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LANGUAGE ARTS TITLES
The books on this page have a mixture of
language arts subjects instead of just focusing on grammar, vocabulary,
literature, reading, or spelling. They may also be found on more specialized
pages.
Bilingual Instruction and English as a Second
Language
Dr. Edward Fry's Books on Reading, Phonics,
Language and Spelling
Grammar
Language
Practice and Review
Literacy Centers
Studying literature
Penmanship and
Handwriting
Public Speaking
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 Public
Speaking for Kids
, by Charlotte Jaffe and
Barbara Doherty. Published by Educational Impressions. If you've been looking for a
practical way to teach public speaking skills to children in grades 4-8, this is it. The
reproducible activities and lessons presented here teach the basic elements of good
speaking, and how to put them into practice. Students will learn how to use their voices
properly, and how to use eye contact, body language and facial expressions to enhance
their presentations. There are tips for preparing oral presentations, an evaluation
checklist and a chance to practice impromptu speaking with the Pick a Prompt activity.
Then students will move on to a greater variety of speaking experiences, formal and
informal, and they will learn to write speeches and prepare for oral assignments
correctly. As a culminating activity, students will research important sites within their
community and develop talks about these places so they may act as "tour guides,"
taking their audience on a journey "all around the town." This is a great
resource for speech classes and clubs. 64 pages. BTH-36. $8.06-D
Speakers' Club: Public Speaking for Young People
A complete developmental program from Dandy Lion which prepares young people
to become confident speakers. It includes lessons, student information, and
evaluation forms for making introductions, doing oral reports, writing a speech,
mastering speaking techniques, and delivering a polished presentation.
Reproducible. Cat.#BTH-585. $8.96-D
Reading Skills
Spelling
Vocabulary
Writing and Composition
Most of our books on grammar, writing composition,
vocabulary, and spelling are described in the following articles:
How to Teach English, Part I / How to Teach English, Part II
Prices on books mentioned in these articles may have gone up, so check before ordering.
One of the cheapest and best ways to teach the
fundamentals of parts of speech,
mechanics, diagramming, and sentence structure can be found in the Straight
Forward Series.
Be sure and read my comments and
recommendations in the Swap Forum
Do You Need Help Teaching Your Children to
Write?
I carry most of the books I mentioned recommended there
Ruth Beechick's Books
Language and Thinking for Young Children
(with
Jeannie Nelson) An oral language manual for parents and teachers of kindergarten and
primary children. Is ideal for helping children who have not yet learned to read grow in
their language skills to lay the foundation for writing later on. BTH-4476. $7.15-D
The Language Wars and Other Writings for
Homeschoolers: A series of essays that are especially useful in helping one
evaluate whether one needs to buy a curriculum or just use real books, whether one should
teach phonics and /or grammar as separate subjects or use a whole language or "living
books" approach. The book also gives you Dr. Beechick's thoughts on the other school
subjects. Paper, $14.40-D
The Three R's: All you really
need to start teaching the basics, reading, language skills, and arithmetic to children in
grades K-3. A packet of three booklets with an enclosed wall chart to help teach phonics
and arithmetic. BTH-2337.$10.80-D
 You Can Teach Your Child Successfully:
Takes over where The Three R's left off. Shows you how to teach
all major subjects to grades 4-8. Paper, 388 indexed pages. BTH-3177. $12.55-D
 Beginning
Writer's Manual: A reference book for students third grade and above. handy
for checking spelling, punctuation, and grammar. Contains a 7000 list of the most commonly
written words and their common variants and instruction in sentence construction, verb
use, parts of speech, prewriting, revising, and proofreading. Students are offered title
suggestions, sample opening sentences and story enders and they learn about dialogue,
imagery, and metaphors. There is space for developing a personal spelling list and sample
letters, a book report form, a daily journal and vocabulary improvement. By Edward Fry.
