5sweeties Posted April 15, 2008 Share Posted April 15, 2008 Can someone please tell me what the difference is between what a 3rd to 5th grader can get out of these two programs? I have been searching for lit program for my younger children for quite some time. Drawn Into the Heart of Reading looks good, but I am wondering what I could gain or loose from CLE? We are using CLE for the end of this year and next year, for our Language Arts, and I have been very pleased with it, in every way. It seems to be an excellent fit for my dd's, and I am wondering if their reading program would be the same? Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G5052 Posted April 15, 2008 Share Posted April 15, 2008 CLE is done mostly independently using their readers and workbooks. The child reads short stories and poems and does the workbook. As the teacher, you just check their work and help over the rough spots. DITHOR requires that you pick the book for them to read and oversee what they do in a more detailed way. This program uses books versus the stories of CLE. I was considering both a year ago, and the voice of reason won out and I went with CLE with no regrets. My time for planning/overseeing is even less now, and DITHOR wouldn't have gotten done frankly. CLE has gotten done and has been great for us. My younger one did the 2nd grade program, and my older one did the 4th and half of the 5th grade program. Next year my younger one will do the 3rd grade program, and the older will finish the 5th grade program and do the 6th. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MIch elle Posted April 15, 2008 Share Posted April 15, 2008 sold DITHOR. DITHOR was too teacher intensive for me and didn't cover a third of what CLE reading covers. DITHOR is great to do all together(mult.dc) and CLE is for independent work (grades 4-8). They also can be used together. CLE reading is only 15 weeks so you can use DITHOR for the other weeks of your school year. CLE uses a reader; DITHOR uses whole books that you choose. I highly recommend CLE reading! Here's what's covered in CLE reading 5: SUNRISE READING 500 – Open Windows LightUnit 501 Vocabulary words Cause and effect Identifying strong, active verbs Describing story characters Identifying similes Defining words from context Choosing facts to support a statement Writing progressive degrees of a concept Working with personification Proving or disproving statements about a story Identifying and interpreting figures of speech Completing analogies Inferring facts not directly stated Understanding circumstantial evidence and proof Defining and using homographs Understanding the term idiom Interpreting common idioms Answering five W questions Numbering story events in order Telling what story characters learned from the way God worked Listing traits of story characters Working with rhythm and rhyme scheme in poetry LightUnit 502 Working with vocabulary words Defining words from context Understanding a proverb Creating an alternate story title Identifying character’s feelings Identifying the most important event in a story Completing analogies that have more than one correct answer Understanding a nonverbal message Predicting what happened after the story Inferring facts not directly stated Marking poetic rhythm Using principle and principal Scanning for answers or topics Evaluating story characters’ actions Identifying a story’s main lesson Understanding the meaning of prejudice and its foolishness Identifying a biography Defining foot as used in poetry Identifying metrical feet in a poem Thinking about race prejudice Working with synonyms Marking rhythm in a poem LightUnit 503 Working with vocabulary words Inferring facts not directly stated Telling what could have happened Identifying main ideas and summaries Describing story characters Identifying a characters fears and hardships Learning about other inventions of Benjamin Franklin Marking poetic rhythm and meter Working with perfect and imperfect rhyme Numbering unstated events in order Identifying figures of speech Defining and identifying metaphors Finding evidence to support statements Outlining a simple story plot Explaining a figure of speech Identifying metaphors, similes, and personification Defining words from their context Suggesting others whom the sinking of the Titanic would have affected Comparing a poem and a story Identifying main ideas of paragraphs Explaining the meanings of sentences Understanding conflict, internal conflict, and external conflict Identifying areas of conflict in the story LightUnit 504: Out in Nature Working with vocabulary words Identifying cause and effect Identifying the story purpose and details that further the story purpose Working with guide words Using the dictionary Finding metaphors in the Bible Inferring facts not directly stated Defining biography Identifying a metaphor in a poem Scanning to locate facts Writing an essay imagining he is Peter walking on the water Identifying a metaphor from the story Defining words from their context Marking the rhyme scheme of a poem Writing another title for the story Making a prediction Categorizing natural resources Naming reference books needed to find answers to given questions Identifying hints of how a character will act Defining free verse Identifying main ideas, story lessons, and summaries of stories Completing a poetic couplet Reading about KJV Bible Rewriting KJV phrases in modern English Identifying characters, setting, external and internal conflict in the story Understanding a character’s actions Imagining what might have happened LightUnit 505 Working with vocabulary words. Understanding story characters’ actions and feelings Describing story characters Working with main idea, story lesson, and summary Thinking about idle words Working with personification Making a simple outline of a story Categorizing words Explaining an idiom Identifying emotions as shown by words Interpreting figures of speech Defining circumstantial evidence Scanning for answers Imagining details not given Imagining story characters’ feelings and explaining possible reasons for their actions Telling what might have happened Defining words from their context Inferring facts not directly stated Identifying similes Choosing exact, specific verbs to replace weak ones Learning the term epigram Join the CLE yahoo group to see samples and the complete scope & sequence charts. HTH, Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
