Need help with Language Arts for my rising 7th grader coming out of public school....

[~Anna~]

I will begin homeschooling in the fall for 7th grade. My DD is finishing up 6th grade at public school now.

 

She is:

 

 

• A good reader in that she reads most words just fine, but if she doesn't know a word she just makes something up or skips it instead of trying to sound it out, which I know she can do
  
• Terrible with reading comprehension and sometimes will miss some of the easiest questions on those read a passage/answer multiple choice questions type things
  
• A good speller, but I now think that is because she memorizes things
  
• Good at memorizing the meanings of words, but then might soon forget and has no idea how to use them in writing
  
• Lacking in grammar, as it is not taught in school, although she does know the basic parts of speech and can pick them out of a sentence, but again has no idea how to write something cohesive
  
• Hates to write anything on her own, and what she comes up usually looks like something a much younger student would write
  

 

She has been in the Advanced Program at school and gets good grades (all A's except B's in Language Arts) so I guess she is on the level with the other kids, but I do help her a lot. I was planning on working with her over the summer to start getting her caught up. I wanted to try LoE, but now I think the expense is too much. I have Denis Eide's book so I am thinking of trying to teach some of the spelling rules to her on my own, along with helping her read slower and sound out words. Then, I want to focus heavily on building her grammar and writing skills and her reading comprehension. I don't want to start doing other subjects until she has a good base to work from.

 

Any recommendations for me? I have been looking at alot of stuff (Dancing Bears Fast Track, WWE, MCT Caesar's English, too many to list LOL) but I am open to any suggestions. Thanks in advance!

Edited May 21, 2012 by ~Anna~

[TheApprentice]

Welcome to homeschooling. :001_smile:

 

For writing, I would look into: Writing With Skill (WWS), Writing Strands, Jump In, and Word Smith. All very good programs. They all have good samples on their website.

 

For grammar, I would look into: Easy Grammar, Growing With Grammar, First Language Lessons 4 (Same publisher as WWS), Analytical Grammar, HAKE Grammar.

 

I'm sure others will steer you to other options and that's the beauty of homeschooling. Try to fit the program with your child's learning style.

[Ellie]

Spalding for reading, spelling, capitalization and punctuation, simple writing. In fact, I would make this the primary focus.

 

Something simple (yet effective) for writing. My choice would be Level 3 or 4 Writing Strands.

 

I'd probably wait on grammar until her reading skills are much improved; I'd choose Easy Grammar Plus.

 

It couldn't hurt to have her do some copywork.

[~Anna~]

Welcome to homeschooling. :001_smile:

 

For writing, I would look into: Writing With Skill (WWS), Writing Strands, Jump In, and Word Smith. All very good programs. They all have good samples on their website.

 

For grammar, I would look into: Easy Grammar, Growing With Grammar, First Language Lessons 4 (Same publisher as WWS), Analytical Grammar, HAKE Grammar.

 

 

So, you would jump right to WWS? I was thinking you needed to do WWE before you started that. I have heard of Writing Strands and originally thought it looked good, but then wasn't so sure. So I will take a look again. The others I haven't heard of, so I will check them out.

 

I didn't realize FFL was for grammar I guess. I will take a look at all those you mentioned, thanks.

 

Spalding for reading, spelling, capitalization and punctuation, simple writing. In fact, I would make this the primary focus.

 

Something simple (yet effective) for writing. My choice would be Level 3 or 4 Writing Strands.

 

I'd probably wait on grammar until her reading skills are much improved; I'd choose Easy Grammar Plus.

 

It couldn't hurt to have her do some copywork.

 

I was planning on doing some basic narration and copywork and then move to dictations. The narration will be the hardest part for her, so I plan to start simply. Like I said, she does know a little grammar, just not how to apply it. Her capitalization and punctuation are good, but I think the copywork and dicatation will just strengthen that.

 

Thanks for the suggestions so far, still open to more :)

[Lily_Grace]

So, you would jump right to WWS? I was thinking you needed to do WWE before you started that. I have heard of Writing Strands and originally thought it looked good, but then wasn't so sure. So I will take a look again. The others I haven't heard of, so I will check them out.

 

 

We did the trial of WWS this year and it worked for my tween just fine without having a WWE background. It's very well written and breaks the steps down for them. Writing Strands was given a 2 year trial in our house, but because it depends on almost-natural writers, it was a poor fit for mine. This year was a lot of hit and miss for mine that I won't type out, but suffice to say we decided on WWS next year.

