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- posted on 10/7/2012 6:23:38 AM

Blast! Building Grammar and writing Author: Innovatus Publisher: Innovatus Features and benefits  Good for beginner learners as it teaches one grammar concept per unit.  Colourful pages and that allow teachers to instruct in more depth.  Clear and professional explanations for grammar rules.  Line spacing is excellent for student answers.  Consists of 8 Units.  Each Unit consists of 4 lessons per unit, 2 pages per lesson and each lesson has 4 steps beginning with Introduce, Learn, Practice and finally Grammar Fun. 1- Introduce: this part of the unit instigates the grammar feature i.e. defining a sentence. In very simple words. The definition is followed by a punctuation reference to maintain the writing skill related to the grammar rule. 2- Learn: is an activity designed mainly to evaluate students’ understanding of the grammar rule given. 3- Practice: is a more difficult exercise that pushes students to apply the grammar rule given. 4- Grammar Fun: Lets students enjoy the grammar rule in a more creative way by writing longer sentences. This part gets even more difficult in higher levels.  Reproducible graphic organizers that help students plan their writing in the book and they can do that as well in their notebooks.  Teacher Note section provides teachers with appropriate help in the unit. This part aims mainly at offering teachers multi-techniques and referring their minds to the use of some flash cards available in the book.  Writing section is thematically related at the end of each unit. That would give the students the chance to apply grammar in writing. The writing section is very well structured as it starts with Talk about it which is a reminder of all the grammar elements explained in the unit and a short definition of it. Another good thing is that the grammar element defined is highlighted with a different colour.  Plan your writing is mainly designed in producible graphic and that gives students the chance to organise their flow of ideas and will help them create a very good piece of writing in the end of the unit.  Write is the step to follow and it is featured with instructions to the students regarding the writing plan they had created. Another good thing about it is the line spacing it leaves for students.  Check is the last step in the unit review and it gives students the opportunity to evaluate themselves where students can tick the box if their writing met the items in that part.  The book also provides a Glossary where teachers and students can find definitions for all the elements of grammar they were exposed to throughout the level. Another good thing is that it provides an example for each word defined. Note: the book can do fine as a supplementary or alone depending on school segmentation