In what grade do you teach the following:

[Homemama2]

Writing a business letter

 

How to write different forms of poetry (such as haiku etc)

 

Including a Bibliography if writing a report

 

Also, for a speech, how long is appropriate for a 4th grader

 

And how long for a report (how many paragraphs and/or pages?)

 

I've been glancing through our grammar/English and from what I can tell, none of this included for 4th grade (I can't remember when we learned this in school, but it seems appropriate for a 4th grader). Well, it looks like they have them do one oral book report and one or two other reports with no bibliography and I'm not sure how much to expect (my darling ds will give me exactly the bare minimum of what I assign.) I was just wondering when this is typically taught in case we switch programs next year. We are using Abeka-not Rod and Staff like my siggy says.

[GingerPoppy]

I would do poetry forms around grade 6 or 7, although some of the simpler ones can be started earlier. I probably would require a simplified bibliography (just a list of books and authors) around that same grade. Formal bibliographies by around grade 8 or 9.

 

I wouldn't have a grade 4 doing a speech longer than a few minutes. I'd stick more to narration, personally.

[Penelope]

I had ds write business letters starting in third grade. It was a cub scout requirement. We will practice a couple per year.

 

We played around with haikus in first grade, and then second or third grade. We've done simple quatrains and acrostics, not much more than that. That was just for fun, though. I don't plan to require writing poetry for at least a few more years, if ever. I think studying the forms is fine; we use the MCT poetry books and will use a more formal poetry program (from Classical Academic Press) in middle school.

[Homemama2]

Thank you both! Takes a load off my mind that we aren't missing something that is needed (esp. the bibliography...it's been so long since I've done one, I'd need to look it up. :tongue_smilie:)

[Momling]

I think any of these could be reasonably expected to be learned anywhere around middle school (give or take a few years...)

 

I would not expect more than a few pages for a report at fourth grade - including pictures or graphs (which really mean 5-6 paragraphs or so). It depends on the child and the content and the time... A formal bibliography is worth introducing prior to writing a report.