Grammar in high school

[Juliegmom]

My daughter will have gone through Rod and Staff grammar levels 2-6, by the end of 8th grade. I don't want to drop grammar completely during the high school years, but I feel that we will need a break from Rod and Staff. Easy Grammar is not an option. It just wouldn't be a good fit. Any other suggestions for high school grammar? I've looked at Grammar for TWTM, but am put off by the price. TIA!

 

ETA that I'd like to cover SAT prep in high school. Would a SAT study book offer enough grammar review by itself?

Edited December 26, 2017 by Juliegmom

[mama25angels]

Why don't you continue with R&S using book 8 over two years?

[Juliegmom]

Why don't you continue with R&S using book 8 over two years?

I am considering this option, but just thought we might like a break from Rod and Staff. I already own book 8, but not book 7.

 

I wonder if I would be problematic to go from book 6 to 8.

[2_girls_mommy]

My 10th grader skipped book 7 for the most part. We may have worked some in it in 8th grade. I can't remember exactly. But if we did, she only did a bit after finishing grade 6 for most of the year. 

 

For 9th grade she did grade 8. Now in 10th she is reading through grade 9/10. At this point, she isn't doing much in the way of writing from it. She mostly reads the lessons semi daily, maybe 3 times a week, and does the days there are worksheets. We pretty much did the same in 9th grade in book 8- the worksheet days since she does latin and gets lots of grammar there.  I liked that she still got some poetry work, grammar reinforcement, and some writing that way. We also worked through WWS in 9th grade too. 

 

My current 8th grader is in grade 6 this year. She will not finish it. I am in the air about what to do with her. Grade 8 is pretty intense grammar. I am actually thinking for her, I might just do grade 7 for 9th grade, grade 8 for 10th grade, and just see how far we get through the two grades 9/10 books over 11th and 12th. The grammar is harder for her. I will better assess at the end of this year. I may in the end skip grade 7 again and put her in grade 8 for 9th grade again. I really like the stuffs covered in books 9/10, and would like to get through some of that before she starts taking SATs and the like. 

[OrganicJen]

Have you looked at Analytical Grammar? Once you go through it they have refresher books to keep up the skills in high school.

[Lori D.]

(Quick side note: Knowing what your specific goal regarding Grammar will help you decide what sort of resource you are most interested in using: are you looking just for specific Grammar prep for the SAT? Or does your student need more review/practice for using Grammar in Writing? Or does your student need more instruction in Grammar to understand the concepts? Different resources hone in on different aspects. :) )

 

 

As you move in to the high school years, there's a very good chance that you'll find your student is USING the Grammar in Writing and in the Foreign Language, and no longer have any need for instruction in or review of Grammar, as your student will be putting the tool of Grammar into use on a regular basis in other subject areas. ;)

 

However, if you need a resource to dip into for 10 minutes of review 2-3x/week, we really liked The Chortling Bard. It's a paragraph per session for proof-editing, with 2 vocabulary words, and reviews various Grammar topics. Chortling Bard is the high school level of the Grammar with a Giggle series, and as with all of the books in that series, each paragraph adds to a single story. In this case, there are 3 retellings of Shakespeare plays:  Much Ado About Nothing, Midsummer Night's Dream, and Twelfth Night.

 

I like Chortling Bard for the in-context review of Grammar concepts, and I think the practice of proofing the paragraphs makes it much easier for students to spot errors in their own writing, as well as on SAT/ACT tests. And speaking of which, here and here are articles that outline the Grammar rules a student needs to understand in order to score well on that section of the SAT. 

 

If Chortling Bard is not a good fit for you and your student, or if you prefer a more traditional workbook type of resource, you might check out the Houghton-Mifflin Core Skills Grammar Review for gr. 6-12 (4 units that could easily be spread out as 10-minutes "bites" 2-3x/week and still complete the book in a year or less), or the Streck-Vaughn Language Usage and Review for gr. 8 (also very gentle).

 

Or, for a more intense amount of review: Jensen's Grammar and Jensen's Punctuation. Those have a LOT of exercises to practice each concept, so my suggestion would be to schedule the 2 resources something like this, so that you spread them out and review each year of high school:

 

week 1

day 1 = Jensen's Grammar: lesson 1 = read the lesson; do 1/4 of the exercises

day 2 = Jensen's Grammar: lesson 2 = read the lesson; do 1/4 of the exercises

day 3 = Jensen's Punctuation: lesson 1 = read the lesson; do 1/4 of the exercises

 

Jensen's Grammar has 75 lessons, so 2 per week will last an entire 36-week school year, and by doing just 1/4 of the exercises, you can use it again the following year for review of the concepts, and do a handful of exercises for practice. Jensen's Punctuation has only 8 lessons, but longer exercises, plus tests, so you could break all of those up into smaller chunks to cover 36 weeks, and by just doing 1/4 of the exercises/tests, you can use it again the following year for review.

 

A longer resource that you could break into small bites is Warriner's Handbook Language and Sentece Skills Practice.

 

And up-thread, 2_girls_mommy  suggests a great way of using R&S gr. 8 spread out as review over several years in high school. Since you are both familiar with R&S, and it was working for you, that might be the way to go. You just need to give yourselves permission to NOT DO the entire program in one year, or do a lot of it orally rather than written, so you "tame" the time needed for review. ;)

 

BEST of luck in finding what works best for you and DD! :) Warmest regards, Lori D.

Edited December 26, 2017 by Lori D.

[Juliegmom]

My 10th grader skipped book 7 for the most part. We may have worked some in it in 8th grade. I can't remember exactly. But if we did, she only did a bit after finishing grade 6 for most of the year.

