Does CLE LA 100-800 provide....

[Mrs. B]

...a good foundation for high school college bound level English? I will supplement LA with living books, oral and written narrations, recitation memory work, and spelling dictation exercises. We recently tried a few LUs during a short stressful life situation that required on the go schooling. The kids would be continuing in the 200 and 300 series if we continue with CLE in the fall. I suspect it will be a good fit for us for the long haul. I read some people think CLE spelling and writing is too light, but I am fine with that in the elementary years if most CLE LA students, excluding those in special circumstances, are decent spellers and writers come high school. I am fine with light supplementation, but not fine with using the program if it requires replacing the spelling and writing with a different program to adequately prepare the kids to handle college bound high school English classes.

[3andme]

If you use CLE LA/English all the way through, your student will definitely have a very solid college prep foundation. Just take a look at the upper level Language Arts courses to see what they cover at each level. English 1 and 2 are the high school versions of Language Arts. In my opinion, you could even stop around 7th/8th grade and be better prepared than many high school students.

 

I think the writing is adequate but weak. They do cover the typical writing assignments but I just don't think they provide enough practice.The spelling program is fine for many children. They use a combination of grouping by phonemes and topical words.  My children all really struggle with spelling and so I have had to use a different program that is more methodical and  slower paced.  

[Storygirl]

I used CLE 100 with my youngers one year, and I have used levels 500-700 with my oldest. Be aware that levels 100 and 200 have a large emphasis on diacritical phonetic markings, which may or may not work for your children. We found CLE 100 tedious and switched to something else for second grade. But levels 300 and above switch to a grammar focus instead of a phonetic focus, so look at the samples carefully. Though we did not really like 100, we found that 500 and up has worked for my oldest (I didn't discover CLE soon enough to use it earlier for my oldest child).

 

Honestly, CLE has very little writing built into their LA program. You can buy an additional creative writing manual, I believe, but I would say there is almost no other writing instruction. In level 600, I think one of the light units was specifically a writing project (we skipped it, because we were using something else for writing at that time). DD is in the tail end of 700, and I think she had one writing assignment, which did not come with much specific instruction and no directions on revising a draft into a final copy. We have supplemented with a separate writing program.

 

DD13 will be doing high school level work in the fall, so we will see then if all of the grammar she has learned translates into doing well in a high school program. I suspect we will need to really need to work hard to push her writing skills up to a higher level, but writing happens to be a weakness for her. Her struggles with writing predated her work in CLE; although the program did not contribute to her weakness as a writer, it did not successfully build up her skills. We've had to seek out other programs to help with that.

 

Their spelling is okay for someone who is more of a natural speller. Instead of having a list of words that follow any spelling pattern, the word lists are topical. So if your learner needs directed phonetic spelling instruction, you would need to supplement. We have not supplemented spelling much, but should have, because DD is not a natural speller.

 

The grammar, however, is rigorous and solid. it's been a good -- but not easy -- program for us in that regard.

 

So I would really designate CLE as a strong grammar program and would not consider it a full LA program, despite the fact that it calls itself that.

[SnMomof7]

I'm going to say, yes. The grammar is quite rigorous. As the program stands now, spelling is topical lists in 4th and up (we substitute Rod and Staff for these grades). The writing doesn't include a lot of practice as others have noted, but we find it sufficient. If you want to cover poetry, lit terms etc. you would also want to add their Reading course, which is the other part of their LA program.

[MeAndTheBoys]

WE have used CLE 400-600 in the past few years.  The writing is weak, IMO, as others have said.  It does provide some barebones "Taking notes", "book report", "writing paragraph" kind of instruction, and it is good.  There is a research paper in 600, I think.  BUT it doesn't provide regular practice and doesn't go very deep.

 

As far as spelling, it has been great for us-- I have struggled with spelling for YEARS for DS2.  Tried all kinds of programs and methods.  I was concerned about CLE since 400 and 500 (the ones he used) are topic-based rather than spelling-rule based.  But he has improved a LOT in the past year in his spelling; it was interesting to him to have categories of words.  Who would have thought?  We still have some rules I feel we need to go back and work on, but he went from pretty much bombing spelling in previous years to having about an 86 average on all his spelling tests this year--having INTERESTING words helped a lot.

 

DS1 is a natural speller, so i can't evaluate any spelling program based on him :)

 

We are going back to R&S English and Spelling next year because the amount of Light Units I"m having to buy is REALLY adding up!! and they are revising Reading and LA between DS2 and DS3's levels, which means I"ll have to rebuy Teacher's Guides.  R&S English and Spelling are fine programs too--I have used them in the past, before we went to CLE LA.  In both programs, you cover as much by 8th grade as I ever covered in high school grammar--

 

Just the writing that you may want to supplement--  We are using Apologia Jump In right now and plan to do Writing with Skill when they are 7th and 8th grade.