Cat. # BTH-494., $13.49-D
 Daily
Language Review, an Evan-Moor series. Book in this series help students
keep language skills sharp with focused practice presented in standardized test
formats. Each book provides four or five items for every day of a 36-week school
year. Scope and sequence charts are provided for the teacher, along with
the answer keys. Available for grades 1-6. Order by title and grade level. Each book is $17.99-D
The Elements of Style, by William
Strunk Jr. and E.B.White, third edition, with index. This is the classic for teens and
adults who want to improve their writing style and usage. It presents the most important
rules of usage and the basic principles of composition. It has a long section that
explains misused words and expressions, and summarizes everything with a simple list of
reminders to help with any piece of writing. This should be in every library. $5.35-D
Learning Language Arts
Through Literature, by Common Sense Press, for all grade levels. This is
an integrated Christian curriculum that gives form to the ideas of Dr. Ruth Beechick.
The Lively Art of Writing,
by Lucile Vaughn Payne. This handy little pocket book is designed to teach
adults in college or in the business world how to express their ideas, opinions,
arguments, problems, explanations, or instructions successfully in writing. It
teaches one how to choose a subject, work with words, write more powerful
paragraphs, and improve one's style. It also teaches one how to write an
interesting and successful term paper. If you have any writing to do in your
life, you should have this book. But it won't replace a good English handbook. $6.29.
Mystery and Suspense: Skill Oriented
language Arts Activities by Judith Steffens and Judy Carr. Learning
Works.112 pages, including answers. This reproducible book, with a special appeal for
adolescents, puts individual and group reading skill lessons in a framework of
suspense, horror and creative imagination. It is divided into five sections :
Detective Stories; The Mind of the Criminal; Horror and Imagination; Vocabulary; and Skill
Stretchers. Activities are identified by both title and skill to teach in the Table of
Contents. There are three book report forms especially designed to go with detective and
mystery books. The attractive graphics add appeal. BTH-1251. $10.79-D
 Myths
and Fables: Language Arts and Reading Activities by Judith Steffens and Judy Carr. Learning
Works.112 pages, including answers. This reproducible book, for grades 5-8
(gifted, grades 4-6), contains activities to develop skills in recognizing
sequences, understanding cause and effect, creating analogies, making
inferences, drawing conclusions, and using figurative language. The book
contains individual and group reading lessons based on Greek myths and
fables. They are specifically designed to expand vocabulary, increase
understanding of literary terms, and develop skill in both literal and
interpretive comprehension.
Vocabulary Development
skills include creating analogies, differentiating between connotation and
denotation, understanding synonyms, being aware of multiple meanings,
recognizing common root words, and using a dictionary and thesaurus.
Literal Comprehension
skills include comparing and contrasting characters or events; distinguishing
fact form opinion; locating specific information; identifying supporting
details; recognizing the main idea of a passage or story; understanding the
author's purpose; imposing order on ideas; and placing events in sequence.
Interpretive
Comprehension skills include identifying cause and effect; making
inferences; drawing conclusions; and recognizing point of view.
Activities are identified by both title and
skill to teach in the Table of Contents. The attractive graphics add appeal.
Cat# BTH-1350. $10.79-D
Note-Taking and Outlining by Steck-Vaughn.
Part of the Middle School Collection series. Contains pretest followed by information on
reference materials and using the library. This is followed by a unit on note-taking,
including taking notes based on an interview. Students learn to take notes on what they
read and on what they find on the Internet as they prepare to make written reports.
Students also learn what to do with notes after they take them -- how to organize,
summarize, paraphrase. Students are then given some passages to practice what they've
learned about taking notes.
The second part of the book focuses on how to outline a topic, use
supporting details in outline form, use footnotes and the appendix of a book, document
sources, and write a bibliography. There is a posttest at the end of the book. 48 pages.
For Junior High, or High School students in need of remediation. Cat. #BTH-1004. $7.16-D
 Poetry á la Carte
by Connie Homan Weaver. A Dandy Lion
Publication for grades 5-8. This book uses the theme of a feast of poetry that
students will sample. It's organized in the form of a menu. These are the
offerings:
Appetizers
-- poetic devices
Soups and Salads -- pre-writing activities
Entrées -- ideas for unique poetry
Desserts -- projects that combine poetry writing and
art activities
Special Seasonings -- poetry ideas for all seasons
Side Orders -- time-tested pattern poems
A la Carte -- ideas for sharing poetry orally
This book provides opportunities for
creative young poets to write, publish, read, embellish, and perform their work
before their peers. The lessons can be adapted for higher and lower grade
levels, different ability levels, and varying classroom structures. 120 pages.
