Author’s Description: Fix-It! Grammar and Editing with the Classics contains 5 stories for 5 different age groups, each one to be used over the course of a year: an abridged version of Tom Sawyer, two humorous takeoffs on classic fairy tales, an abridged version of Andersen's The Little Mermaid, and an abridged, translated version of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. Grade levels range from 3rd to high school seniors.
From these stories, students rewrite a sentence a day, 4 days/week, correcting as many of the embedded grammatical errors as they can find. They also search for dress-ups and sentence openers. Beneath the incorrect sentences are printed the corrections, and on the right column are listed the explanations of grammar, including the definition for a bolded vocabulary word. The book comes with a CD from which you can print the student versions for their use and reformat if you want. It also comes with an Appendix which explains most relevant grammar rules and discusses IEW style, especially in relation to teaching grammar.
I've used these stories with students I teach for 2 years now (both my own homeschooled children and students in homeschool co-ops and tutorials) and have been very pleased with the result. The kids have fun with the stories and are eager to find out what happens, which makes learning the grammar more enjoyable. I deliberately challenge the students with some grammar they probably won't know, so I can use the stories as a means of teaching concepts as well as reinforcing what they've already learned.
In addition to the grammar rules in the Appendix, to the right of each passage are the rules for those sentences - so it's all spelled out - plus the vocabulary definition (I figured teachers would be like me and appreciate having the dictionary definition close at hand) and IEW style tools used.
Question: Will this book contain enough grammar instruction, or will I need to purchase an additional program? I have a 6th grader and 10th grader.
Answer: I think it works well as a stand-alone once students have learned parts of speech and basic sentence structure (dependent and independent clauses, phrases), so long as the parent/teacher takes the time to make sure students understand the rules, which are listed beside the sentences (with fuller explanations of the rules in the Appendix).
Question: How much grammar is enough in high school? My son is approaching 9th grade, and I will have to put together an English comp class for him. We've been using Rod & Staff, a grade level behind his age level because I'm having to learn it too! I plan to use a variety of the IEW writing lessons (SICC and Theme based).
Do we really NEED a separate grammar program, and would your Fix It be appropriate for high school? I think the Rod & Staff has done a great job in educating us, but it seem to get really intense.
Answer: If your high schooler already knows parts of speech and can recognize independent and dependent clauses, my Fix-Its will be plenty, along with the writing you are doing.
Generally, by the time students reach high school, traditional exercises in grammar don't translate well to their writing. Grammar should come as much as possible from writing itself, and IEW's style system helps with that. The Fix-Its help you see what he doesn't know and keeps the conversation about rules AND style techniques open. The reiteration helps those rules sink in.
This also aids your students in tackling standardized tests like the SAT because the tests offer them incorrect sentences which they must then fix.
Question: Is Fix-It going to be a lot like Critical Thinking Press's, Editor In-Chief which has 36 stories with grammar errors imbedded in the text. The student identifies the errors and corrects them. Is Fix-it just one story?
Answer: It's only a little like Editor-in-Chief, which I used with my children for a few months. I found E-in-C frustrating (I'm speaking here as a hs mom and former English teacher) because I didn't think the embedded errors the kinds of things my children needed to be working on, and it seemed too hit or miss, not enough focus on the important issues.
Fix-It is different from Editor in that each of its 5 stories lasts a full year - so it's really 5 years of grammar in one book. Written for different age groups from 3rd grade to seniors, the stories allow students to rewrite 4 passages a week for 33 weeks.
The first three stories have built-in advanced concepts, identified in the explanations by an exclamation mark, which allows even the easiest story to work well with many ages and abilities. All of the stories are intended to be challenging, and teachers should remind students that they won't find all the errors. Some of the errors will be review for the students. Some allow you to teach on the spot (and keep reinforcing through repetition of the same rule) new concepts.
Question: How can you set it up for your student to use?
Answer: I love the CD-rom which has all the stories in a Word format. I was able to put together a workbook for my 9th grader. I included lines for him to define his vocabulary words and a facing page of lines to correct the week's work. I took it to a printer and for $5.50 have a nice spiral bound Grammar and Vocabulary book he can use all year.