 

 

For other things this year we added Word Roots from the Critical Thinking Co. to his language arts study as well, making flashcards of the different prefixes/suffixes/roots that he covered in the book. It helped his reading comprehension immensely.

[~Anna~]

We did the trial of WWS this year and it worked for my tween just fine without having a WWE background. It's very well written and breaks the steps down for them. Writing Strands was given a 2 year trial in our house, but because it depends on almost-natural writers, it was a poor fit for mine. This year was a lot of hit and miss for mine that I won't type out, but suffice to say we decided on WWS next year.

 

 

For other things this year we added Word Roots from the Critical Thinking Co. to his language arts study as well, making flashcards of the different prefixes/suffixes/roots that he covered in the book. It helped his reading comprehension immensely.

 

She is definitely not a natural writer! I will take a good look at WWS then, thanks.

 

I think I have that book on Word Roots flagged in my catalog. I definitely want to add something like that in after I get started.

[LibraryLover]

WWE and/or WWS. Huge fan. For nitty- gritty grammar, I've used an old copy of Warringer's English Grammar and Composition. Covers everything very clearly. I was able to get the answer key from someone on Amazon. (Hey, I need reminding as well. lol)

[momto2blessings]

Here's my plan w/my 7th grade dd next year:

 

Writing:http://www.edudps.com/WWTB.html

Grammar: http://www.analyticalgrammar.com/analytical-grammar

Spelling: http://simplycharlottemason.com/books/spelling-wisdom/

 

 

Write with the Best uses classic lit. passages and they do grammar and writing assignments based off of that. It's the first writing program where she actually seems to enjoy the assignments. And learning a lot, but lessons aren't too long and there's no prep. by me...very easy to use.

 

I like that Analytical Grammar is only 10 weeks per year....rigorous, but but to-the-poing (and you could stretch over 20 weeks doing the exercises one week and diagramming the next).

 

Spelling Wisdom gives you dictation passages and if you complete all the volumes it uses the 6,000? most common words. And uses classic stories, quotes, etc.

 

She also writes one written narration daily (varying subjects). And is supposed to orally narrate everything else. And she picks out one word a day from her readings that she doesn't know the meaning and writes it and it's def. on a whiteboard and we discuss, use in sentence during together time. HTH some....blessings as you start!!! Gina

 

P.S. My dd has struggled w/reading comprehension. We used Critical Thinking Company's Reading Detective this year and it seemed to help. She went from missing most qu. to getting most right. I'm pretty sure that next year I'll use Lightening Literatures 7th Grade packet for literature analysis and reading comprehension....I like that it seems pretty independent.

[momto2blessings]

Oh, and we're also slowly working through English From the Roots Up for vocabulary development, too. It doesn't take much time when we do it:)

[Chrysalis Academy]

I will begin homeschooling in the fall for 7th grade. My DD is finishing up 6th grade at public school now.

 

She is:

 

• A good reader in that she reads most words just fine, but if she doesn't know a word she just makes something up or skips it instead of trying to sound it out, which I know she can do
  
• Terrible with reading comprehension and sometimes will miss some of the easiest questions on those read a passage/answer multiple choice questions type things
  
• A good speller, but I now think that is because she memorizes things
  
• Good at memorizing the meanings of words, but then might soon forget and has no idea how to use them in writing
  
• Lacking in grammar, as it is not taught in school, although she does know the basic parts of speech and can pick them out of a sentence, but again has no idea how to write something cohesive
  
• Hates to write anything on her own, and what she comes up usually looks like something a much younger student would write
  

She has been in the Advanced Program at school and gets good grades (all A's except B's in Language Arts) so I guess she is on the level with the other kids, but I do help her a lot. I was planning on working with her over the summer to start getting her caught up. I wanted to try LoE, but now I think the expense is too much. I have Denis Eide's book so I am thinking of trying to teach some of the spelling rules to her on my own, along with helping her read slower and sound out words. Then, I want to focus heavily on building her grammar and writing skills and her reading comprehension. I don't want to start doing other subjects until she has a good base to work from.

 

Any recommendations for me? I have been looking at alot of stuff (Dancing Bears Fast Track, WWE, MCT Caesar's English, too many to list LOL) but I am open to any suggestions. Thanks in advance!

