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English plans turned upside down! Help, please!


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I signed my daughter, who will be in 9th next year, up for English 2 at The Potters School.  It's technically their 8th grade level, but the lit looked good and she needs a little more work on her writing.  However, she "failed" the placement test, and they said she should sign up for English 1.  Not a big deal; however, she's already read a fair amount of the literature, and it's pretty far below her reading level.  The writing would probably be good for her, but the lit would bore her.  So I'm thinking I need to split English up into lit, writing, and grammar.  Writing HAS to be graded by someone else.  I can handle grammar.  I'm a little lost on lit.

What writing program will get her writing up to high school level?  What lit have you used and loved?  I'll probably just do Analytical Grammar for grammar unless someone has another fabulous idea.  Any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.  My mind has turned to mush researching all this.  Thanks!!!

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It’s expensive but Integritas Academy/Cindy Lange (formerly of WHA) is an absolutely brilliant teacher. My DD13 grew dramatically as a writer this year. I’d be happy to share a piece of writing from the fall and her final paper if you would like to see a comparison and see what sort of feedback Mrs. Lange offers.

She teaches a very structured process to help students organize their writing. She also really drives home the idea that all statements must be supported by the text. I’m delighted with my DD’s progress this year and I would encourage you to check it out. 

My older girls did TPS English 1-3. I much prefer Mrs. Lange’s instruction and the outcomes she achieves. I think TPS is a bit to heavy in grammar and too formulaic with writing. 

I would just do AG at home and outsource the Lit/writing.

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If you can handle the cost, I agree with fourisenough about Mrs. Lange. My dd#2 is a good writer, but Mrs. Lange took her to a higher level.

(Fourisenough - can you write a review of how the year went since it was Mrs. Lange's first year on her own & put it on the master online thread please?)

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45 minutes ago, RootAnn said:

If you can handle the cost, I agree with fourisenough about Mrs. Lange.

 

1 hour ago, fourisenough said:

It’s expensive but Integritas Academy/Cindy Lange (formerly of WHA) is an absolutely brilliant teacher.

 

I don't think we'll be able to do this one.  It sounds amazing, but the price is prohibitive.  Our budget is about $500 for this class.  Thank you for the suggestion though!  So wish we could do it.

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1 hour ago, GeoKitty said:

We used EIW 9 this year with the scoring service... the feedback was prompt and really good. They have a lit program and a schedule to combine the two as well.

 

Do you feel like EIW is enough to bring a lazy writer up to speed?  I've done lower levels of it, and it seemed like it would be good for good writers, but maybe not remedial?

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How about CLRC's Introduction to Literature & Composition? ($300 for first semester if paid before June 1st. You can wait to register for 2nd semester until later in the fall, would be $300-$360 depending on if you get the early registration price.) They don't really teach writing, but they do have good written feedback on papers, generally. [Note: I have not had a kid take this class yet so take what I say in this post with proper skepticism.]

Edited by RootAnn
Added caveat at the end.
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Actually, I think because it breaks everything down into small easily manageable chunks, that it is good for reluctant writers. DS isn’t a bad writer, but was having trouble with organizing his writing. This year, that really improved.  My DD, who naturally writes very organized and following the proper patterns, used EIW 7.... but she found it easy and wanted to just do the writing already.... except for the research report which was new to her.  Does that help?

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2 hours ago, RootAnn said:

If you can handle the cost, I agree with fourisenough about Mrs. Lange. My dd#2 is a good writer, but Mrs. Lange took her to a higher level.

(Fourisenough - can you write a review of how the year went since it was Mrs. Lange's first year on her own & put it on the master online thread please?)


Can you link the thread? I'm not sure which one you mean. I will definitely write up a review; I've been meaning to do it, but now that you've requested it, I'll get on it! 

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18 minutes ago, fourisenough said:


Can you link the thread? I'm not sure which one you mean. I will definitely write up a review; I've been meaning to do it, but now that you've requested it, I'll get on it! 

Master list of online classes in the General Board. With enough reviews, it will be helpful. Right now, it is somewhat helpful in that it has links to so many providers in the top post. (However, I'm not sure the interior links work anymore with the new board change.)

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So after searching a lot more (How many tabs do I have open? Not sure any more.) I think I may have found something that looks good.  Writing ER through Big River Academy.  The teacher gets good reviews and the class is all about improving writing.  For lit I'll just pick a few books we were going to read for history/geography anyway and add some lit guides or something.  I'm guessing that I will give her 1 credit for composition?  Maybe .5 for lit?  Not sure about the whole credits thing.  Thank you all for your suggestions!!  I'm open to feedback on this plan as well.  

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  • 10 months later...
On 5/25/2018 at 2:01 PM, fourisenough said:

It’s expensive but Integritas Academy/Cindy Lange (formerly of WHA) is an absolutely brilliant teacher. My DD13 grew dramatically as a writer this year. I’d be happy to share a piece of writing from the fall and her final paper if you would like to see a comparison and see what sort of feedback Mrs. Lange offers.

She teaches a very structured process to help students organize their writing. She also really drives home the idea that all statements must be supported by the text. I’m delighted with my DD’s progress this year and I would encourage you to check it out. 

My older girls did TPS English 1-3. I much prefer Mrs. Lange’s instruction and the outcomes she achieves. I think TPS is a bit to heavy in grammar and too formulaic with writing. 

I would just do AG at home and outsource the Lit/writing.

Did you end up writing that review of Lange?   RootAnn recommended Lange to me yesterday and I'm searching for reviews.  I'm new here and don't seem to have the hang of the search feature.  (Yesterday I was searching for "Center for Lit" and nothing came up, but just now I came across it. ) 

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37 minutes ago, Susity said:

Did you end up writing that review of Lange?   RootAnn recommended Lange to me yesterday and I'm searching for reviews.  I'm new here and don't seem to have the hang of the search feature.  (Yesterday I was searching for "Center for Lit" and nothing came up, but just now I came across it. ) 

No, I never did. I’m terrible about that stuff. I’d be happy to answer any questions though. We didn’t continue on with Lange’s classes because I really wanted to do an integrated Great Books approach for high school.  My DD is in GB 1 through CLRC with Mrs. Turscak this year. It is an intense course, but DD’s writing skills were top-notch going into it. I’m shocked by both the quality and quantity of the writing she has produced, and much of the credit is due to Mrs. Lange’s preparation from last year. Her courses are really that good. Hope that helps. Let me know if you have specific questions.

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15 hours ago, fourisenough said:

No, I never did. I’m terrible about that stuff. I’d be happy to answer any questions though. We didn’t continue on with Lange’s classes because I really wanted to do an integrated Great Books approach for high school.  My DD is in GB 1 through CLRC with Mrs. Turscak this year. It is an intense course, but DD’s writing skills were top-notch going into it. I’m shocked by both the quality and quantity of the writing she has produced, and much of the credit is due to Mrs. Lange’s preparation from last year. Her courses are really that good. Hope that helps. Let me know if you have specific questions.

 

15 hours ago, Susity said:

Did you end up writing that review of Lange?   RootAnn recommended Lange to me yesterday and I'm searching for reviews.  I'm new here and don't seem to have the hang of the search feature.  (Yesterday I was searching for "Center for Lit" and nothing came up, but just now I came across it. ) 

For what it’s worth, I agree with the reviews of Mrs Lange/integritas here. 

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