Designing your own curriculum - Language Arts K-5

[lewelma]

So the last thread got a bit unwieldy because there were so many different grades and so many different subjects getting discussed. So I thought it might be a good idea to rotate through subjects and grades.  Seems like youngsters and Language Arts would be a good place to start.  I'm long done with this, but I can ask the questions that I struggled to answer all those years ago.

1) How much should your require? Especially with a child who is resistant?

2) How can you avoid the bitsy approach of LA or do you embrace it?

3) Do you focus on classic literature, modern, or both and why?

4) How do you build confidence and motivation?

These are just ideas for a discussion. You don't have to answer any of these questions! 

Post your own questions if you are in the middle of this. There are lots of people on this board with piles of experience who can help newbies design their own curriculum. 

Ruth in NZ

 

[Little Green Leaves]

My kids are both bookworms so, as long as there are plenty of books in the house, they read on their own. I did have to start assigning my son "reading time" last year because he was getting sidetracked by other projects, but that was an easy fix.

I haven't done much formal spelling or grammar with them -- they spell very well, with the occasional careless mistake. 

This coming year, I'm designing my son's curriculum to be based around history. He'll be in the fourth grade and he's going to do moderns (although, at his request, starting at the French Revolution). I'd like to mostly assign literature fromthe 19th/early 20th century. However, so far I have only English and American authors on my list. I'm just getting started and I'd love suggestions to expand it. I have Robert Louis Stevenson, Emily Dickinson, Walt Whitman, Carl Sandburg, Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston, and others. Any ideas to globalize this list??

What we've generally done is read some literature together as "school" -- which means that it gets read on a schedule and narrated orally or in writing -- and I've given out other books for free reading. Normally we still talk about the free reading books but in a much more casual way.  I guess I do prefer classics. Those are the books that I grew up reading, so it's easier for me to talk about them. I also like books with challenging language that don't hit you over the head with their meaning, so I look for books that fit that bill. Obviously some classics are kind of mediocre and plenty of "modern" books are fantastic.

I want to teach simple outlining and probably note taking this coming year, and do a little bit more writing.

 

[Little Green Leaves]

Just now, square_25 said:

What are your favorite kids' classics? 🙂 We definitely have a mix of classic and modern books around here... as I said upthread, I also have a little bookworm, so if I buy her books, they'll probably get read. 

Off the top of my head...

The Wind in the Willows (I still love reading this one, and the language is beautiful so I recommend it as a read-aloud)

Swiss Family Robinson -- my son just read it and loved it. Lots of animals, make-shift houses, adventures.

the Little House books. I've read the first four, anyway. 

Five Children and It -- I don't know whether this "counts" as a classic but I love it and so did my kids. Really anything by E. Nesbit is a hit here. Also Edward Eager wrote a ton of kids' books which sort of mimic Nesbit's style. Half Magic is a good one.

Robin Hood and the Tales of King Arthur. I know we have the Howard Pyle version of Robin Hood. I can't remember which version of King Arthur we have.

The Secret Garden

The Princess and the Goblin

The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings. Again, not sure these count as classics. The Narnia books too.

 

[lewelma]

11 hours ago, Ordinary Shoes said:

What is the "bitsy approach?"

I always struggled with all the pieces of LA curriculum.  For math I had one workbook to do generally in order.  We just did the next thing.  But for LA we seemed to need to cover handwriting, spelling, grammar, mechanics, writing, literature, poetry tea time, reading skills, etc.  It was just so many different things and for us, and it seemed to take over which was especially hard for my older mathy boy. If each thing took 10 - 20 minutes each, and you really only wanted to do an hour of LA, you just couldn't fit it all in. 

In addition, with my younger boy, he could not understand language arts skills in isolation because of his dysgraphia.  In the end we had to combine it ALL.  At the age of 12, we did dictation, where he worked on his handwriting, phonics skills, spelling, grammar, and punctuation, and because we used literature like the Hobbit for the dictation, we also discussed the author's style and his themes and characterization.  Keeping all these skills separated out for his first 6 years of education taught him nothing as at age 12 he couldn't remember how to form the letters, spell the top 100 words, or punctuate even the most basic sentence. This lack of skill was even after 6 years of handwriting, spelling, and grammar instruction done as separate skills with separate workbooks. It was the silo-ing of individual LA skills that was the complete fail for him. 

So the bitsy approach was a real problem for both of my boys.  But only in hindsight.  I still used it for each of my boys in K-5 when I really should not have. 

Edited June 17, 2020 by lewelma

[lewelma]

I started a thread a number of years ago on how to work through progressively harder fiction.  

 

Wow, looks like it got 179 responses!  I'll have to go back and reread it and see how much I currently agree with. But it might give some people here something to ponder. 

Ruth in NZ

ETA: gulp, going back and reading this is fascinating.  Definitely some stuff in there to argue about. I'm also starting to understand why my older mathy boy is actually quite a humanities kid. I had much less success with this approach with my younger. 

Edited June 16, 2020 by lewelma

[hollyhock2]

I think LA is an area where a lot of people do their own thing, because hardly anyone (that I know of anyway) loves every aspect of a "boxed" LA curriculum. It's a good subject to talk about.

Probably the answers to the questions you posted are very individual, depending on the family and the child, but I will answer for my own family.

When they're young, and especially with boys, I try not to require too much. Reading every day, copywork or narration (alternating days) and some written phonics work (like 2 pages of Explode the Code for example). Once they get to doing formal English or grammar and spelling, then I alternate spelling and English and keep requiring the narration and copywork/dictation. I've never felt the need for anything more than that.

I embrace the "bitsy" approach. I've never liked a single English program enough to use it exclusively for every aspect of LA. I'm not sure there are even many LA programs out there that cover everything in one package. If I use spelling from here and grammar from there and writing from somewhere else, I can tailor it to my kid much more easily.

I've done a mix of classic and modern literature, but probably more classic. One reason for that is because I didn't read many classics as a child, and *I* wanted to read them, plus I find the language of older literature to be more complex. I like that brain stretching. 

[8filltheheart]

2 hours ago, Ordinary Shoes said:

 

#3 - this one has always been a question for me. First, what is "classic" literature at this age? Children's literature is such a modern creation so how could any of it be "classic." (sorry, that's my opinion and I'm sure others disagree) ...

 

I see literature in K-5 as more about learning to read and exposure to good writing and complex vocabulary. Modern books are just as capable of providing that experience,

I'll share my alternative experience. I am not going to use the word classic lit bc I agree that the definition is fuzzy. But good children's lit from the 19th century is going to often contain far more complex vocabulary than modern books. Spend time perusing Journeys Through Bookland and compare it to the vocabulary for the same targeted modern age group. 

I have linked John Branyan's 3 Little Pigs a few times lately bc it so humorously exemplifies our reduced contemporary vocabularies. I like reading great books with complex vocabulary with my kids bc the stories pull them in help build deciphering in context.

