BlsdMama Posted November 8, 2016 Share Posted November 8, 2016 (edited) I'm late on the prep, I know, I know, and this is a big deal. We're a point away from a bigger renewable scholarship at U. I think we've got this, because, in math, he's since finished a thorough review of Algebra 2 and taken College Algebra (Alg. 3) at the CC with a *real* teacher, lol. I was really happy with this class this semester - really solidified a lot he wasn't sure of and taught new skills. Plus he was *awful* using a calculator and now he is so much more confident with it. We're going to do some basic Geometry review this month. I feel solid on our plan here. *However* his lowest score was Usage/Mechanics in English and we have a month. It would be negligent not to plug away. Any suggestions? I have access to pretty much everything through our lending library for a month. I was thinking IEW Fix It or Easy Grammar? He does best by doing corrections *not* simply by me teaching verbally. Anything come to mind? Edited November 8, 2016 by BlsdMama Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Angie in VA Posted November 8, 2016 Share Posted November 8, 2016 (edited) Is he using the big red book for ACT prep? I would have him do the practice tests in that book. ETA: the link for the red book I mentioned. I see a link below for an ACT English book that is also red. Edited November 8, 2016 by Angie in VA 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Code Lyoko Posted November 8, 2016 Share Posted November 8, 2016 (edited) I tend to agree with Angie in VA. And honestly one month is not much time at all to cover everything. How much mechanics does he need? You could do Fix-It at an accelerated rate but I don't think you could cover enough in just one month to make much of a difference. How much time does he have to devote to this and how well does he remember something with only a quick, intense review? With Fix-It the lessons are 15 minutes a day, 4 days a week. You could do an hour of lessons a day, 6 days a week and cover the entire first book in about a month and a half, maybe less, but that means he has only covered one book or part of one book. I guess you could increase it to 2 hours a day, 6 days a week and try to cover most of two books in a month but I wouldn't recommend it. I think you need something that is not a full curriculum but is designed specifically to review in a short period of time. Edited November 8, 2016 by Code Lyoko 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BlsdMama Posted November 8, 2016 Author Share Posted November 8, 2016 (edited) Okay - so his English score was 25 which isn't dreadful, but we want to make sure we don't lose ground and that we hopefully gain a little. That's not terrible, but this is a kid with serious prosody issues, he can't "hear" the rhythm of the sentence - like whether or not there should be a period, a comma, something else.... He has to really think about it and he *can* do it (obviously a 25 isn't utterly remedial, but could use some heavy fine tuning?) So I'm thinking Fix It again. He has done Fix It (Mermaid - book 4) - but maybe a review of the rules and application of the rules? I am using the new red book and, for the most part, he does decently. But, like today, as we practiced with the red book, I'm finding gaps of things not retained. For example, we covered me/I. I didn't see this one being tricky for him and I don't think we've ever covered it. He understands now and will apply it. I'm looking for weird little gaps like this. He doesn't really need much in the way of end punctuation, capitalization, homonyms, and commas that I am seeing in his work. I noticed he didn't have strategy. For example, he was not crossing off answers he KNEW were wrong. He has an exceptional memory, truly crazy ability to memorize. So, honestly, it crossed my mind to do Fix It Book 5 - Chanitcleer, and memorize rules from the Student Resource Notebook, just use flashcards and drill and kill. He wouldn't need to do the vocabulary work in the book at all. The most I have with him is about an hour in the AM. He's taking 3 full time classes right now and is gearing up for the full mock season - so going to preseason for a couple more weeks. They just came off of coaching the middle school mock team. And I'm good with it - we only need one point off last year and honestly, we may have gained it just from our study this past year, but I also don't want to blow this off, make assumptions, and then kick ourselves because we didn't try for the point, kwim? We raised DD's scores quite a bit through strategy and study, man, we should be able to pull this up a solitary point. Edited November 8, 2016 by BlsdMama Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
3andme Posted November 8, 2016 Share Posted November 8, 2016 Try this prep book - The Complete Guide to ACT English by Erica Meltzer. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Angie in VA Posted November 8, 2016 Share Posted November 8, 2016 BWT, thank you for posting this question. I forgot that the ACT scores from Oct. 22 are available today. :001_smile: 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SparklyUnicorn Posted November 8, 2016 Share Posted November 8, 2016 I don't recommend IEW. I have it. It's not good for quick review and in general I'm not too thrilled with it. If you want more specifics I'll post more, but I think for sure it does not fit the bill of quick review. I'd go with a test prep book. We have one...forgot which one, but that's pretty good. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JanetC Posted November 8, 2016 Share Posted November 8, 2016 +1 on Erica Meltzer's materials. She has a blog at thecriticalreader.com I found the best way to help my DD make use of limited prep time was to rip out important chapters in test prep books and give her a magazine sized amount at a time rather than dumping a phone book sized pile on her. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Julie of KY Posted November 8, 2016 Share Posted November 8, 2016 I'd use a book like the Red Book for ACT review - good practice and real ACT problems. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
