Simply Classical Writing REVIEW

Memoria Press comes through again with a curriculum written for special needs learners (slower-paced and more repetition).  Simply Classical Writing Book One: Step-by-Step Sentences (Bible Story Edition) and Simply Classical Writing Book Two: Step-by-Step Sentences (Bible Story Edition) with Teacher Key.  They are recommended for 1st-3rd grade.  I received physical copies of these softcover books.  I received a copy of Book One, Book Two, and the Teacher Key for Book Two. Book One referenced a teacher key but I do not see one available on their site.  It does not seem to need a key since it is pretty self-explanatory as you go through the lessons and follow the suggestions at the beginning of the book.  When I reviewed the information in order to decide on doing this review I COMPLETELY missed that this was written for special needs students.  That being said, it has NOT been too easy for Little Bug.  It has been a good challenge for her especially as she slowly learns to follow directions!

Book One has 118 pages and consists of 34 weeks of lessons (an entire year of curriculum). There is a nice Certificate of Completion and a template at the end of the book (that can be photocopied) that has a blank outline for the weekly lessons for extra practice.  Book One includes Teacher Notes and Rules About Sentences at the beginning of the book.  The Rules about Sentences include things like the basics, types of sentences, essentials ("I" is always capitalized), spacing, sentence structure, special rules (i.e. contractions), etc.  The Teacher Notes include suggested supplies, about and how to teach the curriculum, day by day suggested schedules and special instructions on how to adapt the program if it is too easy or difficult.  There are suggestions for One, Two, Three, or Four-day schedules.  The schedule we chose was to use the program 4 days per week which allowed me to break the lessons down into VERY short lessons.

Teacher Notes

Sample Rules about Sentences

This is the "Bible Story Edition" so the recommended bible to use for Book One is "A Child's Garden of Bible Stories."  but the instructions mention that you can also use any child's bible you would like that would cover the topics that are assigned.  We used "The Child's Story Bible" by Catherine F. Vos.  The bible is simply used to read the current Bible story being covered.

A typical week that consists of 4 days for us included Little Bug writing the date and her name at the top of the page.  There is a title (the Bible story to read) and a small picture for her to color if she wants.  Then there is a list of directions to follow every day:

• Learn the Rules (from the Rules about Sentences pages)
• Apply the Rules (use colored pencils/crayons to mark examples of the rules)
• Write the Rules (includes decodable and read-aloud sentences, creating a sentence, and a challenge sentence)

Weekly lesson samples

For Day 1 we would complete the first page that included writing the date and her name, reading the bible story, and then the daily directions.  Then we would do the Decodable Sentence that included copying the sentence exactly as she saw it on the page.  There is also a scripture at the bottom of each week that you can use as memorization for the week.

Reading passages from our Bible

For Day 2 we would review the rules and read and copy the Read-a-loud sentence.

For Day 3 we would complete the Create a Sentence which entailed using the rules to capitalize the beginning of the sentence and remembering to use the proper end mark.  Then she would use crayons to circle the rules.  Some example of the rules:

• Green for Go - circle capital letters in green
• Red for stop - circle end marks in red
• Blue for special - circle names of people, places, and things in blue

For Day 4 we would not do the Challenge Sentence because she is just not ready for that right now (she just completed kindergarten) but we did discuss the story.  She did Illustrate the story (by drawing a picture) but again, I did not have her describe her picture in writing, just verbally.  We will work on the more intense writing in the fall.

Because I don't want her to miss out on the extra writing exercises we are going to table this curriculum to be used in the fall.  I am excited to know we will have this part of her curriculum covered!

Book Two TOC

I also received Book Two Student Guide with the Teacher Key. Book Two Teacher Key has 155 pages consisting of a Table of Contents, Teacher Notes (same as Book One), and Rules About Sentences (same as Book One).  It also covers 34 weeks of lessons for a full year of curriculum.  The recommended Bible to use for Book Two is "The Story Bible" (2011, Concordia Publishing House).  In Book Two you will cover Sentences, Nouns, Pronouns, Verbs, Agreement, Commas & Apostrophes, Synonyms & Antonyms, Describing, and Organizing.  There are reviews built in throughout the year.

Book Two Student Guide and Teacher Key

A typical week in Book Two consists of:

• Lesson A: Apply te Rules
• Lesson B: Build Your Skills
• Lesson C: Choose Descriptive Words
• Lesson D: Draw and Describe

Book Two Week 1 Sample lesson

The lessons are much the same format as in Book One but at a more advanced level.  You are still writing and copying sentences but again, at a more advanced level with more inferences for your sentence structure.  For example, sometimes you are answering a question to form the sentences you are writing.  There are also fill-in-the-blank sections.  At the end of the book, there is an Appendix that includes a listing of the weekly lessons with a coordinating scripture and pages to read from "The Story Bible."  The lessons are simple and short just as in Book One. Unless we accelerate through Book One, Book Two will be perfect for her 2nd-grade curriculum.

Little Bug is enjoying the lessons and the shortness of the lessons makes it even better and doable for her.  We give Simply Classical Writing Book One: Step-by-Step Sentences (Bible Story Edition) and Simply Classical Writing Book Two: Step-by-Step Sentences (Bible Story Edition) with Teacher Key a thumbs up and will add it to our scheduled curriculum in the fall.





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Please be sure to check out the other reviews on this and a few of their other curriculum by selecting the graphic link below.