Name: Thrive! NCHE Homeschool Conference
Start: 2025-05-22T00:00:00-05:00
End: 2025-05-24T23:59:59-05:00
Location: Winston-Salem, NC

Tagged: Learning Language Arts Through Literature

This topic has 8 replies, 5 voices, and was last updated 15 years, 2 months ago by LindaOz.

Viewing 9 posts - 1 through 9 (of 9 total)

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February 6, 2010 at 6:34 pm
ksaffel
Member
I just bought Learning Language Arts through Literature – Tan Book for my 6th grade daughter. I have a question about the book studies. Do you have the student read the book before they do the activities? Do you read it aloud? Do they read it simultaneously? I would appreciate any help from someone who has used this program. Thank you.
February 6, 2010 at 9:12 pm
amandajhilburn
Participant
We just started the Orange book (grade 4) and I am letting my daughter read the book and then do the activities after she finishes the book. However, this is the first time we have used this curriculum and I am not in any hurry to get done. She is in the 3rd grade now and has finished her 3rd grade language workbook so we went ahead and got the 4th grade LLATL. We are also doing some other things in addition to her reading the book right now (EFTC vol. 2 two days a week and Daily Grams 3 days a week)I doubt that I will continue using so many different things when we really get going with LLATL, but for now this is what we have been doing during our transition time.
I don’t know it that makes any sense to you or not….LOL!! We are still working on getting our act together.
Amanda
February 7, 2010 at 5:36 am
LindaOz
Participant
We use LLATL and I usually have my kids do the activities as they are reading the book I find that some discussion questions can be done after reading certain chapters, so I have them do that. I’ll also set the daily readings around how those discussion questions are set up. Other activities that are related to specific pages or chapters can be done as those sections are completed too. Some activities require the whole book to be read first, so in that case we wait till then. My children read the books independently, but you could still have them narrate what they have read.

HTH
Linda

February 9, 2010 at 1:55 am
Jimmie
Member
We’ve used yellow and orange (3rd & 4th). I did have my daughter first read the entire book and then do the activities.
February 10, 2010 at 2:24 pm
mama2four
Member
I have a question for those of you who have used LLATL…
If I do copywork and dictation, is LLATL too much on top of that, or would it be just a good “extra”? I don’t want to give up the simplicity of what we do in exhcange for busy work, but I do like the idea of sneaking some grammar instruction in where I can, without it being too “school-y”, if that makes sense.
I’ve pondered adding either Simply Grammar or LLATL…
Thoughts?
February 10, 2010 at 3:48 pm
amandajhilburn
Participant
We have just started using LLATL (orange book/4th grade), so take my advice with that in consideration 🙂
It appears that they only copy a passage from their book on day 1 (there are 5 daily lessons) and then they can either copy it again or the teacher can dictate it to them on day 5. There is not anything for them to copy on a daily basis.
They then use that same passage that they copied on day 1 to pick out nouns, complete sentences, the subject, etc. So, they will be using that passage all week for different lessons.
I know nothing about Simply Grammar 🙁
February 10, 2010 at 4:13 pm
LindaOz
Participant
Hi mama2four,

I have used LLATL for a number of years now, and I find it to be a really good program. It is not just grammar, however, but contains a variety of LA skills based around a weekly literature passage. The passage is copyworked or dictated on Day 1 then used as a basis for other concepts during the week like composition skills, grammar, spelling, word building, comprehension etc. I like the way that the skills and concepts are taught from the context of real literature – not just isolated nuggets of information.

Having said that, I still think that you could gain from doing other copywork/dictation during the week as well – perhaps on the days where you don’t do them with LLATL. I personally find that the lit selections are often quite easy for my children as dictation, but the activities based around them are still valuable, so we still do them. (This is just MY opinion here – others may not find them to be too easy… ). You could add other c’work and dictation on days 2-4 of the LLATL routine (perhaps Spelling Wisdom) without it being overkill.

HTH
Linda
February 11, 2010 at 1:29 am
mama2four
Member
Linda, that does help! Thanks so much.
How do you break up the reading portions? Or maybe I’m asking how long it takes them to read the whole book?
February 12, 2010 at 4:10 pm
LindaOz
Participant
I usually have my kids read the books in their daily reading time. They might read a chapter or two a day, or they might just go ahead and read it more quickly. They are usually finished a book way ahead of when they finish the LLATL units that match that book. That is for the normal weekly units (Everday Words).

With the actual ‘book studies’ though, they usually read the chapters per day that relate to each lot of discussion questions, and that is during their scheduled English/LLATL time. Hope that makes sense…

Linda