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pumpkinmom
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| Posted: Nov 07 2014 at 2:42pm | IP Logged
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Those who have done this, what does a student need to know before starting high school in the grammar department? Pretty much all of language/communication arts.
I posted yesterday on the language arts board and I realized what I really need to know is the above. So I deleted my other question and came here to ask this instead.
I plan to follow our states graduation requirements for high school which says 4 in communication arts is needed. What does this look like in your home? I'm needing some ideas as it's time to really take preparing for high school seriously.  Or at least make sure we are ready for high school level work by the end of this year.
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SallyT
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Basically a student needs to be on the road to being able to write fluently:
*Knows what a complete sentence is and can write one.
*Has at least some idea of how to write a coherent paragraph.
*Has at least some idea of conventional English usage: punctuation, capitalization, etc.
Those are really the essential building blocks. The more the student understands about sentences and how they work, the better, though the kids who transition most readily into good writing in high school are the ones who have an instinctive ear for language. These writers
*Not only know what a complete sentence is and can write one, but can write many sentences, one after another, without breaking a sweat.
*Instinctively know how to vary syntax and length from sentence to sentence to produce non-monotonous prose.
*Can write as he thinks, even if what comes out is not at first that coherent or organized.
*Can move easily from the concrete to the abstract in writing, and vice versa (i.e., can make an assertion and use concrete examples/evidence to demonstrate the truth of the assertion; OR can draw a larger conclusion from a set of details).
*Does not have to stop and think about where to put a period, though commas and other punctuation marks may still be kind of random.
At our house, the four years of English look like this:
1. Literature. This is the sine qua non, and the organizing principle. History is folded into this as well. For my first two I have done a 4-year chronological cycle: ancient/classical in 9th, medieval/Renaissance in 10th, US in 11th, and 20th-century in 12th. For the next round, I'm pondering following something more like AO's model, and scheduling two history tracks throughout the four years, with accompanying literature. Have not worked that out yet.
2. Writing grows out of reading. And we do a lot more reading than writing, though I do put everyone through a composition course in 9th. To date I've used Jensens's Format Writing, which is boring, but the assignments are easily adapted to literature, history, religion, and science (I never just do "composition" assignments in the abstract -- they're always related to subject matter and part of those subjects).
3. Grammar: I don't do a lot of formal grammar in high school. My middle-schoolers are covering grammar and usage pretty intensively right now, and by high school I'm dealing with grammatical issues as they come up in writing, as proofreading/editing issues.
My oldest kids have also done speech/debate and theater, which covers the "public speaking" aspect of "communication arts." Debate was a fantastic experience for my oldest daughter, because it really taught her to put arguments together.
Writing (and reading) through high school is a growth process. Everyone does not start out in 9th grade with perfect readiness. Even kids going to college can struggle with abstract-to-concrete moves in writing, for example (though really to me that says "Not Ready For College!"). I think the best thing to do as preparation for high-school-level work is to encourage writing as a natural part of life -- encourage thinking in writing.
That doesn't mean you abandon formal grammar, because it's important and interesting in its own right, but don't let that be the sum total of what writing is about, if that makes sense. Think of formal grammar as a kind of schemata -- a framework of knowledge -- for being able to say, about a draft of an essay, "You need to vary your sentence structure," or "Remember that you need a comma here," or whatever.
I hope this helps. It's my take on things, anyway. Ultimately I think your goal for the *end* of high school is a student who can think carefully and clearly and can express those thoughts coherently both orally and in writing. Literature will provide a lot of apparatus for acquiring those abilities -- among other things, it's a good long soak in other people's thoughts-in-writing, which are good to imitate as well. I am in the process of re-thinking what we do for my next set, and I may well lean more in the direction of the classical Progy-whatsit that Jen Mackintosh has described.
But all of the above is what I'm aiming for with my middle-schoolers as we prepare for high school. And that "think carefully and coherently and express those thoughts" business is my goal for my current high-schooler.
Sally
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pumpkinmom
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Oh, thank you, Sally!
I was really doubting our plans this year but we are heavy in writing and you reminded me that's important and it's what we should be doing.
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Cassie
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Kristie 4
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Fantastic Sally- what a breath of fresh air! There are other boards (won't mention it here ) that can give you heart failure if your child isn't writing a 10 page research paper, mla format, by the time they enter highschool! Thankfully I go to that other board rarely, and only on the good days!
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SallyT
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I've both taught and tutored public-school high-school students at various levels. Suffice it to say that years of heavy formal writing instruction do not good writers make.
:)
Sally
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SallyT
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I did have my oldest write research papers starting in 9th, and I assigned her a "senior thesis" for spring semester of her senior year -- basically a 20-page research paper on a historical topic. My husband keeps bringing home stories about people sweating 5-page papers in his classes, so I have thought, "Well, we can beat that, anyway." Knowing that she can pump out that much writing has stood that child in very good stead in college.
My husband has also reported having students whose definition of a sentence was, "Well, you write some words, and when it looks like you kind of have enough, you stop." Again: any of us here can beat that, right?
My current high-schooler hasn't done as many formal papers, but he's taking a science-writing class right now (research methods), and I'm planning to slot him into Belmont Abbey's 2-semester rhetoric sequence next year, just to knock his writing into better shape for college and let him get dual-enrollment credit for it. That's the part of my plan that's probably not so useful to anyone else, but I'm glad of it, because this is the kid who's been the most out of the house and hard to stay on top of during his high-school years.
Sally
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4Real Forums : High School Years and Beyond
Topic: Grammar in high school
