Kilgallon books/Story Grammar/Grammar OR Writing program?

[dancer67]

Are these books for supplementation only?

 

Are they Grammar AND Writing books combined?

 

Do you need another grammar program to go with this?

 

If we are weak in grammar, can we use Story Grammar for a 6th/7th grader?

[mmasmommy]

:bigear:

 

I ordered Kilgallon books but can't seem to wrap my head around how to use them.

[Kalmia]

The Killgallon books are not stand alone grammar texts. There is an assumption of familiarity with participles, prepositional phrases, appositives, etc. when beginning the first book Sentence Composing for Elementary School.

 

I see them primarily as writing supplements. The goal is to produce elegantly crafted sentences from imitation of good models. Each imitation lesson focuses on a particular grammatical construction. To imitate the sentences the kids need to know what the parts of speech are and what phrases and clauses are so they can supply their own to match the model.

 

There are generally four parts to a lesson. a description of the grammatical construction plus examples; an exercise in which broken apart parts of a sentence are recombined; an exercise where the focused-upon grammatical construction is inserted into already written sentences; and finally imitations of model sentences.

 

My son finds these books quite enjoyable, especially the imitations of model sentences. Most people use them along with other formal grammar or writing programs. The Story Composing Elementary text was apparently written earlier than the Sentence Composing one and does not include discussion of the parts of speech/phrases/clauses--calling them all "tools."

[dancer67]

Okay Not what I am looking for then. I thought this was a stand alone grammar program.

 

Thank you:grouphug:

[NanceXToo]

The Killgallon books are not stand alone grammar texts. There is an assumption of familiarity with participles, prepositional phrases, appositives, etc. when beginning the first book Sentence Composing for Elementary School.

 

I see them primarily as writing supplements. The goal is to produce elegantly crafted sentences from imitation of good models.

 

:iagree:

This book (I only have SCFES so far) is not intended to teach grammar from scratch, it's just intended to teach a child to write stronger, more interesting sentences by imitating strong, interesting sentences. It operates under the concept that it's easier to write a good sentence than it is to write a good paragraph. It teaches them to look at a sentence at a time. And they might have to rearrange sentence parts to make one sentence, they might have to add sentence parts to make the sentence their own, they might have to write their own imitation, etc.

 

I agree that it assumes some knowledge of various concepts, as it only VERY briefly touches on what they are and provides one or two examples and then plunges you right into doing the work.

 

My 10 y/o and I started in January and were a bit sporadic for a while with using it, but we're now in a rhythm of doing one "practice" a day. She can usually do fine on her own at this point with all of the exercises except for the imitations. Those she still tends to need some hand-holding with, especially for the longer ones. These practices can take anywhere from 5-15 minutes depending on what it is.

[Crimson Wife]

They are applied grammar/sentence writing. I use them in alternation with MCT's LA program.

 

For a 6th/7th grader, I would use Grammar for Middle School Students. The exercises are similar to Story Grammar but the grammatical tools are given their proper names. Also, there are more paragraph-writing exercises than in Story Grammar.

 

While the Killgallon books are not a standalone grammar program, I have to say they've been one of the very best things we've used in our homeschool. It's one thing for a student to be able to spout off the definition of an appositive or a participle, but quite another to actually be able to use those types of phrases in his/her writing. For me, the main point in studying grammar is to improve the student's writing ability. Killgallon has done that for my oldest.

[Sweet Home Alabama]

They are applied grammar/sentence writing. I use them in alternation with MCT's LA program.

 

For a 6th/7th grader, I would use Grammar for Middle School Students. The exercises are similar to Story Grammar but the grammatical tools are given their proper names. Also, there are more paragraph-writing exercises than in Story Grammar.

 

While the Killgallon books are not a standalone grammar program, I have to say they've been one of the very best things we've used in our homeschool. It's one thing for a student to be able to spout off the definition of an appositive or a participle, but quite another to actually be able to use those types of phrases in his/her writing. For me, the main point in studying grammar is to improve the student's writing ability. Killgallon has done that for my oldest.

 

 

My ds will do Christian Ligt language arts 600 level next year in 6th grade. We use SWB's middle school writing for composition. He'll use Megawords for spelling.

 

I'm tempted to try Killgallon, but I'm not sure if there is time, or how I would schedule it. I also wonder if I should just stick to what I have because getting the Killgallon is just one more expense and would take up time in an already tight schedule, but it just looks so good!:lol:

 

What else do you do for language arts, and how do you schedule Killgallon in with the other things you're doing? How does Kilgallon help you meet specific writing skill goals?