HOW DO I TEACH ENGLISH?
This is the time of year when many of you are beginning to
think about you’re going to do next year. Some of you are reevaluating what
you’ve done this year and are looking for a different approach . Others of you feel
you’re on the right track; you’ve found an approach that works, but you’d
like a few fresh ideas to liven things up a bit. Here are a few suggestions and resources
that might be useful.
First, know what you want to accomplish. Evaluate each
student’s writing to see what skills should be taught next year. Are you following a
school curriculum, or intending to put a child into school at some time? If so, you need
to know what that school will expect your child to know when you enroll him. Otherwise,
you are free to choose your own methods and materials and to wait until you think your
child is ready before you launch into a formal study of grammar.
When you’ve written down your goals, the next step is
to plan how to best reach them. Keep your own teaching style and abilities in mind as you
plan. Can you make your own curriculum, or would you feel more secure with a text or
workbook? Perhaps all you need is a little direction. Teachers of primary students should
read Ruth Beechick’s The Three R’s ($10.80-D) for inspiration. Teachers of
junior and junior high students should read Beechick’s You Can Teach Your Child
Successfully, Grades 4-8 (12.60-D). Some time spent reading these books can save a lot
of money on textbooks you might not need.
If you determine that you need to use a textbook, check out
the big companies who go to all the conventions. I haven’t used them since I quit
teaching English in schools. If you’re ready to plan your own course of study,
perhaps I can help.
During my years as an English teacher and homeschool mom,
and now as a vendor, I have used, seen, and evaluated many different books in the language
arts area. I’ve also gotten input from other teachers. It won’t surprise you to
learn that no one approach works for everyone.
It might surprise you to know, however, that not everybody
agrees that you need to start a formal study of grammar in the elementary years. If a
student will not go to a school where he’s expected to know something about parts of
speech, you might be able to teach grammar to all of your children together when your
oldest child starts high school. Unless things have changed in the past five years, the
standardized tests require a student to know good usage: spelling, rules of punctuation
and capitalization, what constitutes a complete sentence, agreement of subjects and
predicates, and other patterns of speech and writing that are best taught by modeling
standard English usage, reading aloud, and writing. It has been my experience that most
text books start with parts of speech, and that the year seems to be over before they get
around to teaching writing. This ought not to be. The goal is learning to speak and write
effectively.
I would heartily recommend that every home schooling parent
get certain items that I consider basic. Comprehensive
Composition by Kathryn Stout (14.00*), contains everything you need to know about
teaching composition at every grade level. Write Source 2000 (17.95 softcover) is absolutely the best English handbook you can buy, and will do nicely
for grades 4-8. Writers INC (19.95 softcover) is the best handbook
you can buy if your children are junior high or older. These books are so attractive they
beg to be used. It is easy for students and teachers alike to look up information on
writing, grammar, usage, spelling, punctuation, study skills, and even public speaking.
The almanac contains maps, historical documents, and even math and science facts and
tables. Why should anybody spend $15 or more every year to buy a textbook that repeats a
lot of what was in last year’s, with a bit of new material added? Why not get it all
at once and teach it when you need to? Write Source now has texts, teacher’s manuals,
and workbooks for every level, but they never used to. It just isn’t necessary, in my
opinion.
So, Comprehensive Composition and a good handbook
will give you the basic facts to be taught and good teaching methods for composition at
each grade level. But perhaps you’d like some workbooks or enrichment books to help
you over some rough spots. One rather inexpensive one, good for all subjects, ages, and
grade levels, is Quick Flip Questions for Critical Thinking, only 3.99, based on Bloom’s
Taxonomy and developed by Linda Barton. This little 14-page flip chart contains key
words and questions for all six levels of thinking in the cognitive domain. It will help
you design assignments, lead discussions, and prepare tests relating to any subject.
In the primary years I think languages skills are best
taught by reading aloud and reading aloud some more, with lots of discussion. I prefer
unit studies, and my absolute favorite of these is Five in a Row. Jane Lambert has
selected a number of outstanding picture books and written three volumes of lessons around
them. The basic idea is that you pick a book, read it aloud for five days in a row, and
each day you pick an activity from a different subject area. An example: for The Story
About Ping you will find social studies activities about discernment in relationships,
the physical features of China and the culture of China. You pick the one that best suits
your students. There are three literature activities, five art activities, and so on. If
you want to use Ruth Beechick’s approach, you can also use these books to teach and
reinforce basic primary English skills through discussion and dictation. Jane has four
volumes at this time. Book 1, 19.95, is for the fall semester. Book two, 24.95, for
spring, contains more lessons. Book 3, 19.95, is for the summer. A Christian Bible
Study Supplement, 17.95, brings out the moral and character issues in the stories from
all three volumes and ties them into Bible passages. This last book is useful for anyone
who reads picture books with children. (By the way, I stock the books from all three
volumes that are currently in print. See price list. on page
describing Five in a Row
I see I’ll run out of room if I describe everything
good for the younger ages, but I feel I must mention some books you may not hear about
anywhere else. Ruth Heller has a series of brightly colored
picture books about parts of speech that are a true feast for the eyes. No family with
elementary children should miss these at only 7.95 apiece. Titles are Up, Up and Away:
A Book About Adverbs; Kites Sail High: A Book About Verbs; Many Luscious Lollipops: A Book
About Adjectives; Merry-Go-Round: A Book About Nouns; and A Cache of Jewels and
Other Collective Nouns. Believe me, the illustrations alone are worth the price of
these books.
If you want books with actual writing assignments and
lessons, I would most recommend Wordsmith Apprentice for
grades 4-6 (16.00), Wordsmith, for junior high (14.00) and Wordsmith Craftsman for
high school (14.00). I like these books because when they teach parts of speech, they
immediately incorporate them into writing applications instead of isolating them. In Wordsmith
Apprentice, Jane Cheaney uses a newspaper as the basis of all writing. Your
student joins the "staff" of an unnamed newspaper. Through a series of
practical and imaginative assignments, he or she learns about nouns, verbs, and basic
sentence structure; modifiers and more complex sentences; and organizing and reporting.
Wordsmith gets into more parts of speech, building strong sentences, and writing
narratives, dialogue, and even a story. Wordsmith Craftsman is a self-directed
program that lets students take charge of building, integrating, and polishing their own
writing skills. as they approach the college years.
If you’d like an innovative way to review English
spelling, vocabulary and usage, try The Great
Editing Adventure Series. Students learn and review by searching for errors in
exciting stories you can write on the board or a piece of paper. Volume I (15.00) contains
three separate stories divided into a total of 90 lessons. Volume II (15.00) has three new
stories, also containing 90 lessons. Student workbooks are available for each volume at
10.00 each. These contain the grammar activities (so you don’t have to write them
out) and space for the student to write the corrected version.
I wish I had room to list more, but I do carry most of the
books you’ve seen reviewed elsewhere. Just call for availability and prices.
I’ll go more into spelling and vocabulary next issue. Hang in there. Help is coming.
This is a reprint from Books, Pens, and People,
Issue 4
A publication of Barb's People Builders
© Barbara Radisavljevic, 1997
ARE YOU AFRAID YOU DON'T KNOW ENOUGH TO
TEACH WRITING COMPETENTLY?
IF SO, CLICK HERE
How Do I Teach
English, Part II
Vocabulary / Spelling / Grammar and Usage
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