Essentials in Writing covers language arts (other than reading and literature) for grades one through twelve with online video lectures and student textbooks. While Essentials in Writing courses cover all requirements for writing and grammar, students in grades seven through twelve might also use Essentials in Literature courses (from the same publisher) that were designed to complement Essentials in Writing courses. High school students should use the two courses together to earn one credit.
The courses are labeled for levels 1 through 12, corresponding to grade levels. The sequence of topics is somewhat similar from level to level. Lower levels begin with instruction on sentence structure and grammar and then shift more toward composition work. A transition from the basics of grammar to the study of more complex sentence structures happens during grades seven and eight. High school courses begin with sentence structure (e.g., clauses and proper construction) and progress through paragraphs, essays, and research papers. There is enough repetition that you might even be able to skip a year once or twice. The parts of speech (but not diagramming skills) are introduced gradually, beginning in first grade. The instruction on composition skills is more advanced than in many other programs.
Video instructor Matthew Stephens is energetic, interacting with an unseen classroom of students for each level. He works on a whiteboard while teaching. Video lessons vary in length depending on the complexity of the topics. Each course includes access to streamed videos for 12 months, and a set of one to six DVDs per course is also available as an option for all except levels 9 and 10.
A student worktext is required for each student, and you can purchase digital or print versions. (Purchase of printed books includes access to digital versions.) The pages in the printed books are spiral-bound and feature a large font and plenty of space to write at the younger levels.
There is often a significant amount of instructional material in the student workbooks, especially at higher levels. For each lesson, students watch a video lesson and then complete pages in the worktext—usually two or more pages per lesson. Sometimes students will watch a video lesson and then work on assignments for up to three days.
Even though there is repetition from year to year, much more time is spent developing writing skills rather than studying grammar. This means these courses are likely to appeal to students who might be bored with the excessive review of grammar typical of many other language arts programs. The composition instruction is advanced, but Stephens teaches in manageable increments, walking students through the steps of the writing process on most assignments. He always models the type of writing students are to do. So while the writing instruction might be more advanced, it is not more difficult. In addition, graphic organizers make it easy for students to organize their ideas before beginning to write, and checklists help students verify that they have met the requirements of an assignment.
The second editions of these courses—available for grades one through ten—have a teacher handbook and an optional Assessment/Resource Booklet. The teacher handbook has brief instructions, a course syllabus, a suggested lesson plan, and an answer key for the lesson activities. The optional Assessment/Resource Booklet for each course runs about 100 pages, so it's more substantial than you would think for something called a booklet. Assessments cover one lesson or a group of lessons, depending on the content of those lessons, and there are two comprehensive unit assessments. These booklets also have answer keys for the assessments. Other resources in the Assessment/Resource Booklets vary by grade level. These might include a spelling dictionary (with space for students to add words), lists of descriptive adjectives to improve student writing, writing checklists, and graphic organizers for compositions. Some full-color printing has been added to the second editions of the student texts.
While most of the teaching is provided via the videos, some parental interaction will be necessary. Younger children might need a lot of assistance, and older students will probably need to discuss their ideas for their compositions and get feedback as they proceed. The evaluation rubrics in the upper-level student books should be very helpful for parents.
For parents of students in grades six through twelve who want more help, an optional scoring service is available. With this service, students can submit one composition for each Essentials in Writing assignment. They receive it back with a rubric that has a score and detailed comments and suggestions. (Note that EIW has a restrictive refund policy for the scoring service, so you should read the details in advance.)
Each course also comes with an Alternative Instructional Strategies document that helps parents accommodate students' learning needs. This document (about 20 pages) offers both general suggestions usable throughout a course and other suggestions for individual lessons.
Summary
Essentials in Writing courses free up parents’ time by providing video instruction for students to watch. The courses require little to no preparation time and are very easy to use.
The publisher's website has samples from each course. You can read more course details below.
Level 1
First grade begins with word and sentence formation, including capitalization and punctuation. It also introduces nouns, adjectives, and action verbs as parts of speech. Students learn to write lists, paragraphs, letters, and narratives.
Level 2
The course for second grade teaches sentences, subjects, predicates, nouns (common, proper, singular, and plural), pronouns, verbs (action verbs and linking verbs), present and past verb tenses, adjectives, capitalization, and punctuation. For composition, it introduces the writing process, teaching students how to write paragraphs, personal letters, personal narratives, and imaginative narratives.
Level 3
This course covers sentences, simple and complete subjects, simple and complete predicates, nouns (common, proper, singular, plural, and possessive), pronouns and antecedents, adjectives, verbs (action and linking), verb tenses (present, past, and future), capitalization, punctuation, and simple and compound sentences. Working through the writing process, children learn to write expository paragraphs and letters, persuasive paragraphs and letters, and descriptive paragraphs and narratives. The level ends with step-by-step instructions for creating a visual presentation for a research project.
