7th grade language arts - help me wrap my brain around this

[MamaSheep]

I've got the rest of our plans pretty well set, but language arts is (again) the big sticking point. "We" (ds12) have "issues" with language arts. Skill levels in various areas vary WIDELY, mostly in ways related to his disability. So I'm trying to figure out what I can realistically expect out of him and what my goals should be for this year. But I think in some ways I'm too close and tangled up in the thing to see it clearly.

 

I NEED PERSPECTIVE!

 

I've been thinking that maybe if I could get a little bit of a mental handle on what a "typical" 7th grade language arts class consists of, I might be able to use that as a starting point and adjust expectations accordingly.

 

So what do YOU do for 7th grade language arts? What type, quantity and level of work would you be having your 7th grader doing? Help a gal out?

[Julie in Austin]

Way back when, I did a teaching cert. in secondary English, so I should be able to answer this question. 7th grade LA should include:

 

--spelling (I like Spelling Power)

--vocabulary (I think this is best studied in context of literature, but some people like a direct instruction approach)

--grammar (I like R & S)

--literature (we integrate with history following SOTW; my 6th grader has +/-150 pages/week, mostly the kinds of historical novels that Sonlight recommends)

--writing (for us, integrated with history and science and R & S)

[Impish]

Does your area have a website for the B of E? They should have a list of expected outcomes on there. IF not, let me know, and I'll post a link to mine.

[MamaSheep]

Way back when, I did a teaching cert. in secondary English, so I should be able to answer this question. 7th grade LA should include:

 

--spelling (I like Spelling Power)

--vocabulary (I think this is best studied in context of literature, but some people like a direct instruction approach)

--grammar (I like R & S)

--literature (we integrate with history following SOTW; my 6th grader has +/-150 pages/week, mostly the kinds of historical novels that Sonlight recommends)

--writing (for us, integrated with history and science and R & S)

 

Thank you! This definitely helps. The murk now has something concrete to coalesce around...lol.

 

-- Spelling --Ok. I have Spelling Power. We tried it a couple years ago for a while and it was a mess. It annoys him (to the point of melt-down) to have to "study" the words their way, but I had been thinking of using their word lists and just have him study the words differently. He's much more in control now and I think it could be made to work. About how many words would you assign each week for a 7th grader?

 

--Vocabulary -- Fortunately vocabulary doesn't worry me tons. His last round of language testing at the speech pathologist puts his vocabulary at the 21+ year-old level. He does still come across words he doesn't know, and he mispronounces some things he's only read and not heard, but we kind of just pull that out as we go and briefly discuss. I have been thinking of having him keep a notebook nearby when he reads and just jot down words he finds that he doesn't know the meaning of. He has BIG Aspie issues with handwriting, though, and I'm somewhat skeptical of him actually doing this.

 

-- Grammar -- I think the Analytical Grammar approach would work really well for him, as he's very rule-oriented, and I think the structure would appeal to him--but I can't afford it this year. I'm going to try to make it a priority for next year, but I'm not sure what to so about grammar this year. Last year our grammar consisted mostly of Mad-Libs. It was pretty light, but he knows at least a few parts of speech and no longer shuts down at the mere mention of grammar, which was my goal. I may just focus on getting him to write more, and discuss grammar and punctuation and whatnot in the context of whatever he's written. But I do have a Winston Grammar set from a while back that caused more problems than it solved at the time, but he might respond differently now. Again, his actual usage of grammar is very good when he speaks and when I can get him to write, so I'm not sure how much to focus on this, for this year. This is one of those areas where I'm chasing my tail in a major way.

 

-- Literature -- We'll be integrating this with history too, though we're also reading some biographies with science, and I'd like to throw in a couple of non-historical novels too. To what degree should this be formalized? By which I mean, if he just reads it and then tells me what he read, is that sufficient, or do I need to get a study guide that will walk us through things like themes and plots and characters in detail? How deep do you get into that sort of thing in 7th grade?

