What next for language arts goals?

[Jackie]

I'm developing my goals for the coming school year. As often happens, language arts is my most difficult area for this. I have a highly asynchronous, generally advanced elementary student with fine motor difficulties. Where am I missing opportunities to move forward? What could I use to support her? She LOVES reading and spends 2-3+ hours per day on independent reading. In general, language is a strength, and I want to support it, but she's so asynchronous that I often don't know which way to turn.

 

Reading - She can read and comprehend many years above level. We also do parent read alouds 30-60 minutes per day. Only specific goal is to work on summarization (she retells rather than summarizes).

 

Grammar - we've gone through MCT Island. She grasps all the grammar concepts in this. She still does not regularly use capitalization and punctuation in her own writing. Her verbal expression is rich and complex; her written expression is light years behind that. Specific goals: greater complexity in written expression, use of correct grammar including punctuation and capital letters. Method: copywork and dictation, reusing MCT Sentence Island.

 

Spelling - phoenetic but not correct. Used Sequential Spelling, and it has helped, but nothing drastic. I'm fine with this for now, will address specifically if it doesn't improve in a couple years. No specific goals.

 

Handwriting - just got letter formation down after a switch to cursive (manuscript is/was a disaster). Writing is slow and stilted, but legible. Goal: fluid, legible handwriting; Method: copywork and dictation.

 

Composition: can produce output of 4-6 sentences typed. Understands and uses logical ordering of sentences. As addressed above, vocab and grammar are poor in composition compared to speech. Currently working on basic paragraphs - I will outline ideas with her and she will type up paragraph using outline. Goal: increased complexity of sentence structure, increased independence; Method: she is taking an online Lit class in the fall that asks for paragraph responses to questions and I will address within those assignments. Reuse MCT Sentence Island to approach "good" sentences.

 

Vocabulary: decent for elementary, but nowhere near her reading level. She prefers specific definitions to in context reading. Goal: increased vocab and ability to gain vocab independently; method: continue using Vocabulary Cartoons, teach dictionary and thesaurus skills. (Debating whether paper-based or online-based)

 

So, basically,

- copywork and dictation (using Brave Writer)

- review MCT Sentence Island

- online Lit class

- Vocabulary Cartoons

 

What else? We're pretty unschooly in nature, but she *loves* language so this is an area I can solidly nudge in. What skills would benefit her most?

Edited June 4, 2016 by Jackie

[fourisenough]

How about picking up Killgallon's Sentence Composing or Paragraphs for Elementary School? I find this great for use mostly orally while snuggled on the couch. It may be a good way to improve/stretch her ability to write more complex, grammatically correct sentences. (And she might enjoy approaching the topic from a different angle, rather than reusing MCT which she has already seen before.)

 

On the topic of spelling: I recently made the realization that DD7, unlike any of her older sisters, is going to require explicit instruction in spelling if she is to improve in this area at all. A fluent, early reader, her spelling and, thus, her ability to express herself in writing, lagged far behind. In early May I began AAS with her and we've just started Level 2. I'm already beginning to see her transfer what she has learned into her free writing. Previously, I had tried R & S and Sequential Spelling, but she appeared to need direct instruction in the rules before being able to make progress. Just mentioning this in case your daughter falls into the same camp. I was always turned off by AAS because it seemed unnecessarily 'fussy'. Turns out for my DD it was necessary after all!

 

Otherwise, your plan seems like it will help you reach your goals. Do you mind sharing which online Lit class you selected?

[desertflower]

Have you thought about introducing Latin?

 

In my research, there are at least 2 vocabulary programs that some people use prior to using CE. If you are going to use CE (which I assume you will since you are using MCT), English from the roots up and Red Hot Root Words are the 2 programs that people seem to use before CE.

 

I have English from the roots up, but have not implemented yet. Looks good though. A friend of mine is on book 2 of the other program.

 

Have you thought of creative writing?

 

How about persuasive writing? I'm thinking about doing CAP's W & R in the fall.

 

How about poetry? I'm thinking of getting IEW's Linguistic poetry at the convention. You can get the first 2 levels free through homeschool buyers coop right now.

 

How about Shakespeare? We are doing one play this year. Probably eventually going to follow AO's plan for this.

 

There are a lot of components to LA. Been thinking about this for the past 4 months or so myself.

[Jackie]

How about picking up Killgallon's Sentence Composing or Paragraphs for Elementary School? I find this great for use mostly orally while snuggled on the couch. It may be a good way to improve/stretch her ability to write more complex, grammatically correct sentences. (And she might enjoy approaching the topic from a different angle, rather than reusing MCT which she has already seen before.) I have Killgallon's Sentence Composing on the shelf. I'll have to pull it down. I also was thinking of using Treasured Conversations. DD isn't quite ready for MCT Town, and I want something here to use in between.

