Schoolhouse Review ~ Time 4 Writing, Extreme Paragraphs
Independent online writing program to help kids learn how to write great sentences. Each lesson has a video to teach by example, then they complete the lessons and submit it for grading.
Disclosure: I received a free copy of this product for review, all opinions are 100% my own.
Time4Writing is an online writing program, providing writing courses from elementary through high school. The courses are available in basic, intermediate, and advanced levels.
The courses are designed to be independently done by the student, with a certified teacher to grade the work. The teacher is also available by message system to answer questions the student or parent may have. Each course lasts 8 weeks in length.
We were given the opportunity to review one of their courses this summer. Our oldest daughter has been working on the elementary course Extreme Paragraphs.
When your student logs in the first page they are greeted with has a help section in the center and a “My Courses” bar on the right-hand side. In this bar they can navigate to each course they are working on.
After going to the course home page, they are able to view an orientation video, see a photo of their teacher, and see the course units listed out.
Our course started out with the orientation and sending an introduction letter to your teacher. In this same area are scheduling ideas and other helps.
This course is broken down into 8 units.
Unit 1 ~ The Topic Sentence
Unit 2 ~ Supporting Details
Unit 3 ~ Closing Sentences
Unit 4 ~ Simple and Compound Sentences
Unit 5 ~ Go with the flow
Unit 6 ~ Awesome, Amazing, Alluring Adjectives
Unit 7 ~ Descriptive Paragraphs,
Unit 8 ~ Narrative Paragraphs
Within each unit are different activities to complete. They start with a video that introduces the lesson and gives some examples. Then there are games to match and select the right answers. There are also some quizzes, multiple choice style.
In between these activities are writing assignments that the students working and submit for grading. They can not move on with the lessons until receiving their grade. Normally this takes 24 hours, sometimes less.
So what did we think of this program?
Overall we have enjoyed it. My daughter loves typing and working on the computer so that part was a great fit. However, I found that for her there were not enough examples for each topic.
The videos are also fast-paced and she often had to watch them a few times before she could catch everything that was said.
Since she didn’t want to wait to have replied back to about questions, I would help her when a topic needed more examples.
Since the course is only 8 weeks long, this is a better use of time. Also since she is a visual learner, my help is easier than reading an email from a teacher.
I think the grading for quizzes is a little on the easy side. The student has the option of taking the quiz twice and the highest score will be kept.
This is after being shown the correct answers and an explanation on why it was the right one.
On one hand, I like this, as it does give more practice with the work. This is not something I normally do in our lessons though.
Yes, we go over the wrong questions and use them as a way to improve, but I do not let children rewrite a test. I think this was a great opportunity for dd to have her work graded by another person.
I think it’s a good fit for children who like to work independently or love online lessons.
