Jump In, 2nd Edition ~ A Review

Over the past weeks my daughter has been writing with Jump In, 2nd Edition from Writing with Sharon Watson. This Middle School Composition course is a two semester course. This course is specifically written for 5-8 grade. There are 98 lessons in the Student Workbook. 

Throughout the year students will learn to write in the following modes:

1. persuasion
2. exposition
3. description
4. narration

To break it down a bit further students will write:

• Opinion
• Persuasion
• Cause and Effect
• A Newspaper Article
• A How-to
• A Report
• A Biography
• Compare and Contrast
• A Book Report
• A Book Response
• Description
• Narration
• Poetry

Many students are overwhelmed when they hear the work WRITING. They assume that it is too hard or that they are just not good at writing. From several of my children having previously worked through the 1st Edition of Jump In, I know that this program works. I was eager to see the changes implemented in the 2nd Edition as well as having my 6th and final kiddo work her way through this edition of Jump In. Some of the changes to the 2nd Edition of Jump In are:

• Students begin writing a persuasive paragraph first
• More practice in writing paragraphs before essays are introduced
• Lessons on writing paragraphs
• For compare and contrast young students will be introduced to Venn diagrams and more advanced students charts
• Student Checklists
• Writing Schedules
• Mistake Medic
• Digital Lessons on how to write work cited pages
• Teacher grading grids
• Writing Prompt Program for Teachers
• DIGITAL VERSION NOW AVAILABLE 

My daughter will be going into the 6th grade this Fall. Jump In was the perfect fit for her. She was able to do most of the work on her own. She was quit reluctant as writing is not something she is very confident in yet. My hope it that by the time she completes the program she will feel much more confident in her writing abilities. I love that the 2nd edition starts out with an opinion paragraph first. Kids definitely have opinions! "Jump In, 2nd Edition begins with persuasion instead of exposition essays because wary students more likely will write to convince someone of something than they will write a report. The research report now comes in the middle of the year." 

Rough Draft/Supporting Sentences for an Opinion Paragraph

What I really liked about the curriculum is that the lessons are broken down into manageable chunks. Lessons are not intimidating for students and do not take more than about 20 minutes a day. The material is written in age appropriate language so that students are able to work independently. Students thoroughly interact within the workbook before they are asked to write a paragraph or essay.  

I had my daughter jump forward to writing a book report after she worked on her opinion section. I thought that over the summer it would be a good idea to write a few book reports after reading some of her summer books. My daughter also loved working on the topic of persuasion, lol. I am sure like most it isn't hard for most kiddos to come up with ideas and words to persuade others. 

The Teacher Guide has schedules for a one-year, two-year, and a three-year plan for maximum flexibility. 

I would definitely recommend Jump In, 2nd Edition to others. 

To read more reviews click here. 

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