Fix It! Grammar {Review}

Fix It! Grammar Review
I've been using and really enjoying a grammar program from Institute for Excellence in Writing (IEW). It is easy to use and teach, takes only 15 minutes a day, and teaches grammar in the context of a story!
Fix It! Grammar Review



What is it?!

  • Fix It! Grammar: Robin Hood [Book 2] (Teacher Manual) ($19)

    • soft cover, spiral bound

    • 33 weeks of daily passages

    • 132 vocabulary words

    • reproducible student pages

    • teacher's notes

    • Grammar Glossary

    • comes with a free download of Fix-It Student Book 2 e-book, Mastery Learning e-audio, and "But. . .But. . . But. . . What About Grammar?" e-audio.

  • Fix It! Grammar: Robin Hood [Book 2] (Student Book) ($15)

    • This is a printed, soft cover, and spiral bound student book. It is only required if you do not want to print and bind your own student book!

Grades: Designed for 3rd grade and up.

How does it work? 

Each week we explore new grammar concepts and review the previous week's concepts. We then locate and fix errors in four short passages. We talk about how the grammar applies to the new passage, and then we rewrite the corrected passage into a separate notebook. (We used a 33 cent notebook).



How we used it: 

I printed 2 student books and had them bound so I could use this with three of my children in grades 4, 9, and 10. With my older boys, we completed 1 weeks worth of lessons in 2 days. In this way, they could complete a book per semester. This was a very doable pace, they liked the exercises, and it was a wonderful review and application of grammar concepts.

I used the printed student book with Malachi, grade 4, and it has been slightly challenging, but very doable! He uses the program as intended, completing one week in 4 days.



After I go over new grammar concepts, he can follow the cues at the top of the page to walk him through how to fix and mark each passage. First, he looks up the vocabulary word (the word in bold print) and writes the definition. Then he goes through the passage and marks whether it needs to be indented, marks the letters that need capitalized, adds end marks, and marks the articles, nouns, etc. that are listed.



Then, he rewrites the passage in a separate notebook.



He uses the grammar cards to help him remember each concept.



When he is done, we review his work together.

Both the Fix It! Grammar Teacher's Manual and the Student Book contain a Grammar Glossary.



The Grammar Glossary contains:

  • Parts of Speech

  • Sentences, Clauses, and Phrases

  • Punctuation

  • Additional Rules and Concepts

  • Stylistic Techniques

The Glossary defines all of the terms, but I actually prefer using the everyday terms like "who-which" instead of "adjectival clause."

Benefits:
  • grammar and editing skills are taught in context

  • the lessons result in a handwritten copy of a story

  • grammar is learned incrementally

  • makes grammar friendly (and not super technical) by using layman's terms

My Thoughts:

I like it!

I like that it is clearly laid out, easy to teach, and takes less than 15 minutes from start to finish. It really only takes me a few minutes to teach, and then I can let him work independently until he needs my help or finishes. Then we go over the lesson together.

I love having the answers in the teacher's guide and refer to it often. I like that it models proper grammar within a story by first teaching a grammar rule and then applying it to the daily passage. Grammar has more meaning this way! I also like that it reviews grammar concepts and that my student can use the grammar cards to help him during his lessons.

Malachi says:

  • It's fun.

  • You can have your own copy of the story.

  • It's challenging.

  • I like it.
Fix It! Grammar Review
There are six books in the series, and a Placement Test is available to determine which book your student should start in.

The books in the series include:

To learn more, you can watch this Webinar.

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4 comments

  1. Love it, Michelle! I'm glad that Malachi enjoyed it. Seth did too. It is one subject he flies through each day.

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  2. Thanks for the review, Michelle. I am considering using IEW for our writing program next year and didn't know they had a grammar program. It's on my radar for next year!

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  3. You're welcome! We are really enjoying it, Michelle! This is our first IEW product, but I have heard great things about their writing!

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  4. Thanks, Lisa! I still need to go read your review! (which, btw, are rocking!)

    ReplyDelete