Ashwren

A Day at Ashwren

Six kinds of people use this library. Here is what each of them does with it, from first light to lamplight.

A family teaching at home

Ashwren started at our own homeschool table. The teacher at home chooses the chapter; the guide brings the lesson.

Treasure Island Robert Louis Stevenson Trailblazers
Get the book Free ebook at Standard Ebooks
Treasure Island Chapter 1 Trailblazers 4th–6th
  1. I Copywork
  2. II Discussion
  3. III Vocabulary
  4. IV Critical thinking
Your adapted version
The sample guide: Treasure Island, Chapter 1, at Trailblazers.
  1. Find a book at your student’s band. The catalog sorts every book into five bands: Scouts (1st–3rd), Trailblazers (4th–6th), Pathfinders (7th–9th), Mountaineers (10th–12th) and Trail Guides (college and beyond). Browse one, or search by title and author.
  2. Get the book itself. Each book’s page names the edition its guides follow and where to find it: a free ebook when the book is in the public domain, or its ISBN looked up at a few shops.
  3. Open the chapter’s student guide. Copywork, discussion, vocabulary and critical thinking, always in that order, with a note for the adult wherever a choice might surprise.
  4. Adapt it, then print. Signed in, rewrite any prompt or definition for your student. Your version stays private and prints in place of ours.

Browse the catalog

Arithmetic before the reading

For Scouts, first to third grade: a fresh drill sheet in one tap, printed with its answer key. The same solver writes and checks every problem, and each sheet carries its number, so it can be drawn again.

Open this sheet Choose the practice

  1. 10 + 10 =
  2. 9 + 1 =
  3. 2 + 8 =
  4. 10 + 3 =
  5. 5 + 9 =
  6. 2 + 10 =
The first 6 problems of the First addition preset, sheet 12.

A teacher with a class of thirty

Thirty copies of one novel, and for each chapter a single guide worth standing behind.

  1. Scouts
  2. Trailblazers
  3. Pathfinders
  4. Mountaineers
  5. Trail Guides
Teaching Companion Every day the captain asks whether any seafaring men have gone by. What does that question tell us about him? A strong answer The question sounds friendly, and the family first took it for loneliness. But when a seaman does stop at the inn, the captain looks in through the curtained door first and stays as silent as a mouse. A lonely man would greet a fellow sailor; this man watches and hides. The daily question is a lookout's question: he is waiting for someone he fears.
  • Inference
  • Character
  • Theme
  • Tone
  • Plot structure
  • Moral reasoning
  • Author's choice
Student guide Teaching Companion
The sample guide’s first question, as its teaching companion sets it out.
  1. Choose the book and the band. Each book is offered at its recommended band and one either side, with at most one guide for each chapter and band.
  2. Prepare with the teaching companion. The chapter’s shape at a glance, a way into the conversation, and for every question a strong answer, what to try if talk stalls and what to listen for, often with other answers worth defending. Coaching, never an answer key.
  3. Let the tags show the thinking. Every question names the kind of thinking it asks for: inference, character, theme, tone, plot structure, moral reasoning and author's choice.
  4. Print a set for every desk. The student guide and the companion each print on letter paper, and every guide is free to download, print and share as published.

Find your class’s book

A co-op with readers of many ages

Younger and older readers around one book, each working at the band that fits them.

Treasure Island Offered at Scouts, Trailblazers and Pathfinders
  1. Scouts
  2. Trailblazers
  3. Pathfinders
What’s on your reading table this week? Meetup
One book at three bands, each sheet ruled to the line height its guides print.
  1. Choose one book for the whole table. A book recommended for Trailblazers is offered at Scouts, Trailblazers and Pathfinders: one story, three bands.
  2. Hand each reader the guide at their band. The book’s page lists its guides band by band, and each band’s guide fits its hand: copywork passages of up to 2, 4 and 6 sentences, on lines ruled 54, 36 and 28 points apart.
  3. Find families to meet. Post or browse under the Community Feed’s Meetup topic.

See the Meetup topic

A student reads, tells it back, and writes

Read first, talk second, write last: a student’s own words come out loud before they reach paper.

I Copywork Every day, when he came back from his stroll, he would ask if any seafaring men had gone by along the road.
II Discussion Narration Tell back what happened at the Admiral Benbow. Go from the day the captain arrived to the night Doctor Livesey stood up to him.
III Vocabulary seafaring Every day, when he came back from his stroll, he would ask if any seafaring men had gone by along the road.
IV Critical thinking Who at the Admiral Benbow has the most reason to fear the captain? Using two pieces of evidence from the chapter, explain why.
Treasure Island, Chapter 1: the sample guide’s own passage, prompts and word.
  1. Read the chapter. In the book itself: the edition the guide follows, cited at the foot of every page.
  2. Copy the passage by hand. A short passage chosen for its prose, copied onto lines ruled for the band’s handwriting.
  3. Tell it back, then talk. Narration first, in the student’s own words, then as many open questions as the chapter holds, each with more than one defensible answer. A short chapter asks fewer and a long one more.
  4. Learn the words in their sentences. As many words as the chapter earns, each defined against the sentence it comes from. For Scouts and Trailblazers the printed words come as a crossword.
  5. Write from the evidence. Complete sentences built on evidence from the chapter; at Mountaineers and Trail Guides, a thesis, an objection and a revision.

Find a chapter guide

Members who share ideas and vote on books

Lessons are done. The grown-ups compare notes, then help decide which books get guides next.

Share with the community What’s on your reading table this week?
  • Curriculum
  • Ideas
  • Meetup
  • Introductions
  • Encouragement
Suggest a book Book title Author Why this book?
  1. Up next
  2. On the horizon
  3. Further ahead
  1. Planning
  2. Drafting
  3. Reviewing
  4. Preparing for publication
The feed’s composer, a book suggestion, the Guide Leaderboard’s groups and a guide’s stages.
  1. Pull up a chair.Sign in to join the Community Feed, where every family is welcome, and post under Curriculum, Ideas, Meetup, Introductions or Encouragement.
  2. Suggest a book. Its title, its author and why it belongs. The host reviews every suggestion before it reaches the board, and your suggestions page shows where each one stands.
  3. Vote on the Guide Leaderboard. The host sets the groups, Up next, On the horizon and Further ahead, and votes order the books within each. You have ten votes a month, to spread across books or stack on one, and you can take them back.
  4. Follow a book into print. A book in the making shows its stage, Planning, Drafting, Reviewing and Preparing for publication, and the day it last moved. No percentages, no promised dates.

Visit the Community Feed See the Guide Leaderboard

Supporters who keep every guide free

No paywalls, no ads, nothing held back. Some readers choose a small yearly contribution, and the lamp stays lit for everyone.

Advocate is the suggested support. Choose one on the support page while signed in, and manage it from your account. Supporting unlocks nothing, because nothing is locked.

Support Ashwren

  • Friend$30/year
  • Advocate$60/year
  • Patron$150/year

Tomorrow

Pull up a chair.

Every guide is free to download, print, and share.

Join the Community

Read why the guides ask what they ask Read the blog