Shurley Grammar users - using two levels?

[diaperjoys]

How difficult is it to teach multiple levels of Shurley grammar? What about having different grades share a level? I'm thinking that Shurley might be a good fit for my gang next year, but I need to be sure it is realistic from a mama-getting-everything-done standpoint. Not sure if I would give everyone their own level, or try to combine two of them.

 

My lineup for next year is:

 

3/4th grade 9yo boy, excellent reader (this year WWE3, R&S English 3 *marginal retention, not a good fit*)

 

2nd grade 8yo boy, reading very well (this year completing CLE LA 1, WWE1 )

 

1st grade 6.5yo boy, (this year learning to read)

 

K 4.5yo girl (this year learning to read)

[PeterPan]

Do you have FLL1/2? I would get that for your youngers. I would put your oldest into Shurley 4 next year. I don't know if your 2nd will be ready to tag along with that or not. If he's not, he could do FLL1/2 by itself for the year or do FLL 1/2 and then Shurley 2. Shurley 2 is really light. We did it, but it's not something you need to belabor. We always used Shurley sort of hack (skipping the jingles, because we had done FLL, etc.). If you want to do Shurley 2, it won't be hard for you to teach. Shurley is open and go once you get how they lay things out. In fact, you could, if you wanted, do FLL1/2, do just the Practice Workbook for Shurley 2 (the one with the sentences to parse) and SKIP the rest of Shurley 2. There's not much to the level, and it really doesn't matter a fig if you skip it. That way you keep the time down and focus on the Shurley 4. That's what you would do if he needs more than FLL1/2 but isn't ready for Shurley 4. There are some worthwhile things in the Shurley 2 tm (activities to work on parts of speech, sentence writing from labels, etc.), but it's not essential, not when you've done FLL1/2. And you'll probably figure out how to do it yourself just by watching what you do in Shurley 4 and extrapolating backward.

 

Shurley 4 is fine to go into straight, without Shurley 2. It's basically just reading level. You could *try* combining them and see what happens. If they're working at about the same level, it will work. If they're not, then just back off, knowing he can get to Shurley 4 the following year.

 

There's no need to do ALL the levels of Shurley. The author suggests skipping levels, doing 2,4,6,7 or 3,5,7.

 

BTW, Shurley goes very well with Writing Tales. Don't know your plans for writing, but it would be a good one to consider. We always added diagramming to Shurley also. You'll have three sentences to parse most days, so just diagram the middle one. We do it on a whiteboard, easy peasy, lots of fun. I started off by demonstrating and let her take over. It's worth the small effort to do that, just an extra 2 minutes.

Edited February 1, 2012 by OhElizabeth

[diaperjoys]

Do you have FLL1/2? I would get that for your youngers. I would put your oldest into Shurley 4 next year. I don't know if your 2nd will be ready to tag along with that or not. If he's not, he could do FLL1/2 by itself for the year or do FLL 1/2 and then Shurley 2. Shurley 2 is really light. We did it, but it's not something you need to belabor. We always used Shurley sort of hack (skipping the jingles, because we had done FLL, etc.). If you want to do Shurley 2, it won't be hard for you to teach. Shurley is open and go once you get how they lay things out. In fact, you could, if you wanted, do FLL1/2, do just the Practice Workbook for Shurley 2 (the one with the sentences to parse) and SKIP the rest of Shurley 2. There's not much to the level, and it really doesn't matter a fig if you skip it. That way you keep the time down and focus on the Shurley 4. That's what you would do if he needs more than FLL1/2 but isn't ready for Shurley 4. There are some worthwhile things in the Shurley 2 tm (activities to work on parts of speech, sentence writing from labels, etc.), but it's not essential, not when you've done FLL1/2. And you'll probably figure out how to do it yourself just by watching what you do in Shurley 4 and extrapolating backward.

 

Shurley 4 is fine to go into straight, without Shurley 2. It's basically just reading level. You could *try* combining them and see what happens. If they're working at about the same level, it will work. If they're not, then just back off, knowing he can get to Shurley 4 the following year.