 

-- Writing -- So you just count the writing that's done for other subject? Or does R&S include creative writing assignments and things like how to write paragraphs and essays and business letters and whatnot? How do you judge how much writing a child should be doing? Might you, for example, sort of keep track of about how many pages the student is writing in all the subjects combined and say, "that's enough" this week, and "well, we're a little light in wrighting so I'll assign a letter to his aunt to fill in the gaps" next week? Or do you not worry about that much.

 

Yes, I'm totally overthinking this, but I'm trying to come up with a plan for each week so I can feel like "enough" is getting done to count as a junior high English class.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Does your area have a website for the B of E? They should have a list of expected outcomes on there. IF not, let me know, and I'll post a link to mine.

 

Oh yes. In excruciating detail, many pages long, and written in educatorese. It makes me want to pull my hair out.

[gingersmom]

We are using for 7th/8th grade-

 

Wordly Wise 3000

Sequential Spelling

Easy Grammar

I have stacks of books for us (my daughter) to read through and do various reports, etc.

I'm also thinking of doing a yearlong women's studies where she would report written/orally each month on a different person.

[Julie in Austin]

Thank you! This definitely helps. The murk now has something concrete to coalesce around...lol.

 

-- Spelling --Ok. I have Spelling Power. We tried it a couple years ago for a while and it was a mess. It annoys him (to the point of melt-down) to have to "study" the words their way, but I had been thinking of using their word lists and just have him study the words differently. He's much more in control now and I think it could be made to work. About how many words would you assign each week for a 7th grader?

 

--Vocabulary -- Fortunately vocabulary doesn't worry me tons. His last round of language testing at the speech pathologist puts his vocabulary at the 21+ year-old level. He does still come across words he doesn't know, and he mispronounces some things he's only read and not heard, but we kind of just pull that out as we go and briefly discuss. I have been thinking of having him keep a notebook nearby when he reads and just jot down words he finds that he doesn't know the meaning of. He has BIG Aspie issues with handwriting, though, and I'm somewhat skeptical of him actually doing this.

 

-- Grammar -- I think the Analytical Grammar approach would work really well for him, as he's very rule-oriented, and I think the structure would appeal to him--but I can't afford it this year. I'm going to try to make it a priority for next year, but I'm not sure what to so about grammar this year. Last year our grammar consisted mostly of Mad-Libs. It was pretty light, but he knows at least a few parts of speech and no longer shuts down at the mere mention of grammar, which was my goal. I may just focus on getting him to write more, and discuss grammar and punctuation and whatnot in the context of whatever he's written. But I do have a Winston Grammar set from a while back that caused more problems than it solved at the time, but he might respond differently now. Again, his actual usage of grammar is very good when he speaks and when I can get him to write, so I'm not sure how much to focus on this, for this year. This is one of those areas where I'm chasing my tail in a major way.

 

-- Literature -- We'll be integrating this with history too, though we're also reading some biographies with science, and I'd like to throw in a couple of non-historical novels too. To what degree should this be formalized? By which I mean, if he just reads it and then tells me what he read, is that sufficient, or do I need to get a study guide that will walk us through things like themes and plots and characters in detail? How deep do you get into that sort of thing in 7th grade?

 

-- Writing -- So you just count the writing that's done for other subject? Or does R&S include creative writing assignments and things like how to write paragraphs and essays and business letters and whatnot? How do you judge how much writing a child should be doing? Might you, for example, sort of keep track of about how many pages the student is writing in all the subjects combined and say, "that's enough" this week, and "well, we're a little light in wrighting so I'll assign a letter to his aunt to fill in the gaps" next week? Or do you not worry about that much.

 

Yes, I'm totally overthinking this, but I'm trying to come up with a plan for each week so I can feel like "enough" is getting done to count as a junior high English class.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Oh yes. In excruciating detail, many pages long, and written in educatorese. It makes me want to pull my hair out.

 

Spelling Power: Yes, definitely study however you like. I think 7th is old enough for your kid to begin figuring out how *he* learns best and spelling is the ideal subject for that. I only require my son to study one word per day (so 5/week), but he's largely a natural speller and so he's past grade level with that. (Also, if he can get through 10 words from the list with no errors, he doesn't have to do spelling that day.)

