Stack the Deck Writing Program

by Robert B. Cahill and Herbert J. Hrebic and other authors

Stack the Deck, Inc.

Like so many of the best educational resources, The Stack the Deck Writing Program was developed by teachers who wanted “something better.” The “Stack the Deck” title reflects the authors’ desire to create a program that makes the writing process easy enough to grasp so that it “stacks the deck” in favor of student success.

What began as a single book has grown into a complete writing program for grades 1 through 12. While there are 12 books in the series that progress in difficulty, they do not correspond directly to grade levels.

Titles and grade levels they address are:
Explore the Deck grades 1-2
Discover the Deck grades 2-3
Check the Deck grades 3-4
Flip the Deck grades 4-5
Tap the Deck grades 5-6
Open the Deck grades 6-7
Split the Deck grades 7-8
Cut the Deck grades 8-9
Stack the Deck grades 9-12
Master the Deck grades 9-12
Fan the Deck grades 11-12
Essay Exam grades 9-12

Even with these suggested grade levels for the various books, you might use most of them for a broader span of grade levels.

With the exception of Explore the Deck and Essay Exam, for each title there is a student text and a teacher manual. (Explore the Deck has only a teacher manual, while Essay Exam has only a student text.) You definitely need the teacher manual since it includes instructions for each lesson, answer keys for predictable answers, evaluation checklist forms, and other tips and tools for teaching.

One of the distinctives of this program is that it breaks the writing process down into small, manageable steps for instruction so that students are not overwhelmed. Even at high school level, the Stack the Deck text begins with sentence construction, albeit at a higher level than taught in elementary grades. Much of this is part of the “prewriting” stage of the writing process—the stage too often rushed through in other programs. By spending adequate time in developing underlying skills such as experimenting with word order in sentences, then on planning and discussing the composition before actually writing, students develop stronger confidence and control.

Some prewriting is in the form of exercises (e.g., changing passive voice sentences to active voice). While some of these exercises focus on grammar, usage, and sentence structure, many do not have predictable answers and are not your typical exercises. Rather, they are designed to help students experiment with various approaches to writing and other goals of the particular assignment. Note that grammatical concepts such as verb tenses and parts of speech are incorporated into Stack the Deck textbooks as “applied grammar” but are not taught. Students weak on grammar and usage need to obtain that instruction through other resources.

Checklist forms are used throughout the process. For example, in Stack the Deck (high school level text) at the end of the prewriting stage, students are given a “Student Objective and Evaluation Sheet” (SOES) that shows exactly which objectives are to be met with the assignment. Other checklists are used to help students “peer edit” their work at various stages of the writing process. Similar checklist grading sheets are used by the teacher.

Another strategy that helps students succeed with the Stack the Deck program is the use of models. Composition work by other students is included in the texts to be used for discussion and analysis before students tackle their own projects. Working through models helps students better understand each assignment.