Rod and Staff English 5 - How do/have you used it?

[abacus2]

I purchased Rod&Staff English 5 at a used book sale today. I plan to use it for my oldest starting in the fall. I am trying to determine how this will fit into our schedule. If you have used R&S English 5, I have some questions for you.

 

Did you use the curriculum essentially as written over the course of one school year? How much time did it take during the day?

 

Did you use it at, below, or above 5th grade?

 

Would it make sense to stretch over two years, completing over the course of 5th and 6th grade?

 

If you went on to R&S English 6, did you find it valuable or too redundant?

 

If you dropped the curriculum or don't like it, why?

 

What were weak points or areas in need of tweaking?

 

Thanks!

 

 

 

 

[kagmypts]

I have not used R&S 5, but I will be using it next school year.  I used R&S 4 with my DD, who was in fourth grade, this past year.  We completed R&S 4 in one school year, and I plan to do exactly the same thing next year with R&S 5.  I do not use R&S as it is written.  In my opinion, it would be way too much writing and too much repetition.  I have DD write out about half of the problems.  If she does not understand something, we go back and do the oral drill together.

 

I am hoping to complete my lesson plans for R&S 5 in the next couple of weeks.  It takes me a long time to go through lesson by lesson and pick out which problems I want DD to complete.  However, I do that before every school year, and it makes my life (and hers) much easier when the actual school year begins.

 

For what it is worth, I love R&S English.  My DD's grammar foundation is exceptionally strong!

 

ETA - I will post a sample of my DD's R&S 4 lesson plans.  Her R&S 5 plans will be extremely similar.

 

 

[Colleen in NS]

I purchased Rod&Staff English 5 at a used book sale today. I plan to use it for my oldest starting in the fall. I am trying to determine how this will fit into our schedule. If you have used R&S English 5, I have some questions for you.

 

Did you use the curriculum essentially as written over the course of one school year? How much time did it take during the day?

 

Did you use it at, below, or above 5th grade?

 

Would it make sense to stretch over two years, completing over the course of 5th and 6th grade?

 

If you went on to R&S English 6, did you find it valuable or too redundant?

 

If you dropped the curriculum or don't like it, why?

 

What were weak points or areas in need of tweaking?

 

Thanks!

 

Both of my kids used/use R&S English.  Ds completed Levels 3-10, and dd is going into Level 8 (in Grade 8).  They both had FLL 1 and 2 for background, so they were able to start R&S 3 in Grade 3 (this was before FLL had levels 3 and 4) with no problem.  I think that if your oldest has some sort of grammar background, starting at Level 5 shouldn't be a problem.  If the explanations are complicated for her, you could always refer back to the similar lesson in Level 4 for a simpler explanation.

 

The way I see R&S is that Levels 3-5 are a group, with Level 5 reinforcing what was learned in Levels 3 and 4 (while continuing to introduce new concepts). Then Level 6 kicks it up a notch as far as explaining concepts and introducing more complex concepts.  And my mind groups Level 6-8 together, too, with the same reasoning as what Level 5 does.  Then 9 and 10 are mostly intensive grammar review, with a couple of new grammar concepts introduced. (and lots of writing lessons, but we don't use R&S writing lessons - we just use the grammar lessons)

 

I personally wouldn't stretch Level 5 over two years unless you have a specific reason for doing so.  I would rather have my kids get as much of their grammar training done as possible by high school (and in Grade 9 my son did Levels 9 and 10 in one year because half of each book is writing lessons which we skipped) so they can concentrate more on writing and applying their grammar knowledge to that.  But, a specific reason for stretching Level 5 might be that the child has never had grammar training before, or has many other things on her academic plate, or has some family circumstance going on that might dictate a slower-moving school year. 

 

Going on to Level 6 - very valuable and very NOT redundant.  :D  There's a whole new level of grammar learning contained within Levels 6-8!  I can't tell you how much I have appreciated the grammar training of R&S.  It has made me pay so much more attention to how people communicate both in speaking and in writing - NOT for the sake of being critical of bad grammar, but for the sake of trying to figure out what people are trying to say (or hide, in some cases, lol).  It has also forced me to be more accurate in my own communications - grammar is invaluable for this.  And it has had the same effect on my kids.

 

Weak points/tweaking - well, as you go up through the levels, the exercises contain more and more opportunities for the publishers to express worldviews and use them as teaching for their students (it's aimed at Mennonite schools).  Sometimes the proselytizing drove us crazy, but I would just remind my kids to focus on the grammar being taught.  :D  Tweaking - we did not do the writing lessons.

