Rod & Staff question

[Faughtenberry]

On page 343 of WTM, 3rd edition.

 

There is a note "7th or 8th grade students just beginning in Rod & Staff should start with the fifth grade book, Progressing with Courage."

 

This is a type-o.

 

Should we start with the 5th grade book, Following the Plan?

 

Or did they intend to write the 6th grade book, Progressing with Courage?

 

Thank you!

 

We are new to hs'ing, adjusting from the transition from public school :)

[LJPPKGFGSC]

http://www.milestonebooks.com (one of the few places online to get Rod & Staff books new) answers the question "Do you have placement tests?" with this...

 

One exception is the English curriculum, which covers grammar and composition. If your child has basic knowledge in these areas, they will probably do fine in grades 2 through 5. From the feedback we've received, grades 6 and above don't provide as much review of the basics, and are more advanced than average. (While Rod and Staff only publishes the English series through 10th grade, it is equivalent to completing a high school grammar course.) For students switching in the upper grades, especially those weak in grammar, we usually recommend that they drop back a grade or two, sometimes back to the 5th grade text, which is a good foundation for the rest of the series. If you feel confident they are up to grade level then start there and see if they can manage it. If you find it too advanced, you can always save it for later while you drop back to an earlier grade.

 

I started with Rod & Staff English - grade 4. It was SO easy! I really think it just contains all the basics of elementary school grammar. I believed that Rod & Staff was "advanced" and was convinced that since it ended at grade 10, it was two years ahead. So, when we did the grade 4 book in 6th grade it was much too simple. I was not impressed..... and took a break and reconsidered the options.

 

Before I knew it, we just did not consistently get around to grammar for quite awhile (well, more or less a full year), so I decided to move ahead to grade 6. We skipped all of the writing sections and all of the sections that were totally review from the grade 4 book - a total of 63 sections out of 132. The grade 6 book introduces clauses (adjective and adverb). So, another new topic would be complex sentences as well as coordinating and subordination conjunctions. That about does it for new material in the grade 6 book.

 

Looking at the grade 7 book, I would be surprised to find even 30 sections of new material. By my quick glance at the table of contents, it seems that verbals and noun clauses are the only totally new ideas in there.

 

In any case, the point is this: Rod and Staff English is painfully repetitive. If you are doing the textbooks at home, instead of in a classroom, you do not need all the "class practice" and the excessive "review exercises". If I was going to start with a middle school student, who has had at least some grammar in school, I would begin with grade 6. As far as I can tell, grade 6 is the first level to introduce clauses, which I think is the first difficult concept in grammar.

 

Good luck - and please excuse my poor grammar in this post. It is very late here. But, I am awake and trying to get some planning done so that I can enjoy the summer too!

[Melissa in Australia]

If you as the parent haven't studied much grammar, and your child hadn't had much grammar then I would really recommend starting at the 5th grade book. When I started homeschooling my children I had to look up in a dictionary what a noun and a verb was :o .

[SilverMoon]

It should say start with the 6 book. 5 is backing up too far for those ages.

 

I wouldn't enter R&S English at the 7 level without a strong grammar background. Yes, there is some topic overlap, but it spends far less time reviewing old concepts before diving into new depths, and it expects more maturity.