Cornerstone Journalism Institute

Received via email:

Cornerstone Journalism Institute

One of our institute instructors, Russ Pulliam, has homeschooled his children with his wife and he himself is associate editor/columnist for the Indianapolis Star. He is also a board member and occasional writer for World magazine (www.worldmag.com) He has been coming up to Grand Rapids, Mich., for several years now to provide basic writing and reporting instruction. He is a very effective instructor who engages the students in hands-on writing activities.

In the past, some families have driven their child to our institute, got them settled and unpacked and then went camping themselves while their child enjoyed CJI. Just an idea. Others have had their students fly into Grand Rapids, Mich, airport, where one of my staff could pick them up and return them to the airport at the end of the week.

More information is available at: www.cornerstone.edu/cornerstone-journalism-institute

Writing instruction in Evanston

If you are in or around Evanston and looking for some help or inspiration in the writing department . . .

Susan Dickman is an experienced English teacher as well as a writer. She offers individual writing support and classes for students, as well as workshops for parents seeking to support their children’s written expression. Whether it is writing poetry, fiction, personal or nonfiction essays, research arguments, opinion pieces, or analytical analyses, she believes anyone can learn to brainstorm, draft, and revise, developing voice and giving structure to his or her ideas. Highly experienced and knowledgable about Gifted, Twice-Exceptional, LD/ED, and a former homeschooling parent.

Organization name: Write for Excellence

Email Address: writeforexcellence@hotmail.com

Deal from Homeschool Buyers Co-op

I just took advantage of this and wanted to share my excitement . . .

Homeschool Buyers Co-op has a great deal on The One Year Adventure Novel right now. You can get 15% off this amazing curriculum if you order by the end of Monday. Most likely you will actually get 20% off because the more people that order, the better the discount becomes. As long as just a couple more people order the group will hit 100 orders and the 20% discount rate.

I had just decided to use this curriculum and saw this deal come across my page. This is a video course with quizzes and a student workbook for a full year of high school writing. High school students in Illinois must earn two credits in a writing focused class, so this is definitely something we need. And, I have a great instructor via video to teach my kids! It is expensive (about $200) which is why I was thrilled to get a hefty discount. Aside from college tuition and books this is our only curriculum purchase this year, so I decided to go with it. I know we will enjoy it for year to come.

Wish I could give you a more thorough review of the product, but it does look fantastic, and my daughter (just turned 14) really enjoyed the couple lessons she previewed. When I said I wasn’t sure we could afford it she said it could be her birthday gift if that would help cover some of the cost. That’s how excited she was about this program, willing to pass on birthday presents to get it!

If you are interested, be sure to head on over for this deal soon, it will end at midnight (I think that’s 2 am here) Monday the 19th.

The deal: Homeschool Buyer’s Co-op One Year Adventure Novel

ETA: They have already reached the 20% off level, so all purchases will now be nearly $40 off the list price!

Love IEW!

Just a quick post to say how much I love IEW (Institute for Excellence in Writing)!

My kids are writing papers this week on Jericho and related happenings in history. This is the first real paper for my 2nd grader (just a paragraph, not a “real” paper). I found a paragraph for him to use as source material and gave him a crash course in IEW technique which involves writing a Key Word Outline. He typed it up himself, we tweaked one awkward phrase. Talked about titles and, in less than half an hour, here was his finished product!I guess I should up the standard for him next time. 🙂

Promised Protection

by Nathan

December 5, 2012

Jericho was the first city that the Israelites needed to conquer. Israelite spies got sent to scope out the land. The Israelites’ reputation made the people in Jericho scared. Rahab had believed in the Israelites. Rahab heard the Israelites crossed the Red Sea. Rahab hid the Israelite spies in her house. They told her to put a red rope out her window. The Israelites promised her protection when they were attacking Jericho.

Na No Wri Mo

Facebook Cover

Do you have an inner novelist just bursting to get out?

Or do you live with a hidden novelist?

November has become the National Novel Writing Month, and now is the time to let that little novelist out of hiding.

Here’s the original site for Na No Wri Mo (geared toward adults)

And, they have the event targeted toward kids in elementary school to high school as well.

This would fit in well with your homeschool curriculum and is perfect for this time of year before life gets nuts with the holidays, but fall sports have wrapped up and you need something to look forward to working on indoors with a hot cup of tea and fuzzy slippers.