 

B

[Mrs. B]

Thank you all for this information. I will likely continue to use it adding in some writing and spelling dictation supplementation as needed.

[Fabio McFluffypants]

I've used CLE for LA 1st, 2nd, 5th, and 7th grade so far.  I've also used Writing With Ease and Writing with Skill, spelling workout, all about spelling, handwriting without tears, Rod and Staff grammar, and copywork/dictation.  CLE replaces all of the other programs quite well.  It does have copywork (7th grader was just copying from the Declaration of Independence) It has word root study.  It is quite systematic and easy to implement.  If you really wanted to supplement for writing, I would use Writing with Ease/Skill.  I've been pretty pleased with the writing instruction though.  More writing doesn't always equal better writing, and the way the writing is presented is CLE is less intimidating than other programs I have seen.  There is still much wailing and gnashing of teeth by my older children.The CLE 7th grade combination of LA/Reading reminds me strongly of the content presented in Writing With Skill level 1.  It is more user friendly and less intimidating.  However, the lit selections and examples in WWS are much "prettier."  I plan to add in some real literature and discussions to supplement CLE as I have time because I LOVE books and just can't imagine my children not reading certain things.  In 2nd grade so far my little man has copied poetry and has been directed through giving an oral book report (with a self-drawn illustration of the favorite part of the book) He is only in the fourth of ten "lightunits" because we completely overhauled our curriculum last December.  

   I was going to attach a document from the CLE yahoo group that lists all of the writing topics for each grade (3-7) but can't figure it out.  Sorry for the long copy and paste below. The 3 digit numbers refer to which Lightunit the assignment is in.

 CLE Writing Program grades 3 through 7

Units without specific writing assignments and not listed here usually focus on grammar, usage, and mechanics.  EVERY unit, including the ones with specific writing assignments within the lessons, has time for “creative writingâ€, with suggestions from the book On Teaching Writing.

 

301   Friendly letter

302   Paragraphs topic sentences;   writing a paragraph

303   transition words

304   thank you notes

305   more active verbs

306   oral book report;   taking notes;  practicing;  presenting

307   preparing a report;  finding information;  writing;  revising, rewriting

308   writing a paragraph from notes;   editing

309   writing a prayer

310   writing a report;exploring, first draft;   revising; editing and final copy; presenting thank you note

 

403   friendly letter

404   thank you notes

405   unity in paragraphsfriendly letter

406   listening and taking notes (from a sermon in church)

                     taking notes from written sources

                     writing from notes

407   choosing a subject

                      taking notes from several sources

                      writing the rough draft;  revising;  editing

                      activity:  making a report cover

408   writing a paragraph, making sure it makes sense

409   clustering (generating ideas)

a how-to paragraph

writing a paragraph from clustering

410   friendly letter;  postcard

                     interview an older person – report – rough draft;  revise, edit, copy

 

501   using specific words (rather than vague ones)

502   outlining (from an essay)

503   topic sentence

                      personal narrative

504   writing a story using the spelling words

505   compare and contrast – revise and edit; final copy

506   writing a summary;  revising a summary

                      using concise words to replace awkward phrases

507   RESEARCH PAPER   step-by-step

508   writing dialogue

509   business letter;  reply to a business letter

510   oral book report

 

601   writing good sentences

602   transition words;   writing a paragraph

603   supporting the topic sentence with reasons

604   supporting the topic sentence with a story

605   chronological order in paragraphs

606   paragraphs in order of importance

607   comparison and contrast paragraphs

608   spatial order in paragraphs

609   character sketch

610   writing a news article

 

703   conducting an interview for a news article

                      writing questions for an interview

                      contact;   first interview;   second interview

                     first draft;   editing and revising;   sharing the article

705   using precise and vivid verbs

706   outlines

                     writing exposition;   rough;   revising and editing

707   NOVEL STUDY   But Not Forsaken

There are only a few specific assignments for writing in this unit, including writing a description of a character and an evaluation of a character.  There are, however, many “writing opportunities†within the unit, if you choose to take them, including writing about the characters’ feelings;  research topics about WWII, rationing, the SS, and so on; interview a refugee, war survivor, or emigre;  explain what a character meant by what was said, including references to Scripture;  summarizing events; research Paraguay, immigration standards for US or Canada;   Interview parents, teachers, pastor about views on drama, Christmas decorations, aid to people.  What does the Bible say about these things?  Write a different ending to the novel.