 

I'd probably let vocab slide, but another option that would address the handwriting issues would be for you to let him look the words up in an online dictionary.

 

Literature: I think there's a page or two in the WTM that covers some of the questions you can ask. I also sometimes google for lesson plans or study guides for more questions, but I try to keep it pretty light.

 

This is kind of a soapbox issue for me. No one goes to the movies and then feels that they have to work down a checklist of characterization, plot, irony, etc. You just talk about what interested you. We beat the joy out of reading when we force excessive literary analysis on it.

 

However, I do think kids should be familiar with the language of literary analysis and do it sometimes.

 

I don't worry about writing because I don't think quantity of writing produces a good writer but rather quality. R & S has a few assignments (not creative, really) but does a lot with sentence and paragraph formation.

 

An average week for us would be:

--one paragraph in response to science reading

--outline Kingfisher for history

--one paragraph in response to primary source reading

--average one R & S assignment every other week

 

Also, on an 'off week' from school last year, I made him do a research project and write a paper (5-paragraph essay) to go along with it. For a 7th grader, I'd probably shoot for a 5-page research paper once or twice per year.

[Blue Hen]

This is what we did this past year:

 

Put R&S 7 on the shelf and moved Editor n'Chief and Easy Grammar onto the table. DS enjoyed these two so much more. It was more on his level. We do IOWA testing and his grammar scores soared this year so I'd like to think that the switch is the reason. We are moving R&S 7 back onto the table for this coming year.

 

For writing we had been using Classical Composition .... I switched to Put it in Writing but didn't 'like' it.....I consulted with my friend Janice in NJ and took the plunge into IEW. We started that in Feb or so and will stick with it this coming year.

 

DS also did outlines in both History and Science. He wrote topic reports in these two subjects too. Today I was pulling together DS materials for this coming year and decided upon MORE reports and writing for this coming year.

 

Finally he did Vocabulary from Classical Roots, Book A. UGH! He should have worked through books A and B but I had him spend more time on reading books --- typically one to two hours a day spent reading historical fiction type books.

 

Carole

[MamaSheep]

Ok...this is all helping. Keep 'em coming!

 

Question, though. What do you use (if anything) to teach how to write an essay or research paper? We'll need something that teaches a very orderly step-by-step process that produces coherent writing even if it's not "inspired". "We" have trouble organizing "our" thoughts, whether speaking or writing. I think a research paper is probably beyond our abilities still, but we managed to get actual paragraphs out of him last year, which was the goal for writing, after aiming for sentences the year before that. And individual words without a fit the year before...sigh. He is making progress, but we're not to the point of research papers yet. (Which is really a shame because he has some amazing insights, especially in science, if only he could get them down on paper. One step at a time, though.)

[Blue Hen]

The writing problem you described is the reason I turned to IEW, why I'm sticking with it too. I've tried over the past 10 years Writing Strands, Writer Apprentice, Classical Writing, Classical Compostition, Put It in Writing, online writing classes, doing-my-own-thingy, and this is the first program that lays out the steps for me, gives my son a 'checklist' to work against to know if he is writing as he should. For this very left brain person it makes so much sense.

 

Carole

[gingersmom]

Ok...this is all helping. Keep 'em coming!

 

Question, though. What do you use (if anything) to teach how to write an essay or research paper? We'll need something that teaches a very orderly step-by-step process that produces coherent writing even if it's not "inspired". "We" have trouble organizing "our" thoughts, whether speaking or writing. I think a research paper is probably beyond our abilities still, but we managed to get actual paragraphs out of him last year, which was the goal for writing, after aiming for sentences the year before that. And individual words without a fit the year before...sigh. He is making progress, but we're not to the point of research papers yet. (Which is really a shame because he has some amazing insights, especially in science, if only he could get them down on paper. One step at a time, though.)

 

We are going to be using Write Source. They have books for individual grades. You can see samples at http://www.rainbowresource.com.