 

Edited June 17, 2020 by 8FillTheHeart

[Little Green Leaves]

34 minutes ago, square_25 said:

Yeah, I guess I've never tried the bitsy approach! But I don't do it for math, either. I'm not a very linear person, I think, because I easily keep fairly complicated systems in my head. (Sometimes this backfires -- I wound up making a large-ish mistake in my graduate thesis that I then had to fix, simply because I didn't need to write much down to keep track of a complicated argument... but apparently, I did lose a piece of it along the way ;-).) 

We pretty much do everything all together, whatever our project. So we work on punctuation, spelling, grammar, phrasing in the context of whatever project she does. 

Just my perspective as an immigrant who came to an English-speaking country when I was 11: I've been rereading Dickens recently, and it's been amazing how much MORE I get out of the books than I did when I was a teenager and even than I did 10 years ago. Reading books in which you don't understand a lot of the vocabulary is a real slog... and you don't understand the jokes, either, which spoils a lot of the fun. 

I'm comfortable assigning DD7 a science book with vocabulary that will stretch her, because I think science is supposed to be read slowly, anyway, and because she isn't exactly supposed to enjoy the process of reading it. I don't know if I'd do the same thing with reading she's supposed to enjoy, though. 

On the other hand, this makes me wonder if we should read some more complicated books aloud and talk about the words/sentence structure... hmmm. 

I guess I tend to save the books with trickier language for our family read-alouds, rather than for school work.  Then sometimes when I read out loud, I also explain as I go. I don't necessarily define individual words, unless the kids ask, but I sort of give a running overview of what's going on in the story.

I do this if I feel like the kids are getting confused, or if I've just read what might be  a tricky passage. Or sometimes I do this just whenever, because I don't want them to get overwhelmed and turned off by the language. That way they hear and absorb the language but they also know what's going on in the plot : )

[Little Green Leaves]

6 minutes ago, square_25 said:

Yeah, I should do that more :-). DD7 is a bit allergic to me reading out loud to her, but now that two of them are listening, maybe we can do this more. 

Yeah, it's a lot easier reading to two kids in some ways. Sometimes my 8 year old says he is "too busy" to listen but I can see him pricking up his ears as I read to his sister. 

[Little Green Leaves]

33 minutes ago, Ordinary Shoes said:

I agree about the vocabulary. We have Journeys to Bookland too. 

I guess my main beef is with the idea of "classics" when discussing children's literature. We should not confuse old with "classic." I remember a friend forcing her son to read Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm because it was a "classic." It's definitely not a "classic." 

ETA I think there is a lot of snobbery about "classic" children's books. There are many excellent modern children's novels that are very sophisticated but still very interesting to modern children. The Mysterious Benedict Society series comes to mind. The Ramona books are not sophisticated at all but Ramona is one of the most realistic child characters ever written, in my opinion. Many children's books, especially older books, don't really get into the heads of the child characters. 

Ramona is so cool. I recently read the kids Henry Huggins and his clubhouse and we were helpless with laughter every time Ramona came in. Also she reminds me so much of my daughter : )

Anyway there probably is snobbery about classic books, but I think it's also that people don't know as much about new books. I don't. I know the books that I read myself, mostly. I don't know the Mysterious Benedict Society but I'll check it out. Which other books do you recommend?

[Little Green Leaves]

4 minutes ago, Ordinary Shoes said:

What ages are your kids? 

We liked the Penderwicks series and the Ashton Place series. We all loved Sweep, A Girl and Her Monster. We listened to it on Audible last summer and even my DH was entranced by it. 

 

Thank you! The kids are 6 and 8. We read the first book in the Penderwicks series last year and liked it, but some of it was way over their heads -- I remember there was a whole plot about one of the girls having a crush on an older boy for example. I love the title of "Sweep, A Girl and Her Monster" ! I'll look for it.

[8filltheheart]

10 hours ago, Ordinary Shoes said:

I agree about the vocabulary. We have Journeys to Bookland too. 

I guess my main beef is with the idea of "classics" when discussing children's literature. We should not confuse old with "classic." I remember a friend forcing her son to read Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm because it was a "classic." It's definitely not a "classic." 

ETA I think there is a lot of snobbery about "classic" children's books. There are many excellent modern children's novels that are very sophisticated but still very interesting to modern children. The Mysterious Benedict Society series comes to mind. The Ramona books are not sophisticated at all but Ramona is one of the most realistic child characters ever written, in my opinion. Many children's books, especially older books, don't really get into the heads of the child characters. 

I agree with the bolded completely, but I do think different types of books serve our children in different ways.  We hare huge Mysterious Benedict Society fans (actually, dd liked The Secret Keepers even more).  Reading the original Little Mermaid or Snow Queen, for example, is a different experience.  It does require more mental energy to read those types of stories, not just bc of the vocabulary, but the sentence structures also tend to be more complex.   The background imagery is often more developed or foreign, as well, requiring them to mentally create unfamiliar images or expand their vocabulary. (We have been reading Tom, the Water Baby with the computer nearby so that we can look up words as we go along.  Lots of nature that we don't know, jobs she is unfamiliar with, etc. )  Both she and my college sr take what they read and it integrates itself into their vocabulary and writing.  (Hasn't been quite as true with my other kids, but these two have experienced expanded growth in how they process things by what they have read.)

ETA: (and I fully agree that not all books are equal in any time period!  Henty's books are old and on all sorts of reading lists.  Blech.  Not a fan!)

Edited June 17, 2020 by 8FillTheHeart

[Little Green Leaves]

8 hours ago, Ordinary Shoes said:

I'm reading through the linked thread about working towards more challenging works. Thanks for linking. Very interesting. However, the titles reminded me one of other concerns about sticking to the "classics," whatever that means. So many older children's books are about boys. I see Tom Swayer mentioned which is a book I've considered for the 5th grade. We're studying American geography next year and what would be more perfect than Tom Swayer during our Midwestern block? But any book with similar things and a female protagonist will be a modern book. I considered Little Women for next year. It's about girls but I think it's more fitting for older girls because about girls finding their way as they become women. 

What's the equivalent of Tom Sawyer with a female protagonist? Little House on the Prairie or Anne of Green Gables? The Little Princess or the Secret Garden? Perhaps I'm guilty of diminishing those books in comparison to a Mark Twain novel because they were written by women for girls? 

But getting back to the topic, I don't like using children's literature as the basis for our LA work. As I think about the 5th grade, I'm leaning towards assigning content based non-fiction and allowing DD to choose fiction in collaboration with me. 

This really made me think. There are so many great novels written by women but they are mostly about adult women, or women on the verge of adulthood. They deal with themes that kids probably aren't ready for. There are also plenty books by women about girls, but those are really thought of as kids' books. They don't cross over into adult literature the way Huckleberry Finn or Oliver Twist or David Copperfield do.

