Blue Workbook, along with the accompanying Key and the Core Instructor
Text, make up a full year of Grammar for the Well-Trained Mind: a
complete course that takes students from basic definitions ("A noun is
the name of a person, place, thing, or idea") through advanced sentence
structure and analysis, all the grammar skills needed to write and speak
with eloquence and confidence. This innovative program combines the
three essential elements of language learning: understanding and
memorizing rules (prescriptive teaching), repeated exposure to examples
of how those rules are used (descriptive instruction), and practice
using those rules in exercises and in writing (practical experience).
Each year, parents and teachers go through the dialogue, rules, and
examples in the Core Instructor Text; students follow along in the
Workbook. This repetition solidifies the concepts, definitions, and
examples in the student's mind. There are four Workbooks. Each Workbook
contains the same rules and examples, but four completely different sets
of exercises and assignments, allowing students to develop a
wide-ranging knowledge of how the rules and examples are put to use in
writing. The Workbook comes with its own Key, providing not only
answers, but also explanations for the parent/instructor, and guidance
as to when the answers might be ambiguous (as, in English, they often
are). All of the rules covered, along with the repeated examples for
each, are assembled for ongoing reference in the Comprehensive Handbook
of Rules (soon to be renamed as The Grammar Guidebook). Every step of
the sentence diagramming process is gathered for reference, along with
illustrations, in The Diagramming Dictionary. These will become the
student's indispensable guide to writing through high school, into
college and beyond. *Step-by-step instruction takes students from the
most basic concepts through advanced grammatical concepts such as modal
and hortative verbs and multiple functions of noun clauses. *Extensive
diagramming exercises reinforce the rules and help technical and visual
learners to understand and use the English language effectively. *Each
step of the diagramming process is illustrated and thoroughly explained
to the student. *Text for examples and exercises are drawn from great
works of literature, as well as from well-written nonfiction texts in
science, mathematics, and the social sciences. *Regular review is built
into each year of work. One of four non-sequential workbooks, each
containing new exercises that allow students to practice and apply the
grammar principles under study.