[MamaSheep]

The writing problem you described is the reason I turned to IEW, why I'm sticking with it too. I've tried over the past 10 years Writing Strands, Writer Apprentice, Classical Writing, Classical Compostition, Put It in Writing, online writing classes, doing-my-own-thingy, and this is the first program that lays out the steps for me, gives my son a 'checklist' to work against to know if he is writing as he should. For this very left brain person it makes so much sense.

 

Carole

 

Ds is definitely very left-brained. And IEW does look like it might be structured in a way that would work quite well for him. I'm not convinced he's up to it for this year, though, and I don't have the $$$ to spend on it just to try it and see when I'm fairly sure it would be too much for him.

 

He has other problems with writing too, the one I described is just one of them. He has problems organizing his thoughts too, and just the physical task of putting the words on the paper is tedious and distracting and makes him lose his train of thought. I often let him type because he's much more fluent that way, and we do quite a bit of his work orally. But I do want him to work on his handwriting, and I see steady improvement. In fact, when I had a consult down at the school with the autism specialist (Asperger's falls under her umbrella) and the Occupational Therapist they both said they don't usually bother trying to teach kids with AS to write in cursive, just got them to the point where they could write more or less legibly in print and then just let it be because they had such issues. I'd already started him on cursive at the time, and it seemed to me that for some reason having the letters flow into each other was less disruptive to his train of thought than the start/stop/start/stop of print, and now he prefers cursive and writes much better that way. But he does have issues with almost everything to do with writing.

 

And naturally it's affected his attitude about writing. When I assign writing I can just see him flinch and curl in on himself. Then we have to negotiate the minimum possible number of words or sentences, and he'll sit there ten times longer than it would normally take to write ten times as much, just figuring out how to say what must be said in that minimum number. But if I don't give him a minimum it's too overwhelming and he won't even try. And don't even talk to me about JOURNALS. They tried his whole public school career (k-3) to get him to do journalling--totally unsuccessfully--and now he has a huge chip on his shoulder about anything that even SMELLS like a journal. He loves jokes, though, all of a sudden, and spends hours and hours reading joke books, so I'm pondering the notion of having him write a joke a day in a nice book and make a "favorite jokes book" as a doorway into journalling.

 

Anyway...the whole writing "thing" is a monstrosity when it comes to him. It's unfortunately not just one problem area, it's everything that goes into writing from overcoming huge anxiety enough to even make the attempt (yes, he has a diagnosed anxiety disorder on top of the AS, oh joy), to thinking up what to write, retaining it long enough to write it down, even as a brief outline, to the actual physical mechanics of making the pencil move around on the page properly, to the tactile sensation and sound that pencils make when they scrub across a page...it's a big thing. As I say, typing is better because the small muscle coordination required and the sensory experience are different and that helps. But the whole thing is a complicated mess. I've just accepted that we're going to always be "behind" when it comes to writing. But I am also convinced by the progress I've already seen and the shifting attitude about school work in general, that he has it in him to EVENTUALLY get to the point where he'll be able to turn out essays and research papers. They will very likely be stilted and formulaic his whole life, but I think he can do it. And since he wants to be a scientist, I think it's important for him to learn to write up research at least.

 

Probably not for 7th grade, though. A reasonable goal for 7th grade might be one or two five paragraph reports/essays per quarter with single paragraphs required more often. And mostly typed.

 

Do you know any good, inexpensive resources just for that part?

 

 

We are going to be using Write Source. They have books for individual grades. You can see samples at www.rainbowresource.com.

 

Thanks, I'll check it out!

[OnTheBrink]

We're using Harvey's grammar, Lightning Literature, Word Roots and Book of Roots for vocabulary.

[TravelingChris]

I will be using Lightning Lit for literature and writing prompts. IEW for writing instruction. Daily Grams for grammar along with a diagramming workbook (she loves to diagram and just needs a few lessons on a few more difficult topics), Apple Spelling drills for spelling, and I just need an easy vocabulary program -hopefully computer based.

[Blue Hen]

Ds is definitely very left-brained. And IEW does look like it might be structured in a way that would work quite well for him. I'm not convinced he's up to it for this year, though, and I don't have the $$$ to spend on it just to try it and see when I'm fairly sure it would be too much for him.

It is a lot of money and one reason I didn't even look at it for the longest time. One item that convinced me though is the re-sale value of the program. I should be able to sell my stuff at 70% of list price since we are keeping it in very good condition. But, it is still a large outlay and I have some other ideas for you! :001_smile:

 

.... He has problems organizing his thoughts too, and just the physical task of putting the words on the paper is tedious and distracting and makes him lose his train of thought. I often let him type because he's much more fluent that way, and we do quite a bit of his work orally. But I do want him to work on his handwriting, and I see steady improvement........ I'd already started him on cursive at the time, and it seemed to me that for some reason having the letters flow into each other was less disruptive to his train of thought than the start/stop/start/stop of print, and now he prefers cursive and writes much better that way. But he does have issues with almost everything to do with writing. !

 

My oldest had great difficulty with handwriting until I turned to using italic handwriting program, I believe from Getty. I see one of the advantages to hs'ing as being able to do things orally. If you can tell me then you really do understand it. Good for you for experimenting and finding what worked for your DS.

 

 

And don't even talk to me about JOURNALS. They tried his whole public school career (k-3) to get him to do journalling--totally unsuccessfully--and now he has a huge chip on his shoulder about anything that even SMELLS like a journal. He loves jokes, though, all of a sudden, and spends hours and hours reading joke books, so I'm pondering the notion of having him write a joke a day in a nice book and make a "favorite jokes book" as a doorway into journalling. ................

 

Do you know any good, inexpensive resources just for that part?

 

Did you hear SWB tell the story about what happened to her brother when he went off to college and took his first writing course? He failed---or got a really low score, don't remember which but he did very poor. Jessie was concerned and couldn't understand what had happened cause she knew he knew how to write. His explanation was that the teacher wanted him to JOURNAL, and well, he just didn't know what to write about so he didn't. SWB's message---don't have your child journal unless the child really wants to journal.

 

I would suggest regarding the joke book to tell your ds that it is OK to copy his favorite jokes from the book. Which leads me to a suggestion; focus upon having him do copywork, do dictation with him, help him learn to outline a short story and then write short story based upon the outline. The first two books of Classical Compostion focuses just upon this last skill --- the first unit of IEW focuses just upon this outlining and writing from your outline skill. Use Aesop Fables--they are short, just a paragraph or two. Then he doesn't have to come up with the idea and the writing "thing" isn't so monstrosity of a task.

 

I enjoy listening to SWB's writing tape and if I still had mine (gave it away) I'd send it to you. Writing is really 3 parts and we need to help our kids learn each part separately before we give them the task of doing that research paper. If any of those parts aren't solid then you'll see a child who will just freeze on being told to write an essay --- they can't hold that thought in their head long enough to get it down on paper (dictation) ---- they can't organize their thoughts (practice outlining other's paragraphs and then write from those paragraphs) --- writing conventions such as putting spaces between words, commas,... (copy work). Doing this really wouldn't require an extra program either but would take your 1-1 time which I feel like you are giving now :001_smile:

 

For the longest time I had my sons write their first draft, handwrite their 2nd and then handwrite their final copy. UGH--what a fight I had on my hands if I wanted anything changed in that first draft. Well, when I let them type their 2nd draft into the computer then they were quite willing to make changes --- cutting and pasting on the computer is a pleasure. I still insist that their first draft is handwritten but nothing after that. Honestly, I too prefer to type my first draft on the pc but I keep thinking about the college years where they will have a test to take in a classroom and will need to handwrite.....

 

Hope this helps --- and try to get ahold of SWB's writing tape, quite good stuff!

[MamaSheep]

...I see one of the advantages to hs'ing as being able to do things orally. If you can tell me then you really do understand it. Good for you for experimenting and finding what worked for your DS....

 

I could not agree more. We do a lot of stuff orally because I don't want his writing issues to slow him down on everything else. He really has such a quick mind in so many ways.