I think Little Women is an exception. I remember first reading it when I was around ten; I probably didn't understand everything, but I really loved it. There's a lot in there to hold a kid's interest, what with all the plays and games and bickering. Actually Louisa May Alcott also wrote short stories, so maybe that would be a good starting place too. And she was very critical of Mark Twain. If you do end up reading Tom Sawyer, it could be interesting to read an excerpt from Alcott's critique (she thought Twain was a bad influence on kids).

I think Carson McCullers is another exception. I wouldn't give her to an elementary school kid, and I'd have to reread before I gave it to a teenager either, but I think she is amazing at portraying pre-teen or early-teen girls. I'm thinking of The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter and Member of the Wedding.

 And now I want to re-read Anne of Green Gables and think about other "girls'" writers.

Edited June 17, 2020 by Little Green Leaves

[8filltheheart]

10 hours ago, square_25 said:

So, I finally watched that video -- I really don't know that I believe that the average working vocabulary of a person in the 1800s was bigger than the average working vocabulary of a person nowadays. Why do we believe that? Is there evidence for that? It's almost certainly false if you average over the whole population, because there were many, many more barely literate people, but I don't even know if we have evidence for that if we just restrict our attention to the British aristocracy... 

I'm happy enough to be proven wrong, but I don't think we can judge by the written word -- more flowery writing styles have become less popular, but I'm not sure whether that means anything in particular. 

I definitely agree it is false if you consider the avg population.  But, I want my kids to have a broad vocabulary.  🙂 When they read Dracula, they don't have to pause to think what "countenance" is bc they have encountered it so many times as children that they know. (That word sticks out to me bc of a conversation one day between my older kids with my youngest.)To me that is an advantage of reading books that aren't centered around modern vocabulary..  They can progress to simply reading whatever books or watch Shakespeare's plays without drowning in the unknown vocabulary.  The way the standardized tests used to be written (not so much today with the shift toward non-fiction focus), broad vocabulary was a filter, so obviously the avg high school graduate's vocabulary is quite variable.

Edited June 17, 2020 by 8FillTheHeart

[8filltheheart]

9 minutes ago, Little Green Leaves said:

And now I want to re-read Anne of Green Gables and think about other "girls'" writers.

My college sr and I did an Anne of Green Gables study when she was in 7th grade.  It is by far one of my favorite literature courses I have ever taught.  We spent the yr following all of the works that Anne alludes to or talks about studying herself.  (So much wonderful literature) While AGG might not delve deeply into Anne's psyche, it is a good book for analyzing literary techniques like foil (Diana is definitely Anne's foil) and historical events (like orphan trains). 

My dd absolutely fell in love with epic poetry that yr.  In hindsight, it is probably the yr that languages and literature became her passion that have determined her adult path.  (She is starting an accelerated masters in library science and information systems this yr with her degrees in Russian and French.) 

[Little Green Leaves]

19 minutes ago, 8FillTheHeart said:

My college sr and I did an Anne of Green Gables study when she was in 7th grade.  It is by far one of my favorite literature courses I have ever taught.  We spent the yr following all of the works that Anne alludes to or talks about studying herself.  (So much wonderful literature) While AGG might not delve deeply into Anne's psyche, it is a good book for analyzing literary techniques like foil (Diana is definitely Anne's foil) and historical events (like orphan trains). 

My dd absolutely fell in love with epic poetry that yr.  In hindsight, it is probably the yr that languages and literature became her passion that have determined her adult path.  (She is starting an accelerated masters in library science and information systems this yr with her degrees in Russian and French.) 

I dimly remember a scene where Anne drifts down the river on a raft because she's pretending to be the Lady of the Lake. That sounds like a great course!

[Sarah0000]

53 minutes ago, 8FillTheHeart said:

My college sr and I did an Anne of Green Gables study when she was in 7th grade.  It is by far one of my favorite literature courses I have ever taught.  We spent the yr following all of the works that Anne alludes to or talks about studying herself.  (So much wonderful literature) While AGG might not delve deeply into Anne's psyche, it is a good book for analyzing literary techniques like foil (Diana is definitely Anne's foil) and historical events (like orphan trains). 

My dd absolutely fell in love with epic poetry that yr.  In hindsight, it is probably the yr that languages and literature became her passion that have determined her adult path.  (She is starting an accelerated masters in library science and information systems this yr with her degrees in Russian and French.) 

I love Anne of Green Gables!

I have three boys. I hope I can get them into those books someday.

[8filltheheart]

1 hour ago, Ordinary Shoes said:

. But why rush to those books? 

I guess my question is who is rushing to those books? Prepackaged programs?  Individuals designing their own?  And what are they rushing to?  I agree that I wouldn't have my 5th grader read Little Women (honestly, I have never required any of my kids to read Little Women; some have read it for pleasure; some haven't.)  But there are wonderful "old" stories that are accessible to younger kids that I wouldn't want to skip.  Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tales are definitely accessible to younger kids.  George MacDonald's stories are some of my girls' all time favorites (The Light Princess, Princess and the Goblin/Princess and Curdie). We also read aloud a lot.  Bedtime stories are different types of lit from school or daytime read alouds. 

You don't need anyone else's list or guidelines.  You just need to decide what you want to do and make your own decisions that you can be happy with.  There are so many titles and limited time.  You can't read everything.  That is just a reality.

 

[Momto6inIN]

#1 - I've never had a resistant child so far *knocks on wood*, although I've had varying degrees of enthusiasm lol! I usually err on the side of requiring less rather than more in the early years as far as output goes. Phonics until they read fluently and finish AAR4. And then reading aloud to me from something each day after that. In 5th they usually don't read out loud to me anymore and read to themselves exclusively, but before that it's a combination of them reading to themselves and to me. 1 sentence of copywork and 1 page of handwriting practice is the only writing I require until 3rd grade. DD8 has been writing her own "books" for a little over a year, but next year in 3rd grade will be her first formal composition lessons. I start spelling after they are reading CVC words well, usually in 1st. We do some light, gentle grammar in early elementary, but nothing taxing before 6th grade. We do a little bit of vocabulary work starting in 4th or so, mostly because I want them to practice doing some independent work at that age and a vocabulary workbook is an easy thing to start with, not really because I think they "need" a vocab program at that age.

#2 - Reading over my answer to #1, we do it piecemeal in bits. But none of the bits except reading take very much time, so it doesn't feel burdensome at all. We definitely don't spend more than an hour total on language arts each day, even in 5th (other than reading to themselves, of course).

#3 - We like classics and modern both, to varying degrees with each kid. Some "classics" are boring and some modern stuff is "twaddle". Some of the books on their reading lists are sentimental favorites from my childhood that I just really want to share with them. Some are historical fiction to supplement their history studies. Some are retellings of classics. Some are just for fun.

