It's full of tips for reviewing written works and offering suggestions for improvement. In addition, the activity ideas increase vocabulary and creativity with words. Teaching writing becomes more fun after implementing the program.
The part I struggled with was how long to spend revising works. My son and I wrote a paper together, but it seemed to take way to long to complete. There were numerous issues with his writing such as organization, and complete sentences. To me it was important to address them all. My 13 year old daughter could easily freewrite stories that were many pages long. In fact, she wrote ten chapters. The volume of output from her was impressive, but tackling a ten chapter book for revision was a daunting task. We pushed through it, but it was too big for her level of writing.
Enter my friend April. I recommend Brave Writer to April, and she loved it. A few months after using it, she described her implementation of the philosophy. Well it was brilliant, so now I use her implementation too. Here's how it works.
Three week cycles are repeated and one new paper is completed each cycle.
Week 1
Monday - Freewrite on assigned topic (This will become the finished paper of the cycle.)
Tuesday - Writing activity
Wednesday - Writing activity
Thursday - Revision 1 to assigned paper
Friday - Freewrite Friday
Week 2
Monday - Revision 2 to assigned paper
Tuesday - Writing activity
Wednesday - Writing activity
Thursday - Clean rewrite of assigned paper
Friday - Freewrite Friday
Week 3
Monday - Editing work on assigned paper
Tuesday - Writing activity
Wednesday - Writing activity
Thursday - Finish/Publish assigned paper
Friday - Freewrite Friday
On Tuesdays and Wednesdays April usually studies grammar for writing activities. We sometimes study grammar, but also use the time for poetry tea times, copywork, dictation, and writing activities from the Writer's Jungle and from Brave Writer's Daily Writing Tips.
During each revision phase I select one aspect of the paper to improve. Introductory sentences that grab attention, organization of the paper, sentence structure, and adding details to vague descriptions are some areas which have received attention. I work with each child individually for revisions as each paper and child has unique needs. Although two revision cycles rarely make a paper shine, they do make it brighter. Repeating this cycle ensures some written works will make it all the way through the revision phase. Each time a paper receives revision attention, future freewrites seem to improve.
Limiting the days spent on the cycle's paper to two per week works well so as not to overwhelm the children. They have time to digest what they have written and are ready to visit the paper when revision time comes.
Of all the weekly writing activities, both my children and April's like freewrite Fridays the best. Both of us are just happy the kids are writing and enjoying it.
* I did not receive any compensation for this recommendation. I'm just a homeschooling mom who has found many products that I like. If you're interested in the products I recommend on this blog I want to make it easy for you to find them.
** I am an Amazon associate and receive a small portion of the sales on orders made after clicking in from this site, which I promptly spend on homeschooling books and supplies for my children.
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