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Using Language Well – Help!
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Hi! Somehow I missed or just didn’t follow up on the announcements for ULW, and now that I am planning for next year, I am looking into ULW seriously. I am most interested for my daughter who is 11 (12 come Nov 2), who will enter 6th grade in the fall. I have thoroughly looked over the samples available. I am terribly uncertain where to start her.
She has been bee-bopped around some language arts over the last two years – my fault. She’s been introduced to most of the parts of speech (n, v, adj, adv, do, prep, pn…though she forgets sometimes. Latin has been helping, though!). She knows her basic punctuation and capitalization rules. Complex alphabetizing and dictionary work still frustrates her. And she struggles – just a little – to use commas, possessives, and plurals properly, but I’ve met grown ups with worse skills! We have not covered much in the way of dialogue and quotation marks. She has been introduced to some of the spelling rules noted at the back of Teacher Manual Sample, but she probably could not always get them correct. I fear that a good portion of BOTH book 1 and 2 would be review, and therefore, perhaps boring? She knows what I would guess to be about the front 1/3 to 1/2 of each book. Which one to start with? What if Spelling Wisdom 1 is too easy and not a challenge for her? I’m really wanting to move her toward better written narrations. She can narrate orally well, and she can write wonderful creative stories (though her mechanics, or lack of application thereof, always make me twitch).
I just feel that nothing that I have yet done with her has created good retention. She is quite bright, and she reads a lot; however, it is a struggle to get her reading books of greater depth and elevated language. She writes great stories with impressive vocabulary and phrasing, but cannot seem to apply the things I have been teaching her for years. She can retell a whole story with great detail, but balks at writing a narration. I know, though, that this child struggles with laziness and a “dislike” for school.
I’m at a total loss for placement for her in ULW. Sonya? Anyone who has used ULW? Where to place her?
Sorry for the delay, MamaWebb. I was out at a convention.
It sounds like your daughter has already covered what she would get in ULW Books 1 and 2. It might be helpful to take this next year just to help her apply what she has learned to her writing — gently, one or two points at a time.
In the teacher book sample, you should see an explanation of the rubrics that are provided to give some guidance to evaluating and progressing in written narrations. The rubrics hold the students accountable for only aspects that have been covered in past lessons. You might take a look at that portion of the teacher book to either 1) see if those rubrics would be helpful to you, or 2) create your own rubrics in a similar vein.
Judging from your description, I’m thinking that you could probably focus on just prepared dictation (using possibly Spelling Wisdom, Book 2) and progress in written narrations and be just fine.
Oh Sonya, thanks so much, no need to apologize! Hmmm. I struggle to believe that she has mastered all those concepts though. I wonder if book 2 might be good to solidify, perhaps, her shaky grasp on some of those things? And maybe just add in a few lessons on the use of quotations and the spelling rules for plurals? Grrrr, sigh. Making decisions is hard! Lol!
I have a writer here, too. I would like to recommend The Writer’s Jungle by Brave Writer for you to read yourself. It can help you help with your daughter’s creative writing projects and find ways to incorporate writing into school subjects (written narration). I am reading through it now and have found many great ideas to use with my young author. I take notes as I read and then I will work out a custom plan for us. I like how the emphasis is on enjoying the writing. Here is a quote from p. 20, “Everyone can achieve a level of competence and pleasure in writing that both satisfies the writer and enlivens the reader.” I purchased my ebook discounted at homeschoolbuyerscoop. You could still use ULW and SW too.
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