Write with World

From the publishers of God's World News and WORLD Magazine comes a new writing curriculum for grades 6-9 called "Write With WORLD".  I like it.  I really like it.  It takes a new approach and is quite different than other things I've seen out there. The more I look at the lessons, the more I want to try it out with my two sons, who are not reluctant to write, but have a difficult time organizing their ideas into a coherent piece.  Plus, they often need concrete guidelines as to what to write about and this program does just that.

Write with WORLD uses what reminds me of  a "journalistic" approach to writing.  Writing based on photographs, current articles and interviews.  And the lessons are broken down into what they call "capsules", very short lessons that can be written in a writer's journal.  The lessons also prepare you for supplies you may need, like Post-it notes, index cards, photographs, a thesaurus, etc.  For students who become easily frustrated with writing, these assignments are not exhaustive.

The curriculum is written by writers from God's World News and WORLD magazine and they speak to the student as "fellow writers".  There is a section in each lesson called "The Right Word" where five new vocabulary words are introduced, so you could use this as a vocabulary curriculum as well.  They also tackle the 20 most common grammar mistakes used by U.S. college students.  So, you could say this is a complete writing/grammar/vocabulary program. 

From the Table of Contents, you can see what topics this curriculum covers:

Table of Contents:

YEAR ONE CURRICULUM
INTRODUCTION

UNIT #1: DEVELOPING CRITICAL READERS

Lesson 1: Reading Images and Advertisements
Lesson 2: Comparative Reading: Sentences
Lesson 3: Comparative and Critical Reading: Paragraphs
Lesson 4: Critical Reading: Essays

UNIT#2: DEVELOPING WRITERS: BUILDING BLOCKS AND BIOGRAPHY

Lesson 1: The Paragraph
Lesson 2: Composing and Linking Sentences
Lesson 3: Creating Focus and Arranging Ideas
Lesson 4: Linking Paragraphs: Transitions and Logic

UNIT #3: WRITING AUTOBIOGRAPHY

Lesson 1: Reporting Facts
Lesson 2: Creating Character
Lesson 3: Developing Ideas with Specificity
Lesson 4: Writing Autobiography

UNIT #4: CRAFTING NARRATIVES

Lesson 1: Developing a Point of View
Lesson 2: Showing vs. Telling
Lesson 3: Narrative with a Purpose
Lesson 4: Writing a Fictional Narrative

YEAR TWO CURRICULUM

UNIT #1: REPORTING AND INTERPRETING: MAKING NEWS

Lesson 1: Working with Controversy
Lesson 2: Conducting Interviews
Lesson 3: Reporting a Story
Lesson 4: Developing a Feature

UNIT #2: REVIEWING TEXTS

Lesson 1: Good or Bad, Like or Dislike: Working with Criteria
Lesson 2: Evaluating a Current Event
Lesson 3: Reporting on a Book
Lesson 4: Writing about controversy

UNIT #3: CRAFTING AN OPINION: JOINING A CONVERSATION

Lesson 1: Reading as a Believer and as a Doubter
Lesson 2: Critiquing an Opinion Statement
Lesson 3: Responding to Opinion: Your Voice
Lesson 4: Your Opinion: a Response

UNIT #4: THE ESSAY

Lesson 1: Opportunity, Material, and Reasons
Lesson 2: Writing the Short Essay
Lesson 3: Revealing your thinking and addressing audience concerns
Lesson 4: Writing your Essay

For a sample lesson from Write With WORLD, click here

For $95 per year, you receive a student workbook and a teacher's guide.  For two year's worth of curriculum, you only pay $165.  The teacher's guide is everything the student has in their book, plus marginal notes and lesson plan ideas.  Sometimes the lessons use articles from God's World News or WORLD magazine, but the curriculum could certainly be used independently from these. 

I am currently using a different writing program, but I kind of stopped in my tracks once I took a look at this.  This could really be what we've been searching for!  With full-color, modern and relevant photographs and the "I'm talking directly to you" style from the authors, I think my sons would really respond to this program.  In all, I give it high marks.

See what my Crew-mates thought of this program at this link.

Disclaimer:  I was provided with a review copy of Write With WORLD, Year One.  I have not been required to write a positive review, just an honest one based on our own experience using this product.