Classical writing for grade 7?

[Willow]

Has anyone tried the older beginners course with a grade 7 student? Should I wait until grade 8? should I pretend he is grade 6?

 

Any ideas appreciated.

 

Thank you

Willow

[Willow]

Anyone? Anyone used the older beginners course at all?

[siloam]

Anyone? Anyone used the older beginners course at all?

 

I have been waiting all day for them to show up. If they don't tomorrow I will start PMing some people. :D

 

My first instinct is to say to go with the Older Beginners program, as long as he does pretty well with narration, dictation and grammar...but I have only done the regular program.

 

Heather

 

[Willow]

Dictation and grammar, fine. A bit behind some kids maybe, not a shining light anyway. ;)

 

Narration he HATES. He hates it both orally and in written form and therefore is either not good at it or not doing his best at it. He reckons it spoils everything he reads, and he will do all in his power to avoid it. It is startling how often one boy can request a lavatory!:D

[Guest Momof3boys]

I started Older Beginners about 6 weeks ago with my 6th grader and he is doing well. Grammar and Writing have been a weakness for him, but we have not had any problems completing the assignments yet.

[siloam]

Dictation and grammar, fine. A bit behind some kids maybe, not a shining light anyway. ;)

 

Narration he HATES. He hates it both orally and in written form and therefore is either not good at it or not doing his best at it. He reckons it spoils everything he reads, and he will do all in his power to avoid it. It is startling how often one boy can request a lavatory!:D

 

 

This might be a problem then. Do you realize that in CW you re-write a story? Now you are allowed to change the characters and setting, as long as you can keep the moral.

 

It probably just depends one what about narration he dislikes so. :D

 

Oh and I have writing phobic kids and I go ahead and allow them to type. I get twice the effort that way. My oldest is out of handwriting books (she is 5th grade and still needs practice), so I have her then copy her finished works into a notebook. She is extra motivated because it is HER writing. If it works, it works.

 

Heather

 

 

 

[Suzannah]

I wish I had begun with CW for OB last year. Instead we began with Aesop B and are finishing up Homer this year. Since DS had had plenty of practice narrating, it was really unnecessary for us to have spent so much time re-writing fables, etc.

 

DS didn't mind though. He was perfectly happy. I just kept looking ahead thinking "When on earth are we going to do something else?" So I finally asked permission on the boards here to speed-up what we were doing to finish Homer by the end of the year. Then we're going to use Poetry for Older beginners before moving on to Diogenes. That's the plan for now anyway. :)

 

I would say go ahead and put your 7th grader into CW for OB if it's the program you want to use. I can't see any reason to wait unless he seriously doesn't have a clue how to tell a story back.

 

Incidentally, most of DS' stories have been altered to include zombies or other strange or funny components. :tongue_smilie:

 

Oh, and I let DS use the computer to type his stories. He must print out the drafts though for me to mark up. Then he goes back and makes corrections.

[luna]

We are just about finished with OB with my seventh grader. It started out quite simple but progressed quickly. I don't think pretending he is a sixth grader is necessary. OB has 22 lessons, so you can take longer than one week per lesson if he needs it. I also let her type her stories, print out for mark up, and redo on the computer. She handwrites her outline, however. CW is intense, but makes so much sense and I truly see progress in her writing. We did try Harvey's for grammar this year, after using Abeka. Next year we are going to R&S. Hope that helps.

[Harrison_B]

We've just started OB and my son is in 7th grade (going into 8th). My initial comments on the program are as follows:

 

1. First, be sure to buy the Homer core book - I didn't know. I bought the Student Guide & the Teacher's Guide. I'm waiting for the Core book to come in; however, I'm able to still do the first three lessons without it.

 

2. I don't believe you need the Aesop's Core Book because the first three lessons are explanatory. (Maybe, someone will comment and save you some money). I'm missing details on outlines and spelling - I'm hoping the Homer Core Book will have these details.

 

3. It will take time to coordinate between the books and trying to figure out what needs to be completed. Be sure to buy bookmark post-its, you'll definitely need them.

