecting stories
- Complete a writing assignment every week to add to the book
- Work together as a family
- Add to the family history collection
- Laugh a lot!
What objectives are taught in Write Your Roots?
- Write for a reason
- Have the joy of discovering your family's uniqueness
- Watch God's hand at work in His own history
- Practice the thrill of investigation
- Learn how to research online
- Learn how to do historical research in libraries and government offices
- Spend time with family members, building and collecting stories
- Complete a writing assignment every week to add to the book
- Practice describing
- Build Vocabulary and select most appropriate words
- Learn parts of speech and how to use them
- Practice using transition words and how to use them
- Learn how to vary sentences for greater interest
- Learn how to organize thoughts into paragraphs and chapters
- Use imagination in creating titles
- Learn how to edit
- Learn and practice grammar rules
- Learn and practice spelling rules
- Learn and practice capitalization rules
- Learn and practice punctuation rules
- Design layout and book covers
- Plan a celebration to present the book
- Have a finished book for a portfolio
- Work together as a family
- Add to the family history collection
- Laugh a lot!
Steps contained in Write Your Roots (Each step is a section of the book containing exercises and activities):
- Step 1: Dare to start: How do I get started?
- Step 2: Collect: What do I already have?
- Step 3: Discover: What are my family roots?
- Step 4: Interview: How do I ask?
- Step 5: Decide: What stories should I write?
- Step 6: Divide: How do I make paragraphs?
- Step 7: Get unstuck: How do I conquer writer's block?
- Step 8: Describe I: How can I show what's happening?
- Step 9: Describe II: How else can I show what's happening?
- Step 10: Dollarize I: What's the best word to use?
- Step 11: Dollarize II: What word's don't I need?
- Step 12: Diversify I: How do I vary my sentences?
- Step 13: Diversify II: How do I vary my sentence starters?
- Step 14: Revise: But, why do I have to change what I've written?
- Step 15: Organize: What comes first?
- Step 16: Open and Close: How do I begin and end?
- Step 17: Correct Grammar I: What's wrong with my grammar?
- Step 18: Correct Grammar II: What's wrong with my grammar?
- Step 19: Correct Grammar III: What's wrong with my grammar?
- Step 20: Correct Spelling I: What's wrong with my spelling?
- Step 21: Correct Spelling II: What's wrong with my spelling?
- Step 22: Correct Spelling III: What's wrong with my spelling?
- Step 23: Correct Capitalization: What's wrong with my capitalization?
- Step 24: Correct Abbreviations and Numbers: What's wrong with my abbreviations and numbers?
- Step 25: Correct Punctuation I: What's wrong with my punctuation?
- Step 26: Correct Punctuation II: What's wrong with my punctuation?
- Step 27: Clean Up: Is everything correct?
- Step 28: Design a Book Cover: How do I want it to look?
- Step 29: Publish Your Book: How do I print it?
- Step 30: Look, World! Who want's to see my book?
Step 1: Dare to Start: How do I get started?
Each Step has 3 sections:
Learn
The Learn section is for you, as coach, to do WITH your student.
Practice/Prepare
The Practice/Prepare section is for the student to do independently, as reinforcement, of what they learned.
Apply
The Apply section is for them to apply what they have learned to their own novel.
Write Your Roots
The Write Your Roots Teacher’s Guide contains general instructions, additional resources, an overview for each lesson, information for each step, and answers for the pre-tests.