The kids’ site has tons of resources and downloadable ebooks that will walk your kids through the process of writing their own novel in 30 days.

There’s information for educators, lesson plans, badges, forums, and tons of other cool stuff to get you motivated and help writers not throw in the towel half way through.

I have heard from many that gave it a try and couldn’t believe how many thousands of words their kids could write in a month when they just let the words fly and didn’t worry about anything but getting the story out. This year, we are going to give it a shot, at least some of us. Maybe even me. We’ll see.

Any Na No Wri Mo veterans out there? Anyone with a novel burning to get out?

Less than a week until the event begins, so now is the time to start thinking about where you are headed, dreaming up characters, and sketching some possible plots. Or, just wait until November 1 and just open your computer and see where your fingers lead you. Either way sign up so you can tally your wordcount and even if you don’t write a great novel, you can finish and say you did it.

Check out all their details and get ready to write.

Na No Wri Mo Young Writers Program: http://ywp.nanowrimo.org/

IEW webinar

The more I use IEW the more I absolutely love it.

As part of a yahoo group related to Institute for Excellence in Writing I received this notice:

Tomorrow (Tuesday) night at 7pm Central, I’ll be a guest of Mark Hamby
<https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=747159042> , doing a webinar
entitled “Stories and the Moral Imagination.” It’s free and open to anyone.

I love Mark and know we’ll have a great discussion. Join us!

Register here:
https://www4.gotomeeting.com/register/971474903-so
<https://www4.gotomeeting.com/register/971474903-so>

Andrew Pudewa
Institute for Excellence in Writing
8799 N 387 Rd., Locust Grove, OK 74352
Tel. 800-856-5815 ext. 5001
Fax. 603-925-5123
andrew@excellenceinwriting.com
www.excellenceinwriting.com

Journalism camp in MI

Received this info via email:

I am in charge of the journalism program at a Christian university in Michigan.

I was wondering if you might be able to help me communicate an opportunity regarding a residential summer high schoolers’ journalism/writing camp at Cornerstone University in Grand Rapids, Mich., with Illinois Christian home schooling parents with whom you might be acquainted in your group?

It is the 10th annual Cornerstone Journalism Institute, which runs from July 22-27. During the camp students:
•             Learn how to interview for a story
•             Learn how to write a human interest story
•             Then actually write one or more stories
•             Learn the basics of digital still camera photography
•             Actually take photographs to illustrate the stories

Students who were 8th-, 9th-, 10th- 11th- or 12th-graders this past school year are eligible to apply to attend the 10th annual Cornerstone Journalism Institute.

More institute details can be seen at: www.cornerstone.edu/events/cji

At the end of the week, students’ articles and photographs are compiled into an actual newspaper that rolls off of a printing press; and students bring a bundle of newspapers home to show proof of their work to family, friends and schoolmates back home.

One of our institute’s instructors, a dedicated Christian, Russ Pulliam, has home-schooled his children with his wife, and he himself is associate editor/columnist for the Indianapolis Star. He has been coming up to Grand Rapids, Mich., for several years now to lead a couple of the writing sessions and is very good at it.

If you provide me with your email address, I can email you more information about the camp.

We typically have a number of home school students attend our institute and many years we have had students from Illinois, Ohio, Indiana, Maryland, Virginia, California and Michigan. I would love to have a good contingent of home schoolers attend from Illinois this summer.

While the regular camp cost is $325, I am offering a special discounted rate of $275 to any Illinois home school student who registers and pays in full by/before July 6, 2012.

In the past, some families have driven their child to our institute, got them settled and unpacked in the dormitory and then went camping themselves while their child enjoyed CJI. Just an idea. We provide 24-7 adult oversight of the students in our charge during the week of camp.

I would be happy to answer any questions you might have … I’m most easily reached by email or by cell at: 616.835.5574, as I’m not in my university office very much during the summer.

Can you help spread word of this camp with your fellow home school families in your region?

In Christ,

Alan D. Blanchard, A.B.D.
Executive Director CJI |Assoc. Professor/Director Journalism Dept.
Cornerstone University Journalism Institute
1001 E. Beltline Avenue NE |Grand Rapids, MI 49525
Phone 616.222.1504 | Fax 866.910.7320
www.cornerstone.edu/events/cji
10th annual CJI – July 22-27, 2012 |writing and photography high school summer camp

ICHE summary

Homeschool conventions have an amazing way of exhausting and exciting me at the same time.