 

There's no need to do ALL the levels of Shurley. The author suggests skipping levels, doing 2,4,6,7 or 3,5,7.

 

BTW, Shurley goes very well with Writing Tales. Don't know your plans for writing, but it would be a good one to consider. We always added diagramming to Shurley also. You'll have three sentences to parse most days, so just diagram the middle one. We do it on a whiteboard, easy peasy, lots of fun. I started off by demonstrating and let her take over. It's worth the small effort to do that, just an extra 2 minutes.

 

So very helpful, thank you!! Yes, Writing Tales is exactly what I had planned for the oldest next year. My plan was WWE 1-3, then Writing Tales, and he'll be ready. I didn't know it worked well with Shurley, so that is a plus. Also, it is very reassuring to know how uncritical it is to hit every Shurley level, and I like the idea of just using the practice book for level 2. I actually taught level 2 in the classroom, but since I only taught 2nd grade I don't have a good feel for juggling multiple levels or what is covered in the levels after 2nd. So, again, thank you!

[PeterPan]

Well see, then you know how you can use just what you want of Shurley 2, knowing he'll see it again in Shurley 4. But don't skip FLL1/2 with your littles. The way we used it was sort of hack (do we do ANYTHING straight in our house??), but it was worthwhile. What we did was just memorize the defs and do the lessons where new concepts get introduced. It's SO gentle, so age-appropriate for littles, I highly recommend. It made WT and Shurley fabulously easy. Or maybe you love the jingles. We don't, so we just used the FLL defs and were done with it.

 

Your boys will enjoy WT. I assume you're doing WT1? It's deceptively simple. WT2 does a fabulous job of applying the grammar. What we did was spread a level of Shurley over 2 years while we were doing WT. We didn't really PLAN it that way, but it's what happened. There's no rush on grammar. Well I'm saying that and that's not true. You may at some point have your grammar in english not caught up with your grammar in latin. But meet that when you get there.

[diaperjoys]

Hmmm. I'm still wondering exactly how to place these boys. My oldest is more the "needs a challenge or he won't pay attention", sort of a fellow. So I can see him being okay in SG4. I'm kind of tempted to ditch the R&S3 we're using right now, and let him do SG3 for the rest of the year. He had SG1 at the private school he attended last year, so that would put him on track for the level 1-3-5-7 routine.

 

My second son, currently in 1st grade, is more the "too much challenge makes me crumple" sort of guy. So I don't know. I don't see him ready for SG4 next year. As much as I'd love to have the older two share grammar, it probably isn't the best idea to combine them. The older boy has been reading long chapter books for several years now, and the younger boy is just now venturing into Magic Treehouse. So he should probably do his own thing for grammar. Does that thinking sound right?

 

My kids would love to jingle, and it fits their learning styles much better than the FLL oral work, I think.

 

My younger two are at a very similar level. 6.5yo boy K, just learning to read, and a 4yo girl highly motivated to learn to read this year like all her brothers do. I think I could do them together for grammar - What do you think of starting them together in FLL 2 next year, and just adjusting the copywork as appropriate for writing level?? They'd be in 1st & K next year. FLL 1, at least the samples, drive me nuts because they are soooooo tediously scripted. I know the upper levels are scripted too, but it is easier to skim & extract the important parts when there is a little more content.

 

Wild idea - maybe all three youngers could do FLL 2. The 2nd grader could do all the harder copywork sections, and I could tone it down for the younger grades.

 

What do you think? Confusing as mud? Any suggestions?

[PeterPan]

I think if you get FLL1/2, that will help you decide what you want to do next. In actually you could use it with ALL your kids. Just let your oldest buzz through it. At that point he can easily go into Shurley 3 or 4 next year, as you wish.

 

As far as 1,3,5,7 vs. 2,4,6,7, look at the scope and sequence. I prefer the latter. You don't even really NEED the lowest levels of Shurley if you do FLL1/2. FLL takes less time, is age-appropriate, and does a great job.

 

So if you like FLL, start there and then decide on Shurley. Might save you $$.