Language Arts Skills Progression

[macmacmoo]

I'm looking for a road map? checklist? skill tree? for language arts. There are so many pieces to language arts: reading, composition, vocabulary, grammar, it feels like it goes on and on. My husband is getting more involved with our homeschool, and would like a skills tree. Something that spells out all the different parts and the steps that build upon each other needed to learn the skill. I tried searching the forums but didn't have much luck looking for specifically what I was looking for. But i did come across 

which I liked how the steps were listed out.  If you know of any other threads that listed out skills step by step or know of any resources you could point me in the direction of I would greatly appreciate it.

[Gil]

I'm not so sure about a Skills Tree. It's kind of like building something in the correct order. Once certain pieces are set, you continue to use them (reading and handwriting) then you layer in more sophisticated vocabulary, spelling and composition.

I always suggest that one put reading (phonetically) first. Reading and as they gain fluency, the Reading Comprehension should develop naturally so long as you give them strong oral reading skills and expose them to loads of conversation, experiences, documentaries, picture books and include them in just daily life.

PreK-2 grade, vocabulary is best acquired through living and conversation, so teach your kid loads of words. You can also be mindful to use "academic" language with your child so that they naturally acquire it.

Once the child is solid with their spoken vocabulary and phonetically reading with some fluency, you can do root-based vocabulary if you want.

Handwriting--in my opinion--should be taught correctly from the beginning.  I would make sure that handwriting is set before I tried to add in any subject that required writing. I would start handwriting in K or 1st grade and be very intentional about them getting it write (haha! Pun!).

Composition was the most labor intensive thing for me to teach. We only dabbled in grammar in two particular seasons of our homeschooling. It's difficult for me to wrap my head around the why of teaching it and the execution was always super clunky.

[Lori D.]

Here's one that is very BROAD and GENERAL for the AVERAGE student. Adapt as is needed:

Overview of LA/English Skills by Grade

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 at/above student's reading level)
- Handwriting  (penmanship / copywork; learning to print letters of the alphabet and numbers)
- Phonics  (in support of Reading)

grades 1-2
- Reading  (student begins to read quality books at grade level, some solo, some as "buddy reading: you read a page, I read a page")
- Read Alouds  (parent reads aloud/audio books, from quality books at/above student's reading level)
- Handwriting  (penmanship / copywork -- manuscript / printing instruction and practice)
- Phonics  (in support of Reading -- and Spelling, if doing optional Spelling)
optional:
- Solo Read  (10-15 min.., "book basket" choices to aid fluency and/or support other subjects)
- Free Read  (as child CHOOSES in free time -- books, magazines, etc. of personal interest to CHILD, at reading level desired by CHILD)
- Spelling  (basic phonics/vowel patterns; basic word families and "sight words")
- Writing  (what is a sentence; short ORAL narration; optional creative writing)
- Grammar  (capitalization, punctuation -- note, formal Grammar can wait to be introduced between grade 3-5)

grades 3-4- Reading  (build reading confidence, practice for fluency and stamina, begin to read for content subjects)
- Read Alouds  (as above)
- Handwriting  (cursive instruction and practice)
- Writing  (sentences; narration, beginning free writing/journal writing, short reports, letters, everyday writing, etc.; creative writing optional)
- Spelling   (vowel patterns; beginning syllabication; word endings, prefixes, compound words, etc.)
optional:
- Solo Read  (15-30 min.., as above)
- Free Read  (as above, as child CHOOSES)
- Grammar  (parts of speech, grammar mechanics, beginning grammar usage, etc.; can wait until grade 5, or do in alternate grades 4, 6, 8 )
- Vocabulary

grades 5-6
- Reading  (building in complexity and comprehension; reading for content subjects)
- Read Alouds  / optional: Solo Read  /  optional: Free Read
- Typing  (if Handwriting practice is no longer needed, learn "touch typing" to facilitate writing future papers)
- Writing  (beginning paragraphs; 3 of the 4 types of writing: Descriptive, Narrative, Expository; exposure to news article writing; variety of writing/length)
- Grammar  (beginning diagramming, types of sentences, more complex sentence structures, punctuation,)
- Spelling  (homophones, multi-syllable words, "tricky" letter sounds and letter pairs, etc.)
optional:
- Solo Read  (30-40 min.., as above)
- Free Read  (as above)
- Vocabulary  (Greek/Latin roots; vocabulary from reading; etc.)