 

Welcome and have fun with homeschooling! If I were you, the very first thing that I would do would be to download and listen to SWB's lecture on writing in the middle grades. It will be very englightening re: spelling, grammar, and what to expect from a kid that age, and how to help catch them up. Here is a link to the audio file (download or cd). Very worth it:

 

http://www.welltrainedmind.com/store/audio-products/audio-lectures.html

 

After listening to this, you might decide to start with WWE4 rather than WWS, or at least do WWE-style narrations with her for a while before starting WWS. A student should be solidly able to narrate and summarize stories before starting WWS. And you mentioned she has reading comprehension difficulties, so I would think working on narrations intensively for a month or so before starting WWS would be really helpful.

 

Next, I would start reading aloud to her, above her reading level. "Gentle" classics or great children's books with advanced vocabulary. The very best way to learn vocab in a way that makes it hers - so she can use it, not just memorize the list for the test - is through reading. By reading aloud, she learns pronunciation, and you can easily stop on vocab words you think she might not know, ask her, and throw in the definition without really interrupting the story.

 

I think you have gotten good grammar suggestions. It sounds like one thing she is missing is a connection between the things she is studying and the ability to apply that to her writing. For that, you might think about something like MCT's Paragraph Town? It is a story-based discussion of how to apply grammar concepts to writing. If she likes story-based, discussion-based learning rather than worksheets, this could be a great fit. I haven't seen anything else that does so well at making the connection between grammar and good writing explicit. (Well, we adored Sentence Island, but that might seem a little babyish to a 9th grader).

 

Incidentally, Caesar's English, the vocabulary book from the MCT Town level, is my hands-down favorite literature based vocabulary program, ever.

 

HTH! And good luck!

Edited May 21, 2012 by rroberts707

[~Anna~]

Here's my plan w/my 7th grade dd next year:

 

Writing:http://www.edudps.com/WWTB.html

Grammar: http://www.analyticalgrammar.com/analytical-grammar

Spelling: http://simplycharlottemason.com/books/spelling-wisdom/

 

 

Write with the Best uses classic lit. passages and they do grammar and writing assignments based off of that. It's the first writing program where she actually seems to enjoy the assignments. And learning a lot, but lessons aren't too long and there's no prep. by me...very easy to use.

 

I like that Analytical Grammar is only 10 weeks per year....rigorous, but but to-the-poing (and you could stretch over 20 weeks doing the exercises one week and diagramming the next).

 

Spelling Wisdom gives you dictation passages and if you complete all the volumes it uses the 6,000? most common words. And uses classic stories, quotes, etc.

 

She also writes one written narration daily (varying subjects). And is supposed to orally narrate everything else. And she picks out one word a day from her readings that she doesn't know the meaning and writes it and it's def. on a whiteboard and we discuss, use in sentence during together time. HTH some....blessings as you start!!! Gina

 

P.S. My dd has struggled w/reading comprehension. We used Critical Thinking Company's Reading Detective this year and it seemed to help. She went from missing most qu. to getting most right. I'm pretty sure that next year I'll use Lightening Literatures 7th Grade packet for literature analysis and reading comprehension....I like that it seems pretty independent.

 

Thank you, I will look into all of these. I had looked at Lightning Lit the other day......does it start at a 7th grade level? Because I couldn't find anything lower than that.

 

Welcome and have fun with homeschooling! If I were you, the very first thing that I would do would be to download and listen to SWB's lecture on writing in the middle grades. It will be very englightening re: spelling, grammar, and what to expect from a kid that age, and how to help catch them up. Here is a link to the audio file (download or cd). Very worth it:

 

http://www.welltrainedmind.com/store/audio-products/audio-lectures.html

 

After listening to this, you might decide to start with WWE4 rather than WWS, or at least do WWE-style narrations with her for a while before starting WWS. A student should be solidly able to narrate and summarize stories before starting WWS. And you mentioned she has reading comprehension difficulties, so I would think working on narrations intensively for a month or so before starting WWS would be really helpful.

 

Next, I would start reading aloud to her, above her reading level. "Gentle" classics or great children's books with advanced vocabulary. The very best way to learn vocab in a way that makes it hers - so she can use it, not just memorize the list for the test - is through reading. By reading aloud, she learns pronunciation, and you can easily stop on vocab words you think she might not know, ask her, and throw in the definition without really interrupting the story.

