Night Elf Posted June 18, 2009 Share Posted June 18, 2009 I posted a question on the high school board about SAT vocabulary but thought I'd bring this topic to the attention of the general board as well. I realize not everyone here takes the path to the SAT but for those that are, this is from my personal recent experience. This current SAT is much more difficult than the SAT I took in the late 80's. I was floored! My dd17 is preparing for the SAT in October. She began by taking a practice test and she did worse than we thought she'd do. After examining her pretest and working with her through some online lessons, I discovered that her biggest problem was vocabulary. She simply does not have high vocabulary knowledge. She was in private or public school through the 10th grade. When she started homeschooling as an 11th grader, she still was using a program like public school (keystone). She has been in advanced English and Science courses since the beginning of middle school. And yet her vocabulary isn't as developed as it should be. When I was doing the lessons with her, there were many words I didn't know either. But because I've worked on vocabulary and roots with my younger children, I had a skill she didn't have. And she took a year of Latin in high school! I am at least able to break a word down in bits that give me clues as to the definition. She seemed unable to do that. Because of this, we're increasing our younger children's vocabulary lessons. I'm also going to add in reading comprehension work because that was also a stumbling block for my oldest dd. Now, I need to admit that I truly hate teaching to the test and that is actually the biggest reason we homeschool in our state of Georgia. But it's heartbreaking to see my dd17 have this lack of knowledge for a test that holds so much weight in college admission. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jean in Newcastle Posted June 18, 2009 Share Posted June 18, 2009 This encourages me to keep with the Latin (esp. the derivatives part) and to keep reading, reading, reading with them. Thanks for the heads up! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MIch elle Posted June 18, 2009 Share Posted June 18, 2009 I posted a question on the high school board about SAT vocabulary but thought I'd bring this topic to the attention of the general board as well. I realize not everyone here takes the path to the SAT but for those that are, this is from my personal recent experience. This current SAT is much more difficult than the SAT I took in the late 80's. I was floored! My dd17 is preparing for the SAT in October. She began by taking a practice test and she did worse than we thought she'd do. After examining her pretest and working with her through some online lessons, I discovered that her biggest problem was vocabulary. She simply does not have high vocabulary knowledge. She was in private or public school through the 10th grade. When she started homeschooling as an 11th grader, she still was using a program like public school (keystone). She has been in advanced English and Science courses since the beginning of middle school. And yet her vocabulary isn't as developed as it should be. When I was doing the lessons with her, there were many words I didn't know either. But because I've worked on vocabulary and roots with my younger children, I had a skill she didn't have. And she took a year of Latin in high school! I am at least able to break a word down in bits that give me clues as to the definition. She seemed unable to do that. Because of this, we're increasing our younger children's vocabulary lessons. I'm also going to add in reading comprehension work because that was also a stumbling block for my oldest dd. Now, I need to admit that I truly hate teaching to the test and that is actually the biggest reason we homeschool in our state of Georgia. But it's heartbreaking to see my dd17 have this lack of knowledge for a test that holds so much weight in college admission. My older ds used Vocabulary for the College Bound this past school year in 9th gr at his private high school. I'm having my younger ds use Vocabulary for the High School Student for grades 7-8. My older ds took the PSAT this past year and a strong English grammar foundation didn't help him. It's all about vocabulary, punctuation and usage - NOT parts of speech or diagramming. We'll be using IEW Fix-it and EM Daily Paragraph Editing along with CLE LA for my younger ds. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MomsintheGarden Posted June 18, 2009 Share Posted June 18, 2009 You probably have a good SAT prep book but you might want to check out Barron's It has good vocabulary flashcards and lots of other advice we didn't see in other prep books, like Princeton Review. Just a thought, GardenMom Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joannqn Posted June 18, 2009 Share Posted June 18, 2009 Because of this, we're increasing our younger children's vocabulary lessons. I'm also going to add in reading comprehension work because that was also a stumbling block for my oldest dd. Now, I need to admit that I truly hate teaching to the test and that is actually the biggest reason we homeschool in our state of Georgia. But it's heartbreaking to see my dd17 have this lack of knowledge for a test that holds so much weight in college admission. Michael Clay Thompson's vocabulary would make great SAT prep. The first book for grades 3 and 4 are very basic, but beyond that the books are much more advanced. For example, my 9 year old is learning words like prodigious, odious, sublime, placid, venerate, and consanguinity. It teaches from a Latin perspective. Every odd chapter teaches 5 Latin stems and gives modern examples of those stems. It discusses the meaning of the stems and the examples. It includes analogies using the vocabulary in the book, advanced words, introductory bios to classic writers, and comparisons between Latin, English, and Spanish. Every even lesson includes five vocabulary words. These lessons discuss the definition of the word in detail, including etymology, different forms of the word (parts of speech), different ways it is used, and quotes including the words from classic works. The even chapters also include synonyms, antonyms, opportunities to rewrite quotes with the words in more common/simple English (to help with comprehension) and other things. I'd think anyone going through this vocabulary program would be pretty well prepared...between knowing the words, antonyms, synonyms, and stems. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caraway Posted June 18, 2009 Share Posted June 18, 2009 Michael Clay Thompson's vocabulary would make great SAT prep. The first book for grades 3 and 4 are very basic, but beyond that the books are much more advanced. For example, my 9 year old is learning words like prodigious, odious, sublime, placid, venerate, and consanguinity. Could you post a link to these? The ones I am finding don't seem quite right... Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joannqn Posted June 19, 2009 Share Posted June 19, 2009 http://www.rfwp.com/mct.php This page links to all of their language arts books. The vocabulary books are Caesar's English and Word within the Word. Building Language is their first book, which is very basic. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BakersDozen Posted June 19, 2009 Share Posted June 19, 2009 We start vocabulary in 3rd grade and I've wondered if this was too young. This post makes me glad we do it that way! It also makes me wonder if I'm using the right books or doing enough. Guess I'll find out in a couple of years. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
katilac Posted June 19, 2009 Share Posted June 19, 2009 We start vocabulary in 3rd grade and I've wondered if this was too young. This post makes me glad we do it that way! It also makes me wonder if I'm using the right books or doing enough. Guess I'll find out in a couple of years. As far as which books to use, SWB recommends a roots based program. I think she actually mentions a specific one, but overall I'm guessing that roots based programs in general are better than 'regular' vocab programs (which she basically says are a bit useless). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ferdie Posted June 19, 2009 Share Posted June 19, 2009 Thanks for the heads up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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