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folklaur
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| Posted: May 25 2008 at 10:04pm | IP Logged
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What encompasses a complete Language Arts programs? Reading, Spelling, Grammar? Writing? Creative Writing? Poetry? Vocabulary? Diagramming? Are they all equally necessary/important? At what age do you start using any kind of formal program with your children?
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Erin
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| Posted: May 26 2008 at 10:18pm | IP Logged
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Laura
I'd also add literature, narration, dictation and public speaking to your list. 
I don't see all as equally important/necessary. IMO and this is just me, others may well disagree, reading is the first priority, then spelling. After that being able to write articulate well formed sentences. And one of the greatest self-correcting keys to all this is immersion in great literature and poetry.
Let's see what age? Well different things work for different families but for us we don't introduce all in your list at once. Frankly energy and time wouldn't allow for it aside from the child's development.
Reading- well that has been pretty much child led (with some mummy panic moments) but usually around kindergarten if not before we look at sounds. Some (the girls) have taken off, the boys are far more resistant and don't read till 7 or 8.
Spelling- With my older children I introduced spelling at a later age which I now seriously regret. I am introducing spelling right from the start with my younger ones and seeing a BIG difference.
Dictation- The same situation as spelling, I am now introducing right from the beginning and seeing a BIG difference.
Vocabulary- I don't see the need for a formal program if you are immersing your children in rich literature. But then that may just be for us and not all families.
Grammar- I am only now insisting on my 9th grader doing a formal program. With the younger ones we have dabbled and done many things orally. They have a good understanding and are quick to pick up poorly structured spoken sentences. I don't regret this.
Diagramming- Don't do. This is not an Australian/English form of grammar.
Writing- At this stage takes the form of narrations. Which I am struggling to enforce and be consistent but I am determined. My dc have often not written their own narrations till 12 which I am endeavouring to address. But the youngers are keen to dictate from 5yrs.
Creative Writing- A slack area here, I would love to but at present am consoling myself with giving the children a solid foundation and immersing them in great literature.
Public Speaking- Well at this stage I am hoping oral narrations help with the children formulating their thoughts well, but at some stage I would like to polish up more in this area.
Poetry- I love to read poetry to the children and do so from a young age. Great benefits.
Literature- Immersing in great literature from a young age.
Love to know what others think.
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catholicmomma
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| Posted: June 03 2008 at 8:46am | IP Logged
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Laura,
I'd agree with Erin that reading/phonics by way of great literature should be a priority. But I also think that once they are reading really well (4th-6th grade, hopefully), grammar (including diagramming, because it is SO much help for kids to visualize and then manipulate the parts of sentences), editing, and different types of writing modes should be introduced. By all means these grammar and writing lessons should be connected to and complement great literature. I like to use "imitation" of classic materials as one strategy.
I wish there were more discussion about transitioning our children into more mature writing. I have a feeling that many of us stall out at a prime time in their development because we don't know "how" to push them further (perhaps because we don't write a lot ourselves, or because there are so very many opposing views of how to teach high school lit and writing).
I'd love to hear from moms of older writers who could tell us how they managed to get their children through the "hard parts" of grammar/writing.
Lisa B in OH
ds 14, dd 12, dd 9, ds 7, and 35 homeschooling lit/writing workshop students
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SallyT
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| Posted: June 03 2008 at 9:35am | IP Logged
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Hm . . . I taught a high-school co-op English class this year (and will be teaching an online version next year), in which I stressed essay-writing. I had mostly 9th-graders (2 10th-graders), and we worked on writing by writing about the literature (ancient and classical) we were reading.
We reviewed paragraphing for about the first month -- I pulled assignments from Jensen's Format Writing, which I don't actually like all that much, and reformatted them so that the kids were writing about the literature we were reading.
One problem I have with a lot of "composition" programs is that because they're stand-alone, the assignments tend to be about trumped-up subjects which don't have any real interest to the writer -- the first assignment in Jensen's is about root vegetables, for crying out loud. Not that turnips can't be fascinating, but . . . And not that the kids were really that intrinsically interested, at first, in stuff like the heroic ideal in The Iliad, but at least it all interconnected! I do think that writing is best taught as an integrated "subject" within all the other subjects you're doing.
Anyway, we did paragraphs for about a month, then I introduced the 5-paragraph essay, again on topics related to what we were reading, and we worked on that all year. By the end of the year they could all manage that basic format and write a thesis sentence. I also did a term paper which I explained as an expansion of the 5-paragraph essay: it had an introduction, a conclusion and 3 big sections, instead of just 3 paragraphs, as its body. We worked heavily on outlining and drafting with that assignment, and it was on a historical topics that corresponded with the era in literature. I made them write 10 pages, and they moaned and groaned and said even their college-age siblings didn't write 10-page papers, to which I just said, "Wimps!" And they did it. And for first efforts, their papers were really good.
After the term papers, we did "fun" writing for the rest of the term, writing "Dear Abby" letters and historical-novel chapters as responses to Julius Caesar, stuff like that. And their final exam was a take-home in which they had to write 3 5-paragraph essays (they had 2 weeks to complete it) from a list of about 7 choices.
So we did lots of writing. To my mind the most useful written form one can learn in high school is the 5-paragraph essay -- it teaches organization and is easily expandable or adaptable to any subject or situation. My college-professor husband sees students all the time who can't write their way out of a paper bag, and I was determined, at the start of the year, that my co-op kids, including my own oldest daughter, would have an essay form under their belts by the end of the year which would give them no end of preparation for whatever they'd encounter in college.
For what it's worth, it was a lot easier to make my daughter do all that work in a class setting, rather than on my own. They could moan and compare notes on what a dictator I was . . . somehow that kept them motivated.
Hope that sheds some light on one way to handle high-school writing . . .
Sally
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4Real Forums : Language Arts Come Alive
Topic: LA questions