 

On the topic of spelling: I recently made the realization that DD7, unlike any of her older sisters, is going to require explicit instruction in spelling if she is to improve in this area at all. A fluent, early reader, her spelling and, thus, her ability to express herself in writing, lagged far behind. In early May I began AAS with her and we've just started Level 2. I'm already beginning to see her transfer what she has learned into her free writing. Previously, I had tried R & S and Sequential Spelling, but she appeared to need direct instruction in the rules before being able to make progress. Just mentioning this in case your daughter falls into the same camp. I was always turned off by AAS because it seemed unnecessarily 'fussy'. Turns out for my DD it was necessary after all! We actually started with AAS and switched to SS! I'm not opposed to spelling work, just waiting a year or two to see if it is really needed.

 

Otherwise, your plan seems like it will help you reach your goals. Do you mind sharing which online Lit class you selected? She is signed up for Intermediate Lit at Athena's Academy. She's so excited; she's been begging for an online class with other kids and this will be her first one!

 

 

 

Have you thought about introducing Latin? She's working towards fluency in Spanish, so I hesitate to introduce more foreign language. She loves learning about where words come from, though - it was a real toss up for her between taking the online Lit class or an Etymology class.

 

In my research, there are at least 2 vocabulary programs that some people use prior to using CE. If you are going to use CE (which I assume you will since you are using MCT), English from the roots up and Red Hot Root Words are the 2 programs that people seem to use before CE.

 

I have English from the roots up, but have not implemented yet. Looks good though. A friend of mine is on book 2 of the other program.

Good guess - CE is already on the shelf. I'm thinking it may be a better fit in another year (along with the rest of Town), but I've often caught myself underestimating DD so I should probably pull it down and take a harder look at it. I also have the Rummy Roots card game on a shelf somewhere, which I should pull out in the meantime.

 

Have you thought of creative writing?

How about persuasive writing? I'm thinking about doing CAP's W & R in the fall.

 

How about poetry? I'm thinking of getting IEW's Linguistic poetry at the convention. You can get the first 2 levels free through homeschool buyers coop right now.

 

I should do something with creative writing, come to think of it. She loves story telling. I wonder if Brave Writer's Partnership Writing has any good creative writing ideas in their projects? I bought PW, but she wasn't ready for that step at the time I bought it. I think she is now, so I need to look at it again. We did some poetry with MCT's Music of the Hemispheres and we do Poetry Teas. She's written a few lines herself here and there; her poetry is some of her best writing - she uses description and imagery in her poetry that she wouldn't even think of including in any of her other writing. Now I'm wondering, without being any good at poetry myself, how to encourage more of this without overly structuring it, which would ruin the enjoyment for her...

 

How about Shakespeare? We are doing one play this year. Probably eventually going to follow AO's plan for this. Hadn't even thought of starting Shakespeare in elementary! I don't know whether she would be ready for original works, but we could certainly try the Bruce Coville adaptations. I'll go look at AO's plan for Shakespeare.

 

There are a lot of components to LA. Been thinking about this for the past 4 months or so myself. This. Exactly this. In some other LA thread in the past, someone referred to planning LA as "trying to catch smoke" and it stuck with me. Generally, I love piecing together our schoolwork. But there's nothing like LA to spark my anxiety! SO MANY PIECES! Keeping track of all the pieces, knowing how much and how quickly to move forward... It's also the subject where her asynchronicity comes out most, with her reading and writing levels light years apart, making it interesting to try to find good fits for curriculum.

 

Thanks to both of you for your feedback!

[fourisenough]

Thanks to both of you for your feedback!

Oh, Treasured Conversations might be perfect! I bought it when 8 first published it, but DD11 was just beyond it, so it sits unused, ready for my DD7 when she seems ready for it (at least another year away, I suspect). Can't wait!

[domestic_engineer]

Letter writing?  

Perhaps let her dictate the body of letter to you, and let her practice addressing the envelope, writing the date, the greeting, the closing, & the signature.

[Jackie]

Letter writing?

Perhaps let her dictate the body of letter to you, and let her practice addressing the envelope, writing the date, the greeting, the closing, & the signature.

She loves doing this! It's probably the most handwriting she had done up until the last 3-4 months. She hasn't been doing as much of it lately, but she used to write to several relatives and got to the point where all I did was address the envelope. They're short letters, 3-5 sentences inside a greeting card, and her relatives generally don't write back so eventually she seems to have given up. Maybe I'll try postcrossing.