5sweeties Posted April 15, 2008 Author Share Posted April 15, 2008 That helps a great deal. If you were to use both CLE and DITHOR during a school year, would you schedule them one after the other, or inter-mixed throughout the year? I was a lit major in college, and while I absolutely do not want my children to miss out on reading whole books, I have no intention of allowing them to lack the ability to intelligently discuss and understand literature. I want it all, and it seems like very few elementary level programs possess both characteristics. I was impressed by K12 last year, but with 5 children and the cost of K12, we simply cannot use that program. Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GreenKitty Posted April 15, 2008 Share Posted April 15, 2008 Chose CLE a long time ago and love it! Though we've never used DITHOR. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
5sweeties Posted April 15, 2008 Author Share Posted April 15, 2008 I'm thinking about all of this, and also wondering... If you use CLE Reading only, do you, and if so where do you, fit whole books into a child's year? Are they avid readers and read for fun in bed at night? Do you schedule time out of their school day for them to do silent reading? My younger dc, while they do love to read a good book, are not the type to choose reading over other, more acitive, activities. (Much unlike their older sis!) Any great advice on scheduling great whole books, into a school year, already crowded with wonderful learning opportunities? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G5052 Posted April 15, 2008 Share Posted April 15, 2008 I'm thinking about all of this, and also wondering... If you use CLE Reading only, do you, and if so where do you, fit whole books into a child's year? Are they avid readers and read for fun in bed at night? Do you schedule time out of their school day for them to do silent reading? My younger dc, while they do love to read a good book, are not the type to choose reading over other, more acitive, activities. (Much unlike their older sis!) Any great advice on scheduling great whole books, into a school year, already crowded with wonderful learning opportunities? In line with my other comment, we use Sonlight for history/lit because it keeps me sane, so they also have reading from that. The Sonlight reading is easy (but productive) for them, so there's not a problem doing both the Sonlight readers and CLE. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MIch elle Posted April 15, 2008 Share Posted April 15, 2008 We do 1 CLE reading workbook (3 wks) then read a whole book (about 1 month), then a CLE reading, etc. I've also done several books in a row then CLE reading in a row. Do what works for you. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
5sweeties Posted April 15, 2008 Author Share Posted April 15, 2008 Great...makes sense! MIch elle~When you do CLE, then whole books, and back, do you use a reading program for the whole books, or do you just read the books? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
5sweeties Posted April 15, 2008 Author Share Posted April 15, 2008 Thanks so much for that alternate viewpoint! I like what I see...I'm just worried about missing out on the technical side of literature. Perhaps the combo of the two, is just what I'm looking for! I was thinking to spread DITHOR out over 2 years, per level, anyway. Perhaps, this is just the answer. Combining them. To me...learning to read a book, poem, short story, text of any sort...is the absolute key to all learning, hand-in-hand with writing and expressing thoughts and ideas. I'm much more concerned about this issue, really, than all other aspects of my children's education. The old, give a man a fish and feed him for a day, teach a man to fish, and feed him for a lifetime, mentality!:001_smile: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MIch elle Posted April 15, 2008 Share Posted April 15, 2008 trying to do Lightning Lit. & Comp. 7 then DITHOR with CLE reading and some other literature guides - SL, Omnibus II, etc. which I already own/owned or got online free. We've been on a Shakespeare streak for a couple of months now so that has taken some of our lit. analysis time so my dc have just been reading assigned books that they choose (I give them 3-4 to choose from)without me trying to do anything with those books. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sue G in PA Posted April 15, 2008 Share Posted April 15, 2008 to teach a particular literary element. I don't know if CLE Reading does this, but I know DITHOR does not. We started DITHOR and fizzled out b/c *I* didn't have the time to really teach it and plan it. It's not very involved, but at the time...I was just really disorganized and burned out, KWIM? We plan to revisit it this summer. I like how DITHOR uses whole books and not just little exerpts from books, taken out of context for the sole purpose of teaching this or that lit. element. K12 literature did this and I hated it. For example, my dd was studying character using a portion of the book, Little Women. Well, she had already read the entire book before getting to this and the "exerpts" actually confused her! Taken out of context, it didn't make sense to her! So, from then on, when we got to one of those "exerpts", I would just have her read the book! Anyway, this is just my opinion. I'd much rather my dc read the whole book. Using exerpts from literature for dictation or copywork is fine. For lit. study...I prefer the whole book approach. JMHO and certainly not a knock against anybody who prefers the other approach! :D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jacey Posted April 16, 2008 Share Posted April 16, 2008 we haven't used it yet- but am looking forward to it! I plan on jumping in next year. I too wanted to use "real books" and I liked how it was developed by a teacher plus uses Bloom's taxonomy. As a side note, a good friend of mine is currently going back to school to be a teacher in middle school English (preferably) or Science and she was very impressed with it. She's considering purchasing it for herself to use with her own teaching in the future. That was pretty reassuring! :) Jacey Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GreenKitty Posted April 16, 2008 Share Posted April 16, 2008 I'm thinking about all of this, and also wondering... If you use CLE Reading only, do you, and if so where do you, fit whole books into a child's year? Are they avid readers and read for fun in bed at night? Do you schedule time out of their school day for them to do silent reading? My younger dc, while they do love to read a good book, are not the type to choose reading over other, more acitive, activities. (Much unlike their older sis!) Any great advice on scheduling great whole books, into a school year, already crowded with wonderful learning opportunities? We also use LL and my kids read pretty much anything they can get their hands on. :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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