Jumping levels in Rod & Staff English?

[KarenDV]

My son has breezed through Rod & Staff 3 and 4 in the last year and a half. I looked at some samples of 5 and think that it looks like mostly review, and that I could safely jump to 6, which would re-cover any new topics from 5.

 

Can anyone verify my hunch or, conversely, persuade me that I shouldn't skip 5? (If it matters, we also are using Classical Writing - Homer and use only the RS writing assignments that wouldn't be covered in CW, such as the friendly letter.)

 

Thanks,

Karen

[Josie]

My knee-jerk response is to ask why you really need to skip? You didn't say, but I assume your son is in the 4th grade. R & S does get more intense every year by adding a little more information. My dd is doing well in R & S, so I am going to have her start writing out the "remember" boxes on index cards and memorize the more important ones.

Just a thought. YMMV

[MIch elle]

R&S English levels 3 & 4 can be skipped if you're willing to do intensive memorization & work in R&S English 5 (never having used any grammar prior to this)but I do not recommend skipping R&S English 5,6 & 7. R&S English 5 gives the basic foundation to the harder levels of 6, 7 & 8. R&S E.5 starts out easy enough but does get more complicated after the second half of the year. I think pushing a student into R&S English 6 & 7 too soon can be difficult to a maturing student.

[Sue G in PA]

she's in 6th and up until about halfway through...she sailed. Then, she hit a wall w/ the more advanced diagramming. I would recommend NOT skipping 5 but moving quickly through the topics until he hits a wall. I have heard R&S getting increasingly more difficult in 6 and 7.

[Lolly]

The 5th grade book is pretty average for 5th grade. Without completing the 5th grade book, the 6th grade book can be quite daunting. It can be done, but it usually isn't pretty. Finishing the 6th grade book will put her about on level with a high school senior ability in grammar. Finish the 7th grade book and she'll know more grammar than most college graduates. The 9th and 10th grade books focus on writing.

 

What looks like review is actually baby steps in increasingly more difficult sentence construction. It can be very deceptive when you are trying to compare the levels.

[Julie in GA]

but won't do this with the next one. The reason why I skipped was because I needed to get to a study of verbals in order to continue with our Classical Writing program (Homer B).

 

It takes longer for things to click with my second ds, and we will therefore not skip any levels.

 

This has been discussed before, and the consensus has been NOT to skip Level 5. If you breeze through 5, you could skip 6, but unless you have a specific reason to do so, I wouldn't do it just to stay on grade level. As others have said, completing levels 6, 7 & 8 will put you WAY ahead of the curve.

[Kelli in TN]

I am going to disagree here and say that I would not skip any of the levels. I think what makes it work is that each level builds on the one before.

[stephanie]

My son has breezed through Rod & Staff 3 and 4 in the last year and a half. I looked at some samples of 5 and think that it looks like mostly review, and that I could safely jump to 6, which would re-cover any new topics from 5.

 

Can anyone verify my hunch or, conversely, persuade me that I shouldn't skip 5? (If it matters, we also are using Classical Writing - Homer and use only the RS writing assignments that wouldn't be covered in CW, such as the friendly letter.)

 

Thanks,

Karen

 

We started R&S 6 this school year, and I noticed a big difference since last years text. I think they really start getting a little more aggressive in their assignments. Aggressive may not be a good word, but I don't think we could have handled a jump from 4 to 6. It would have not been a very smooth transition. That's just my opinion, though. Maybe you can do 5, but start with the tests and pick up where ds starts having trouble? That's just a suggestion.

[michaeljenn]

I would not skip either. If there is something that she has mastered then you can just go through it quicker. I really believe that you need that foundation of the 5th grade book before you move on to 6th.. there is a big difference, especially in the last half of the book!

[Julie in GA]

Maybe it worked for us because of the grammar in CW. My ds in in R&S 8 now, and doing beautifully.

[dalynnrmc]

We had the opposite problem - it was taking TOO LONG to get through a unit when I knew good and well that he knew the material. What we started doing was to do the review lessons FIRST.

 

So, if you've used 3 and 4, you know that about every 5th lesson is a "review what you've learned" lesson. We just started skipping 1-4 to do 5, skipping 6-9 to do 10, etc. If he aced the review lesson, there was no use going back and doing the 4 lessons on things he'd already mastered. If he missed a few, we'd go back and do ONLY the lessons that corresponded to the concept he was missing.

 

Usually, he would get through the first 3 or 4 review lessons without missing a single question, and then we'd have to do a lesson or two for a couple of sections, and we usually had to do most or all of the last section or two.

 

Anyway, if she's breezing through, maybe this would work for you in skipping what she already knows with this "pretest" method. If she needs to go back and work on something then she always can. (And for a lot of lessons you have book work and/or worksheets as options for practice. Plenty!)