Beyond the Book Report by Analytical Grammar – A Preview Review

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  • July 28, 2013 at 4:48 am
    missceegee
    Participant

    A Preview Review – weird, I know, but I couldn’t come up with anything better. 

    I will be co-teaching a Grammar, Written Narration, and Composition Course to 11 kids ages 9-13 this coming year. We will meet 3 weeks/month from Sept. – Apr. and 12 weeks per term.

    Fall Term

    • Grammar using JAG with 4th-6th, AG Season 1 with 6th-8th

    • Written Narrations using My Little Handbook of Written Narrations by Angela Wilson as a guide of sorts (4th-8th)

    Spring Term

    • Mechanics using JAG Mechanics with all (4th-8th)

    • Beyond the Book Report Season 1 (6th-8th)

    With that bit of background, I have received BBR-1 and have begun reviewing it. It covers the following:

    From http://www.analyticalgrammar.com – 

    SEASON ONE includes three different sections (click on the hyperlinks to see the sample):

    The Basic Book Report
    – Concepts introduced:
        Following a rubric
        Conflict, Point of View, Climax, Protagonist,Antagonist
        Paraphrase and summary
    – Activity:
        Watch video lecture on literary terms
    – Final Product (100 pt total):
        Reading Log
        Plot summary
        Paraphrase of favorite scene
        Study questions or crossword
        Literary Terms worksheet

    The Pamphlet Book Report
    – Concepts introduced:
        Elements of the plot, mood and tone, setting, genre
    – Activity:
        Watch second video lecture on literary terms
    – Final Product (100 pt total):
        Reading log
        Pamphlet about the book (60 pts)
        Study questions or crossword

    The News Article Book Report
    – Concepts introduced:
        Headline, byline, dateline, inverted pyramid, lead
        Objectivity, bias, objective point of view
    – Activity:
        Watch video lecture on news writing
        Nursery rhyme news 
        Exercise in bias detection
    – Final Product (100 pt total):
        Reading log
        News article on favorite scene
        Opposite bias news article, same scene
        Study questions/crossword

    I really like the looks of this simple program. It suggests spending 30-45 minutes per day on BBR-1. We will be covering the topics together using the DVDs during our class weeks. We will spend 3-4 weeks on each project. Our schedule will have us view the video lesson in class, answer questions and perhaps start a bit of an assignment. Then the students will choose their books and have 2-3 weeks to read the book and complete the assigned reports.

    I have not reviewed the full program yet, but here are my Pros & Cons.

    Pros

    • Concise

    • Introduces literary terms and elements in a simple way

    • Helps kids break their assignments into doable chunks using the reading log

    • Uses rubrics to help assess and evaluate in an objective manner

    • Written (via videa, too) to the student

    • Is a natural extention of written narration. Allows for some creative narration types. 

    Cons

    • Perhaps the grading element. This is new for me, so I may tweak or simply use as another teaching opportunity. These kids are going to college, so they will see grading and should get used to it at some point.

    • Packaging – Some shrinkwrapped papers with a DVD that has video clips and pdf files to print. Quality is good, but presentation lacking. I suspect because it’s rather new. I simply printed off all of my worksheets for the students at one time. 

    That’s my initial take. I will add more as I become more familiar with it. I think this will be a good fit for my family. I want a tiny bit of handholding to introduce some different literary elements and ideas for written narrations, but do not care for a full blown program like IEW, Classical Composition, etc. 

    HTH someone.

    Christie

    July 28, 2013 at 6:10 am
    my3boys
    Participant

    Perfect. And, thank you. I’m looking for something similar as I just can not overwhelm my dc this coming year and this seems to be more doable.

    July 28, 2013 at 4:54 pm
    TailorMade
    Participant

    Bumping. This will appeal to quite a few on this forum. Your review updates will be very helpful. It sounds like a fun way to tackle literary analysis. I especially like the idea of using the various familiar formats to accomplish these assignments. Thanks for sharing it.

    Becca<><

    July 29, 2013 at 1:49 pm
    Benita
    Participant

    We have decided to do this program this year as well. Interested to see more of your thoughts on this. What is My Little Handbook of Written Narrations?