#4 - To me, the thing that builds the most confidence and motivation is simply enjoying good books together and building a family culture around sharing stories. I started reading chapter books aloud to my kids when the oldest three were 5 and 3 and 1, and now that they are 20 and 18 and 16 they still like to listen to me read 🙂 They read to themselves at their current level, and I read aloud above their level, and we read, read, read. And then we talk, talk, talk about the stories we just read. We laugh at the funny parts and cry at the sad parts and the stories become a part of our family culture and the younger ones just soak it in along with the older ones and reading and language become a part of how we interact. And so reading and writing become something to be excited about being able to do, not a chore.

[lewelma]

5 minutes ago, Momto6inIN said:

now that they are 20 and 18 and 16 they still like to listen to me read 🙂 

Mine too!  DH is currently reading The Aeneid to my younger (16) and Infinite Jest to younger and older (19).  One book is very old and one is very modern.  🙂  And now my younger has started reading out loud to my dh, he started with Oliver Twist so he could do the accents.  So there is just a whole heck ton of reading together that happens in this family.

[lewelma]

I will say looking back at my reading thread from when my children were little, we definitely focused on classics, and we ramped it up *fast* to get into a larger selection of options. However, when my older started high school he definitely didn't do all classics. He read an entire year of post-modern novels and award winners -- The Luminaries, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, House of Leaves, Roadside Picnic, If on a Winters Night a Traveler, Wolf Hall, etc.  These are modern books that are complex and often innovative. He could only get up to those because we built up his level every year with easy classics with complex vocabulary and language structure.    

As for 'saving up' books, I would just have my kids reread books when they were older so that they would understand more of the nuance.  My younger read Watership Down about 10 times. You get something new out of a novel every time your read it.  He has currently reread Pride and Prejudice 3 times and The Enchanted Forest Chronicles 7 times (currently his favorite books).  The Enchanted Forest Chronicles are modern and don't have complex vocabulary, but because they are subversive, the critique and irony are quite advanced. 

As for finding appropriate books, my problem is not with finding books about girls, my problem is finding funny books or books with happy endings. My younger won't read depressing books as they are really not good for his mental health, so as you move up in literature, it becomes harder and harder to find good books that don't deal with horrible topics.  He is fine with Oliver Twist, because of the sarcasm even though the topic is depressing, and the Aeneid is exciting and doesn't deal with darker themes. For his senior English year, he is reading all of Austen and some Bronte, as they are uplifting.  All about rich women finding husbands which obviously he doesn't connect to, but they are what he wants to read because of the humor. His senior English research paper is about conformity in these books, so he connected to their themes but not to their plot or characters. So I hear you about the struggle to find appropriate books, but perhaps you focus not on finding books about girls, but finding books on topics/themes they would like.  

Edited June 17, 2020 by lewelma

[lewelma]

7 hours ago, 8FillTheHeart said:

I definitely agree it is false if you consider the avg population.  But, I want my kids to have a broad vocabulary.  🙂 When they read Dracula, they don't have to pause to think what "countenance" is bc they have encountered it so many times as children that they know. (That word sticks out to me bc of a conversation one day between my older kids with my youngest.)To me that is an advantage of reading books that aren't centered around modern vocabulary..  They can progress to simply reading whatever books or watch Shakespeare's plays without drowning in the unknown vocabulary.  The way the standardized tests used to be written (not so much today with the shift toward non-fiction focus), broad vocabulary was a filter, so obviously the avg high school graduate's vocabulary is quite variable.

This. To be able to enjoy adult literature (both classic and modern) you need to be so comfortable with advanced vocabulary and sentence structure, that they feel natural.  Only then can you actually enjoy the books rather than reading them for 'school.'  

[lewelma]

I also want to suggest to people that you can get creative.  My younger right now prefers to read his more advanced books out loud.  If he does not have an audience, he will just read out loud to himself.  🙂 

[8filltheheart]

23 minutes ago, lewelma said:

I also want to suggest to people that you can get creative.  My younger right now prefers to read his more advanced books out loud.  If he does not have an audience, he will just read out loud to himself.  🙂 

My rising 9th grader and I are reading the Silmarillion outloud together. All of the geography and names combined with sentence structures and vocabulary are too much for her to handle on her own. We stop to discuss constantly who the characters are, where they are, and what is happening. It is slow going, but we are having some great conversations about how these stories fit into what she knows about Middle Earth.

Edited June 17, 2020 by 8FillTheHeart

[Lori D.]

I did not create from scratch, if that is what is meant by designing our LA. I am very good at combining excerpts from multiple resources, or tweaking and re-tooling an existing program to fit our particular needs.

Part of that is because there just weren't so many curricula choices when we were doing elementary grades (roughly the years 2000-2005 for us). Also partly because I just can NOT do a program as written, but am always adapting and excerpting to best fit us. And partly because DS#2 had mild LDs, especially in Writing, Spelling, and Math, and was a delayed reader (probably Stealth Dyslexia), and even as an adult he tends to default to guessing about an unfamiliar multi-syllable name or word, rather than stop and sound it out -- and since there weren't many special needs programs out there at that time, I just had to research, research, research and do the best I could.

My approach to LA in the elementary grades was influenced by some of Ruth Beechick's ideas. A few of her main points include:
- tutor each child individually (move at the child's pace; "teach the child, not the book")
- curriculum is a tool, not a tyrant
- homeschool yourself ("we cannot teach what we do not know")

And then the major specific "technique" that I took away from Ruth Beechick is the idea of combining language learning -- reading, then doing a dictation passage out of the reading, looking at sentence structure and grammatical topics in the passage, working with specific words/homophones in support of spelling, etc. For several years, I had the Sonlight LA guides (the editions that were printed in 2001-2005) and would use their worksheets as a springboard for then discussing writing and grammar topics; for a number of more years I made my own versions of these each week. The point was not a worksheet to fill out (because we were doing these orally 😉 ), but a springboard for working with language and seeing how sentences were put together, and discussing various writing/grammar/spelling topics.

So a more integrated approach to teaching LA, using a variety of materials put together "quilt block" style to fit us.  -- which I would go with again, no problems, if it was what best fit the student. If nothing else, by using parts of so many resources, *I* learned a ton about how to teach my unique students and about teaching methods and approaches.


My approach for our somewhat-DIY approach to LA in the elementary grades... right after the end of a school year, I would begin planning/researching and putting together the following year:

1. I  jotted down what I saw as the 7 areas of LA to cover.
For me, I saw that as: Reading; Writing (composition); Handwriting (penmanship); Phonics (in conjunction with Reading and Spelling); Spelling; Grammar; Vocabulary. Obviously, not all 7 topics were needed for each year of elementary -- while Handwriting and Phonics would be needed in the K-2nd range, they are not usually needed in the late elementary grades, while formal studies of Grammar and even Spelling aren't usually needed in the early elementary grades, or until the student is ready.

