This article is in collaboration with Clear Water Press and their Middle School Language Arts program.
Many people have been captivated by the opening lines of a story such as, “It was a dark and stormy night,” or “Once upon a time, in a land far, far away.” Daniel Schwabauer and Clear Water Press offer a middle school language arts curriculum, Cover Story Cloud Set, centered around the dynamics of writing a good story.
With a combination of engaging instructional videos by Daniel Schwabauer, and a physical workbook and journal, middle school students will grasp the concepts of writing through the avenue of storytelling and in various writing styles. From creative non-fiction articles to letters to poetry and more, the Cover Story Cloud Set can attract and immerse even the most reluctant writers.
The Video Lessons
Clear Water Press makes the Cover Story Cloud Set videos available instantly after purchase. Clear Water Press also sells the video lessons in DVD format. Each video lasts 15-20 minutes in length. During the video sessions, Daniel Schawabauer teaches directly to the students. Parents do not need to prepare or teach anything.
The Student Book
After watching the video lessons, students use the student book to complete their writing assignments. Cover Story assigns students to use the student book three days per week. Each assignment in the book has a focus with exercises to do. There is a wide variety of exercises in the textbook. For instance, your student will learn more about writing themes, correct sentencing, opinion writing, outlining, writing strategies and much more. Each assignment is two to three pages in length and has space within the book for the student to write their answers.
The Journal
The Remarkable Journal of Professor Gunther von Steuben is not an ordinary blank-page journal. Instead, it is filled with partial entries from the fictional professor who disappeared. The student must finish the Professor’s thoughts. Because this journal serves as an idea book for the students’ writing assignments, the Cover Story course assigns journal entries five days per week. This journal is a necessary part to this middle school language arts course.
The Teacher’s Guide
The Teacher’s Guide provides information on evaluation and grading. It also gives listings for video length times, charts coordinating topics and creative pieces, and tells parents when to administer unit tests. The Teacher Guide includes the Unit Tests in the back of the book. In addition, the Teacher’s Guide contains the answers for the optional Grammar Lessons and discussion questions to use with students.
Grammar
The Cover Story Cloud set includes twelve optional grammar lessons. These lessons are also taught through videos with worksheets available in the back of the Student Book. These worksheets focus on basic grammar skills and cover the parts of speech, tenses, subject-verb agreement and much more. Parents can assign these as a complete unit or disperse the lessons throughout the course.
A Complete Middle School Language Arts Curriculum
Cover Story takes middle school students through the process of compiling all their different writings into their own magazine. With Cover Story, students have the freedom to choose their theme and subjects for their magazine articles. They are given the tools to write well but in most assignments, the ability to choose the subject matter.
Find Clear Water Press on social media:
Click the review links below to read what the Homeschool Review Crew thought about the Cover Story set.
A special thanks to Nikki M of My Grace Filled Journal for this Introduction Article.
2 thoughts on “Add Creativity to Your Middle School Language Arts”