Could someone help with CLE placement?

[Angel]

I'm considering CLE LA for my dd for 4th next year. It's on my list to look at at convention tomorrow. We have done no formal grammar to date. She did a small part of FLL part 1 (wasn't a good fit) and did all of LLftVY book 1 this year (she loved it, too much copywork for me). I want to begin formal grammar next year and dd likes a workbook format.

 

I just gave her the CLE 200 placement test. She scored 71. Their website says that a score of 70 means that the child should be ready for CLE 300. Under 70 they should begin with CLE 200. She's right on the cusp and I don't know if CLE 300 will go over things they assume she knows.

 

Where would those of you who use CLE place her? We will not use the spelling (we use AAS) or the handwriting (we use HWT).

 

Thanks for the help. Looking at it tomorrow may give me a better idea.

 

ETA: She did well with the capitalization and punctuation parts, not well on the sentence structure parts.

[homeschoolally]

I haven't used the 300 level, but in the upper levels the first light unit is always a review of the previous year. If you can get confirmation that LA 301 is a review of the 200 level, which I'm sure someone here can verify, I'd go with 300 for sure! CLE has lots of review and repetition spread throughout each LU. She will have plenty of opportunity to practice any missed skills! :001_smile:

[JenAL]

LU 301 is a review LU basically. I wouldn't hesitate to place your child in 301 with her placement score.

[MrsMe]

Is there a certain area that she got wrong the most, or were the errors all over? I probably wouldn't hesitate to put her in 300's either. If it's a repetitious error, you can also do a catch up on it. It's spiral so they come back to things often unless it's been hit upon a lot in the 200's like what a noun is for example. If it's just a few oddities, I'd be fine with 300. And 300 LU may be good to start as it is a review.

 

If you look at the scope and sequence which is very detailed it could tell you which lu to start in if you're uncomfortable starting with 300. It tells you exactly what's covered and when. I definitely wouldn't start at 200 as there's a ton of phonics type work that sort of mellows out around 204.

[HeatherM2]

We started my 3rd grader in CLE LA 300's at the beginning of the year with no formal grammar before that. She was doing well with it at first. However, we hit a bit of a snag about 3 light units in because it was moving a little to fast for her.

 

I decided to back her up to the 200's. The 200's were really to easy for her though so we skipped the first 5 books of the 200's. Looking back, I should have just slowed down and took 2 years to do the 300's with her. She really just needed a little more time to mature.

 

Anyway we plan on using the 300's for her 4th grade year. I think it's a good place to start a 4th grader that is new to the curriculum. I also agree with the previous poster that the 200's have to much phonics type work for a typical 4th grader.

[Angel]

Thank you! I was leaning toward the 300 but just wasn't sure. In doing the placement test she missed quite a bit on sentences. A couple in vocab (like homophone and antonym), some of the study skills/dictionary questions, and much of the dividing of syllables. We have not done homophone or antonym this year, once I told her what they were, she got the right answer. We are working on syllabication in AAS, so I'm not worried about that. She didn't have much trouble with nouns or punctuation, except for things we haven't covered yet (quotation marks and linking verbs).

 

I like that CLE is said to be similar to R&S in thoroughness, but it's in a workbook form. I will be looking at JAG and R&S tomorrow, plus GWG if it's at convention.

 

Thanks so much for your help!

[Marla]

When my daughter did the placement test she scored a 70-71 which indicated she could go into CLE 500 (barely) so I had the same dilemma as you. I could tell by looking at what she missed in the test that they were concepts we had not covered yet (study skills, dictionary skills) so I knew we could easily catch up. I started her in 500 and it was the right decision.

 

My understanding is that Math is the only subject that treats the 01 Light Unit as a review of the previous level's work. I don't think LA 401 was a review of Level 300.

[TracyR]

I would place her in 300. Most definitely. This is the level that CLE really begins more formal grammar review. This was the level that I started my oldest daughter last year because she struggled so much with grammar. It was a perfect level to start. I say 300.

 

And the poster above me is correct. Math is the only subject that treats the first Light Unit as a practice of the previous level. This does not hold true for the rest of the subjects. Start with 300.