katilac Posted November 8, 2016 Share Posted November 8, 2016 An ACT book that gives the reason for every question/answer is usually the quickest and best review by far. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BlsdMama Posted November 8, 2016 Author Share Posted November 8, 2016 An ACT book that gives the reason for every question/answer is usually the quickest and best review by far. So, the problem we're having with that is that the answers and explanations are pretty in depth. I'm trying to puzzle through this. The above plan worked great for my oldest. The issue with DS (and probably related to dyslexia) is that reading/sorting through a lot of material is not a good way for him to comprehend/learn. He's far better off to learn a rule, memorize, apply a la IEW. Sparkly Unicorn, I will say that we've used Fix It in the past and I *really* like the materials, it's just I'm wondering if it's ideal for this sort of thing... Essentially a cram session over thirty days. Well, that's not quite right either. Thinking of having him do a few pages of the red book each day (the equivalent of about 6-8 questions) and going over the answers, but then making a "rule card" of the ones he misses to do a five to ten minute review of the rule before each day's work. Thoughts? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arcadia Posted November 8, 2016 Share Posted November 8, 2016 The issue with DS (and probably related to dyslexia) is that reading/sorting through a lot of material is not a good way for him to comprehend/learn. He's far better off to learn a rule, memorize, apply a la IEW. This 14 page complete SAT and ACT grammar and punctuation pdf by Erica Metzler might be useful to start with http://www.thecriticalreader.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/SAT_ACT-grammar-and-punctuation.pdf 6 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SparklyUnicorn Posted November 8, 2016 Share Posted November 8, 2016 So, the problem we're having with that is that the answers and explanations are pretty in depth. I'm trying to puzzle through this. The above plan worked great for my oldest. The issue with DS (and probably related to dyslexia) is that reading/sorting through a lot of material is not a good way for him to comprehend/learn. He's far better off to learn a rule, memorize, apply a la IEW. Sparkly Unicorn, I will say that we've used Fix It in the past and I *really* like the materials, it's just I'm wondering if it's ideal for this sort of thing... Essentially a cram session over thirty days. Well, that's not quite right either. Thinking of having him do a few pages of the red book each day (the equivalent of about 6-8 questions) and going over the answers, but then making a "rule card" of the ones he misses to do a five to ten minute review of the rule before each day's work. Thoughts? I'm using book 5 at the moment and the biggest complaint I'm getting from DS is he hates the story. He feels it is dated, irrelevant, and flat out boring. I didn't think that aspect would be such a problem because we have read so many old books. Those are the sorts of books he usually picks. But no he'll often say what language is this?! Which I agree it seems like a strange story to pick to practice grammar. I have book 6 too. Maybe I should take a look at the story with that one. Otherwise I love the concept. He really only needs a bit of review with grammar and I thought that would be perfect. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BlsdMama Posted November 9, 2016 Author Share Posted November 9, 2016 This 14 page complete SAT and ACT grammar and punctuation pdf by Erica Metzler might be useful to start with http://www.thecriticalreader.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/SAT_ACT-grammar-and-punctuation.pdf Awesome! Thank you so much! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
katilac Posted November 9, 2016 Share Posted November 9, 2016 (edited) So, the problem we're having with that is that the answers and explanations are pretty in depth. What book are you using? We've had very good results with Kaplan for both of my students. The explanations can seem long because they often tell you why the wrong answers are wrong. This is important because there is often at least one answer that is meant to sound correct unless you know the rule fully. Still, explanations are only 3-4 sentences in most cases. Edited to add: for the first couple of practice tests, you could always just read why a certain answer is correct, and skip why the others are incorrect. The 14-page guide Arcadia linked might be a good place to start, because it's pretty short and focused. You should be using an ACT book that gives a category for each question: verb tenses, punctuation, and so on. Take the test he has completed and tally the number wrong in each category, and you will sometimes get a clear picture of rules he does not understand. If he gets a lot of verb tenses wrong, obviously you want to go straight to that section in review! You mention that he does best by doing corrections - consider having him spend more time on taking practice English tests and doing corrections, rather than working through grammar. My oldest did extremely well on the ACT, and she said that taking multiple practice tests and reviewing them was by far more helpful than any other form of study. The English test is 45 minutes long. I would have him take at least one practice test per week, and preferably more, reviewing answers the same day (so about an hour total, don't forget to tally categories as you go). In the days between testing, he reviews, focusing on categories with the most errors. Most high school students can do a fair amount of grammar review in just 15-20 minutes per day. One exception to reviewing the categories with the most errors: If there is a grammar point that is tripping him up in spite of explanation, and it's getting him more and more confused, do not spend a lot of time on it! Focus on other areas. Read the explanation in the answer section, but don't spend review time on it, particularly with just a month to work with. Good luck! Edited November 9, 2016 by katilac 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StillStanding Posted November 16, 2016 Share Posted November 16, 2016 Jensen's Punctuation helped my oldest immensely. It is not an ACT prep. book but it has very clear rules followed by exercises. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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