A Few Language Arts Questions: Need Advice

[3Rivers]

I'm trying to decide on a few things, and had a few questions about these sources that all seem very good:

 

1. Should I start a 1st grader with limited writing skills in WWE 1 or wait until 2nd grade?

 

2. Although I have the WWE text, could someone summarize the different skills/levels emphasized in each workbook so that I could choose which ones to use more easily? (Based on what you have experienced with it)

 

3. If I am doing Writing STrands with a 4th grader, would adding WWE be too much?

 

4. Compare Rod and Staff with First Language Lessons.

 

5. Related to 4, I know that FLL and WWE go nicely together, but what does R&S go with? KWIM?

 

6. I'm looking for good dictation (ready, open and go) resources for my rising 7th grader. Would you recommend WWE book 4 for her?

 

Basically, I have these resources to consider:

WWE series workbooks

FLL

Writing Strands

Rod and Staff

Also will also do Sonlight Language Arts...which just may put us over the top! lol

 

And these kids to use them with:

 

DD 12

DS 9

DS 6

 

Thanks, I appreciate your insight and help on this.

[sandra in va]

We use Rod and Staff and really like it. You could easily put your 9 and 12 yo's in R&S. If you want to do copywork or dictation with them, could you use passages from the books you are reading? I know you want something that is ready to use, but we select copywork passages for my 2nd grader out of her readers and it is really easy to do. You could have your 7th grader select a short passage to copy one day and the next, you use the same passage as dictation.

 

For your 6 yo, you could use FLL and WWE1 and then transition to R&S in 2nd grade. Or you could use FLL and WWE2 in 2nd and transition in third grade. (We've used the FLL/WWE combo in the early grades and it worked great - transition to R&S was flawless.) If you are concerned about writing skills in 1st grade - you could let her do a portion of the copywork. I'm sure by the end of the year, she'll be able to do the whole thing. For the narrations - you write those for the child, so there won't be a lot of writing there.

 

Obviously, we are R&S fans, so I'm going to give advice in that direction. WTM says that R&S is fine for both grammar and composition in the early grades, however, we have always used IEW and skipped the writing options in R&S. I'll let others who have experience with the other LA programs (Writing Strands and SL) comment on those. I think it might be better to just do one curriculum for grammar and one for composition - pick the ones that you think will fit the best and not worry about the rest. Then you can focus all your energy on mastering the content in just those curricula.

 

Hope this helps! :001_smile:

Edited May 24, 2010 by sandra in va

[Ellie]

1. Should I start a 1st grader with limited writing skills in WWE 1 or wait until 2nd grade?

*I* would wait.

 

If I am doing Writing STrands with a 4th grader, would adding WWE be too much?

Yes.

 

Related to 4, I know that FLL and WWE go nicely together, but what does R&S go with? KWIM?

You don't *need* anything to go with R&S's English series. There is plenty of writing instruction. If you feel really compelled, you could add Writing Strands.

 

Basically, I have these resources to consider:

WWE series workbooks

FLL

Writing Strands

Rod and Staff

Also will also do Sonlight Language Arts...which just may put us over the top! lol

Girl! Way over the top!!!

 

My advice is to pick one. Just one. It doesn't even matter which one, because they are all good. Just pick one. Seriously.

[3Rivers]

Oh, I guess I should say that I wasn't planning on using the composition parts of SL language arts, just the narration/dictation. :001_smile:

 

Same with grammar. Otherwise yeah, it would be overkill. :lol: