Your favorite language arts/grammar for a middle schooler with special needs?

[Love_to_Read]

I'm finding that my dd with dysgraphia is behind in grammar. We've been wading through parts of speech, and capitalization...haven't even got to really addressing irregular verbs but I can hear them in her speech even...tooken instead of taken, for example.:001_huh:

 

So, what can you recommend? Systematic, explicit, and preferably multisensory. No amount of copywork is going to make it sink in by osomosis, and neither is oral discussion alone.

 

Younger sibling is going to be doing First Language Lessons, so I suppose she'll likely overhear a bit or perhaps be made to do it with him.:tongue_smilie:But, I think she's going to need a lot of practice. Preferably hands-on. Not entirely oral. She can handle writing to a degree...like fill in the blanks, underline, etc....just not a huge quantity, like copying pages of sentences to diagram would be too much.

 

I am going to make her do Writing With Ease as well, but more for learning how to structure her replies to adequately narrate/summarize/answer in complete sentences aloud....not so much expecting that to correct all of her irregular verbs.

Edited May 31, 2012 by Love_to_Read

[TippyCanoe]

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[MamaSheep]

So far the grammar that has worked best with my dysgraphic ds has been Winston grammar (which I'm kind of bummed about because I'm in love with Analytical grammar--it doesn't get done, though, even if I reduce the number of sentences, because there's too much writing). Winston has students parse sentences using colored cards, and then mark the sentences in a workbook with underlines, checkmarks, and so forth (I tear out the pages, which are perforated, because they're easier to write on if they lie flat and hold still). I would really prefer diagramming because I think it does a better job of showing the relationships between words and the structure of the sentence, but this way it actually gets done, and I figure a good approach that gets done beats an excellent approach that doesn't get done.

[Heathermomster]

I am going to second the suggestion of audio books for exposure to language. DS gets a kick out of speaking incorrectly on purpose and throws in puns for extra points. In everyday speaking, he confuses the word "took" naturally.

 

Winston Grammar Basic is helpful alongside Daily Grams Grade 2 for punctuation.

[rafiki]

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[PeterPan]

It's my birthday and people are coming over, so I'm going to be super-fast here. One, I don't think WWE is the only or best way to work on the narration skills you described. It's *summarizing* and pretty terse at that. It also muddles working memory in with narration in a way that can be really problematic for SN kids. I'm not saying it's not good. I'm just saying for what *you said* you want to do, real life narration with real language, not stiff and trying to hyper-summarize, would be better. As Michele said, it's also good to look at a place like Linguisystems for options when you're dealing with problems that are actually SN in origin. The Linguisystems stuff is written by SLPs, which SWB, awesome as she is, is NOT. Just sayin.

 

Next, on the grammar, I really don't think more is necessarily better with these kids. I only have mine to go on, but my dd is so distinctly in the non-writing, hate-grammar camp that I was pretty much happy that she did Shurley willingly. Shurley has 3 sentences to parse per lesson in the lower grades and 5 per lesson in 7th. I would not go more than that, honest. I think a little bit with FULL ENGAGEMENT is better than a lot. Now my ds, bless his soul, has grammar errors in his speech that I'm concerned, like you say, may be part of a long-term thing. I really don't know, and I don't remember it being so dramatic with my dd. What you *might* do is see if you can find some *games* that work on them. With that age that would be a very effective technique. Runs in my mind Writing Tales had games like that. Maybe Linguisystems sells something. Or just do real language situations where you put everything into the past tense during the whole board game, kwim? We do that for speech in our house. When you have speech routines (you know her common errors) you can build in situations and scripts to practice them. Then use those throughout the day as possible. Eventually they memorize it. Today my ds was reciting the scripts to himself while eating. It was honestly hilarious. ("My turn to roll. I got a two! Hop two. Your turn...")

 

I'm just not sure how much isolated grammar exercises actually change spoken grammar, any more than isolated spelling tends to carry over to regular writing in these kids, kwim?

 

Do they write on a whiteboard better than paper? We did our math and grammar for several years on the whiteboard. Shurley has little workbooks for the sentence parsing, so she only had to mark the labels. I never made her write sentences for that, mercy. Diagramming I would do and only let her her start when she finally begged to take over. I also think you could print the parsing labels onto magnet paper, rip the pages out of the Shurley workbook, put on a cookie sheet, and let them place the magnets for their parsing. Then you do the diagramming. Boom, done. Have you tried Mad Libs with them? We also liked the Take 5 Minutes History Fact a Day editing. Bleh on the Editor in Chief and whatnot here too. But the Take 5 Minutes was quite interesting and useful.

