English Lessons Through Literature Curriculum

I love ELTL.  Completed Level 2 with my 3rd grader this year.  Next year he’ll move on to Level 3 in the fall and I’m planning to start Level 1 with my 1st and 2nd graders at that same time.

I liked it, but I ended up setting is aside in February and dropping grammar and going to PLL (PDF workbook available). It could have been user error on my part, I chose level 3 for my DD in 3rd grade. She had completed Rod & Staff grade 2 English in 2nd grade and could read the books so I thought it would be a good fit.

The diagraming made sense to her, but when we got to prepositions she got lost and was not grasping it at all and required a lot of hand holding on my part. Even prior to that, she was doing the exercises but I don’t know if much really “clicked”. My DD did not like that within a lesson some parts were for her, but others I had to do with her, so it felt like a lot of “do this, now wait for mom” for her. We were doing Spelling Wisdom so we did not do the dictation exercises, she was doing oral narration already with History and Science and would tell me about the fiction book she was reading with ELTL so we did not do any of the extra exercises for narration. We ended up using the reading schedule for the books suggested and the grammar exercises, we skipped the rest. That is the nice thing, do only what you want 🙂

I was also using ELTL level 1 for my ODS in 1st grade, so between the two of them, it felt like a lot for me as a teacher to do both books considering that both were pretty hands on for me to help the kids. In the end we rarely did the picture study because it would usually hit at a weird time of day, so I would say “we will get to that after…” but then never get back to it. I did much better with staying consistent with SCM picture portfolios.

I think it is a great program; just not the right fit for me right now. Maybe another time or if I had picked a different level it would have worked better for us.

Level 2, which is what I am using now, has gone through the basic eight parts of speech, addressing an envelope, the months of the year, capitalization, parts of a letter, and the use of apostrophes.

I don’t have Level 3 yet, but I do think that is when sentence diagramming begins.

There are PDF samples of ELTL available at http://www.lulu.com.  I would think that would include the scope and sequence of each level.

Thank you ladies, both your posts have given me more to think about.

“Level 2, which is what I am using now, has gone through the basic eight parts of speech, addressing an envelope, the months of the year, capitalization, parts of a letter, and the use of apostrophes.”

jawgee, your summary is helpful. I’m intrigued by level 2 since it covers the 8 parts of speech, however, some of the others skills may be repetitive…but a little review never hurts.

sarah2106, I totally get what you’re saying. I’ve been back and forth on this idea of just the facts grammar and “drawing it out”. I can see pros and cons to both.

One thing that really draws me to ELTL is the use of real literature to illustrate the parts of speech. My son is definitely a just the facts kind of kid, but he also wants to see how it’s applicable. If it doesn’t seem relevant to him at the time, he wants no part of it.

Do either of you use the additional workbooks or do your kiddos answer orally or in a notebook? I’m thinking the workbook with cursive font would be helpful for copywork.

I also like that the author included copywork, picture study, and narration prompts with the grammar as it seems to kill multiple birds with one stone. Does the program flow naturally or does incorporating all these methods make it choppy?

Thanks so much for your time,
Melissa

It doesn’t flow as well as a grammar-only workbook would, but my 9YO son enjoyed the variety.  He loves the Aesop’s Fables, looks forward to the narration days, and really enjoys listening to the literature selections on audio.  (I get the audio books from Librivox.  It’s such a peaceful part of his day.  He always wants to tell me all about the story).

He doesn’t care for the picture study as much, but I love that it is in there.

His retention has been very good.  I’m very pleased with what he has learned.  Each lesson only takes us 10-15 minutes, so it is short enough for him to pay attention and really give it his best.

I didn’t use the workbook this year but plan to use them next year with my then 10YO, 7YO, and 6YO in place of their current copywork.

I think that is why it was not the best fit for us, it included things that became duplicated.

When I purchased it I liked the idea of it being all together, but as we started implementing things, I realized that we were already doing so much of everything already, so it became duplicated and we went to just the grammar instruction with Level 3 for my ODD. I wanted her to have some grammar instruction, but did not want to go too in-depth and thought this would be a great start.

Level 1 is a nice intro; It covered simple mechanics like starting with a capital letter or notice the punctuation or quotation, also included days of the week, months of the year… and it had really nice fables to read with my ODS; but as with Level 3 and my ODD a lot of it seemed duplicated with what we were already doing and what came up naturally in copy work (as far as punctuation and capitalization).

I have found over this past year that I tend to like programs that are subject specific and then mix and match what I like. Like something specific for grammar, dictation, copy work… not all together; BUT if you like everything together this is a fabulous program!

Oh and Level 3 does not have nearly as many of the Aesop’s Fables, it has some, but moves into other writings as well.