Do you like the new LA, and what about mastery?

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Permalink Reply by Merry on April 13, 2009 at 6:44pm

A few thoughts, and then I'll post about the year we used SL LA...

You asked: how do you have your children demonstrate their grasp of the material and what do you think of the grammar, writing in the L. A. as it is now?

One, understand that Sonlight is not really a "mastery" oriented program. The history topics will come up again, and the LA topics will come up again. Mastery will happen over time, with repeated exposures that continue to dig deeper, rather than learning something with a specific beginning and ending point. With that in mind, Sonlight LA may or may not be the approach you want.

My kids demonstrate they understand what they read--or what I read to them--through narration and our discussions. They tell me what they remember, I ask questions, they ask me questions, we discuss. We don't need to generate paper to show learning (though we can--occasionally I'll have them write something about what they've learned in history or about a reader or a certain topic).

I think the writing in the new LA is full of great ideas. I haven't looked at the new samples to know what I think of how it's presented, still need to do that! (see my review below). As for grammar--my kids needed a bit more of a direct approach, with punctuation and irregular word forms pointed out to them, instead of assuming they'll get it with a natural approach. So that is one reason I've looked outside SL LA.

I used LA 3 (not sure which core/LA you might be looking at). We liked it a lot & gave it 4 stars out of 5. I was going to link to it, but it doesn't show up on the LA 3 page now. I understand they've added more examples & instruction now, so maybe they feel it is enough different that the old review doesn't show up--or maybe they just change the links! Anyway, here's what I had in my review of it from the 2007-2008 school year:

LA 3 has many good points. One of my favorites was that I could do it with both of my kids together (3rd & 5th grades this year). What a time saver! The writing assignments had good variety and were interesting. Buyers should realize the dictation/copywork for this year do not come from the readers as in other years. The selections are mainly scripture, sometimes poetry or quotes. My kids enjoyed the selections, so this wasn't a negative for us but might be for some.

The reason I don't give this product 5 stars: 1, We found the pacing to be a bit fast. Writing and revising on the same day would be overwhelming for my kids, so I never required that. Which meant we either didn't revise assignments, or we had to skip some to do that. Sometimes there were "mini reports" to look up information and write a short report all in one day. I think assignments like this need a bit more time.

2, I really want to do more with dictation. With only a few exceptions, the dictation in LA 3 has nothing to do with what you learn the rest of the week. It doesn't show examples of concepts (or if it does, they are not pointed out)--there's really no teaching included on what to point out to your kids from the passage or why it was chosen. It's just something to do on Mondays without tying into the rest of the week. Overall, a good, strong product that your kids can learn a lot from.

The biggest thing my kids took away this year was the value of a good hook. They recognize it in their reading, and try to apply it in their writing even when I don't prompt them to. And their writing ability improved a ton this year between doing dictation (we actually did it as copywork on Mondays & dictation on Fridays to get a bit more mileage out of it), and the writing assignments. In general, the pre-writing assignments helped them (a few in 2007 were a bit rocky, don't know if those got changed for 2008, but overall great), and they enjoyed the few picture "story-starters" included in this core.

HTH some as you decide what will work for you. I'd like to use SL LA again in the future, but I'm not sure if/when it will fit into the picture for us. Merry :-)

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Permalink Reply by Tina Watson on May 2, 2009 at 5:11pm

Dear Merry, Thank you for a thoughtful response! I love the idea of cyclical learning where mastery is demonstrated through narration and discussion. What I miss about the SL program is teaching both kids at the same time (though we're getting a little out of that range with my son about to be 9 and my daughter just having turned 12). I tried to do LA and History and Science and for some reason felt I was juggling 10 plates with broom handles I couldn't hold on to! Once again, however, I see my daughter telling me what she's learned in colonial history based on books she's read outside of the curriculum reading-which-is-very-thought-provoking, to say the least.
I wonder if you've heard anything about the WRITE WITH THE BEST curriculum. I recently downloaded 25 sample pages and think it appears to be very literary-friendly and simply presented. The author apparently presents excerpts from classic writings representing different genres and then, exercises for each day of the week, asks the student to mimic the example as well as find an example of the style in a good book of the students. (I googled it.)
Thank you for your feedback!
Tina

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Permalink Reply by Merry on May 2, 2009 at 6:12pm

No I haven't. I'm going to use Karen Andreola's Story Starters, and Jump In next year (you can see the whole first chapter of Jump In on Apologia's site). Not sure if I'll use JI for both yet, but I'll use the Story Starters for both kids.

Merry :-)

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