Tony Silva

Your Own Adventure
One Year Adventure Novel
http://www.OneYearNovel.com
$199

Some kids love to write and others hate to write. All of them write easily in certain circumstances. When some of our kids were immersed in online storytelling adventures, it occurred to me that story telling beyond the narrative mom requires during class might be a great teaching tool.

One of our guys was reviewing a novel written by his cousin, also a homeschooler at the same time he and another online friend were exchanging almost daily snippets of stories they were writing. Imagine if there were a way to harness all that energy in a structured way that almost guarantees each student successfully writes – an actual novel. That’s what the One Year Adventure Novel (OYAN for short) is all about.

As you review each lesson and talk about the five elements of a great story, character and plot development and the like, the student becomes immersed in the process of writing his or her own adventure novel. OYAN takes the student step-by-step through the creation of characters and plot so that once the first 26 weeks are complete, so is the working outline of the novel. The second semester is where the actual writing takes place. There are 78 lessons in all. To get a feel for how it all plays out, visit the Web site – or review the syllabus.

The curriculum includes a complete set of video lessons, a resource disc, a textbook and student workbook, and a copy of The Prisoner of Zenda, a classic adventure novel. Other texts are available on the resource disc, as well as a set of quizzes. OYAN’s teacher’s manual is not one of those huge binders with everything you need to do outlined in fine detail. Instead, it is a fairly brief set of guidelines that explain how OYAN works. The course teaches itself for the most part, but there are clear instructions for the parent in the way of giving feedback and assessing progress. In three days per week, your student can complete the course in one school year. It is designed to serve as a two semester high school English course.

Quibbles & Bits

An important part of the learning process is the forum. Membership for one student is included in the price of the curriculum. Additional students can be added by purchasing a new workbook for each. The course is “licensed”, meaning you cannot pass a workbook down from one child in your family to the next. The restriction doesn’t apply to the DVD lessons, textbook and classic novel.

Students in the forum can post questions for other members – or for the teacher – to answer. When they’re done, they can publish their finished novel to the OYAN Web site for others to enjoy.

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