The Other Language Arts Plans

I wrote about our literature choices: American Literature, 7th grade, 5th grade. But there is so much more to Language Arts than literature - composition and writing, grammar, vocabulary, spelling, penmanship, etc...

So, here is my tentative plan. We'll try it for September.

Communication Journal - Tuesdays

Spelling – Mon, Tues, Wed (James and Suzy)

Vocab – Mon, Tues, Wed (David and Emily)

Write a letter - Wednesday

Typing – Mon, Thurs

Penmanship – Tues, Fri

What will each of these entail?

Communication Journals entail writing back and forth between me and the child. I've been doing this for years and it works well for us.

Spelling Power is our curriculum for spelling. Three days a week is all I can manage. 

Vocabulary study will start using freerice.com through September. Rummy Roots game will be integrated at some point and maybe we will do a more formal study, but I doubt it. Both David and Emily have good vocabularies.

Write a letter is just what it sounds like. So family and friends, if you get a letter from us, please write back!

Typing - not sure what program we will use. I let them go at their own pace and we have several choices of programs - from Mavis Beacon to Dance Mat Typing online.

Penmanship - I want to focus on cursive for everyone.

What's missing? GRAMMAR. I left it off the list unintentionally, so it will be added in October and will be stressed quite a bit. I am looking at Grammarlogues. Anyone use that program?

WRITING also is missing, other than the communication journal. The literature portion of our language arts program has a good bit of writing included. I have the kids write chapter summaries and literature responses just about daily. However, this year I decided to try a DVD-based writing program that is graded. The program is called Essentials in Writing and is very affordable at $40 per level which includes both the DVD's and a .pdf file of the workbook.

Each Essentials in Writing DVD includes instruction for each lesson and then assignments to complete. Sometimes there is one assignment per video lesson, sometimes more than one. However, the only level I have right now is Suzanne's. Because Suzy's reading is below grade level, I ordered her a writing program two years below grade level. I did NOT want her to struggle because of her reading and end up hating writing too! If it ends up being too easy, I'll get her the next level up.

I had planned to share the Grade 7 with a friend but then decided to order my own (which I have not done yet). The curriculum is so new that the high school levels are still being completed. Grade 10 is due out on September 15 and sadly Grade 12 won't be shipped until October 15. This means that David will either be doubling up on writing lessons or will skip some - not sure which until I see the curriculum. He can probably easily skip some of the essay writing lessons since he has taken my essay writing class twice. 

Adaptation

I was recently given a mostly unused Spelling Power test booklet and Emily chose to use it for her spelling work. I have not used a booklet for SP for a couple years at least, preferring instead to use an alternate study sheet I found online and plain notebook paper.

While giving Emily her words today, I was reminded of all the reasons why I stopped using the booklet originally. This led me to think about all the ways I adapt our curriculum from its original design.

Some examples?

Mystery of History is a solid and informative curriculum with a Christian perspective. Many extras are included in each lesson. Do I use them all? No. One thing I no longer require is the memory cards, although we did them throughout the whole first volume. We painstakingly (and often painfully!) wrote them out, inserted them in the special binders purchased for that exact purpose, and then... never looked at them again! Why did I put us through this? Well, the book said to! I also don't assign most of the mapwork that's included in Volume 2. To my mind, it's overly complex for the elementary crowd and time-intensive. Another way we modify MOH is to do the pretests and review pages all together, usually as a "quiz" using the white board.

With Spelling Power, the most obvious change from the program is to not do the "activities" that are recommended. We test the previous day's five words, and then go on through the lists to identify the five words for the day. The students go through the 10 step study process and write sentences for each word. It's effective and takes just the right amount of time. I like the alternate sheet because it includes some modifications from the original study sheet.

Let's see. What else? Oh yes, Sonlight. David is doing Sonlight 100. I went to great pains in the summer to obtain most of the books and locate where the others could be found at short notice. Am I using them all? No. Some of them are clearly "girl" books - girls on the cover prejudice David against the book. I don't always take his opinions into consideration, but our goal is, after all, that he learn to ENJOY his reading. So, I'd prefer to offer him reading selections that will further that end. So, we skip some books. Some books he'd already read. Do I do the books in the order they are in the curriculum? Not necessarily. Do I follow the lesson plans exactly as written? No. I feel no compunction to do the program exactly as written, but rather what works best for us.

So, let me encourage you - feel free to alter, modify, fine-tune, convert, improve, vary, adapt, accomodate, realign, adjust or revamp your curriculum choices to better suit the children you are educating!

Spelling Power Simplified

I wrote this to help someone who didn't have much time to figure out how to use Spelling Power. I thought I'd copy it here for anyone else who may be in the same boat.

We have used Spelling Power for 4 years now, I think. You can buy it at this link: Castlemoyle
It's also available many other places. Apparently the 4th edition is the latest. We use the 3rd edition and I don't plan to upgrade.

Spelling Power Simplified

First give the Survey Test. It is a list of 50 words. You keep giving words until he gets 3-5 words wrong, then you STOP. Score the survey test, and it will tell you which Placement Test to give.

Give the appropriate Placement Test. Give ALL the words on this test. regardless of how many he gets right or wrong. Score this test and it will tell you either which level of Spelling Power to start on or to give another Placement Test.

Go to the level recommended. Ask your child to spell the words. Give words until he gets 5 wrong or until a whole group is given. It should take no more than 5-10 minutes.

We don't buy the Spelling Power record books anymore nor do we use the forms in the book. The kids write their test words in a notebook and we use a study sheet that I like better. It is slightly different from the one in the book. (I didn't compile it.) Here is where you can download it as a Word document.