 

My dd got VERY good retention from just those 3 sentences a day all those years in Shurley. I know the format drives people insane, but it worked well for my grammar-hater, pencil phob. So if you take something simple like that and make it work for your specific physical situation, it might work. There's also a spoken grammar errors book from Abeka that is useful. The name is slipping my mind, but it's small (1/2 sheet of paper size), wirebound, and has 5-10 sentences of correct usage with common errors. I could go get the title if you can't find it, as my copy is downstairs. With something like that you could make it more kinesthetic, bouncing a ball back and forth as you chant the sentences. It would just be short and sweet, a few minutes a day.

[Guest]

It's my birthday and people are coming over, so I'm going to be super-fast here.

 

Wow... you must type really fast ;)! Happy Birthday Elizabeth :)!

[PeterPan]

Wow... you must type really fast ;)! Happy Birthday Elizabeth :)!

 

:D I guess so? Sometimes I stop and think more than others when I reply. That takes longer. :001_smile:

 

I've enjoyed the private and forum birthday greetings! It's cheering up what had started out to be a rather somber over half-way to 40 (ie. traumatic) day! :)

[Guest]

I've enjoyed the private and forum birthday greetings! It's cheering up what had started out to be a rather somber over half-way to 40 (ie. traumatic) day! :)

 

Half-way to 40? I am half-way past 40 ;) and climbing. I'm cool with it! Just wish I had my old energy to keep up with the boys though :lol:.

[PeterPan]

Well half-way from 30 to 40. The 20's were more my child years, the fun stuff. :)

[Guest]

Well half-way from 30 to 40. The 20's were more my child years, the fun stuff. :)

 

I got what you meant. I was just saying, you are worried about being over half-way to 40. I am half-way from 40 to 50 :lol:. I started having babies late :tongue_smilie:.

 

I have two active boys, always bouncing full of energy. I really wish I had the energy I had in my 20's. Back then I was pumping weights, rollerblading, ice skating... Now I don't even have time to take deep breaths anymore :lol:.

[PeterPan]

I got what you meant. I was just saying, you are worried about being over half-way to 40. I am half-way from 40 to 50 :lol:. I started having babies late :tongue_smilie:.

 

I have two active boys, always bouncing full of energy. I really wish I had the energy I had in my 20's. Back then I was pumping weights, rollerblading, ice skating... Now I don't even have time to take deep breaths anymore :lol:.

 

You know I've thought about that. We'd like to have more. That's actually what makes me so sad about it, that time is really running out. A few more years, and poof it's over. But you're right that a baby at 42 means you're homeschooling till 60, yowza. And I find myself shifting in what I think is necessary (ie. fatigue setting in). Dd1 I made all this effort to do literature-based history, blah blah. This time around I'm looking at some canned thing like MFW Adventures and going yeah, that's good enough. :lol:

[Tokyomarie]

Winston Grammar- Basic & Advanced: The colored cards & marking sentences referred to above really made this work for our son. As we got further & further into the curriculum, ds didn't seem to need the cards as much, but if he marked a sentence incorrectly, I would have him use the cards so he could see why his answer was wrong.

 

Daily Grams/Easy Grammar Ultimate: These short lessons provide regular daily review of concepts. Using the student workbook means the student can avoid recopying sentences, which reduces the writing load. For each capitalization & punctuation exercise- one item each/day- ds just marked up the original sentence w/o rewriting. This regular teaching/review format worked much better than a traditional LA/grammar/mechanics program such as ABeka. Those programs typically require many items of the same type on one worksheet for several days and then never seem to revisit the instruction for that type of item.

 

MCT/Royal Fireworks Press: We didn't use this in middle school- I think it didn't even exist yet. But we actually used the Town level when ds was 15/16 to good advantage. Yes, the story associated with the Paragraph Town book was too cheezy for a high school aged guy (though secretly I think he kind of got a kick out of it- just wouldn't admit to it), but the grammar visuals and the 4 level analysis was helpful.

 

We did not do any sentence diagramming. I learned it in school & my girls got some introduction but I just didn't go far into it. Both of my girls have learned to write well. Their other grammar studies and lots and lots of reading of classic literature and strong non-fiction works were enough to support their writing w/o doing lots of diagramming. My son could not have handled it in middle school, though I'm sure he could now.

