fourisenough Posted February 20, 2015 Share Posted February 20, 2015 I am wondering if anyone can provide a detailed review of these Landry Academy English classes? What was the balance of grammar, vocabulary, poetics, writing, and literature? Fairly evenly balanced or was one aspect emphasized over the others? Did you feel like it was enough to cover all areas of Language Arts or did you add something to it? I think I read of some people taking both Landry Academy English PLUS Expository Writing 1 via WTM Academy? It seems like that would be a LOT of writing for one student, but I'd love to hear from others how this worked for them. My daughter will be a young 6th grader, but reads well-beyond grade-level, has a lot of grammar experience, and writes fairly easily and well. Which Landry class would be right for her? I almost feel that III would be the right choice, but they list it for 7th & 8th grade. I don't want her to be in over her head, but also don't want a slow-paced class. She's pretty bright and motivated, but loses interest very quickly if not challenged. Are Landry Academy English classes secular? Thanks in advance for any info you can share. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OneStepAtATime Posted February 20, 2015 Share Posted February 20, 2015 Hopefully someone will respond but you can also contact Landry. They usually respond within 24 hours. Also, if there is contact info for the teacher, you can usually contact them directly, too, and the ones I have contacted have been helpful. I doubt the classes for English are completely secular, but I could be wrong. How secular do you need it to be? No mention of God at all? Brief mention o.k. in context? Landry is Christian but as I understand it some classes are more neutral in content/presentation. I do not know that for certain. This is second hand knowledge. All the classes the kids have taken have start with a prayer. They may all start with prayer, but obviously since your child would be on the computer no one would know if she chose not to. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Random Posted February 21, 2015 Share Posted February 21, 2015 Hi, My son is taking English III this year. He just turned 13 and is in 7th grade. He is not a strong English student. He doesn't really enjoy reading, vocabulary, grammar or writing. Actually, he strongly dislikes writing. In 6th, I forced him through Veritas's Literature Transitions class. It was his worst year, ever, and almost ruined him. I shared that to give you some perspective. English III has been absolutely perfect for him. It's about an hour of work per day, plus the 90 minute class. The lit selections are not heavy and depressing. He has radically improved his understanding of grammar and poetics and vocabulary. The writing assignments are very light, in my opinion. He has written only paragraphs up to this point, but next week, his assignment is to compare two different books in an essay about a page long. If your daughter is an excellent writer and wants to do more of it, I think taking a writing class in addition to English III would be fine. The classes begin with a prayer. Other than that, I don't think there is much religious content. The books and materials are secular. I would expect 99% of the students are from Christian homes, so there might be references to God or the Bible. You can email Landry and ask them their advice on class placement. My son has a 17 year old in his class, a nine year-old, and most ages in between. Here is the webinar page from Landry: http://landryacademy.com/our-team/webinars/ Recently, there was a webinar called "Overview of English IV." You can get some info from that, I think, and meet one of the teachers. Best wishes! 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Random Posted February 21, 2015 Share Posted February 21, 2015 One more thing: You can look at the "Details" section of the particular class you are interested in and usually see the syllabus for the year. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chiguirre Posted February 21, 2015 Share Posted February 21, 2015 I am wondering if anyone can provide a detailed review of these Landry Academy English classes? What was the balance of grammar, vocabulary, poetics, writing, and literature? I think I read of some people taking both Landry Academy English PLUS Expository Writing 1 via WTM Academy? It seems like that would be a LOT of writing for one student, but I'd love to hear from others how this worked for them. My daughter will be a young 6th grader, but reads well-beyond grade-level, has a lot of grammar experience, and writes fairly easily and well. Which Landry class would be right for her? I almost feel that III would be the right choice, but they list it for 7th & 8th grade. Are Landry Academy English classes secular? T has done both Landry's English IV and WWS 1 this year. It wasn't too much for her even though she's not fond of writing. The WWS assignments usually take her about 2 hours on the weekend. They tend to be 200-300 word essays with very specific rubrics and the source documents are provided. T has gotten much quicker at writing them over the course of the year. Landry has 800-1000 word essays for most of the books they read, so about 6 for the year. You do need to do some research, but they're not huge research papers. You get at least 2 weeks to plan and write them so they're not overwhelming. LA's English I-IV use Michael Clay Thompson's materials plus literature selections (Lightning Lit 7 and 8 for III and IV). Placement depends on if you've used MCT before. T had done Island, Town and Voyage, so English IV's books were the next step. The class wasn't a huge stretch for her at all. It was the next step with more formal writing than she'd done before without being overwhelming. If you haven't used MCT, I'd look at samples at the Royal Fireworks Press website. LA's English IV starts with a prayer and there's been some discussion of Christian themes in The Hobbit. I felt that was appropriate given Tolkien's background. There's also been discussion of the language in To Kill a Mockingbird. That's also appropriate, although a bit uncomfortable imho. If you want a completely secular class, this isn't it. On the other hand, if you want Christian themes and Bible verses in your grammar exercises, this isn't it either. I've been happy with both English IV with Mrs. Bontrager and WWS 1 with Mrs. Meyers. I'd recommend them to anyone who feels those classes would be a good fit for their child. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
