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. 

Invented Spelling Grocery List

I dictated a shopping list to James in the car the other night on the way to soccer camp. I dropped him off and headed to the grocery store.

When I looked at the list, this is what I saw.

Aic
Water
Napkins
towelt paper
Diet Croke
Dads water
Ckcrey
yougt
tocosienine
dish saop

Would you have known what to buy?

The funny thing is: he IS quite good at spelling. Evidently the summer break has been slightly too long! LOL

So, here's what I needed: ICE, water, napkins, toilet paper, Diet Coke, Dad's water (distilled), Kashi, yogurt, taco seasoning, dish soap.

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.