Fix It! Grammar: Robin Hood - Crew Review

I love literature and want my students to enjoy learning grammar so I was thrilled to receive the second book of Fix It! Grammar: Robin Hood from Institute for Excellence in Writing (IEW). This is not a traditional grammar program. Instead, as you and your students enjoy reading a sentence or two of this classic tale each day, students will hunt for and correct errors in daily passages that cumulatively tell the story.

The book provides 33 weeks of grammar instruction and practice. Each week is broken down into four days; but if you are using it with an older student, the book might be completed in a semester by doubling up the weeks. Over the course of the year, students will review the basic parts of speech and learn how to identify clauses and phrases, which will prepare them to learn the many punctuation rules needed in composition. Fix It! Grammar teaches through three methods: Learn It, Fix It, and Rewrite It.

The first day of each week is a teaching day. Read through the “Learn It” section of the student book and then show them what to do using the Day 1 passage. This will show your student what they will be looking for that week and for weeks to come. Use this time to show your student how to make editing marks and grammar notations. The student book provides grammar cards for review.

The “Fix It” section encourages students to immediately apply new grammar knowledge in context, aiding in the transfer of grammar skills into their own writing. Read the instructions for the week with your student. Use the abbreviations at the top of the page along with the grammar cards to help you remember how to mark the passage. Students may do some of the lesson on their own, or it can be done together. Your students will likely miss many of the fixes and markings as they work throughout the program, but use these moments to stress that “a mistake is an opportunity to learn”.

Students will need a spiral notebook to complete the “Rewrite It” section. After marking and correcting the passage, students copy the corrected passage into their notebook.  At the end of the course, students will have a handwritten copy of the complete story. For your convenience, the corrected passage rewrite is printed in the Teacher’s Manual at the end of each week.

Because every book in Fix It! Grammar is foundational to the book after it, Institute for Excellence in Writing (IEW) recommends that all students begin with the first book: The Nose Tree. Each book includes advanced concepts, so even if your student knows much of the material, you can still begin with the first book and plan to move through it at a faster pace while adding the advanced concepts as your student is ready for them. However, if you think your student has already mastered some off the concepts, you can use the placement test to determine where to start.

Students can learn so much from the classic tale of Robin Hood; but even more through editing sentences in an ongoing story that teaches grammar and trains students to become self editors. Visit the Crew Blog to read what the Homeschool Review Crew has to say about Fix It! Grammar: Robin Hood, as well as other products from Institute for Excellence in Writing (IEW).