2. I prayerfully and thoughtfully considered each of the 7 areas for each DS:
- where they were weak or what we were missing
- what specific skills or content needed to be the focus for each subject area for the next year
- what materials we had, and if they would work or not for each DS
- what new materials we needed

3. From the answers to the questions in #2, I made a short list of LA goals and needs for the following year, and then I researched a ton to find what resources I felt would be the best fit to fill my goals and DSs' needs.

Our overall guiding goals for homeschooling remained the same throughout our 12 years of homeschooling:
1. Learn to read well (and then read widely) -- so they could teach themselves anything.
2. Learn to think well -- so they could live well (i.e., see potential consequences to choices; weigh options in life; intelligently evaluate the words, thoughts, arguments, manipulations of others, etc.)
3. Learn to live well -- by encouraging and helping them build a solid foundation in their spiritual faith and relationship with the Lord.
 

Here is a general overview of LA goals (elementary AND up through middle school/high school) from our homeschooling:

grades K-1
- Reading (phonics, learn to read program; progresses to simple readers - student reads aloud to parent)
- Read Alouds (parent reads aloud/audio books, from quality books above student's reading level)
- Handwriting (penmanship/copywork; learning to print letters of the alphabet, and numbers)
- Phonics (in support of Reading)
- Spelling ----
- Writing ----
- Grammar -----
- Vocabulary -- nothing formal; just explained words in context of read-alouds

grades 1-2
- Reading
   * student reads quality books at grade level, some independently, some as "buddy style" -- you read a page, I read a page"
   * read alouds (as above)
   * optional: solo read (10-20 min., "book basket" choices to aid fluency and/or support other subjects)
   * always available: Free Read (books, magazines, etc. of personal interest to student available to freely choose/not as an activity)
- Handwriting (Penmanship)/ Copywork -- manuscript / printing instruction and practice
- Phonics (in support of Reading and Spelling)
- Spelling (basic phonics patterns)
- Writing ---- nothing formal; keeping it fun/short
- Grammar ----- nothing formal; beginning Ruth Beechick-style language explorations of a paragraph
- Vocabulary -- nothing formal; just explained words in context of read-alouds

grades 3-4
- Reading (build reading confidence, practice for fluency and stamina, begin to read for content subjects)
   * student reads quality books at grade level, some independently, some "buddy style"
   * read alouds (as above) 
   * optional: solo read (20-30 min., as above)
   * always available: Free Read (as above)
- Handwriting -- cursive instruction and practice)
- Writing -- sentences; key word outline and building a basic paragraph; variety of types of writing
- Grammar -- parts of speech, grammar mechanics (capitalization, punctuation, etc.); ; Ruth Beechick-style language explorations of a paragraph
- Spelling -- phonics patterns, word families, compounds, prefixes, suffixes, word endings
- Vocabulary -- roots-based; and, learning from context of read-alouds

grades 5-6
- Reading (as above)
   * student reads (as above)
   * read alouds (as above) 
   * optional: solo read (30-45 min., as above)
   * always available: Free Read (as above)
- Typing -- when Handwriting practice no longer needed
- Writing -- beginning paragraphs; variety of types of writing and assignments
- Grammar -- parsing (rather than diagramming) for sentence structure & construction; grammar usage topics; proof-editing practice;  Ruth Beechick-style language explorations of a paragraph
- Spelling -- multi-syllable words, tricky words, foreign words, etc.- Vocabulary -- roots-based; and, learning from context of read-alouds
- Vocabulary -- roots-based; and, learning from context of read-alouds

grades 7-8
- Literature -- beginning to read some classics with beginning, gentle literary terms and analysis
- Read alouds, solo reading, free reading (as above) 
- Writing -- introduce essay structure; beginning 1-6 paragraph essays; variety of types of writing
- Grammar -- diagramming, types of sentences, more complex sentence structures, grammar usage topics and proof-editing practice
- Spelling -- switched to individualized DIY using ABCs and All Their Tricks, and combined with Vocabulary
- Vocabulary -- higher reading level words from the literature + combined with Spelling

grades 9-12 = LA becomes the English credit
- Literature -- read, discuss, analyze, write about classics & meaty works — novels,  novellas short stories, poetry, essays, plays
- Read Aloud -- some Lit together; do "reader's theater" of classic plays; share enjoyable or important books or books to encourage/challenge personal faith, or books just for fun
- Writing -- reader responses; multi-paragraph/page essays, timed essays from prompts, research papers with citations, business/real-life writing, presentations with slideshow, etc.
- Public Speaking -- a 1-semester course; but all through high school for Youth & Gov't participation:  research, write, prepare, give different types of oral presentations to a group
- Grammar -- light review of concepts, and in support of strengthening writing and proof-editing of writing
- Spelling -- (as above)
- Vocabulary -- (as above)

[Ellie]

On 6/16/2020 at 3:33 PM, lewelma said:

So the last thread got a bit unwieldy because there were so many different grades and so many different subjects getting discussed. So I thought it might be a good idea to rotate through subjects and grades.  Seems like youngsters and Language Arts would be a good place to start.  I'm long done with this, but I can ask the questions that I struggled to answer all those years ago.

1) How much should your require? Especially with a child who is resistant?

2) How can you avoid the bitsy approach of LA or do you embrace it?

3) Do you focus on classic literature, modern, or both and why?

4) How do you build confidence and motivation?

These are just ideas for a discussion. You don't have to answer any of these questions! 

Post your own questions if you are in the middle of this. There are lots of people on this board with piles of experience who can help newbies design their own curriculum. 

Ruth in NZ

 

"Language arts" includes phonics instruction, reading/literature, penmanship, spelling/vocabulary, grammar, composition.

I didn't *require* anything; to me, that implies my giving assignments just like school and expecting the children to do them just like school, and that isn't how I work. Older dd already knew how to read when I brought her home; I had to teach younger dd, and my method of choice was Spalding. We did Spalding for about six weeks when she was five-ish, six weeks when she was six-ish, six weeks when she was seven-ish...Once we went through Rod and Staff Publishers' "Unit O," which is true phonics. She was the world's most independent child, and Spalding is the least independent method there is. 🙂 She picked up on her own when she was nine and a half.  Older dd did some Rod and Staff English, and a few lessons of something else--I can't remember the name; younger dd did Easy Grammar when she was 11. We just read things. They just read things. Both dds began attending community college when they were 14, and both tested into college English. Older dd has a BA in English Lit. I think we did ok.

[Lori D.]

 

On 6/16/2020 at 1:33 PM, lewelma said:

) How much should your require? Especially with a child who is resistant?
2) How can you avoid the bitsy approach of LA or do you embrace it?
3) Do you focus on classic literature, modern, or both and why?
4) How do you build confidence and motivation?

