Showing posts with label Language Arts. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Language Arts. Show all posts
Cana
My son had 41 spelling words last week.

I teach my kids spelling and grammar rules, but we do things in a way that feels natural to us.  Reading is core to our literature based education, so I have no concerns about them not having a diverse vocabulary.  As I review their work, any misspelled words are added to a list.  This list becomes next weeks spelling list.  If I see them struggling with a specific rule, I will add words that will help them understand it.  I use Spelling City to create lists and worksheets for them to work on that week.

Theoretically, they could have no spelling, but this has yet to happen. Usually they hover around 10 to 20 words, but my son had a epic week.  Most were errors because he didn't want to take the time to look up the word, but 41 is a lot of spelling words!

The Tuckers Take Tennessee
Cana
Callie and I have been working hard on her essay writing skills and it is paying off.  She is able now to get her thoughts out in an organized way.  She has so many creative ideas, but has difficulty expressing them on paper.  Her two most recent essays were about Monks in the Middle Ages and Jewish Persecution in the Middle Ages. Both of these were also for our History Unit on the Middle Ages.  We used some wonderful recourses at classzone.com
Indicating where to write the summary on the page. 
She has also been using the Cornell note taking method for researching. We found a great generator here and one that can be more personalized here.  Now if only we could do something about simple spelling errors.
Cana
This weekend we sat down and discussed our Language Arts program.  Right now, it is the subject that feels like it is just not working.  Both kids are finding the lessons a little boring and abstract.  Starting this week we are going to relate most of the Writing/LA assignments on our History.  Research Projects will have a greater writing requirement to help.  We all think this is a great idea.
Cana
Callie is continuing her creative writing about girls and cats. Today she did some in depth character sketches.
Cana
Today we started reading "Lord of the Flies" together. I think the 1st chapter is the longest ever. The kids were intrigued by the characters and look forward to chapter 2 tomorrow. They were immediately fond of Piggy.
Cana
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Cana
Callie and I had a long heart to heart Tuesday about her writing. She feels her writing doesn't reflect her thoughts and feelings and so she avoids writing at all cost. So we are embarking on a creative writing adventure to give her more confidence in her writing ability and give her a way to express all the great ideas she has. I found a Fearless Writing; Creative Writing Guide at BN yesterday and picked it up. I love that it is written directly to the writer, not a teacher who then has to present material to the writer. I am hopeful and so is Callie.