Would you make your 7th grader redo a chapter in R&S that they were doing poorly on?

[jacqui in mo]

The chapter in question is R&S 7 chap 4 on Verbs. Parts of it are tough to grasp (perfect tenses, emphatic forms, 4 basic sentence forms, etc.) I am letting my DD basically go through R&S independently & she usually seems to understand & perform at a B grade level. However, she did seem to be having trouble grasping this chapter. We went over her work together & went over several of the lessons twice (1/2 the written exercises on 2 consecutive days) as well as doing most of the worksheets. When I gave her the written test yesterday, She got a D on it. She does seem to understand the diagramming well and uses irregular past tense verbs okay.

 

I could go over this again & use the oral exercises this time, actually doing it with her. This chapter is at my knowledge stretching point in Grammar as I don't remember this stuff off the top of my head & would actually have to study it myself. Is it worth having her review this chapter again before we move on?

 

Thanks

Jacqui

[stephanie]

The chapter in question is R&S 7 chap 4 on Verbs. Parts of it are tough to grasp (perfect tenses, emphatic forms, 4 basic sentence forms, etc.) I am letting my DD basically go through R&S independently & she usually seems to understand & perform at a B grade level. However, she did seem to be having trouble grasping this chapter. We went over her work together & went over several of the lessons twice (1/2 the written exercises on 2 consecutive days) as well as doing most of the worksheets. When I gave her the written test yesterday, She got a D on it. She does seem to understand the diagramming well and uses irregular past tense verbs okay.

 

I could go over this again & use the oral exercises this time, actually doing it with her. This chapter is at my knowledge stretching point in Grammar as I don't remember this stuff off the top of my head & would actually have to study it myself. Is it worth having her review this chapter again before we move on?

 

Thanks

Jacqui

 

My ds13 did the same thing,and we went back and spent an extra week on the entire chapter. I do his lessons with him b/c I need to be able to explain to him why he got things wrong, and then he does the written part independently. I would say she really needs to be able to master that part of grammar for they are important to know. Could you read through the lesson,and then give her the worksheet on it? If you don't have the worksheet then I would just have her repeat some of the problems on the lessons she missed. As I understand, R&S 7 is pretty challenging so it would probably benefit her to slow down and spend a little more time on the lessons. Hope that helps you!

[jacqui in mo]

That does help my thinking. I think we are already going pretty slowly through R&S though.

[Carmen_and_Company]

This is what I'd do:

 

1. Review the chapter concepts together for each lesson

2. Redo every other exercise item orally

3. Begin to take the lead in grammar by teaching all new material to dd

4. Have dd complete exercises independently after you are confident she

understands the lesson you just taught

5. Since your dd diagrams proficiently, have her tell the slot & function of

each diagrammed word. This may help with learning & understanding

the grammatical terms.

6. Evaluate the purpose of the program & it's effectiveness

A. Is what dd is learning transferring to written work?

B. Would slowing down better serve her?

C. Will dd review the material again in the next text?

D.

[AllSmiles]

I would definitely take the time to go back and review the chapter. I think one of the greatest advantages of homeschooling is that we can back up and help our children with a concept they do not understand. A public school teacher simply can’t hold up an entire class because a few students are struggling. Other material is likely to be built upon the material in the chapter. If the concepts are not understood now, the material in later chapters will probably be more difficult to master.

[paula j]

Yes, I would make them do it over just to be sure they understand the information.

[vmsurbat]

There is a lot of new *terminology* in that chapter--perfect, imperfect, emphatic, etc. She knows the concepts if she has been speaking correctly all her life; she has just never had to really think about it. (She will, though, when she attempts to learn a foreign language).

 

One thing I did with my children is I had them make a chart showing the term in one column, a definition (their wording) in another column, and a sample usage in a third column. We like charts here and I wouldn't hesitate to let her use her homemade chart in answering the oral and written exercises.

 

I think language learning (English AND foreign languages) are the ultimate in "Building Thinking Skills" and well-worth the time and effort to master.

 

HTH,

[Sophia]

if you don't get a handle on it now.

We have used R& S since 3rd grade, and it definitely got tougher in 7th grade.

I have had my 12 y.o. review a couple chapters after doing poorly on tests.

We would start at the beginning of the chapter and review orally until we found her trouble spots. Then we camped out there until she got it - over a period of a few days.

My oldest doesn't require my help so much in this area, but dd does need to review it orally along with written assignments in order to nail it.

[momofkhm]

Like you, I have her work through it on her own. For the chapter work, she was getting low A's, maybe B's. But on the chapter test, she also scored a D. My dd only does 1/2 lesson anyway - evens or odds. I had her go back and do the "other" sentences for the chapter review (evens if she had done the odds or vice versa). She again scored well so we just moved on. She doesn't look back in her book, so I think it was a good assessment of how well she knows the material.

[Rhondabee]

I will be the odd guy out. We had trouble there, too.

 

But, what I did was re-teach it every time it came up in the Review exercises. Usually it will be in both the Oral Review (in the TM - and I would use this to re-teach) and in the "Review" (which ds did as written). Obviously, this was very hands-on for me, and I had to learn it to teach it.

 

Also, we created charts - similar to our Latin charts. We would take one verb and conjugate it into the different tenses and voices. This made it easier to notice things like "always use a D helping verb with the emphatic - and the D helping verb determines if it's past or present tense."

 

ymmv, obviously~

Rhonda

[Jean in Wisc]

I will be the odd guy out. We had trouble there, too.

 

But, what I did was re-teach it every time it came up in the Review exercises. Usually it will be in both the Oral Review (in the TM - and I would use this to re-teach) and in the "Review" (which ds did as written). Obviously, this was very hands-on for me, and I had to learn it to teach it.

 

Also, we created charts - similar to our Latin charts. We would take one verb and conjugate it into the different tenses and voices. This made it easier to notice things like "always use a D helping verb with the emphatic - and the D helping verb determines if it's past or present tense."

 

ymmv, obviously~

Rhonda

 

I'll agree here, too--especially if you plan to continue using R&S next year. They will review it again and again and again.... So if she went over it, and you went over it with her, you've done your best with this chapter. Let her hit it again next year and see if it doesn't come a bit easier. Grammar learning comes best when it is reviewed each year and a little bit new is added into it. I'm guessing next time through this material will go more smoothly.

 

J