Reproducible for classroom use only. BTH-169. $15.26-D
 Pot
Full of Tales: Using Folk Tales to Teach Creative Thinking and Writing, by
Vowery D. Carilile. Educational Impressions. For grades 1-4. This book presents ten
popular folk tales for use in teaching creative thinking and writing. Each unit begins
with a summary of the story and questions from Bloom's Taxonomy. The questions
are followed by ideas for independent projects related to the folk tales. Folk tales used
are 'The Golden Goose,' 'Such is the Way of the World,' 'The Bremen Town Musicians,' 'Snow
White and Rose Red,' 'The Funny Little Woman,' 'Stone Soup,' 'Ming Lo Moves the Mountain,'
'The Three Little Pigs,' 'Caps for Sale,' and 'The Emperor's New Clothes.' Activities are
reproducible for classroom use. 104 pages. Cat. #EI-972-3AP. $12.56-D
 Quick Flip Ideas
for Writing Domains, developed by Concetta D. Ryan. This flip book will
help people of any age improve their writing skills, develop a writing style, and gain
exposure to writing in several different domains. (A domain is a category that defines the
purpose of a particular kind of writing.) There are writing activities for Technological,
Analytical/Expository, Sensory/Descriptive, Practical/Informative, and
Imaginative/Narrative domains. Teachers will find this a great lesson planning tool that
will help them develop a balanced writing program to promote success for all students.
Cat. #BTH-170. Only $3.59-D .Qualifies for Title
1 funds. Higher discounts available for schools who order multiple copies.
Research and Reference by Steck-Vaughn.
Part of the Middle School Collection series. Paper, reproducible, 49 pages with answers.
Contains pretest followed by information on choosing and using various reference materials
and finding what one needs in the library adn on-line. This section is followed by a
posttest. The next section begins with an Analysis Test and then teaches students
how to write a research report. At the end they are asked write four brief reseach
reports. For Junior High, or High School students in need of remediation. Cat. #BTH-1005.
$7.16-D
 Take Any Book:
Hundreds of Activities to Develop Basic Learning Skills Using Any Book
by Neil Stitt. Fearon Teacher Aids. This resource will enable a you to choose
any book the class or student enjoys, turn to the chapter in Take Any Book
that covers a particular skill you would like to practice, and then select the
activity that best suits your students. Skills to teach include Beginning Word
Skills; Parts of Speech; Listening to Words; Word Building; Reading Skills; and
Writing Skills. Activity pages meant for students to use are reproducible. There
are lots of games to play, worksheets to use, and instructions for using charts
and graphs to record information found in books. There are activities in
sequencing, classifying and sorting, punctuation, interviewing, book reviewing,
making magazines, theme-based writing, and much more. 144 pages. Patterns
for games, etc, are included. FE-7961. $14.39-D
Take It to
Your Seat Literacy Centers from Evan-Moor are
available for grades 1-4 and address a number of different language arts skills.
$17.99-D each. Follow link for more detailed information.
 Think and Write! Sentence Organization, Parts of Speech,
and Literary Devices by Linda Milliken. An Edupress
publication for grades 5-6. Challenges students to think critically and write creatively.
Students learn about language art topics from alliteration to spoonerisms and practice
writing descriptive paragraphs and short stories. Reproducible for classroom use. 48
pages. EDP-199. $7.19-D
 Word Book For Beginning Writers, by Edward Fry. Contains 1000
Instant Words arranged with one beginning letter on each page to make it easy
for beginning writers to look up spelling they are unsure of. This list contains
90% of all words a student needs to write anything. There are also pages for a
student's personal list of difficult words and pages with punctuation,
capitalization, and spelling rules, a handwriting chart, instruction in
addressing envelopes, and more. This can serve as a language text for primary
students. Cat. #BTH-493, $8.06-D.