[Guest]

You know I've thought about that. We'd like to have more. That's actually what makes me so sad about it, that time is really running out. A few more years, and poof it's over. But you're right that a baby at 42 means you're homeschooling till 60, yowza. And I find myself shifting in what I think is necessary (ie. fatigue setting in). Dd1 I made all this effort to do literature-based history, blah blah. This time around I'm looking at some canned thing like MFW Adventures and going yeah, that's good enough. :lol:

 

I am still hoping for at least one more though ;). The energy may be running low but the love is still there and I have plenty more to give, know what I mean! We'll figure it out somehow. We actually wanted two more but I'll take one more. My family just feels incomplete with just two :(!

 

With all this research and no external help in the SN's area, we are going with Calvert next year, and I don't even have all the years that you have had with your daughter. I am already worn out! When Malcolm goes to bed early, I am reading books and researching, so I am constantly tired. TOG will be sitting for at least another couple of years untill I decide how I am going to use it. For at least the next couple of years, I am switching gears and simplifying. I am so tired of seeing all these lovely programs and then trying to put a plan together, and fit them into our day, and stressing both Adrian and myself. He is not enjoying school as much anymore and I blame it on myself. Anyway, I am rambling now.

 

To the OP, my apologies for sidetracking your thread.

[PeterPan]

Have you thought of Bridgeway? They're more flexible than Calvert (ie. one of their selling points is that they customize) and they really seemed to get SN when I talked with them at the convention. On the other hand, Calvert uses CHOW for their 4th grade stuff, right? Is that what you're looking at or 3rd? Anyways, it can be a good thing. Sounds like you're being very realistic, and that's always good. :)

[Guest]

Have you thought of Bridgeway? They're more flexible than Calvert (ie. one of their selling points is that they customize) and they really seemed to get SN when I talked with them at the convention. On the other hand, Calvert uses CHOW for their 4th grade stuff, right? Is that what you're looking at or 3rd? Anyways, it can be a good thing. Sounds like you're being very realistic, and that's always good. :)

 

I haven't heard of Bridgeway before. I'll be checking it out.

 

Adrian has a late October birthday (turned 8 this past October). When we first moved back to Canada I decided to register him the following year in first, which means he is now finishing second. I have actually been looking at Calvert for grade 3 and very likely 4. I really like the grade 3 materials and the old book they have republished, "Smiling Hill Farm". I also like what I see from the book "Tales from Far and Near/ Tales of Long Ago". I think Adrian will really enjoy those two. I'll take a look at Bridgeway also.

 

Yup, realism has hit me right smack in the face this past year. I tell yah :lol:! I was still living in the newbie homeschooler world prior to that.

[Geo]

I got what you meant. I was just saying, you are worried about being over half-way to 40. I am half-way from 40 to 50 :lol:. I started having babies late :tongue_smilie:.

 

I have two active boys, always bouncing full of energy. I really wish I had the energy I had in my 20's. Back then I was pumping weights, rollerblading, ice skating... Now I don't even have time to take deep breaths anymore :lol:.

 

 

 

FYI, I'm just about halfway from 50 to 60. I fight for energy...we've started juicing just to aquire the endurance each day requires from us, mentally, physically, and emotionally. It definitely helps all three...alot. I had my first baby in my teens, and the last baby at 43.

See my siggy. :tongue_smilie:

 

P.S. OhElizabeth- you're still young, it's just that it gets so much harder as you go. How's that for encouragement? :lol: I must add that my oldest is actually 3 years older than you...but I learn so much from you, and others on this board.

Edited June 1, 2012 by Geo

[PeterPan]

I seem more to live in the world of: Why can't you read my social cues and understand why I don't want to do this and why it can't possibly work for my psyche? looks from a 13 yo. Oh yeah. So much fun. At least now your little students are still generally compliant or as compliant as they can be. Get the hormones going...

 

And yes, my ds has that fall birthday thing going too. My plan is to call him K5 the year he turns 6. I don't care if he's doing calculus then; that's my plan on what to call him. :)

[PeterPan]

FYI, I'm just about halfway from 50 to 60. I fight for energy...we've started juicing just to aquire the endurance each day requires from us, mentally, physically, and emotionally. It definitely helps all three...alot.

 

Yup, one more kid, and I'll be right there with you in 20... I guess it keeps you out of trouble, but still sometimes you envy the moms who retire and make cookies and shuttle and get their toes done. :D

 

PS. Thanks for making me feel young! :lol:

[Guest]

FYI, I'm just about halfway from 50 to 60. I fight for energy...we've started juicing just to aquire the endurance each day requires from us, mentally, physically, and emotionally. It definitely helps all three...alot. I had my first baby in my teens, and the last baby at 43.