1. How much should you require, esp. with a resistant child... Totally going to depend on the child and the age.
Even limiting this discussion to elementary grades (1-5), there is a huge difference in maturity and ability from early elementary ages to late elementary ages. However, I DID have a resistant child (combo of mild LD + strong-willed/hated anything to do with school), so what worked for him in early elementary grades was small "bites" of things requiring handwriting, interspersed with physical activity or non-writing subjects. As he matured, he had more endurance for longer sessions before a break. We also did a lot aloud together (all subjects), which helped reduce resistance, or at least frustration -- and helped keep him on-task so he could get done sooner.


2. "Bitsy" or integrated LA? We did a combo of "bits" and "integrated" LA.
Ruth: from what you have share, I think your DSs needed the integrated approach very strongly. And what a fantastic job you've done by seeing their need and tutoring their LA education accordingly! Our DSs profited from integrated approach, but also profited from supplement "bits". All through elementary years, we did Ruth Beechick-style discussion of a paragraph out of the read aloud or out of the child's assigned literature. And the handwriting (penmanship) practice came from their readers, or other fun sources (one year I did all riddles and kids limericks 😄 ).  But, we also used programs to support and supplement LA learning. Examples of programs or excerpts of programs used in the elementary grades:

- phonics (gr. 1-2) = Explode the Code workbooks + Happy Phonics (games/activities)
- spelling (gr. 5+) = individualized, based on ABCs and All Their Tricks + additional 1-on-1 work with DS#2 with LDs
- Word Skills workbook (gr. 3-5) = prefixes, suffixes, word endings, compound words, possessives, contractions, alphabetizing
- Writing = Wordsmith Apprentice (gr. 5 for DS#1, gr. 7 for DS#2) + many supplements
- proof-editing practice (gr. 4-8) = various resources with pre-made paragraphs with errors of various types for practice
- grammar (3-8) = Winston + many supplements of various types
- vocabulary (gr. 3-5) = English From the Roots

3. Older or newer literature or both? We did both older and newer literature, because that best helped me achieve my several goals for literature study:
- appreciation of beautiful, powerful, creative language 
- wrestle with "big ideas" (which tends to be more often found, at least in more depth, in well-written works)
- exposure to a range of cultures and viewpoints
- exposure to works that are part of a common cultural knowledge and are referenced in older lit. & art as well as in today's culture/art/film/the news/politics...

I read aloud to DSs since they were babies -- usually 2 hours a day (in multiple short stretches) up into the late elementary grades -- and we still did read-alouds all the way into college. Hearing read-alouds was probably the most powerful LA "technique" we used, as DSs unconsciously internalized vocabulary, grammatical structure, and the rhythms of language. Older works provided complexity of sentence structure and wider vocabulary, as well as topics for discussion. Newer works provided variety of culture, diverse viewpoints, as well as discussion topics. Reading both older and newer works allowed for richer comparisons, seeing different "takes" on similar topics, from different times/cultures.

I see a shift in a lot of children's literature written after the 1960s, but especially after the mid-1990s -- an overall loss of richness of language and depth of character, in order to emphasize fast-paced plots, twists, and creative world-building elements. The overall mood of children's literature has shifted as well, from often a lot of humor and "care-free" characters, to darker worlds where bad things happen to characters who are often orphans or abused. On the other hand, newer children's literature is being written by a much wider range of "voices" from a much wider range of cultures and perspectives, rather than 19th century upper class white British, or mid-20th century American white middle-class perspectives. I personally think both older and newer works are incredibly important, so that's why we did both.

We did enjoy a number of YA books, which is an even newer genre -- starting in the late 1960s, in the form we think of it today. I have found that well-written YA books can be a great bridge between children's literature and high school/adult level literature. Lots of interesting topics and perspectives, so lots to discuss. Just noting that YA books do not have the richness of language, and the depth of ideas that older works have.

We tended to save older, adult works (like Dickens or Chaucer or Hemingway or Austen or Hurston) for high school, when DSs had the tools and a bit more experience under their belts for appreciating the works. On the other hand, we did do tons of read-alouds of older works that were accessible to DSs all through elementary grades, which helped prepare them for tackling the older adult works in high school -- things like Alice in Wonderland; works by George MacDonald; works by JRR Tolkien; etc.

And, like 8FillTheHeart mentioned upthread -- reading selections from older children's anthologies can be an easy way to sprinkle in these older works -- many of which are part of that "common cultural knowledge". I found the Core Knowledge (What Your ____ Grader Needs to Know) series to be helpful. The books are for grades K-6; we had grades 2-6, and found the literature selections good, esp. exposure to poetry and common adages/sayings, but also a reminder of other "classic" children's books for cultural literacy.

8FillTheHeart mentioned Journey Through Bookland; here are a few others that are very worthwhile:
- Collier's Junior Classics: The Young Folks' Shelf of Books (10 volumes)
- The Children's Hour (16 volumes)
- My Bookhouse (12 volumes) -- 1950s or 1970s edition
- Journeys Through Bookland (10 volumes) -- most are also available to read free online through Gutenberg (vol. 2, vol. 3, vol. 4, vol. 5, vol. 6, vol. 7, vol. 8, vol. 10)

Here are some past threads for sorting through what's in the different anthologies:
- "Anthologies: The Children's Hour vs. Young Folks' Library vs. ?"
- "My Bookhouse vs. Journeys Through Bookland -- compare"
- "Which edition of My Bookhouse do you recommend?"
- "What vintage reference anthology type of sets do you recommend"

And these past threads with ideas on using the various anthologies:
- "How to use "My Book House Set"?"
- "Junior Classics anthology -- what now?"
- "Journeys Through Bookland" -- 1st thread
- "Just wanted to share again how much I really like Journeys Through Bookland"  -- follow-up thread

Just a quick side note -- upthread, there was an expression of frustration about lack of female child/teen protagonists in older literature (I assume that means pre-20th century?), but overall, children's literature as we know it in its more modern form didn't really emerge until along about the 1850s/1860s with things like Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (note: a female child protagonist! 😉 ). There actually aren't a ton of boy child/teen protagonists in older literature, either -- Oliver Twist, Tom Sawyer, and Huck Finn are the only boy protagonists I can think of off-hand. Most other older literature that is used in middle/high school literature tends to be about adults. Which is one reason I like to mix some meaty and discussion-able YA works into the mix. 😉 


4. How do you build confidence and motivation... wow, I think there's only so much the PARENT can do with a resistant child.
I guess in thinking about my resistant child with LDs. Seriously, motivation was NOT something I could imbue -- he was determined to hate school and anything that seemed like it might be academic. I just kept looking for resources that would work for him, or that I could adapt to work for him -- using materials that were NOT a fit was extremely frustrating to him and made him feel stupid, while using what DID work for him helped him to progress (don't know as though I'd say it gave him confidence and/or motivation). Also, me continuing to have a positive attitude (despite his meltdowns and rages), to let him know I would not give up on trying to partner with him and keep working to find what worked for *him* helped him to keep moving forward. In the early elementary grades, games and fun hands-on activities, educational videos, field trips, etc. seemed to allow learning to seep in rather painlessly, lol. I think eventually all of that, plus his brain finally starting to *click* in his struggle areas along about age 12-14, helped a lot. Again, that's where I think all those years of consistent Read-Alouds provided an amazing foundation for him.