 

The thing we did do differently is that I had my kids do most of the lessons orally with me.  I started this off because my older child had a hard time writing out exercises, so I just let him sit there and tell me the answers.  I could see no reason to have to write those answers down on paper - to me the point was to learn grammar, not to practice handwriting.  He got handwriting practice elsewhere, and he applied his grammar knowledge every day in his composition lessons.  I did the same with dd, although this past year she has taken to getting up early and whipping through her grammar exercises and writing them on paper, just so she doesn't have to sit on the couch longer in the morning with me.  :D  Which is fine.  :D

 

Let's see, what else....I always do the oral review questions that are in the teacher book before we go through a lesson.  Then I have my student read the lesson (and I review it myself).  Then I compare the "class practice" section with the "written exercises" section, and figure out which parts I want the child to go through.  If a section of class practice is repeated in written exercises (most of the time it is), I have the student do the section in written exercises instead of the class practice one because there are usually more exercises in the written exercises section.  That way, the student is getting plenty of practice in the concepts, but it isn't overkill. And we do the review sections (if it's reviewing grammar - we skip review that reviews writing lessons).  So, I sit on the couch and go through this process.  If the child is cooperating (which is another whole ball of wax), the lesson might take anywhere from 10-25 minutes.  Which, for my kids, was worth me doing because it would get done faster than if they had to go off and write it all down themselves and then I had to correct it all.  I like the one-on-one tutoring aspect.

 

Also, I didn't bother with tests or the extra worksheets.  The exercises I described were more than enough grammar practice.  And the chapter review lessons served as "tests" for me to see how well they were doing. And yes we did those orally, too.

 

hth

 

 

[lmrich]

I let my kids and students (I teach and tutor) write in the book. It cuts down on hand strain. Love it and highly recommend the TE; it is not needed but so good with extra review.

[KellieK]

Thank you for this information. My daughter is finishing FLL 4 and will be moving on to R&S 5 in a few months. I am nervous because I do not think she is retaining as much as she should be in 4. I am hoping that R&S will not be too hard.

[Mommy22alyns]

I just finished R&S 5 with Rebecca.  We skipped the writing lessons and finished early.  I always assign what I think they need to work on, so lots of diagramming (to their chagrin).  We do use worksheets, which I'll give them whenever they're assigned, and tests.  I have 6 ready to go for next  year.  I see no reason to stretch out 5.

[SilverMoon]

We used it over the course of fifth grade. It took about twenty minutes a day.

 

I see no reason to spread it over two years. It is not that difficult, and a child who's successfully finished FLL4 will not struggle with it.

 

6 was not redundant. Yes, the table of contents are similar, but 6 goes deeper and spends less time on reviewing previous concepts. Each level jumps a sturdy level.

[Heidi]

I skip the first lesson, the chapter reviews, and chapter 10, unless she needs extra practice on a certain topic.  Spread over 36 weeks it comes to about 2 grammar lessons and one composition lesson a week.  (the composition lessons are marked with a star). 

 

My dd does only the odds numbers in the grammar lessons and all of the problems in the composition lessons.

 

She writes in a spiral bound notebook.  When it is time for English I will sit with her, check her previous day's work and go over anything she missed, determine if she needs more practice or can move on to the next lesson.  If she needs more practice I will assign even numbers, or specific sections of a chapter review, or previous oral drills. 

 

A new lesson begins with me doing the oral review, she reads the lesson aloud to me, then we go over the oral drill, then I review the assignment with her.  This takes about 5-10 minutes.  She completes the assignment in her notebook on her own.

 

My dd10 will use level 5 in a few weeks, but this is how we did level 4 & 3.  They're all the same.  Each level reviews the same topics, but adds a little bit more depth. 

 

[KrissiK]

We're almost done with #5. We use it more or less as written. We don't do every exercise, and we do a lot of the exercises orally. We also use the extra practice worksheets, mostly in place of doing the exercises from the book. For example, the lesson on capitalization, you can have the kid write out all 10 sentences from the text book, capitalizing the letters needed, or, with the worksheet, they can just underline the letters that need capitalizing. That is one thing I really don't like about R&S - that it's a non-consumable textbook. So, for us, it was worth the couple $ to buy the extra practice sheets. They're pretty cheap.