L.A for 5th grade ULW/SW

My oldest used the first half of ULW book 2 along with SW book 2 this past year for 5th grade.

We both liked it and plan to continue into 6th grade.

She did two lessons/week. Over all I would say 10-15 minutes/day, they work seamlessly together. Over all it has been really “hands off” for me, except reading for dictation to her.

Monday – ULW lesson and studied SW passage (this took time for her to learn what I meant by “studying” the passage. We had a rough start before I realize it was my error for not helping her find what worked for her. For her, what she settled into doing was using a small dry erase board and working through new words that she was unsure of)

Tuesday – Dictate the SW passage for her to write

Wednesday – OFF

Thursday – Repeat of Monday

Friday – Repeat of Tuesday

Along with this she continued with oral narrations and one written narration/week using the ULW writing narration rubic to help her start noticing and correcting her own work while writing. I would schedule her written narration for when she did not have dictation since that would be a lot of writing for the day. Usually Monday or Friday for written narration. Next year she will move into two written narrations/week.

Personally I feel that it has been just the right amount. I did Jr AG last year and nothing really “stuck” and she really struggled with it. I have found that by noticing grammar during the ULW lesson, dictation, and also in written narration her grammar has improved quite a bit. She is not a natural speller, but this year her spelling has come a long way in her written narrations which I think comes down to her taking the time to study for her dictation exercises. I admit, I was nervous because 4th grade I was wondering if she would catch on with spelling, but with time she continues to improve.

It has taken me a long time to relax and trust the methods, and not feeling the need to “drill” grammar facts over and over (what I grew up doing). I am finding with time she is a lot more ready to understand the concepts as ULW introduces them, therefore she is retaining the information.