Level 4
Fourth graders review subjects and predicates, adding compound subjects and predicates. They expand their knowledge about sentences to include more-complex sentence forms as well as independent and dependent clauses. Nouns, pronouns, adjectives, and verbs are reviewed, and prepositional phrases are introduced. Students also cover the figurative language concepts of onomatopoeia, simile, and metaphor. Composition work includes writing paragraphs, a news article, a narrative, a persuasive letter, an expository essay, and a research project. Writing a bibliography is taught with a fill-in-the-blank method for sources.
Level 5
Level 5 reviews sentences, subjects, predicates, clauses, nouns, pronouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs. It adds work with prepositions and prepositional phrases. It teaches the use of both vivid language and figurative language. The composition instruction covers paragraphs, personal letters, personal narratives, summaries, compare/contrast writing, persuasive writing, and a research project.
Level 6
This course covers most of the same topics from the fifth level again, adding the use of appositives, writing with a point of view, writing expository essays, writing persuasive letters, and completing a research project. It spends significantly more time on expository essays and the research project in comparison to other topics.
Level 7
Level 7 is presented in two units. The first unit covers grammar in all 20 lessons, then concludes with two lessons on paraphrasing and writing summaries. The second unit is entirely devoted to composition work. Students learn to write various types of paragraphs, a personal narrative, a business letter, a personal letter, an expository essay, and a research paper. The lessons walk students through the writing process for each type of composition one step at a time over several lessons to keep it manageable. Fifteen lessons teach students how to do the research paper. Students will need a stack of 3" x 5" cards for recording information about each source and notetaking. Checklists and grading rubrics showing possible points for each aspect of student compositions are in the student text. Students will use the checklists, and parents will use the other form to fill in points earned for each aspect and the total points for the composition. The composition lessons at this level are challenging enough that this course could also be used by older students who haven’t yet mastered the skills taught in these lessons.
Level 8
The first unit (24 lessons) teaches grammar at the level needed for writing in eighth grade. Students learn about the proper usage of verbs, adjectives, adverbs, prepositional phrases, pronouns (and their antecedents), and gerunds, as well as topics such as clauses, complex sentences, summaries, and paraphrasing. The first unit also emphasizes the use of vivid language to help students improve the quality of their compositions. The second unit is much larger with 69 lessons. This unit teaches students how to write paragraphs, essays, business letters, and research papers (with a bibliography). Students work through the writing process numerous times as they draft, edit, and rewrite their papers.
Levels 9 and 10
Both of these courses are presented in two units with the first focused on grammar, sentence structure, mechanics, and common problems. The first unit has slightly more than a quarter of the lessons in both courses, and the second unit teaches composition skills, including various types of essays and a research paper. Samples are included so students know what is expected. At the end of each course, students prepare and present a speech.
The writing prompts are especially interesting and require higher levels of thinking. For example, a prompt on page 144 of Level 9 asks, "Should social media platforms like Instagram enforce a minimum age requirement for users? Write a paragraph defending your point of view." Both courses require students to cite external resources for a compare/contrast essay as well as their research paper.
Level 10 often repeats instructional topics from Level 9 but with different layouts, examples, and assignments. While it might be redundant in the first unit, it is not in the second unit since students will be responding to different prompts and writing about new topics.
Levels 11 and12
Levels 11 and 12 are still first editions, and these two courses are very similar to one another, gradually increasing in the level of difficulty. They review sentence structure and paragraphs. This allows students with weak backgrounds in these areas to work at their grade level. Work on essays and research papers gradually increases in difficulty, and students tackle many different types of essays. Eleventh grade adds skills for writing about literature. Research papers are required to include the MLA (Modern Language Association) format for citations, including a list of works cited. Stephens teaches students how to write their own citations, and he also recommends internet sites that do much of the work of formatting citations for you. (It is not cheating to use these websites since the mechanics of creating citations are complex, varying by the type of reference work. Professional authors and academics often use them.) High school students should probably have an MLA Handbook for reference. While Stephens explains how to look up MLA guidelines on the internet, having the MLA Handbook is probably more efficient.
For grades 11 and 12, brief instructions to parents are found in a "Letter to Parent" in the course books, and there are no teacher handbooks. Those instructions suggest helpful options, such as alternating essay writing with work on a research paper. These two courses do not require answer keys; instead, they have rubrics with scoring guides that assist parents in evaluating compositions. In addition, there are samples of student work within the worktexts so parents have something to which they can compare their own student's work. The samples also help students understand what is expected.