See my siggy. :tongue_smilie:

 

I had been looking into juicing when we went gfcf a few months ago, but it was just too much at the time to focus on everything. I have hypothyroidism and that does not help the energy level either. A doctor messed it up on me about a year ago and we are still working on trying to bring it back up to normal levels. It was diagnosed in my mid twenties so I have had it for two decades now.

 

We have a move coming up and then very likely another move out of the city a few months after that. Just the thought drains me :lol:! I will most definitely be looking into juicing when I can focus on that. I did some juicing in my twenties when I developed an ulcer from my busy lifestyle, and it was the best I had felt in years. It was why I wanted to do it again. Thank you for bringing it up :).

[Guest]

I seem more to live in the world of: Why can't you read my social cues and understand why I don't want to do this and why it can't possibly work for my psyche? looks from a 13 yo. Oh yeah. So much fun. At least now your little students are still generally compliant or as compliant as they can be. Get the hormones going...

 

And yes, my ds has that fall birthday thing going too. My plan is to call him K5 the year he turns 6. I don't care if he's doing calculus then; that's my plan on what to call him. :)

 

Nope, not even generally compliant anymore :lol:! Adrian will question everything, from things he sees wrong in the world around us, to why he has to work on things he already knows. Just to give you an idea, while at the park a while back he says to this lady walking her dog on the leash, "Good for you, you are following the rules! The sign does say to walk your dog on the leash!" This was me :blushing: . And I thought I was outspoken :lol:!

 

Yup, those were my thoughts exactly about grades. We are in no rush. I am definitely in no rush for him to go to College.

Edited June 3, 2012 by Guest

[Guest]

Yup, one more kid, and I'll be right there with you in 20... I guess it keeps you out of trouble, but still sometimes you envy the moms who retire and make cookies and shuttle and get their toes done. :D

 

PS. Thanks for making me feel young! :lol:

 

My main concern with the age thing is being around for the grand-kids. My older sister (she is three years older that I) is already a grandma.

[PeterPan]

My main concern with the age thing is being around for the grand-kids. My older sister (she is three years older that I) is already a grandma.

 

That's where the one a decade plan comes in. :D It wasn't really planned, but that's how it's working out. So I could have grandbabies and my own at the same time. :001_smile:

[Guest]

That's where the one a decade plan comes in. :D It wasn't really planned, but that's how it's working out. So I could have grandbabies and my own at the same time. :001_smile:

 

That's how it worked out for my grandmother, only she had 12 (9 boys and 3 girls) that were mostly two to three years apart. She started at 19 and finished at 47 (my grandfather was 10 years older, I think). My dad (the baby of the family) had many nieces and nephews older than he. It was cute seeing nieces and nephews much older than he, calling him uncle :).

Edited June 3, 2012 by Guest

[KathyBC]

My dd got VERY good retention from just those 3 sentences a day all those years in Shurley. I know the format drives people insane, but it worked well for my grammar-hater, pencil phob. So if you take something simple like that and make it work for your specific physical situation, it might work. There's also a spoken grammar errors book from Abeka that is useful. The name is slipping my mind, but it's small (1/2 sheet of paper size), wirebound, and has 5-10 sentences of correct usage with common errors. I could go get the title if you can't find it, as my copy is downstairs. With something like that you could make it more kinesthetic, bouncing a ball back and forth as you chant the sentences. It would just be short and sweet, a few minutes a day.

 

This is how oldest ds and I did Winston Grammar, per Lori D: both the student workbook and the reinforcement book, 3 sentences per day. We followed that up with Abeka Oral Language Exercises to try to deal explicitly with the irregular past tense issue (i.e. standed, holded).

 

 

ETA: Though it would have made more sense to do Abeka first, I think.

Edited June 10, 2012 by KathyBC

[Heathermomster]

This is how oldest ds and I did Winston Grammar, per Lori D: both the student workbook and the reinforcement book, 3 sentences per day. We followed that up with Abeka Oral Language Exercises to try to deal explicitly with the irregular past tense issue (i.e. standed, holded).

 

Your response to this discussion is a huge blessing to me. A friend loaned me the Abeka Oral Language Exercise book, and I'm looking at it now. Would you happen to recall how many sentences you reviewed with the Abeka book? Was that reviewed daily as well? It looks like there are 10 sentences per exercise. Did you review 10 sentences at once, or review 3 like with Winston? Thank-you..

[KathyBC]

We did all 10 per day - it's oral. :-)

[KathyBC]

But in the interest of full disclosure, I should mention that his oral grammar is improving this year; whether due to maturity or correction from peers is debatable. Maybe both?