Grammar

[Cheryl in CA]

Is anyone else doing or needing a different approach to grammar? The quick progression (introduction?) of Core Language Skills is not working for my student. It is overwhelming and ends up confusing him. I think we need to slow down with the parts of speech, spending as much time on each as it takes him to be able to learn and then easily identify it in a sentence. Then, and only then, we will introduce another part of speech and continue with all the parts of speech learned so previous mastery isn't lost. My plan is to use MCTLA Island Level. While it's for gifted, I've used it with 2 other children and feel that I could modify it for my son. Has anyone done this or similar? Is anyone needing something like this and interested in bouncing ideas off each other as I try it out?

[jen1134]

What SC Level is he in currently?

[Cheryl in CA]

What SC Level is he in currently?

It varies. Right now he's in Level 6 for Literature, but he wasn't that far in Grammar or Composition. He made it most of the way through Level 4 Grammar, but we stopped because it was making things worse rather than better. We are holding off on Latin for now, and I wasn't going to do EGR anyway because I don't see him making it through all levels of it or Latin, which would leave his grammar incomplete. We had started Grammar Island but ran into the same issue as with Core Language Skills (pushing through before mastery causing overload and confusion), so now I'm looking to modify MCTLA for him...advancing through the book as he masters the material and creating my own sentences for him to parse according to his progression (instead of going through the book, learning everything, and then parsing).

[jen1134]

I wonder if Rod & Staff English would give the time he needs for mastery without you having to modify so much? We’re getting ready to start English 4 with our 12yo. There should be individual lesson plans for it under SC 7/8 Grammar.

[Cheryl in CA]

I wonder if Rod & Staff English would give the time he needs for mastery without you having to modify so much? We’re getting ready to start English 4 with our 12yo. There should be individual lesson plans for it under SC 7/8 Grammar.

I finally found samples for Rod and Staff (probably hiding in plain sight, but I couldn't find them, LOL), and it seems very similar in style to Core Language. Is there a table of contents somewhere that I'm missing? How is it mastery if it keeps pushing the student along? MCTLA has a different scope and sequence. The Island level is about sentences and the Town level expands into the paragraph, and the Island and Town levels are colorful and fun. The Island level's focus on sentences is going to be very helpful as it reinforces much of what he works on in Speech Therapy. I looked through them again last night and think it will actually be pretty easy to adapt them. I created a template for how they parse sentences, and I can create a sentence a day for him to parse based on what he has mastered as we move through the book (vs waiting until through the book). I'm sorry, that's probably confusing because MCTLA is different. Anyway, looking at the Rod and Staff samples, I think MCTLA will be better for him and easier to adapt. But, I really appreciate the suggestion and any clarification you have regarding Rod and Staff :-)