 

For 9th grade she did grade 8. Now in 10th she is reading through grade 9/10. At this point, she isn't doing much in the way of writing from it. She mostly reads the lessons semi daily, maybe 3 times a week, and does the days there are worksheets. We pretty much did the same in 9th grade in book 8- the worksheet days since she does latin and gets lots of grammar there. I liked that she still got some poetry work, grammar reinforcement, and some writing that way. We also worked through WWS in 9th grade too.

 

My current 8th grader is in grade 6 this year. She will not finish it. I am in the air about what to do with her. Grade 8 is pretty intense grammar. I am actually thinking for her, I might just do grade 7 for 9th grade, grade 8 for 10th grade, and just see how far we get through the two grades 9/10 books over 11th and 12th. The grammar is harder for her. I will better assess at the end of this year. I may in the end skip grade 7 again and put her in grade 8 for 9th grade again. I really like the stuffs covered in books 9/10, and would like to get through some of that before she starts taking SATs and the like.

This seems like the simplest solution. Thank you for sharing how you skipped book. This will leave room for SAT prep.

[Juliegmom]

(Quick side note: Knowing what your specific goal regarding Grammar will help you decide what sort of resource you are most interested in using: are you looking just for specific Grammar prep for the SAT? Or does your student need more review/practice for using Grammar in Writing? Or does your student need more instruction in Grammar to understand the concepts? Different resources hone in on different aspects. :) )

 

 

As you move in to the high school years, there's a very good chance that you'll find your student is USING the Grammar in Writing and in the Foreign Language, and no longer have any need for instruction in or review of Grammar, as your student will be putting the tool of Grammar into use on a regular basis in other subject areas. ;)

 

However, if you need a resource to dip into for 10 minutes of review 2-3x/week, we really liked The Chortling Bard. It's a paragraph per session for proof-editing, with 2 vocabulary words, and reviews various Grammar topics. Chortling Bard is the high school level of the Grammar with a Giggle series, and as with all of the books in that series, each paragraph adds to a single story. In this case, there are 3 retellings of Shakespeare plays: Much Ado About Nothing, Midsummer Night's Dream, and Twelfth Night.

 

I like Chortling Bard for the in-context review of Grammar concepts, and I think the practice of proofing the paragraphs makes it much easier for students to spot errors in their own writing, as well as on SAT/ACT tests. And speaking of which, here and here are articles that outline the Grammar rules a student needs to understand in order to score well on that section of the SAT.

 

If Chortling Bard is not a good fit for you and your student, or if you prefer a more traditional workbook type of resource, you might check out the Houghton-Mifflin Core Skills Grammar Review for gr. 6-12 (4 units that could easily be spread out as 10-minutes "bites" 2-3x/week and still complete the book in a year or less), or the Streck-Vaughn Language Usage and Review for gr. 8 (also very gentle).

 

Or, for a more intense amount of review: Jensen's Grammar and Jensen's Punctuation. Those have a LOT of exercises to practice each concept, so my suggestion would be to schedule the 2 resources something like this, so that you spread them out and review each year of high school:

 

week 1

day 1 = Jensen's Grammar: lesson 1 = read the lesson; do 1/4 of the exercises

day 2 = Jensen's Grammar: lesson 2 = read the lesson; do 1/4 of the exercises

day 3 = Jensen's Punctuation: lesson 1 = read the lesson; do 1/4 of the exercises

 

Jensen's Grammar has 75 lessons, so 2 per week will last an entire 36-week school year, and by doing just 1/4 of the exercises, you can use it again the following year for review of the concepts, and do a handful of exercises for practice. Jensen's Punctuation has only 8 lessons, but longer exercises, plus tests, so you could break all of those up into smaller chunks to cover 36 weeks, and by just doing 1/4 of the exercises/tests, you can use it again the following year for review.

 

A longer resource that you could break into small bites is Warriner's Handbook Language and Sentece Skills Practice.

 

And up-thread, 2_girls_mommy suggests a great way of using R&S gr. 8 spread out as review over several years in high school. Since you are both familiar with R&S, and it was working for you, that might be the way to go. You just need to give yourselves permission to NOT DO the entire program in one year, or do a lot of it orally rather than written, so you "tame" the time needed for review. ;)

 

BEST of luck in finding what works best for you and DD! :) Warmest regards, Lori D.

Thank you, Lori! Once again, you've given me some things to think about.

[freeindeed]

Have you looked at Analytical Grammar? Once you go through it they have refresher books to keep up the skills in high school.

 

My 9th grader is currently using this. He's really blossomed with his grammar skills since August.

[historymatters]

What about Our Mother Tongue? There's an answer key, too.

 

Ambleside has a two-year schedule.

[Storygirl]

CLE has high school grammar. Two of their English courses are grammar. You could do them half-time and have enough grammar to last for all four years, if you so desired.

Edited December 28, 2017 by Storygirl

[Frances]

Have you looked at Analytical Grammar? Once you go through it they have refresher books to keep up the skills in high school.

Although my son strongly disliked this program, he has thanked me many times for making him do it. We did it in late middle school, though, and used nothing for high school. Now he reads grammar books for fun.

[Momto6inIN]

Have you looked at Analytical Grammar? Once you go through it they have refresher books to keep up the skills in high school.

This is the program we use in middle school and then in high school they just use the review books once a week to keep their skills sharp. I would imagine if you've used R&S then they would have no problem with just the review books (parsing and diagramming, analyzing sentences, and proofreading).

 

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