Barton Level 4

[lilmissc74]

My son has battled through lesson 6 at Level 4. He's doing well reading but spelling is a struggle. We do each lesson 2-3 times plus the extra practice pages. How should I proceed- keep doing a lesson then repeat until he gets it no matter how many times? Would it be better to do several lessons and then repeat? This book has been a bear. We started in December and work 4 hours a week plus games on Fridays. Thanks!

[OneStepAtATime]

I know you posted on the thread I linked below but I thought maybe rereading it might help.  There were some good suggestions on there. 

 

http://forums.welltrainedmind.com/topic/582618-barton-level-4-help/

 

As mentioned on the above thread, Level 4 is usually the hardest level for a student (not always but probably the vast majority of the time).  DD had to go through the first lessons twice before we could make it all the way through (on our third round).  I honestly wish that level could be broken up into two levels, moving more slowly, breaking things up into smaller chunks.  And as the tutor I will admit I had a hard time wrapping my brain around this level.  Now that I have done half or more of it 3 times, it does make sense and DD is flying through lessons in Level 5 because of the foundation laid in Level 4.  It took us a really loooooonnnng time to finish Level 4 but I absolutely believe it was worth it.  

 

My suggestion is to stop for the moment, play the Spelling Success games if you have them and other games for Lessons 1-5 (check imagine.more's blog), do the extra practice pages again, maybe some spelling lessons targeted for a specific rule, and let that percolate for a bit.  Then start again, repeat the lessons for 1-5 before moving on.  Do lessons 6-11, stop, do games, extra practice pages, spelling exercises, let it percolate a bit, then (and you may hate me for this) if it is still a struggle, repeat 1-11 one more time before doing 12-14.

 

Honestly some students stay on this level 6 months to a year or longer.  This is a tough level.  I promise you, though, if you make it through this one the other levels will almost certainly go much faster.  Not all, but most students I have ever heard of move much more quickly through the remaining levels.  That has definitely been the case with DD.  She was spending so much time on each individual lesson with Level 4 and we still had to repeat the lessons and we were on that Level a lot longer than one year.  Level 5?  We are flying through a lesson every two days.  Its a whole different ballgame.  

 

:grouphug:  :grouphug:  :grouphug:

 

 

Edited February 19, 2016 by OneStepAtATime

[frogger]

You might want to take some time off and review up to that point including a little of book 3. I find that my son started to forget old rules and stuff because we had spent so long on only the words and sentences in one particular lesson. By the time you get back to that troublesome lesson you will have had a break yet it won't be entirely unfamiliar.

 

I do wish some of the actual lessons were split in half. It seems like there must be more practice words that could be used. I just did lesson 5 this week. There were 4 new teachings. I think for the rest of the book I will look ahead and find extra practice words for teaching #1 so I can do that for a couple days and then add teaching two with extra words and then finish the complete lesson with both teachings.

 

 

Over here we should have our finished Level 4 celebration threads. 😊

Edited February 19, 2016 by frogger

[nanette0269]

We trudged through level 3 for 8 months...ugh!  But, I see that something has been going on with his brain lately, and he really GETS it so much better.  He is just learning everything faster and taking it all in, whereas before he wasn't. We've just chatted about lesson 1 in level 4 (not done the lesson since I don't have it yet), and he already gets it....so I'm hopeful that it won't be as painful as everyone lets on.

[frogger]

Why did I not notice the extra words on the Barton website before? There are extra practice words there sorted by lesson. 

[MisH]

I have to say thanks! I was looking through Barton threads for help with my ds2 who is in the midst of Level 4 .... and struggling. I don't know how or why I didn't realize there are free extra sheets on the barton website, but I realized it after reading through a few threads here!

So - Yay for extra practice sheets!

[OneStepAtATime]

I have to say thanks! I was looking through Barton threads for help with my ds2 who is in the midst of Level 4 .... and struggling. I don't know how or why I didn't realize there are free extra sheets on the barton website, but I realized it after reading through a few threads here!

So - Yay for extra practice sheets!

I think a lot of people new to Barton fail to realize how much support there is on the website for tutors.  I certainly did. I think it is understandable.  There is a lot to learn and get used to when you first begin.  :)