 

I think you have gotten good grammar suggestions. It sounds like one thing she is missing is a connection between the things she is studying and the ability to apply that to her writing. For that, you might think about something like MCT's Paragraph Town? It is a story-based discussion of how to apply grammar concepts to writing. If she likes story-based, discussion-based learning rather than worksheets, this could be a great fit. I haven't seen anything else that does so well at making the connection between grammar and good writing explicit. (Well, we adored Sentence Island, but that might seem a little babyish to a 9th grader).

 

Incidentally, Caesar's English, the vocabulary book from the MCT Town level, is my hands-down favorite literature based vocabulary program, ever.

 

HTH! And good luck!

 

Thanks! I will definitely check out that audio tomorrow when I go to my mom's (my speakers don't work). I was definitely going to do some narrations with her to start. Alot of this I may have to see how it goes before I buy any curriculum. Like, start with helping her to read and spell better, narrate, do copywork and dictation and then see how she is progressing. I will definitely be reading aloud to her ALOT.

 

For MCT, I thought about trying that out. The problem is, there is so much I would like to try but obviously my budget won't allow that. For Caesar's English, I noticed there is an older version and a new version. Any idea which I should get?

 

Thanks for all of the ideas from everyone! :)

[talantine]

Stealth Dyslexia?

See the following website:

http://www.davidsongifted.org/db/Articles_id_10435.aspx

 

You mention many of the symptoms...

Not a curriculum recommendation but something to consider as you begin homeschooling.

Tammie

[~Anna~]

Yes, I was looking at some things on dyslexia yesterday. I know she has many of the symptoms, but even just now we had to copy a bunch of things onto a study guide for an end of the year test in school, and she did great reading the words and copying them to the paper. Sometimes her handwriting can get a little bit sloppy, but she can correct it when I say something. I hope to be able to find something to use based on everyone's lovely advice, and then see how it goes before I resort to getting her tested.

[Kalmia]

Instead of buying the whole LoE program, how about investing in the LoE basic phonogram cards and spelling rule cards to get her to automaticity in terms of sounding things out. If the phonemes are automatic it won't be such a chore to sound out and she won't guess so often.

[ElizabethB]

[*]A good reader in that she reads most words just fine, but if she doesn't know a word she just makes something up or skips it instead of trying to sound it out, which I know she can do

[*]Terrible with reading comprehension and sometimes will miss some of the easiest questions on those read a passage/answer multiple choice questions type things

 

 

Most of my remedial students who do this know most of their phonics but have a sight reading habit from being taught sight words and other whole language practices in school. To see if this is what the problem is, you can have her take the MWIA level II, it is linked from my reading tests page. A good reader taught with phonics will read both portions at the same speed and will not miss a single word on either portion. A dyslexic student will generally miss an equal number of words on both portions. A student taught to guess from sight words will generally miss more phonetic word than sight (holistic) words and will read the phonetic list slower than the holistic list.

 

Nonsense words and syllables help to fix the problem and transition them to sounding out every word. I find that is actually helpful to stop outside reading for a few weeks and focus on nonsense words, syllables, and spelling. This helps solidify the left to right pattern of sounding out words and helps stop guessing habits.

 

In ordinary reading, 50% or more of the words are generally sight words, so old habits can come back quicker if ordinary reading is allowed during the remediation process.

 

The things are use are on my how to tutor page, the links at the end are everything you would need. It adds in spelling rules and some spelling as well as working on phonics. The same things are covered in my online phonics lessons, but if you do those instead, I would still do the concentration game for more nonsense words and also my syllable division exercises.

Edited May 22, 2012 by ElizabethB

[~Anna~]

Thank you so much! I had seen your page from one of your replies in another thread, but I didn't see the test and some of the other things. I will definitely be working on all of this in the summer and I didn't plan on reading alot of books yet, just word lists and sentences and things. She doesn't naturally gravitate towards reading, so she won't miss not reading books. I plan to start read-alouds with her after that.

[~Anna~]

I was just looking at Lightning Literature, any more opinions on that?

 

Also, I was looking at the MCT stuff. Would Caesar's II work, or do I need to start with Caesar's I? Would Grammar Voyage/Essay Voyage be too difficult?

[Chrysalis Academy]

I looked at LL, and was not at all impressed. Very formulaic end-of-chapter comprehension questions. I was much more impressed with Excellence in Literature.

 

I would definitely do CE 1 before CE 2; I would be willing to bet it has a lot of vocab that will be new to your dd! My dh is stumped on some of the words we're throwing out at the dinner table!

