Classical Compositions for a 5th grader who struggles with English and Writing

[CraftyCarol]

I plan on using Classical Compositions for our son going into 8th grade at an accelerated pace next school year, but I'm curious about using it with our child going into 5th grade next year who struggles with language arts and writing. She's got a VERY creative mind, she loves stories, but her mind is kind of all over the place and not organized. Would Classical Compositions be too much for her? I was considering Writing and Rhetoric from CAP, but if our son is already doing CC, it seems to make more sense to have them doing the same thing. What are your thoughts?
Thank you!!
Carol

[pickandgrin]

Carol,
Would you be starting with Fable Stage? We've done Fable this year in fourth and I love how the work is broken into small, daily chunks. You work on one fable, which is often very short, for two whole weeks. Perhaps this would be a good speed for her? I do recommend the DVDs as they walk you through every activity on each fable.

[CraftyCarol]

We would be starting with the Fable Stage, yes. I will get the DVDs, are they really that helpful?

[pickandgrin]

Carol,
I really think they are. Of course, now we are 25 weeks in and my son pretty much knows what the DVD rhythm and discussion will be. At the first of the year they were absolutely essential because I wasn't too familiar with the progymnasmata nor how we'd go about completing the activities in the texts. For each fable, Mr. Vaden walks the student through the plot components, interesting vocabulary, different sets of variations (creative word substitutions), an outline, and two paraphrases which include various cues for figures of description. An added bonus is that it's a short turn on the computer (or in front of a TV) which can break up the school day a bit. The watching portion for each day is very short, leaving plenty of time to go over the work together. I like having Mr. Vaden as the teacher on this subject which frees me to be more of a tutor alongside my son. One last tidbit, I think hearing Mr. Vaden read the fable over and over is helpful ear training for the cadence of good writing. My kids hear tons and tons of words read aloud, but not often something so succinct. I've seen this have a positive influence on the way my son writes his paraphrases. Perhaps others could explain this more eloquently!

You also might want to search the forum history about "fable DVD" or similar to see other discussions on this.

[Kargo]

I agree with Pickandgrin. We are in the 6th week of the Fable Stage and this is one of my kiddos favorite subjects. They look forward to the DVD teaching and I highly recommend purchasing it. MP breaks down each step of writing so small that it takes the fear of writing and turns it into manageable steps that promotes feelings of success in my children. They are excited to share aloud both their narrations and final drafts. I could not be more pleased!

As far as organized thoughts in writing, early in the first week of each fable the students write an outline and they reference the outline only to write paraphrases. This helps tremendously with knowing what part comes next. Writing the reversal of the fable trains their minds to be more organized in thought also. So I think it would be a good fit for your student. I hope that helps!