I am enjoying your rhetoric-level literature loom documents for Year Two. Based on what I am seeing in the appendix portions of these, I am assuming that you will be adding to these pdfs as the year proceeds. Is that a correct assumption?

Thanks for providing more distinctions between the regular lit and the honors lit writing assignments. It is easier to see where the tracks lie. Thanks. Do you plan to formally retro-fit this material into year one at all? I don't suspect that you have a timeline on that yet even if you do....

Will the folks at Write at Home be gearing up to help us moms figure out how to evaluate and really come up with a non-biased grade for these papers? Maybe someone there at TOG would like to do this - someone who isn't just steeped in the arrangement and elocution, but can help a child see the paths that they might have missed in their invention?

I'm looking forward to receiving my copy of WA in the mail. I'm hoping that it makes the grading process easiler although I suspect that I will probably never be completely comfortable with it. I tend to be one of those impatient mommas who wants a 14 year-old to think, act, and write like a 30 year old. It FEELS like insurance that he will turn out OK. Process is just so unpredictaable....

Anyway - THANKS for the new documents. We are doing year one, but I plan to start dropping mental bread-crumbs for this stuff as we go.

Peace,
Janice in NJ

Enjoy your little people
Enjoy your journey

P.S. I posted my son's Egyptian essay below. I really appreciate Deanna's comments, but would love more specific input on grading if anyone feels so inspired. Thanks!

http://tapestryofgrace.groupee.net/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/6411059621/m/8691025342

Hi Janice! I'm so glad to know that you are enjoying the lit documents---it just about makes my day. :-) Yes, we will DEFINITELY be adding to the appendices and even to the body of the document throughout the year, as it says in the directions for reading the document.

As a person who grew up on early versions of Writing Aids and then got to college and found that I could, as a direct result, handle just about any paper the professors threw at me, I'm so excited for you to get your copy of WA! I think you will find that the grading schemes are very practical and good. In fact, the most common thing I hear about Writing Aids as a whole is that "this thing makes writing seem doable!" To which I reply "Amen, and then some!" I'm SO GRATEFUL to the team here at Lampstand that put it together!

I sympathize with the desire to have your student become a polished writer overnight (how well I know that feeling with my own students), but I want to encourage you also with the thought of enjoying the processn. Even looking back over my own high school papers, I cringe at some of them but I also laugh and am charmed. I guess I'd never notice growth if it weren't for the ability to look back and smile at the poorness of early attempts. You know?

Anyway, the answer to the question about adding to the lit appendices is "Absolutely!" and I hope God blesses your socks off in your homeschooling life this year. :-)

c.j.somerville