3rd grade Composition

[dmcgowen]

I have a couple of things I am not understanding with 3rd/4th grade composition. From what I can gather from the sample lesson plan we will switch from All Things Fun and Fascinating to Classical Composition. Will we not finish ATFAF? Or will we do both programs?

And I am not really enjoying ATFAF so should I switch to Intro to Comp? I am thinking that would help so that we have some continuity between grades and curriculums. We do the full 3rd grade curriculum and I don't really like to change what has been planned.

Thanks for any advice or help. I hope this makes sense as it has been a very long day.

[pickandgrin]

Re: 3rd grade Composition

If you work from the lesson plans I believe you will complete seven of the lessons from all things fun and fascinating. Several years ago the teachers at Highlands Latin School decided that all things fun and fascinating would be a better preparation for entering to the fable stage of the classical composition program than what they had previously been doing. In light of this opinion Memoria Press added all things fun and fascinating as the third grade composition program. It is a very light treatment but a solid introduction to more technical parts of writing. By technical, I mean actually understanding the parts of what goes together in creating sentences, paragraphs, and coherent short papers. I have a third grader in all things fun and fascinating for the first time, and I can see lots of growth in her writing through this one year program. It will be easy next year to translate this to the Fable level. We have done through refutation/Confirmation and I'm so pleased with the thinking and writing skills involved!

At this point in the school year I would not see any reason to change to intro the composition. Could you comment on how many lessons of all things fun and fascinating you've completed? Are you concerned mostly about switching programs? Or, are you dissatisfied with all things fun and fascinating specifically?

Please pardon the typos/failure to capitalize. I'm voice to texting on a phone for speed. Hope these comments are helpful...Please ask more questions if you like!

[tanya]

Re: 3rd grade Composition

Jessica is correct that we switched from completing ATF&F to doing only the first 7 lessons. We found lessons 8+ to be too difficult for our 3rd grade students. Since we have made the switch, everyone is happier at school. We have gotten great feedback from previously frustrated homeschoolers too that 7 lessons is perfect. But there are also homeschoolers who prefer Intro to Comp, which is modeled after Susan Wise Bauer's Writing with Ease. Either program is fine to use with 3rd graders.

Tanya

[dmcgowen]

Re: 3rd grade Composition

Thank you both so much! I'm not really sure I gave the ATF&F a fair try. I will give it a go and see how we do. And thanks for clarifying about 4th grade. in the sample you only see a few weeks of plans so I wasn't clear if we would use it anymore.