 

4. I'm using a different grammar book (Warriner's) and I'm still trying to figure out the coordination between it and Harvey's.

 

With my son who is very grammar-challenged, I must admit he "got it" this week. There is definitely narration (oral and written). I don't know the type of outline they're looking for, so I'm using IEW's Keyword outline and my son didn't have a problem with it. The setup is confusing; however, I wish I knew about this program sooner. I like what they are trying to accomplish.

Edited May 1, 2009 by Harrison_B
Spelling

[siloam]

2. I don't believe you need the Aesop's Core Book because the first three lessons are explanatory. (Maybe, someone will comment and save you some money). I'm missing details on outlines and spelling - I'm hoping the Homer Core Book will have these details.

 

Not really I used Remedia Publications' Beginning Outlining to teach how to outline. It is much more concrete than either Homer or Aesop cores which give a few ideas, but don't really teach it per say. What teaching Homer does do just instructs you to summarize each line, then to summarize two lines together, so on and so forth, till you are up to summarizing a whole scene. Seems like the painful way of doing it to me, though methodical.

 

For the spelling analysis they use SWR methods. You underline letter combination that make single sounds, like ar, ar, au, aw, ay, ch, ci, ck dge, ea, ear, eigh, oo, ough, ph, sh, ti, wh, ect... when you come across a letter that can make more than one sound you mark it if it isn't the first and most common sound. For example c can say /k/ as in cat or /s/ as in city. /k/ is the more common sound so I would write a 2 over the c in city to designate c was saying its second sound. They have also numbered all the spelling rules, so you can reference them by number, so off to the side you write the number of the rule(s) that apply.

 

I think you could do one of two things here. If this appeals to you then The Writing Road to Reading (parent of SWR) I believe is under $20 new, and will contain all the markings and phonograms. Second is to find a list of rules online and make do your own thing that is similar, breaking the words into syllables and applying the rules, but maybe not worrying so much about if it is the 1st or 2nd sound and such. Third is to drop it entirely and do a separate spelling program.

 

Hope this helps!

 

Heather

 

 

[Harrison_B]

.

 

For the spelling analysis they use SWR methods. You underline letter combination that make single sounds, like ar, ar, au, aw, ay, ch, ci, ck dge, ea, ear, eigh, oo, ough, ph, sh, ti, wh, ect... when you come across a letter that can make more than one sound you mark it if it isn't the first and most common sound. For example c can say /k/ as in cat or /s/ as in city. /k/ is the more common sound so I would write a 2 over the c in city to designate c was saying its second sound. They have also numbered all the spelling rules, so you can reference them by number, so off to the side you write the number of the rule(s) that apply.

 

 

 

 

Thank you for replying. I was curious reading through the Teacher's Guide and Student's Guide on how it was done. What is SWR? We ended up breaking the words into open and closed syllables, prefixes and suffixes. Also, thank you for commenting on the outlining. I looked through the TG and I didn't find any comments on it. We ended up using IEW's KWO methology.

[siloam]

Thank you for replying. I was curious reading through the Teacher's Guide and Student's Guide on how it was done. What is SWR? We ended up breaking the words into open and closed syllables, prefixes and suffixes. Also, thank you for commenting on the outlining. I looked through the TG and I didn't find any comments on it. We ended up using IEW's KWO methology.

 

Sorry! Spell to Write and Read.

 

I would think the IEW method would work just fine. It is pretty close to what the book I used teaches.

 

Heather

 

[HiddenJewel]

My dd13 (8th grade) did OB this year and it was a good fit. She is a strong reader and writer and is strong in grammar. OB does progress quite quickly. I would not want to use it with a student who didn't catch onto concepts quickly, who needs extra practice to cement a topic, or who is not strong in grammar and writing. She does Days 1-4 one week, then the writing project the next. It was too much to do it all in one week. Her writing has definitely improved.

 

I started dd12 (6th) in Homer A. She will finish 12 weeks of it this year and finish A and B in 7th. I don't think she would have been ready for OB.

Edited May 1, 2009 by HiddenJewel