Write the words he got wrong on the study sheet. He should use the 10-step method (detailed in your Spelling Power book) to study each word. This takes just a few seconds AND IS THE STRENGTH OF THE PROGRAM. (DO NOT SKIP THE 10 STEP METHOD. Especially important is the tactile step, even for older kids.) Then he writes a sentence for each word. You can also give a supplemental activity, which are detailed in your book as well, but we usually skip these.

The whole thing should take 10-15 minutes per day. You can make it take a whole lot longer (I know, because when my dh does it, he DOES make it take longer). But don't - 10-15 minutes is plenty and is effective.

You can find more Spelling Power tips here: Spelling Power: How to Use It, Paula's Archives. (sadly this link is broken)

If you have questions, please leave them in the comments and I will answer them.

Spelling Power

My first rebellion against the traditional spelling curriculums came when I was teaching in a Christian school back in the early 90's. I could see that the traditional spelling books weren't effective in actually teaching the children the word spellings. They could get A's on the tests and then spell the same words wrong in their writing the next week.

At that time, I decided to use a individualized spelling program, but the board of the school vetoed my plan. (None of them were even teachers, but using the A Beka curriculum was a selling point of the school. Sigh.)

So, when it came time to teach my own kids, I decided to forego spelling instruction during the early elementary years. I didn't want to do the traditional weekly plan of a new list every Monday and a test every Friday, with meaningless practice in between. I wanted my children to be able to internalize the spellings of words, instead of memorizing them for the tests and then forgetting them immediately.

I decided to focus on phonics instruction and allow my children the freedom to write without spelling instruction during their early years. David was not ready, by my estimation, for spelling instruction until the fourth grade. Emily was ready at the same time, however, and she was in the second grade.

So, I had heard such good things about Spelling Power and it fit my requirements. I wanted something non-consumable that I could use with all my kids. I wanted it to be personalized. I wanted it to be comprehensive. I wanted it to be easy to use. The research included by the author, Beverly Adams-Gordon, was very impressive to me as well.

So we began.

My children haven't loved it, but what children love learning to spell? Not many, in my experience. I, however, have loved it. Once I learned the method, it was very easy to use. (There was a steep learning curve, which frustrated me at first. I highly suggest finding someone who has used it and ask for their help in deciphering the instructions. I also watched the video, borrowed from a friend, and that helped some.)

It takes just 15 minutes to complete the lesson each day, and about 5-10 minutes of that is direct instruction time. The remainder of the time is for the student to complete the 10 step practice and write the sentences.

The ten step practice is the strength of the program, in my opinion. And the practice steps could be used with any spelling program. The tactile step is the most important (and the easiest to skip) and it has made a big difference for David.

Spelling has been hard for David and extremely easy for Emily. She is ahead of him in spelling, but he doesn't seem to be aware of the fact. He does ask her for help in spelling sometimes, so he does recognize her abilities. Spelling Power works great for both of them. I intend to use it through high school.

What I've Really Liked

Every year I try some new homeschool items. Some I like and some I don't! Today is a day for listing some of the things I have really enjoyed adding to our homeschooling this year.

1 - SCIENCE
This year we started Great Science Adventures: Space. This curriculum by Dinah Zike is just what I needed to get on an even keel with Science. There are 16 titles in the GSA series. They are suggested for all grades K-8. However, my kindergartener is not ready for this, although he does do some of the activities with us.

http://www.greatscienceadventures.com/home.htm
There are sample lessons and a FAQ at the website, as well as a ton more info.

As far as time involved, I spent several hours before we started the study copying everything and this has really saved me as far as planning time. I also made a short list of the items needed for each lesson, so I could look
ahead and have those things gathered up. Most of the things are found around the house (ex: mirror, lotion, flashlight, rock), but sometimes you need things like plaster of paris or red cellophane.

There are little books for each lesson that you copy for them. (see examples on the website) Each lesson then has several kinds of graphic organizers as well as experiments. On the days we do science, we spend
15-30 minutes completing the work. Each book has 24 lessons. She suggests completing 2-3 lessons per week. We are going more slowly and complete more like 1 lesson every 1 or 2 weeks.

I am keeping all their graphic organizers in a ziploc bag and at the end of the study, we will put them into a lapbook or notebook.

I like it so well that I have already purchased and copied all the papers for another volume - Tools and Technology - which we will do this coming year.

2 - MATH
I don't know why I resisted Math U See for so long. I thought it was over-priced, gimmicky, and, since it is sold only through distributers, too hard to find.

HOWEVER, a year or so ago, a friend brought her MUS to our annual curriculum review meeting at my homeschool support group. She had been using MUS for 5 years with her 4 kids and still LOVED it. As she demonstrated it, we were all just in awe. So, I bit the bullet and ordered it.

Man, I love it! The DVD's with Mr. Demme teaching the concepts are awesome. I love the mastery concept. My second grade daughter who has a hard time grasping math concepts is LEARNING. And my fourth grade son who LOVES math also is learning! He has completed 1-1/2 levels this year, while my daughter is still finishing her first level. It's fine with me, because they are actually learning it! And understanding WHY math works. Wonderful.

I plan to use MUS for a long long time.

3 - SPELLING
Spelling Power is my third "find" of the year. I like that there is only one book to buy for all my children. I like that it builds incrementally. I like that my children work at their instructional level instead of just doing the "fourth grade spelling lists". I love the research that went into the way the method was designed. I love the 10 step spelling study procedure.

There were other things I liked this year, but those were three that were new to us this year. I am planning to use all three of those again.