grades 7-8
- Literature  (beginning to read some classics with beginning, gentle literary terms and analysis)
- Writing  (essay structure; short multi-paragraph essays; introduce 4th writing type -- Persuasive; variety of assignments/lengths; optional creative writing)
- Grammar  (diagramming, phrases, clauses, modifiers, subject/verb & pronoun/antecedent agreements, grammar usage, etc.)
- Spelling and/or Vocabulary  (if Spelling still needed; can combine with Vocabulary--or switch to just Vocabulary)
optional:
- Solo Read  (45 min.., as above)
- Free Read  (as above)

grades 9-12 = English credit
- Literature  (read, discuss, analyze, write about classics — novels,  novellas short stories, poetry, essays, plays)
- Writing  (multi-page essays of all types, research papers with citations, real-life/business writing, oral Power Point presentations, etc.)
- Speech/Public Speaking  (research, write, prepare, and give different types of oral presentations in front of a group)
optional:
- Vocabulary  (from Literature; Greek/Latin roots, ACT/SAT test prep)
- Grammar (possible light review, or if needed in support of strengthening writing, and for revising and proof-editing writing)
- Read Aloud  (do some Literature together; enjoy family "reader's theater" of classic plays, share enjoyable or  important books or books to encourage/challenge, or books just for fun)

Edited July 4, 2023 by Lori D.

[Lori D.]

Although it's written in "educator-ese", you could also look at the World Book Typical Course of Study for each grade level -- specifically the LA areas. Those lists are very broad scope of the general U.S. public school system.

BTW -- I completely DISAGREE with schools with a scope of introducing and pushing Writing (length and types of writing) into such young elementary grades where it is completely NOT developmentally appropriate. JMO.

 

ETA -- specifically about developing Writing, I suggest looking at @8filltheheart's posts in this old thread, where she lays out her progression of teaching writing over the years ( @8filltheheart created and sold a wonderful grade 3-5 writing program, Treasured Conversations, for a number of years):

 

Edited July 4, 2023 by Lori D.

[Clarita]

25 minutes ago, Lori D. said:

ETA -- specifically about developing Writing, I suggest looking at @8filltheheart's posts in this old thread, where she lays out her progression of teaching writing over the years ( @8filltheheart created and sold a wonderful grade 3-5 writing program, Treasured Conversations, for a number of years):

BTW I have this post copied and printed out for my reference. Scroll until you see

******************

Part 1

Pre-independent writing skills:

[macmacmoo]

1 hour ago, Lori D. said:

Here's one that is very BROAD and GENERAL for the AVERAGE student. Adapt as is needed:

Overview of LA/English Skills by Grade

 

Thank you, Lori! That was exactly what I was looking for!

[PeterPan]

Curriculum publishers provide this as well.

https://www.bjupress.com/pdfs/catalogs/2023-scope-and-sequence-subject.pdf

https://www.abeka.com/homeschool/scopeandsequence.aspx

Also you will find it helpful to look at your state standards. There are movements around the country to improve reading instruction, writing instruction, etc. so you might find your state standards appear much more classical (focused on narrative language development, etc, woo woo!!), than you expect. Every year I print the state standards for my son's grade and go through them with a highlighter selecting standards to focus on. 

[Ellie]

On 7/3/2023 at 7:30 PM, Lori D. said:

BTW -- I completely DISAGREE with schools with a scope of introducing and pushing Writing (length and types of writing) into such young elementary grades where it is completely NOT developmentally appropriate. JMO.

 

Amen!

[Helpdesk]

Here is Susan Wise Bauer's recommendation for those using WTM curriculum.  https://support.welltrainedmind.com/hc/en-us/articles/360011380674-Where-to-start-in-all-Language-Arts

 

[kbutton]

If your kid ends up having language issues (or for someone listening in), Mindwing Concepts has some articles and webinars about narrative language development.

https://mindwingconcepts.com/pages/methodology

Even if your kid does things on time, these stages hold in this sort of order. They just happen to be a company that resources speech therapists and interventionists.

[Resilient]

On 7/10/2023 at 9:11 PM, Ellie said:

Amen!

And amen. 

[Mrs Twain]

https://www.coreknowledge.org/our-approach/core-knowledge-sequence/k-8-sequence/
 

I used the K-8 Core Knowldge Sequence (above) as a guide, though I didn’t follow it exactly. But it really helped me sort of like a checklist to make sure I wasn’t missing anything major. Sometimes I bought an extra workbook as a supplement to fill in something (esp a skill) I thought we might not be covering  well enough.