melmichigan Posted February 23, 2015 Share Posted February 23, 2015 DD's are doing Landry English II with WTMA Expository Writing I this year for sixth grade without any concerns. Again, I'm following Chiguirre's posts and she has summed it up pretty well. We also do some of the literature with TOG so the course load is perfect for us. We will do the same next year with English III and Expository Writing II for seventh. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fourisenough Posted February 24, 2015 Author Share Posted February 24, 2015 T has done both Landry's English IV and WWS 1 this year. It wasn't too much for her even though she's not fond of writing. The WWS assignments usually take her about 2 hours on the weekend. They tend to be 200-300 word essays with very specific rubrics and the source documents are provided. T has gotten much quicker at writing them over the course of the year. Landry has 800-1000 word essays for most of the books they read, so about 6 for the year. You do need to do some research, but they're not huge research papers. You get at least 2 weeks to plan and write them so they're not overwhelming. LA's English I-IV use Michael Clay Thompson's materials plus literature selections (Lightning Lit 7 and 8 for III and IV). Placement depends on if you've used MCT before. T had done Island, Town and Voyage, so English IV's books were the next step. The class wasn't a huge stretch for her at all. It was the next step with more formal writing than she'd done before without being overwhelming. If you haven't used MCT, I'd look at samples at the Royal Fireworks Press website. LA's English IV starts with a prayer and there's been some discussion of Christian themes in The Hobbit. I felt that was appropriate given Tolkien's background. There's also been discussion of the language in To Kill a Mockingbird. That's also appropriate, although a bit uncomfortable imho. If you want a completely secular class, this isn't it. On the other hand, if you want Christian themes and Bible verses in your grammar exercises, this isn't it either. I've been happy with both English IV with Mrs. Bontrager and WWS 1 with Mrs. Meyers. I'd recommend them to anyone who feels those classes would be a good fit for their child. Okay, after looking over the course descriptions thoroughly, I actually think English IV at Landry would be about the right level for my daughter. Would I be crazy to put her in an 8th/9th grade class? (She will be 11 in October, so would actually begin the class as a 10 year-old). It appears that your daughter is about the same age, which is why I'm posing this question to you, but I'd be happy for input from anyone. Also, I'm curious what WWS 1 has added that the Landry class did not. Certain types of writing? Just more writing? I love SWB's approach to writing, but the practical side of my brain is saying, "Why would I pay about the same for a class that JUST teaches writing, when I could take a course that covers grammar, writing, vocabulary, literature, and poetics?" Help me sort this out... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chiguirre Posted February 25, 2015 Share Posted February 25, 2015 Okay, after looking over the course descriptions thoroughly, I actually think English IV at Landry would be about the right level for my daughter. Would I be crazy to put her in an 8th/9th grade class? (She will be 11 in October, so would actually begin the class as a 10 year-old). It appears that your daughter is about the same age, which is why I'm posing this question to you, but I'd be happy for input from anyone. Also, I'm curious what WWS 1 has added that the Landry class did not. Certain types of writing? Just more writing? I love SWB's approach to writing, but the practical side of my brain is saying, "Why would I pay about the same for a class that JUST teaches writing, when I could take a course that covers grammar, writing, vocabulary, literature, and poetics?" Help me sort this out... T is turning 12 next week. She hasn't felt out of place in the Landry English IV and the work was a good fit because it was just the next level in the MCT sequence. WWS has much more detailed writing instruction than Landry's English IV. English IV does work on grammar and spends time on formatting papers using MLA standards, but there is no instruction on writing descriptions, writing historical sequences, writing literary analyses, etc. There's just no time for that level of detail because they're also covering literature, grammar, poetry and vocabulary. WWS deals with making your writing sound more mature through word choice and sentence structure as well as the nuts and bolts of different expository writing tasks. It's been worth doing for us, but if you feel comfortable going through the book on your own I'd do that. I just can't teach writing well. I could have tackled MCT and Lightning Lit more easily, but I bought Landry generic semesters at a steep discount, and for that price it was well worth outsourcing the class. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
madteaparty Posted February 25, 2015 Share Posted February 25, 2015 Would you say the Landry IV would be mostly redundant for a child that has already been through LL7 and LL8(albeit with almost no writing associated)? Thank you. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chiguirre Posted February 26, 2015 Share Posted February 26, 2015 Would you say the Landry IV would be mostly redundant for a child that has already been through LL7 and LL8(albeit with almost no writing associated)? Thank you. I think the MCT books are the more important consideration. Even if you've read a book before, there is still the discussion of literary elements that won't be exactly the same thing you've done before. The writing assignments are pretty meaty for an 8th/9th grade level class. There's certainly more writing than I did in honors English 8 and 9 back in the Mesozoic. I wouldn't skip this level unless you're sure that your child is finished studying grammar, has done a solid college prep vocabulary study, can write a 1000 word paper using citations and correct MLA format, studied poetry beyond basic rhyme scheme and is comfortable reading the texts. If you've got all these elements, enroll in one of the literature or composition classes. If not, English IV is not overwhelming, but it's not a cake walk. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
madteaparty Posted February 26, 2015 Share Posted February 26, 2015 I think the MCT books are the more important consideration. Even if you've read a book before, there is still the discussion of literary elements that won't be exactly the same thing you've done before. The writing assignments are pretty meaty for an 8th/9th grade level class. There's certainly more writing than I did in honors English 8 and 9 back in the Mesozoic. I wouldn't skip this level unless you're sure that your child is finished studying grammar, has done a solid college prep vocabulary study, can write a 1000 word paper using citations and correct MLA format, studied poetry beyond basic rhyme scheme and is comfortable reading the texts. If you've got all these elements, enroll in one of the literature or composition classes. If not, English IV is not overwhelming, but it's not a cake walk. Ha. My kid can do none of that. Also, I could not stand the MCT materials myself so better if someone else teaches it. Thank you Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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