How to help your student write “Wicked Good Prose”

As a former homeschool mom, one of the areas I felt was the most difficult for me personally to teach was Writing and English. I love writing! How in the world could that be so difficult? Math was my hardest subject, shouldn’t that have been the hardest to teach? Yes and no.

With math, there’s one thing that made it a little easier to teach, and it’s not that much of a secret. Want to know that little tidbit of information that made math somewhat easier to teach? The answers were in the back of the book or at least in the answer key. Facepalm! So yes, math was not so bad until we got into the higher maths and I could call in backup, also known as Dad, and then even I go even higher up and call in the accountant known as Grandpapa.

With Writing though, I was so afraid of crushing their creativity and every time I circled, marked through, and make suggestions, I felt like I was a dictator crushing them by saying it was not good enough. Try getting a middle schooler to rewrite a sentence that doesn’t support their thesis without a battle was a challenge, to say the least, much less a high schooler.

Teaching writing can be a real struggle even if you are a really good writer yourself. I can’t even imagine teaching AP writing. Enter Constance Hale, the author of “Sin and Syntax: How to Craft Wicked Good Prose”. She has an amazing ebook called “Constance Hale’s Lesson Plans for Teachers”, to help teachers with teaching writing. I wish I had this set when my children were still being homeschooled. She sent me a copy of her ebook that contains the lesson plans that go with her book to look at, and they are amazing. It has complete lesson plans so everything is already laid out for you. It’s even used in AP English classes.

The ebook includes:

• The lessons in Suite One (“Working With Words” and “Working With Sentences”) focus especially on grammar & writing. They are organized to correspond to chapters of the book, marching through the parts of speech and then the dynamics of a sentence. You can compress the lessons into a few weeks or stretch them out for an entire year.

• The Lessons in Suite Two (“Making Music”) are especially appropriate if you are teaching writers at a more advanced level. In some cases, I have given different iterations of exercises for different age levels.

• The e-book includes handouts and answer keys.

With everything going on right now, she has a special offer for teachers from now until September 1, 2020, her lesson plans are free! She is asking that if you can afford them at $4.99 (still a great bargain) please purchase the ebook, but if you can not, then you can have the lesson plans for free. Just please do not distribute or copy them and give them out and be sure to thank her! You can purchase her book or see if your local library has a copy.

Constance Hale has traveled the world teaching writing and is an accomplished writer, teacher, and long-time editor that wants you and your students to excel at writing and the English language. To check out her ebook “Constance Hale’s Lesson Plans for teachers”, and her other books click the link below.