Just Curious: Grammar in Barton Reading Levels

[imagine.more]

Hey, we're halfway through Barton Level 4 with Ana and I have a tutoring student coming up on level 4 as well and I'm curious. What grammar instruction does Barton include in the upper levels? I know it includes some, and in Level 3-4 it's already doing things like having the student identify the Who, Did What, Where, and Add-on phrases, but I'm curious if it gets more specific than that? What kind of stuff does it teach?

 

If it doesn't get more specific than that, what are my options for good grammar programs to coincide with Barton after we get to a certain part?

[OneStepAtATime]

We are using Fix-It Grammar (new version, not old).  We started with Book 1.  It is very easy to implement and takes very little prep if you just spend a day or so getting the cards printed out and the pages for the student notebook at the very beginning of starting the program.  After that, prep is basically spending about 1-3 minutes on the first day of each week reading through what that week will cover.  The program starts VERY gently.  For some it may seem waaay too basic but it DOES start ramping up.  By the last book of the series (there are 6 books) it covers really advanced stuff.  I don't know that we will get to that level of grammar with DD.  

 

I highly recommend getting the printed TM, which then should include the electronic Student notebook for free so you can print pages as needed or reprint if you want them to redo a lesson.  It is only :15 a day, 4 days a week, unless you want to move through the material more quickly.  If you want to complete Book 1 and 2 in one year you can do two lessons a day 4 days a week, still be done in less than 30 minutes, and finish twice as fast.  I also recommend getting a large print full dictionary.

 

On day one DD and I discuss the material, work through the sentence together, review previous lessons as needed, etc.  Day 2-4, she does the lesson pretty independently but after she has finished each day we review what she did together to make sure she understands and didn't miss anything.  I try always to review with her right after she has finished so things are fresh in her mind.  

 

FWIW, I was out of town last week so DD was basically on her own for 4 days for Week 19.  I just checked her work.  She only missed one thing from 4 days of work without me there to guide her.  It was mainly a review lesson, but obviously the previous material is sticking.  That made us both happy and she feels good about her ability to be independent for at least some things.

[PeterPan]

I haven't seen the upper levels of Barton to answer that question, but to me the Q&A approach of Barton coincides really well with Shurley (what I used with dd, not dyslexic).  I've been reading Word Fun with ds, just to introduce those terms and concepts in a more visual, kinesthetic, interactive way.  Each concept is followed by a suggested activity.  We'll probably cycle back through the book a few times when we finish.  We don't make it anything heady, just introductory and fun, which is enough when you're in Barton 4.  Then I think it wouldn't be any trouble to start diagramming in B5, maybe using your sentences from B3 or B4, which are already familiar, or your B5 sentences.  You'd just say remember that Who? Well that goes *here* on the diagramming.  Did what?  That goes here.  And so on.  

 

Well always added diagramming onto Shurley.  (This is with my non-dyslexic.) We would parse the three sentences and pick one to diagram. I think you could make manipulatives and write your question words on one side, the grammar labels on the other, and then put magnets on them.  Then write your sentence (the Barton sentence, a Shurley sentence, whatever) on the whiteboard and go through the Q&A, labeling things.  Then pick one to diagram.  Shurley has them find prepositional phrases and I think some programs even have them get rid of those first.  You're used to thinking about them with your Barton Q&A flow already, so it's not hard to continue that.  You could even stretch it a bit and ask what question that "Add On Phrase" is answering, kwim?  So you'd have add-on--how/when/where/to what extent on one side of the labeling card and adverbial phrase on the other side, etc.  

 

Maybe Barton does something like this in the higher levels?  What does she recommend for grammar?  I know I was able to help my dh with some wicked greek parsing this semester using Q&A flows.  He's never going to be an expert at the terms and labels, but he could think in terms of concepts, answering questions, and seeing where to plug that answer into a diagram since diagramming actually is relatively consistent.