Grammar lessons and Dyslexia?

[Mandylubug]

We are tackling R&S4 this year after two years of FLL that seemed unfruitful for my girls. I do see that they did learn some things from FLL so I will not call it a failure..

 

We are working on subjects and predicates. First time they are seeing these words and finding these items. We are struggling with the formal names but conceptually if I reword my question they get it right...

 

Is this another funky rote memory issue? For instance I can ask what is the subject of this sentence? And they stare at me. If I ask what words tells us who or what they answer immediately. When I ask the main word from the complete subject, they name the simple subject flawlessly each time...

 

So, do I just say good job oh and by the way that is called the subject each time?

 

They understand the concept, orally we work through it all. I just find myself explaining it all differently for their lightbulb moments and answers.

[Jaybee]

Listening in here. I do a lot of that kind of verbal gymnastics as well. This subject makes me want to beat my head against the wall with my 11yo ds. He just doesn't understand how language fits together. He usually uses it correctly, but studying it is such a chore for him. He confuses the terms (and honestly--there are a lot of them), and simply can't remember what they do. The terminology is where his lack of rote memory is frustrating for him. Then you add in when nouns are nouns in one sentence, then change function in another sentence, and it is so understandable why he is confused. :( I keep reminding myself that I was introduced to formal grammar at a later age, and found it a bit confusing then--and I am a liberal arts kind of person.

[OneStepAtATime]

Ok for what it is worth, I wouldn't be able to diagram a sentence to save my life.  If you asked me what a direct object was I would stare at you blankly.  But I KNOW what sounds right in a sentence and got near perfect scores on the language arts portion of my PSAT and my SAT.  And usually did excellent at writing all the way through college.  And even back then the labels were gobbledygook for me.  Knowing the names of the various things and being able to recall those names can be helpful and certainly it might be required at some point in certain writing classes but it is just like when you are driving a car.  You don't have to think about every single thing you are doing or have to recall the label for everything you are manipulating as you are driving.  You just need to know how to use the various parts in the correct way in the correct order sort of automatically.  That takes time and practice but after a while, were you actually trying to recall the name of the steering wheel or the gear shift when you were learning to drive?  Or were you just learning how to smooth out the use of them?  The label itself isn't nearly as important as the ability to use it all correctly and automatically so you can actually drive the car.  Does that make sense?

 

With my kids we will be starting with the new Fix-It Grammar sometime in late fall or around January (whenever we finish Level 4 of Barton) along with IEW.  Since Barton recommends these two for dyslexics and I have seen them and like what I see for my kids, I am going to use both,although they can be used separately.  I will keep teaching grammar with them in whatever small chunks are needed for them to learn the pieces and be able to use them effectively.  But I don't know that DD, at least, will ever be able to recall the word labels without a word bank or something.  She struggles with this in Barton, too.  But she IS learning how to apply what she is learning, and usually does very well after we have completed a Barton lesson.  She just cannot always recall what the name of the rule is.  I assume this will also be a difficulty when we start Fix-It Grammar.  I will keep teaching it but from my perspective, even if she never can tell me "This is a Direct Object".  Or "This is a Subject" or whatever, as long as she is understanding and using the pieces correctly/automatically and can write well, I will call it a win.

 

Not sure I helped at all but best wishes.   :)

[Mandylubug]

That makes sense. I will check out fix it grammar as well. I really thought grammar alone would be way too hard but I have been surprised with the amount they do easily understand once I reword things.

[Guest2]

In my family, I noticed that kids had to be reading well for a few years. They could do the grammar in Bartons, and even cruise through Rod and Staff . Unfortunately, the really didn't "know " grammar. Waiting until age 14 seemed magical. Working through Annlyitcal grammar seemed to click then. I'm not sure if doing First Form Latin was helpful, but she thought it did.