Also, as in question #1, short sessions + short breaks, doing a lot aloud or on the whiteboard (rather than writing out on paper), doing a lot together, doing school more as a mentoring/discussing and 1-on-1 activity rather than me "teaching" or handing off and expecting him to do work solo (even into the early high school grades), all seemed to help us have more success. I don't know if that is what you mean by confidence and motivation...

Edited June 18, 2020 by Lori D.

[8filltheheart]

I really like the Collier Jr Classics, too. 

[lewelma]

9 minutes ago, square_25 said:

 they were both done by age 4. 

I learned phonics at 35 when I had to learn it to teach it to my older.  🙂 

[lewelma]

50 minutes ago, square_25 said:

Yeah, I remember you learned to read by 12! 

Do you ever wonder if your younger boy's dysgraphia is related to that fact at all? 

Oh yes!  But in addition, my dh could not write as a kid.  His very conservative mom actually sent him to secretarial night school in the late 80s when he was 14 to learn to type.  He was with a class of 30 older women.  But he could spell, so all he needed to do was learn to type and then he was fine to write.  Me, I could not spell or read, but I could physically write. So once I could read at 12, I could write within a year or 2 with just poor spelling and punctuation. 

So my poor ds got the worst from both of us, the inability to physically write from dh and the inability to understand how language goes together from me. This is why it has been so much harder for him than either of us.  At 12, he could not form letters, spell the top 100 words, punctuate anything, understand grammar, or structure paragraphs.  Not a good starting point heading into highschool.   

[lewelma]

I actually remember talking to my dh when I was 35 reading up on phonics and saying "did you know that the oa makes the O sound in boat and coat?"  He was like "um, duh." But to me this was a revelation. Every single piece of phonics that I learned that year was new and exciting. Even with a PhD which meant a heck ton of reading, I had never noticed that combinations of letter consistently made certain sounds.  Clearly, my mind just wasn't structured for this kind of thing.

[lewelma]

9 minutes ago, square_25 said:

I have weird vestiges of Russian in my phonics... like, in Russian, an O makes a sort of “aw” sound, and it did NOT compute to me that in English, the short O sound is an “ah,” even though I’ve obviously been saying words like “long” right the whole time! (I did have trouble sounding out new words with a short O, come to think of it.) So I really only learned this when teaching DD7...

My mom had me take 6 years of latin hoping it would help my spelling.  But I couldn't spell the latin words either.  🙂 

My younger ds tried to make fun of me for never having read the Aeneid (his dad is currently reading it to him).  And I could say, "actually ds, I *translated* the Aeneid."  So there. 

[Lori D.]

I hope @8FillTheHeart won't mind me reposting these 2 posts of hers from a past thread ("Bringing Karen's mention of essay writing to a new thread") -- but since it was posted so long ago (9 years), and since she so nicely lays out how she goes about teaching elementary age Writing within the overall context of Language Arts, that I thought it would be appropriate to give this a "re-play". Below the line is 8's process of teaching writing through the elementary years and into the middle school years. In re-reading this, I realize how similar my approach with my DSs. 😄 
 
____________________________________________

Pre-independent writing skills: 
At some point after my kids are reading confidently and are ready to move beyond copying simple sentences for letter practice, I start using their copywork as a teaching tool. The key here is that the children don’t have to focus on sounding out words or on letter formation. If they have not mastered those 2 skills, they need to work on those before you progress. My approach is that it is expecting too much for children to learn anything from reading/writing until they no longer have to focus on the reading itself.

I begin by selecting copywork that is very basic and we focus on mechanics (capitalization, punctuation) and grammar. Then we play with the structure of the copywork. For example: The dog ran.

I teach subject, verb, as well as capitalization and punctuation. Then we spend time coming up with parallel sentence structures and identify the parts of speech.
The baby crawled.
The cat climbed.
The pig snorted.

Once that concept is mastered, I add in another part of speech for focus….adjectives or adverbs, for example. (I don’t have any set pattern….basically, it is whatever I am in the mood for. 😄
The baby crawled quickly.
The cat climbed high.
The pig snorted loudly.

After mastery, I add other parts of speech. (I do not use the same base sentences with my kids. I am only doing that for the sake of illustrating my point. I don’t want them to learn the parts of speech from memorization, but from context.) 
The chunky baby crawled quickly. (I would not use that as an example unless they were struggling and we needed to go back for a refresher. I would actually use a unique sentence…..The rambunctious child twirled rapidly.)

I continue this process adding more and more parts of speech: possessives, direct objects, indirect objects, and pronouns.
Julie’s baby wanted more food. 
Henry threw the Frisbee.
Henry threw Jack the Frisbee.
He threw him the Frisbee.

I work with them to come up with about 10-15 similarly structured sentences.

We work on this for about 10-15 minutes a day until they master the concept. Some concepts they master quickly (subject + action verb). They may do it in a day or a week. Some may take longer. Just work where they are. 

After they have conquered the basic parts of speech, I assign copywork from their reading, our read alouds, or some other source. We take these sentences (eventually progressing to paragraphs) and study them. I ask them to identify all the nouns, verbs, etc. Can they identify the function of the nouns? Some they will already know (subject, DO, etc….some they won’t: appositives, complements, obj. of prep. etc) We don’t worry about the words they haven’t studied yet. We just focus on the ones they do. Gradually we start incorporating more and more complex grammar.

For example, this was my 2nd graders copywork today: (From the Family Under the Bridge….. 
Nikki raced down the narrow streets and shouted insults at pedestrians and cars that got in his way. His own car sputtered and rattled and clanked as if it would fall apart any moment. But it didn’t.

My daughter had no trouble identifying any of the parts of speech except for that and as if. Learning them in the context of their work makes grammar, mechanics, and writing all connected and not isolated concepts that don’t have intertwined applications.
 

Paragraphs for copywork:
We start analyzing paragraph structure from copywork in the same way we began our study of grammar. We discuss what the paragraph is describing. What is the main idea? What do we learn about the main idea? From that, they learn about topic sentences and supporting details. We do this for weeks!