Wanted to share some of the great resources and speakers I enjoyed this past weekend.

Not to overwhelm, we’ll tackle excerpts from two of them today.

First, the College Board rep gave a little lunch time talk on CLEP tests.

She offered lots of helpful info on CLEP exams that made them seem a little more within reach.

CLEP:

– offers huge savings over paying for college, even community college, tuition

– Recommended the book College without Compromise and the CLEP official test book that comes out each year and is available for Amazon.

– No penalty for wrong answers.

– No age restrictions (her kids have taken them as early as 7th grade — earning college credit in middle school!)

– Immediate results. Because it is computer based and you can take it at a variety of times throughout the year, you get an immediate result and know if you pass or not before heading home.

– accepted at 2900 colleges. However, as I was looking at some local ones, the extent they accept them does vary a bit. Some will only accept some of them as elective credits. Others require a higher score than the minimum. So, if you are CLEPping specifically to save on college tuition, do your homework ahead of time with potential colleges.

She gave great tips on actually taking the test including using the practice tests after you have completed high school course work in the subject area. She recommended when practicing to make sure to get two tests in a row with scores in the high 50’s before you attempt the actual test. And, celebrate pass or fail, your kids deserve a reward for all the hard work.

She has a website of her own as well, Credits before College

The official CLEP website has lots of info, or course.

***************************************************

Another speaker, Janice Campbell offered some great insight into grading pieces of writing.

Her website has a number of great resources that you might find helpful, especially in teaching junior and senior high students. She had tips for teaching writing as well as some general teaching tips.

Check out all her info and resources at Everyday Education.

Here are a few of the points that I appreciated from what she had to say:

– In order to evaluate and encourage better writing in your student you need a rubric (which you can find at her site when you give your email), a handbook (to reference specific rules that the student needs to work on), a thesaurus, and a dictionary

– When grading the rough draft you first grade only content. Don’t get bogged down in specific words and mechanics. The rough draft first needs to be adjusted to get the information in an orderly format that completes the assigned writing task. Later revisions will get into the details of style.

– The goal is to teach the student to edit and evaluate themselves (a rubric helps significantly with this because it makes grading so much more concrete).

She shared many more specifics about evaluating writing, but those were the big ones that stuck with me and will have a great impact on how I read and evaluate my kids’ writing.

Did you go to ICHE? Have a favorite workshop?

Essay contest

Midwest Creation Fellowship, PO Box 952, Wheaton, IL 60187  PH: 847-223-4730

Have you entered the essay contest? A couple months still to get your entries in. Take advantage of being stuck indoors by having your kids do some writing with a purpose. All the details below and at Midwest Creation Fellowship’s site.

Here’s some info to get you started (but, fyi, I think their ages are switched on their categories):

Purpose:
To encourage the development of skills in research, analysis and logical reasoning through preparing an effective presentation of a thesis in a creation-oriented paper.

Prizes: Senior High Level (Ages 11-14*)

  • $250 First Place
  • $100 Second Place
  • $75 Third Place

Junior High Level (Ages 14-18*)

  • $100 First Place
  • $50 Second Place
  • $25 Third Place

* Entrants 14 years old on April 30 may enter either Junior or Senior division

Topics: must strongly relate to the subject of creation vs. evolution, from a creationist perspective. Suggestions:

  • Why do cultures around the world…
    …have the same star constellations?
    …have very similar legends, such as a gigantic flood?
    …offer blood sacrifices to their god(s)?
  • Reasons why I believe in creation
  • Vestigial organs: a vestigial argument
  • More topic suggestions

Contest open to homeschoolers

An organization known as Creative Communication offers contests in the area of art and writing to students of various ages.

There is no fee to enter and they publish a book (which they then sell) of winning entries. This can be a fun motivator if just working toward a grade or even just to get an assignment finished is getting a little old.

From the coordinators:

We have three contests . . .  Each year we have several homeschoolers accepted in our
contests and we admire their impressive work.  The following is
information on each contest, if you have any questions please feel
free to contact me!

Here are the websites for more information:
Art Contest
www.celebratingart.com

Poetry Contest
poeticpower.com

Essay Contest
poeticpower.com