Outlines--what do you use for beginners?

[Alana in Canada]

Okie dokie.

 

It's 5th grade.

 

We must begin first level outlines. Thus, we need something which is very clear. All we need to do this year is pick out the main idea in the paragraph.

 

What do you use/recommend?

 

TIA.

[swellmomma]

We are just starting outlining this year too for grade 4/5. We are using King Fisher encyclopedia to go along with SOTW. I have the kids write out the headers for different sections, and then under those headings in point form the main idea of each paragraph. SO if under one heading there is 3 paragrraphs they will have 3 points listed under it. I think for use this is good enough for now while they are just learning the basics of outlining.

[JFSinIL]

Scholastics Paragraph Writing Made Easy for grades 4 - 8 ISBN 0-439-20764-9

I got mine from Rainbow. Goes into how to make an outline from a paragraph, and how to write a paragraph from an outline.

[Alana in Canada]

Sorry, I should have been more clear.

 

I have the Remedia Publication books (more for me, really! I never learned this stuff.)

 

After--or while we go through them, I want to look at non-fiction things and have my ten year old pick out the main idea.

 

I don't want to do the Kingfisher--too dense.

We use the books by John Haare to flesh out our history--but they aren't dense enough. (I'm starting to feel like Goldilocks!)

 

SoTW will just make him impatient, I'm afraid. CHoW is a candiate, except that in SoTW we're about to veer off for several weeks onto roads which CHOW does not travel.

 

So....

[Melissa B]

Are you doing ancients?

 

For American history I use History of US (Hakim) for outlining practice.

And for our study in mythology I use D'Aulaires Norse and Greek Myths for outlining and narration work.

 

If you think CHOW would work well, I would use that and focus more on narration, skipping the outlining practice, on weeks that CHOW doesn't line up.

[Alana in Canada]

No, we're off rotation. We're in the latter 1/2 of SoTW2 and will start 3 after Christmas.

[Matryoshka]

I used this book last year in 4th grade and it went over really well.

 

It starts out with main idea, but actually goes all the way through subtopics and details, gives a great framework for figuring out which is which, and finishes off talking about taking notes and organizing an outline from them.

[bettyandbob]

dd10 is using the Remedia Publications Outlining book for 5-8 grades. I think it does a good job of teaching the skill step by step. It starts with identification of basic structures in outlines. Then identifying main ideas, supporting ideas and grouping ideas. There are a few writing from an outline exercises. The final exercises are to write and outline for a short story and to write an outline for a bookreport. We plan to finish it quickly and then I will have her outline history selections. Right now she is just summarizing. We use many books for history. I will expect her to outline from all of them by the end of our school year (June).

 

I got my copy free from a neighbor, but I think both amazon and rainbow resource sell this.

[Colleen in NS]

After--or while we go through them, I want to look at non-fiction things and have my ten year old pick out the main idea.

 

in SoTW we're about to veer off for several weeks onto roads which CHOW does not travel.

 

I hope I'm understanding what you are looking for.....you are using SOTW, but you think he will be too impatient to outline from SOTW? If that's the case, how about having him outline from library books that go with the current SOTW topic?

[mcconnellboys]

We're also using the Remedia Publications book now, in fifth grade. I believe SWB recommended it a while back. Rainbow Resource does carry two levels of this book.

[Alana in Canada]

Mcconnellboys--what do you plan to have for them to actually outline? What content material?

[Peela]

I used a book that we used for Australian history, that had lots of subheadings and short paragraphs.YOu could use a library book, information from the internet, etc. Many people have said, including SWB, that the Kingfisher Encyclopedia is too hard to outline. I found SOTW too long to outline.

I bought the Remedia outlining books. I dont think they are necessary for most kids and we only used them briefly. Even my reluctant, dyslexic writer finds outlining ok- probably because it involves making something long into something short!

I think you also need to allow a certain amount of leeway in the child choosing the main point- in other words, what you think is the main point may not be what the child thinks. We did it together for a while, so that the child could model from me, but then I let the child work it out for themselves.

[Alana in Canada]

My son and I did the first few pages in the first remedia book orally today--and then out R&S lesson was on tpic sentences! I hate using the textbook for "content" though--it isn't like taking something real and going through it. (After all, if R&S says the topic sentence is "usually" the first sentence and then gives him nothing but examples which do that--well, I personally don't feel he's properly equipped, kwim?

 

(For example, what's the topic sentence in the above paragraph? But then again, perhaps it's a really badly written paragraph. As my son would say, "oh boy.")

[magistramom]

For fun...and for visual and kinesthetic learners...

 

Choose any spine/text resource you like (or have found from other posts in this thread), but use LEGOs to show how an outline should look. You can use any book to start - just read the text and as you "find" your outline, lay out premade LEGO bars as you point out the different "parts". You might use a red bar for the main topics, blue for topic sentences, yellow for sentences supporting the topic sentence, and so on. Keep repeating this down a piece of paper. Go back and fill in all the numbers/letters showing how the outline is ordered.

 

Next, read a new section to your child. Have them lay out the LEGO bars AND write down the outline sentence with the proper numeration/lettering. The visual really helps get the idea of indentation to "kick in" and the colors help kids identify individual "parts".

[Alana in Canada]

We did our first outline today!

 

I was thrilled with how well it went. We read through pages 1-8 on "Main topics" in the Remedia stuff and then he did a whole book on Preying Mantises. It was an extremely simple book--definitely one main idea for each paragraph!

 

May our next try be so successful! (You have to start easy with this kid or he gets discouraged.)

 

Thank you all for your wonderful help and encouragement. It's scary for me to do "new" things with him, but we did it.

[mcconnellboys]

Sorry, I just saw your post! This year, he is outlining the first section of the first chapter of SOTW that he reads each week. I helped him start, and now he's doing it on his own.

 

He is also outlining the intro sections from How Nature Works right now, as I read from it (currently we're doing one new section a week, although that's about to change as we'll spend the next three weeks on insects). I've been helping with this, but am getting ready to start him making his own decision about what important info to include.

 

Outlining some of the shorter myths we will read this year will also be a possibility as we go forward.

[mcconnellboys]

That's terrific, good for him!

[Alana in Canada]

Thanks Regena.

 

I love the lego idea, magistramom (and your screen name, too).