Mom of Many: Fix It! Grammar from Institute for Excellence in Writing (IEW): A TOS Crew Review

Thursday, April 4, 2019

Fix It! Grammar from Institute for Excellence in Writing (IEW): A TOS Crew Review

F ix It! Grammar from Institute for Excellence in Writing (IEW)

Grammar that makes your student smile? Really! We have been loving F ix It! Grammar from Institute for Excellence in Writing (IEW). This easy-to-use program will have your student understanding and mastering the art of grammar in just 15 minutes a day. Check out what Mr. Pudewa has to say about this program:

My tester started with the first of 6 books in this series. Fix It! Grammar: The Nose Tree [Book 1], they offer a handy placement test to help you find the correct level for your student. My tester is in 4th grade, so we started at the beginning. Book 1 is designed to help students learn to recognize and identify grammar in context.

The program contains a 45 page, spiral bound Teacher's Manual, with several options for the required Student Book. I love the options! We were blessed with a pre-printed, spiral bound Student Book, but the Teacher's Manual offers you access to the 132 page Student Book in a downloadable PDF version that you can print at home (a great options for big families!) In addition, the Teacher's Manual offers 2 e-audios as well - Mastery Learning and But, but, but....What about Grammar. I HIGHLY recommend these audios!

This program is designed to be completed by your student, in just 15 minutes a day, 4 days per week. My tester really loved this feature. It was "almost too easy" to quote her :-) With a total of 33 weeks, it makes a full year grammar program per book. The 6 volumes will give you 6 years of grammar instruction!

Let me explain what a week's lesson looks like. On the first day, the student has a page of information - the "Learn It" portion. Terms and grammar are explained in clear, easy to understand language. Each week introduces new concepts and reviews those already learned. The back of the Student book contains pre-printed grammar cards that your student can cut out and use to review grammar concepts throughout the year.

The "Fix It!" portion happens on days 2-4 with sentences containing errors in the grammar and mechanics. The student's task is to locate them, mark them, and fix them. For my tester's level, this was one sentence a day. Each sentence also contains a vocabulary word that the student writes out the meaning for. This is where my tester breathed a sigh of relief...just one sentence, not an entire intimidating page of grammar practice!

On the final day of the lesson, after discussing the corrections with you, your student then copies out the 4 sentences into a complete and corrected paragraph.

The Teacher Manual contains everything you need. A Student Book view is included, with all the corrections identified. Sidebars offer extra explanations for you and notes with helpful tips. An extremely helpful Grammar Glossary is included as well. In this section, you find explanations for editing marks, grammar rules, as well as, stylistic techniques. If you are an IEW fan, you will love that Fix it! Grammar speaks the same language! One of my favorite parts, it integrates and reinforces our favorite writing program.

I admire that this program is both easy to use and effective! Our goal in teaching good grammar skills is that they will use them. After having tried numerous grammar programs, I can tell you that Fix It! Grammar actually works. By approaching the skills in an integrated fashion, my students remember what they are learning. It not only hones those important grammar skills but also give them valuable practice with another essential skill, proofreading.