We play games with paragraphs. I print up logically ordered paragraphs that I have typed into individual lines and cut them apart. I mix them up and they have to unscramble the sentences and put the paragraph back together correctly. This is an enormous skill to master. It means they understand topic sentence and logical sequencing. We continue working on this until they are able to do it fairly easily. (Some paragraphs are easier than others….how-tos are the easiest, descriptives are harder, etc. Gradually increase the difficulty level. The key is to let them experience success while still learning. 

After basic paragraph reconstruction is mastered, I start to add a twist….I will add “misfit” sentences into the mix. For example, if the paragraph is about a bear stealing a cake from a camper’s picnic table, I might add a sentence like, “I love to eat cake.” This skill helps them learn to focus on the topic sentence and make sure the information belongs. This is an essential writing skill that is really better developed in the pre-writing skill phase. If they can identify misfit sentences in other people’s paragraphs, it makes it easier to help them find them in their own. 

Using the early grades to focus on developing pre-writing skills enables children to move into the writing stage with the tools they need in order to progress with confidence. You wouldn’t give a child a bunch of word problems in math to complete without giving them a foundation in basic arithmetic. Writing is similar. You shouldn’t expect them to start writing independently without understanding the fundamentals of how writing is structured.

Independent how-tos, re-tells, or parallel writing:
What type of paragraphs I start my children on is really child dependent. I have had at least one child that could not write any “re-tells” in logical order. This child and I spent a considerable amount of time on how-to paragraphs. (Updating this: Yrs later, this child still has trouble with logical order. Writing an outline is a must for her. If she doesn't, her writing meanders. When she takes time to write an outline, her writing is usually solid.) Most of my kids have been able to start with “re-telling.” Do whatever works.

How-to paragraphs are wonderfully non-threatening paragraphs. Every child knows how to give directions on some task, whether it is baking a cake or making their bed. Creating a list of logically ordered steps, developing a topic sentence, and using transition words are very “visual” or “concrete” in how-to paragraphs. Write a couple together. Take them apart. Study how they work. Then help them write their own. The child I described above wrote NUMEROUS how-tos. But they worked. The idea of logical sequencing started to flow into her writing.

Re-tells are another way to learn to write in a non-threatening way. Give your child a short example….a fable, a definition paragraph (like a very brief encyclopedia article), etc. Have them make a key word outline. Help them organize their ideas and create a topic sentence. Then have them re-tell the information in their own words in a paragraph. Then, using all the skills that you have learned together from pre-writing, edit/revise the paragraph…..is there a topic sentence? Does all the information belong? Are your sentences complete thoughts? Do all your verbs stay in the same tense? Etc.

We spend months on re-tells or in parallel writing. (Parallel writing is taking a story and re-telling it in similar story line…..the boy who cried wolf becomes the mouse who cried cat, etc)

We also begin studying grammar independently. Yet, we continue to study grammar in the context of their writing. We spend as much time on our revisions/edits as we did on our pre-writing skills and as on the initial writing itself. Our editing time becomes a time for studying grammar, mechanics, as well as content. From editing their own work, grammar/mechanics show their inherent value because the children see them in context.


Independent writing across curriculum:
This stage begins when re-tells and parallel writing have been mastered and the child is ready to start synthesizing greater amounts of information. Because of their ages (meaning concrete vs abstract thinkers) and the need of the child to still concentrate on the writing process itself, etc., I try to keep these assignments purely factual in nature. This is a great time to start writing research books or reports. I usually start out with research books because there is no need for a formal introductory paragraph, body, conclusion, and all the transitions that go along with them.

I let my children choose a broad topic of interest and we make a trip to the library. I look through the books before they start reading them and then I point out different topics that they might encounter in their reading. We discuss how to take notes on note cards by giving the cards a common heading for common topics, etc. We discuss which subtopics within the topic they might want to write about. I let them spend about a week reading information and taking note cards. After they have collected their note cards, we sit together and organize all their information. Some topics they may have to eliminate b/c there simply isn’t enough info. Others may need to be broken into further sub-categories b/c they have too much info. I do not expect them to be able to do this by themselves when they first start. Just like all the other writing skills….they need guidance in the beginning. This is a skill that they need to learn with your help.

After the note cards are organized, I have them write a paragraph on each sub-topic and compile them altogether in a chapter book complete with title page and table of contents. Some of my kids like art and I let them illustrate them. I don’t make them do this if they don’t want to. 😉

This project may take a few weeks. We review each paragraph together just like we have been all along. Over the course of this year (or two years….depends on how the child’s skills progress), I do expect them to start doing an initial edit/revision on their own.

After a few chapter books, most kids are able to start writing reports quite painlessly. Creating a topic paragraph really isn’t a big deal when you know how to write the body…..isn’t that all the “chapters” in their books are?? Transitions are easily taught because the foundation is there and all they need to do is incorporate them. The same goes for a concluding paragraph.

Updating: They spend the rest of elementary school (or middle school, depending on the child) writing across curriculum. I give one paper assignment per week. I pick a topic from either history, science, or lit. They follow the pattern I posted earlier in this thread:
Monday- gather info on topic and organize
Tuesday- write 1/2 rough draft
Wednesday- write 2nd 1/2 rough draft'
Thursday-meet for revising and editing
Friday-final draft due
 

Analysis and essay writing: 
Once children have mastered basic report writing, essays analyzing literature, scientific processes, etc are the next logical progression. I like to start my kids on analytical essays where the analysis is easy. Writing about allegories like Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe are easy analytical papers for beginners. Finding supporting ideas for Aslan representing Christ, etc is simple. Once they are at this point, I start asking them to incorporate supporting quotes and I start teaching MLS documentation. 

I assign progressively more difficult types of analysis. A simple essay on an allegory is much easier for the child to develop than a comparison/contrast paper on the lives of two different political leaders. Cause and effect papers are more concrete, so for a child teetering on the edge of concrete vs abstract thought, a cause/effect paper might be a good compromise for an assignment. (For example….how did the crash of the stock market impact world economies….this is more factual than having to form their own view on 2 different world leaders and then taking those opinions and comparing them to each other.)

These are ideas for the advanced late middle school student and for typical high school students. As they move toward senior status, the child should be encouraged to write papers that require multi-stages of development. Back to the examples that I have used….the comparison paper is a multi-stage paper. I would not ask my young analytical students to write a paper comparing democracy to communism. It requires too much analysis for them and then you must factor in the difficulty of incorporating those ideas into a paper.

I hope you find this information helpful. I learned from my children that writing is not really that difficult to teach. The difficulty comes from expecting too much without the proper foundational instruction. Teaching writing incrementally allows children to shrug “ok, no big deal” when asked to complete an assignment. Just expect to actually be there as teacher.

Edited June 18, 2020 by Lori D.

[Lori D.]

P.S. -- Forgot to add that since those 2011 posts of 8FillTheHeart, she has published her writing curriculum for gr. 3-5, if others are interested in her process of teaching writing & grammar: Treasured Conversations, now called Teaching Writing Through Guided Analysis.