Monday, December 10, 2018

Mosdos Press Literature Pearl {6th Grade} Review


I have another exciting Timberdoodle homeschool curriculum to share with you today, Mosdos Press Literature Pearl.  Mosdos Press is available for grades 3-8 and each set is named after a gem: Opal (3rd grade), Ruby (4th grade), Coral (5th grade), Pearl (6th grade), Jade (7th grade) and Gold (8th grade).

Pearl is the curriculum for 6th grade and I have been using it with Mr. C.  This set includes the Student Reader, Student Activity Workbook, and a two book Teacher's Edition set.  This program includes short stories, plays, nonfiction selections, songs, brief biographies and poems.

So C uses both the Student Reader and Student Activity Workbook while I have the Teacher's Edition Part One and Part Two.

I want to start out by saying that the Teacher's books are large and full of information.  They contain the scope and sequence, annotated teacher's edition, and workbook answer guide.  Both Part One and Part Two contain the full scope and sequence as well as the full workbook answer guide.  Part One includes the annotated teacher's edition for Units One and Two while Part Two includes the annotated teacher's edition for Units Three through Six.  These books are not meant to intimidate you!  They are very thorough and well organized.  They really walk you through everything step-by-step.  Basically, these books do not assume you know anything about literature; therefore, everything is included and anyone can teach literature using this program.  How awesome is that?  The Teacher's books include every page of the Student Reader as a smaller size.  Around the margins of these smaller pages you will find information discussing the literary components within each story along with explanations.  This helps makes conversations and teaching a breeze.

Here is an example page from inside the Teacher's Edition so you can get a feel for what I am talking about.

Inside the Student Reader

The Student Reader is beautifully illustrated with color photographs, color drawings and black-and-white pictures for a nice variety.  Before each story within the Student Reader, there is an introduction that explains the story and some part/s of literature (character, theme, conflict, setting, climax, foreshadowing, etc.).  Vocabulary words are presented in boxes on the pages when they are first introduced.  I love this!  Students can quickly determine the meaning of these words if they are unknown and continue their reading.  The stories are followed by review questions which I really like.  They can help assess reading comprehension and encourage thoughtful analysis.  And there are lots of activities included within each unit.  There are so many activities, you are not meant to do them all.  You can really tailor this program and pick the ones that are best for your student.

Example from inside the Student Activity Workbook

The Student Activity Workbook contains corresponding vocabulary, creative writing, or comprehension questions.  It helps provide extra reinforcement for the parts of literature that are being taught.  This can be a great tool for you to assess your student's progress and which concepts they have grasped and which ones might need additional work.  Again, thoughtful analysis is encouraged (look at question 4 in the example above to see what I mean).

Another example from C's workbook

I'm working at a slower pace with C with this program because literature is a harder subject for him.  We are both really enjoying it and I really appreciate all the effort that went into making this curriculum easy for me to teach.  C is getting literature, vocabulary, and writing all from this curriculum!

If you are looking for a complete literature program for a student in 3rd grade - 8th grade, Mosdos Press might be the answer for you.

Feel free to check out more about Mosdos Pearl on the Timberdoodle site.  You can even download samples for each of the books.

Mosdos Press Pearl is a part of Timberdoodle's 6th Grade Curriculum kit.

Disclosure:  Huge shout out to Timberdoodle for selecting me as a Timberdoodle Blogger.  Timberdoodle sent my family Mosdos Press Literature Pearl in exchange for our honest review.  All opinions are my own.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

This looks like such a great tool for teaching literature! Teaching kids to love to read is one of the best things we can ever teach them!

Unknown said...

This looks like such a great tool for teaching literature! Teaching kids to love to read is one of the best things we can ever teach them!