 

I don't really have an answer about Essay/Paragraph. I have both books and have looked at them, but haven't actually started using either with my student yet. I can say from looking at them, and from what other posters have written, that there is a big jump in difficulty between the Town and Voyage levels - more than a grade's worth, it seems. I have heard of some people taking a break between Town and Voyage to let their student mature a bit. But not knowing your dd, it is impossible to predict for sure . . .

[raceNzanesmom]

Welcome to HS'ing! We brought our oldest home the same as you, after 6th.

 

You have lots of good recommendations. I just want to add, be gentle and go at her pace. Coming out of ps with so little LA is hard, even for the best students. We did a year of Easy Grammar to ease into it. Then ramped it up once he had his feet nice and wet. ;)

 

Be good to yourself too. It's hard to see your student not get something you think they should already know. Just keep reminding yourself that most kids will "get it", it just may come all at once in later high school. Be patient.

[Mallorie]

Welcome to HS'ing! We brought our oldest home the same as you, after 6th.

 

You have lots of good recommendations. I just want to add, be gentle and go at her pace. Coming out of ps with so little LA is hard, even for the best students. We did a year of Easy Grammar to ease into it. Then ramped it up once he had his feet nice and wet. ;)

 

Be good to yourself too. It's hard to see your student not get something you think they should already know. Just keep reminding yourself that most kids will "get it", it just may come all at once in later high school. Be patient.

 

:iagree:

[lillehei]

I also pulled kids out of public school and what we have ended up doing is Remedia Publications Up with Language Set and the Writing Basics Series. I feel once I get them up to par, then I can start some of the awesome programs the ladies have offered up here.

 

They are having a sale with free shipping this week: http://www.rempub.com/index.php

[~Anna~]

I looked at LL, and was not at all impressed. Very formulaic end-of-chapter comprehension questions. I was much more impressed with Excellence in Literature.

 

I would definitely do CE 1 before CE 2; I would be willing to bet it has a lot of vocab that will be new to your dd! My dh is stumped on some of the words we're throwing out at the dinner table!

 

I don't really have an answer about Essay/Paragraph. I have both books and have looked at them, but haven't actually started using either with my student yet. I can say from looking at them, and from what other posters have written, that there is a big jump in difficulty between the Town and Voyage levels - more than a grade's worth, it seems. I have heard of some people taking a break between Town and Voyage to let their student mature a bit. But not knowing your dd, it is impossible to predict for sure . . .

 

Thanks for your insight, I appreciate it. I think I am trying to do too much because I keep seeing all of this great curriculum and thinking, "Oh, she needs to do that too".

 

Welcome to HS'ing! We brought our oldest home the same as you, after 6th.

 

You have lots of good recommendations. I just want to add, be gentle and go at her pace. Coming out of ps with so little LA is hard, even for the best students. We did a year of Easy Grammar to ease into it. Then ramped it up once he had his feet nice and wet. ;)

 

Be good to yourself too. It's hard to see your student not get something you think they should already know. Just keep reminding yourself that most kids will "get it", it just may come all at once in later high school. Be patient.

 

Thanks! I know it will probably be harder on me, because you're right I do feel like she should know more and I feel so guilty that I didn't do anything until now. It didn't become apparent how bad it was until this year (6th grade) but I still blame myself.

[besroma]

We really like Rod and Staff English and MCT.

 

If you look at the blog on the website (Royal Fireworks Press) for MCT, there is a very detailed post explaining the updates made to Caesar's English. You could save some money buying the older version, but I think the new one is worth buying new.

[EKS]

I would use:

 

REWARDS (either Intermediate or Secondary depending on her reading level) for reading. It helps kids learn to sound out long words in 20 lessons. It is a very powerful program.

 

K12 Literature to help with reading comprehension (it is also a fabulous program). You could also use K12's vocabulary and grammar lessons, as they would come with the literature, but I don't find them to be overly inspiring.

 

If she is a good speller *in her own writing* then I wouldn't worry about a spelling program.

 

Michael Clay Thompson grammar, probably Town level, with practice book. After completing the Town book, I'd move into something like Hake (Saxon) Grammar for the remainder of the year, doing the MCT practice book alongside.

 

Michael Clay Thompson Caesar's English for vocabulary.

 

I'd probably go with Writing with Skill for writing, with plenty of additional writing assignments across the curriculum.