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Question about ULW and SW for 8th grader
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I am trying to plan out next years resources and am uncertain what I want to use and how I want to use it. My ds13 is going into 8th grade and has had a little grammar and writing, but he is so allergic to pencils we typically dont get through a curriculum. He knows the basic patrs of speach, punctuation is questionable (he likes commas and never knows where to end a sentence). His spelling has improved greatly this year and I am finally able to get a one paragraph written narration. We have been doing oral narration, but he has a hard time remembering, even though I do believe he is listening attentively. My question is where to place him in ULW. He is only about halfway through SW1, but I think ULW1 would be redundant. Should I bump him into SW2/ULW2? Or should I stay where we are and just review with ULW1 or should I use a combo of 1 and 2? Also I see the description of ULW includes “writing points”, does that include tips for complete sentences, how to write paragraphs, etc or just grammar and punctuation tips? I plan to do Jensens Grammar and Format Writing in high school so I wasnt intending to do Analytical Grammar with him. Also because of his age should I do more lessons per week to get him further ahead? Sorry so many questions. I have been eyeballing ULW since it came out but haven’t went for it yet. So what do you all think? Any suggestions?
Thanks,
Crystal
Crystal, the writing tips in Books 1 and 2 are not as detailed as what you described; however, there are multiple rubrics in the back of the teacher’s book designed to help improve written narrations one point at a time. The student version is simply a list of things to keep in mind and double check; the teacher version gives you a place to assign point values and track progress over time. It also gives you a strategy to help your student proofread his own work and find his own errors.
The rubrics don’t give all the punctuation guidelines; those are covered in Book 1 for the basics (and more detailed additional guidelines in subsequent books). So if he needs to focus on punctuation, I’d say Book 1 of ULW would be a good fit. The first half of it is designed to use SW1 Exercises 1–70 or so as transcription instead of dictation. So if your son has already done those exercises in SW1, you could simply do the ULW lessons orally using the exercises he has already completed. You can determine the speed at which to cover them; just be sure not to move so quickly that he doesn’t have time to absorb. The rubrics are designed to start halfway through the book, so the teacher book would tell you when and how to introduce and use them.
Long term, looking ahead, if you’re going to use Jensen’s Grammar and Format Writing, you could switch to those after he completes Book 1. Then you could continue with SW Book 2 for spelling along with those, if desired. ULW Books 2 and 3 focus on grammar, and Books 4 and 5 focus on composition; so if you’re using Jensen’s you probably won’t need to double up with those.
Thanks Sonya, I was really hoping to use ULW long term, but not knowing if it would be ready or how far we might progress I thought an alternate plan was in order. I did the math yesterday and it looks like we could probably get through book 4 by graduation if we did 3 lessons a week rather than 2. Will books 4 and 5 cover essay format and research papers?
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