 

Did you hear SWB tell the story about what happened to her brother when he went off to college and took his first writing course? He failed---or got a really low score, don't remember which but he did very poor. Jessie was concerned and couldn't understand what had happened cause she knew he knew how to write. His explanation was that the teacher wanted him to JOURNAL, and well, he just didn't know what to write about so he didn't. SWB's message---don't have your child journal unless the child really wants to journal.

 

I would suggest regarding the joke book to tell your ds that it is OK to copy his favorite jokes from the book. Which leads me to a suggestion; focus upon having him do copywork, do dictation with him, help him learn to outline a short story and then write short story based upon the outline. The first two books of Classical Compostion focuses just upon this last skill --- the first unit of IEW focuses just upon this outlining and writing from your outline skill. Use Aesop Fables--they are short, just a paragraph or two. Then he doesn't have to come up with the idea and the writing "thing" isn't so monstrosity of a task.

 

I enjoy listening to SWB's writing tape and if I still had mine (gave it away) I'd send it to you. Writing is really 3 parts and we need to help our kids learn each part separately before we give them the task of doing that research paper. If any of those parts aren't solid then you'll see a child who will just freeze on being told to write an essay --- they can't hold that thought in their head long enough to get it down on paper (dictation) ---- they can't organize their thoughts (practice outlining other's paragraphs and then write from those paragraphs) --- writing conventions such as putting spaces between words, commas,... (copy work). Doing this really wouldn't require an extra program either but would take your 1-1 time which I feel like you are giving now :001_smile:

 

I'll have to look into that. Thanks for writing this, it does make me feel as if I've been doing at least SOME things right with him. I do want him to write competently by hand eventually, but it seems like slow and steady is the best approach with him on that. Yes, I had planned on putting a couple of his favorite joke books in the drawer with the "joke journal" thing and just assign him to copy one of his favorites into it every day. As far as actual "journalling" goes, I don't really care all that much, but I would like him to get into the habit of writing a little bit of something fairly regularly, which seems to be the main point of journalling in school anyway.

 

We spent a bunch of time (in between other things) last year learning to outline paragraphs, and he was getting the hang of it pretty well last year. (Although I found that his idea of the main point of a paragraph didn't always jive with what was in the "answers" in the book. As long as he could justify his interpretation with some "supporting details", though I counted it as valid.) Anyway, I figured we'd review that a little at the beginning of this year, but then I wasn't sure where to go next. I do like the idea of having him use his own outline to write a paragraph. And the outlining workbook we used last year has some outlines for kids to practice writing paragraphs from too. Maybe the next step after that would be to have him outline a whole story, and I do like the idea of using Aesop's fables. Especially since I'm fairly sure dd's curriculum uses some of them so I should have them on hand and I could read to both of them and then have dd do her narrative and ds do an outline. Yes, I think that would work nicely. And I'm sure I can scare up some kind of dicatation that would work for him too.

 

As far as conventions, from what I've seen him do so far he does a pretty good job with the basics, though he sometimes has problems with letter spacing--another thing that's easier for him in cursive than in print. And I think things like punctuation and capitalization rules are covered in Analytical Grammar if I wind up with that for next year. Or IEW. I'll have to take a closer look at that I guess.

 

But this is good for this year. I do (now that you mention it, thanks for the memory jog) remember reading a SWB article of some kind that dealt with these issues. I just hadn't thought about it for a long time. And then I got my brain going down too many rabbit trails on Language Arts for this year and knew I needed help with some form of structure to help me sort it out. This really does help, thank you. I think it's starting to come together.

[Chris in VA]

You might want to look at The Lively Art of Writing, a small, step-by-step, generally non-intimidating gem of a book used by the folks at Write@Home for their online Essay 1 course. It's the only thing that worked for ds. You don't do all the book at WAH, so I don't really know everything it covers, but I was impressed with how it laid out the essay so neatly.

[MamaSheep]

You might want to look at The Lively Art of Writing, a small, step-by-step, generally non-intimidating gem of a book used by the folks at Write@Home for their online Essay 1 course. It's the only thing that worked for ds. You don't do all the book at WAH, so I don't really know everything it covers, but I was impressed with how it laid out the essay so neatly.

 

Thanks! I'll definitely check that out too. :)