Word, Words, Words: A Reference Book for
Beginning Writers with Rhyming Dictionary, by Babs Hajdusiewicz. A Good Year
Book, paper, 8.5" x 11." For ages 5-8. This book provides a single source for
beginning writers who need to look up words of all kinds. Thousands of words have been
carefully selected and organized into comprehensive lists of synonyms and antonyms;
metaphors and similes; homophones and homographs; compound words and contractions; fun
words, and over two-hundred families of rhyming words. As if this weren't enough, children
can also find proofreader's marks, library classifications, and specialized indexes
to the synonyms and rhyming word families. A glossary and regular index are also included.
232 pages of comfortable size print for little eyes. $11.65-D
Wordsmith
Apprentice, by Janie Cheaney. This book for grades 4-6 uses the
newspaper as the basis for learning to write. $14.40-D
Wordsmith:
A Creative Writing Course for Young People, Revised, by Janie Cheaney. I like this
book for teaching grammar and composition to middle school students because whenever a
point of grammar is taught, it is integrated into a writing assignment. Grammar is taught
in its natural context -- writing. BTH-1662. $14.40-D
Wordsmith
Craftsman, Revised, by Janie Cheaney. A self-directed program, building,
integrating, and polishing practical writing skills to prepare young adults for a lifetime
of excellence in communication. BTH-1683. $14.40-D
Write Source: Simply the best
English handbook available for grades 4-8. Cat. #01509, $16.50*
Write
Source 2000: Same content as Write Source with more modern
format. Writing information is in the front with grammar and usage information in a
"yellow pages" section at the back. The book itself is more up-to-date in its
maps and calendar pages, since it was published later. Cat. #BTH-1664, $18.50*
Writers Inc:
The BEST English handbook for grades 8-13. Same format as Write Source 2000.
Cat. #1511, 19.95, softcover. *
 Writing
Through the Year: Building Confident Writers One Month at a Time, by
Sandy Woolley. Dandy Lion Publications. For every month there are
sentences for each day that are related to history or culture. They are rather
like trivia facts. The sentences are written correctly. The teacher is supposed
to rewrite them with mistakes that the student should be able to correct. The
mistakes can be geared to review what has been taught before and what has just
been taught. The sentence of the day section for each month is in two parts: one
for primaries, and one for upper grades. The rest of each month's lessons are
adjustable to any grade from 2-6.
One specific writing skill is taught each month. Topics through the year include poetry
writing, organized paragraphs, research reports, fiction writing, point of view, fairy
tales, borrowing a plot, autobiographical incidents, personal interviews, and using
newspapers. Students are also encouraged to write journals. For each month there are
enough journal topics for two or more journal entries per week.
Each month's material has two other components. Since vocabulary is an important part of
writing, there are lessons on dictionary use and/or root words each month. The author also
believes it is valuable to memorize poetry, partly because of the foundation in literature
it provides. Memorizing poems helps familiarize students with the work of different poets
and the various styles of poetry. The author also believes that reciting a poem in front
of a group can give a student important practice in speaking publicly. A poem is easier to
remember when one is nervous than an original speech. It is hoped this familiarity will
help students write their own poems, and there are suggestions each month to encourage
young poets to get started.
One of the most valuable features of this book for the one who is teaching writing is a
section on grade level expectations in the introduction. For each grade there is a list of
what usage skills a student should have mastered by the end of the grade. This gives the
teacher a good idea of what to stress at each level if there is no other textbook or
curriculum guidance.
I like this curriculum because it gives a child a chance to sample the various
types of writing in a consistent way. Your child might discover that he enjoys
writing a story or poem, and you may discover that she has a flair for it. But
certain elements, such as journal writing and the language exposure in the
poetry selections, are present every week or month. The book is directed toward
the teacher, but pages are reproducible so that you can copy anything you wish
to give to your children. The price for this curriculum, which can be used for
several children at different grade levels together, is just BTH-1705. 15.26-D.
* This symbol means this is a short discount book and we
cannot give you an additional 10% discount on this item.
Articles: How Do I Teach English, Part I / How Do I Teach English, Part II
Vocabulary / Spelling / Grammar and Usage
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