    November 18, 2013 at 1:42 am
    Angelina
    Participant

    Christie, if you have time to post, I’d love to hear how your Fall term has been going with your 4-6th grade group using JAG.

    Are all of the students in your group embracing it (and retaining) well? Or does it seem to work better for one learning style versus another?

    You are sure to provide valuable insight to many of us on the forum, especially given that you are also teaching an older group using AG. It leads many of us to the question of whether starting grammar with JAG at grade 4/5 is truly worthwhile, or whether waiting until 6th grade for grammar (jumping straight to AG) is perfectly okay.

    Would love some comments. Blessings, Angie

    November 18, 2013 at 12:09 pm
    missceegee
    Participant

    Angelina,

    JAG – I have 7 kids in the JAG class and our last lesson is next week. All 7 kids are doing well. We only cover the new material and 1 worksheet in class each week and the rest is done at home. All kids are scoring competancy or above on the tests each week. My son is 9 and is Mr. Sports. He does well with his schoolwork, but would rather be outside playing something or fishing or ____ and he has soared. He can parse like a pro and does pretty good with diagramming. Every once in a while, he will hang a modifier off of the wrong thing, but so do the rest of the kids. I have 3 girls and 4 boys in this class. One student has some processing difficulties and he is doing super, too. There are wiggly willies and quiet Quincys and all have done a great job. JAG, we watch the dvd explanation which is really just going over the notes and then work 1 worksheet of examples on the board together.

    AG – We had 7, but went to 6 students. 3 boys and 3 girls. A big variety of kids here, too and all are doing well, typically scoring Superiority or Mastery on the tests. These kids watch the dvd and work the examples with the dvd and then complete at least 1 full page in class. My dd12 is in this class and is doing wonderfully.

    PROS OF THE PROGRAMS

    • Kids can simply watch dvd and do it on their own at both levels. I would do this if I weren’t teaching a class, but the class is great accountability.

    • Very straightforward

    • All exercises and tests are open book

    • JAG exercises are the perfect length with 5 sentences to parse & diagram each page and a few extra questions.

    • AG exercises are appropriately more difficult.

    CONS OF THE PROGRAMS

    • Both presenters are left handed and their hands cover what they write until they finish. Not a huge thing, but the kids have all commented.

    • AG exercises have 10 sentences each and that difference with JAG feels huge. I think 7 would have been good, but we do all of them anyway because I don’t wish to pick through them. 

    OVERALL

    Yes, I find both programs worthwhile and will have my younger kids use JAG, too. I expect it to spill over into ds9’s written narrations, too. (He has a broken finger in a full arm cast at the moment, so no writing.) On the other hand, I think waiting is fine, too. Most of my AG kids haven’t had any grammar before and it’s working well for them.

     

    In addition…

    We spent several weeks looking at written narrations. This was time well spent and the kids, esp. the younger ones, showed great improvement.

    We are spending the next 4 lessons learning how to outline using material found at http://www.higherupandfurtherin.blogspot.com and after only 1 lesson, all of the kids are getting it and of course this skill will be super useful throughout life.

    ALL students will begin using JAG Mechanics in a couple of weeks. We will go through that through April 2014.

    In Jan. 2014, the older students will begin season one of BBR. I’ll report on that later. 

    HTH,

    Christie

    November 18, 2013 at 12:14 pm
    missceegee
    Participant

    Beneita – http://www.lulu.com/shop/angela-wilson/my-little-handbook-of-written-narrations/ebook/product-17454849.html

    We used this as a basis for the kids. It’s not perfect, IMO, but it worked well. My ds9 was new to written narrations and his first ones are pretty good and longer than 2 sentences. 🙂

    November 18, 2013 at 12:39 pm
    Angelina
    Participant

    Sincerest thanks, Christie, for taking the time to post in such detail! Sounds as though your program is going beautifully. How amazing to hear that ALL the children have given it praise and are learning well. Loved that link to HigherUP blog post; good reminders for me.

    Sorry to hear about Mr. Sports’ injury/cast (I can only imagine how hard that must be on him and on you!) and thanks again for sharing all your experiences with us 🙂

    Angie

    November 18, 2013 at 2:41 pm
    my3boys
    Participant

    Yes, thank you, Christie.  Very helpful.

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