Tips for Using Word Cards in Reading Instruction

1) Don’t use word cards with words the student has never encountered. Word cards are for practicing words used in instruction, not for long lists of words never encountered before.

2) Create word cards with words from a reader or book that your student is working through with you right now. Reading words in context (with pictures, sentence rhythm, etc.) is easier than isolated words. I like to be sure my student knows the words out of context. You can test to see if the word needs added to your word card stack by writing the word on the board. If there is instant recognition, then it probably doesn’t need to go on a card. If there is guessing or cues needed, then it could go in the word card stack.

CLICK TO WATCH!

3) Once many words are added to your stack of cards, divide them into difficulty level so that the student has a pretty successful pack; a needs some help pack; etc. And don’t do all of them at once—this will be too many word cards at once and can get discouraging.

4) Add words from one family all to the same stack. For example, all at words in one stack together (as opposed to dividing into different stacks/collections). This gives the student a chance to practice the same family at once—and you have the one family all together to use as needed for further instruction.

5) Add sight words from the books you are reading. Do not add random sight words or too many at one time. We call these Remember Words because she has to remember them—but I still point out any phonetic components to them as we work through them. Give all the tricks, cues, and tools that you can.

6) I like to do the cards after she reads a book or two to me. (We are still in Bob Books for this student, so the books are short.) This way she has had success in context before using isolated words.

7) Develop a protocol for guessing words. In the video, I use my “punishment time” approach—which is a little joke that we have. When she guesses a word that does not at least begin with the first letter of the word on the card, I say, “Punishment time…what is this letter?” She has to say the letter then I say, “What sound does it make?” And she has to say the sound. BOTH things. This makes her not want to randomly guess the words because it annoys her to have to say the letter then its sound. It is a quick way to break a student from guessing the word—the student at least should guess a word that starts with that sound!  🙂 It’s not real punishment—just our joke. But if the word punishment bothers you (or your student), you could call it “First Letter Rule” or “No Guess Rule” or something like that. Guessing is fine, but if the student isn’t at least looking at the first letter in guessing, it can become a really bad habit.

Hope these tips help! What else can I help you with in your language arts, reading, writing, grammar, spelling, speech, or word analysis teaching?

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Merry Christmas from Language Lady and Character Ink Press! It is the time of good cheer, festivities, magical moments with children, celebrating the Nativity–AND grammar errors galore! Usage errors are to be expected since many of the things we are writing this time of year are things we only write once a year. It’s hard to remember grammar and usage protocols that we use daily, much less ones that we only use yearly. I hope this post will clear many of your Christmas grammar issues up!

(Want to learn more grammar and usage from Language Lady? Check out these links:

• My new Tricky Tricks to Help It Stick Page
• All of our amazing Punctuation Puzzles
• The Write Right Quick Kit
• Preposition Practice Pack
• Think Fast Grammar Quiz)

This time of year we see a plethora of spelling, capitalization, grammar, and usage errors–on signs, catalogs, greeting cards, and more:

1. merry Christmas on a greeting card (which technically isn’t wrong, but just doesn’t look right either!)

2. “This line is for eight items or less”–even though it should be “eight items or fewer”

3. Xmas–even though the Associated Press itself says to never use this abbreviation!

4. Seasons’ Greetings (which indicates that you are offering someone greetings for more than one season–the plural noun seasons)

5. Happy capitalization guy or girl–Christmas Tree, Christmas Decorations, Christmas Ham, etc.

Many holiday greetings and terms are subjective (shocking, huh?); however, here is a list to help you see the most common ways that greetings and holiday words are expressed this time of year:

1. You can write any of the following:

a. Seasons Greetings (no possession shown at all–more of a noun describing another noun)

b. seasons greetings (same as a., but no capitalization–not recommended for greeting cards and headers)

c. Season’s Greetings (the most common way, showing that the season {one season} possesses the greeting; note the capping here)

d. season’s greetings (like c but not capped)

2. Of course, people also write Merry Christmas in different combinations (with and without the M capitalized; however, Christmas should always be capitalized because it is a proper noun by itself:

a. merry Christmas

b. Merry Christmas

3. To cap or not to cap greetings? This is a stylistic preference, but if it is in a header or greeting card, you definitely want to capitalize:

a. Season’s Greetings or season’s greetings

b. Merry Christmas or merry Christmas

c. Happy Holidays or happy holidays

d. Happy New Year or happy New Year

e. Happy Christmas or happy Christmas

f. Happy Christmastime (all one word) or happy Christmastime (again, all one word)

4. Words that are already proper nouns should remain proper nouns in every context and should retain their capitalization:

a. Santa Claus

b. Poinsettia–This is traditionally capitalized because the flower is named after a botanist and physician who was also the first US Ambassador to Mexico, Joel Roberts Poinsett. In 1828, he introduced the plant to the country.

c. The actual holidays

i. Christmas or Christmas Day
ii. Christmas Eve
iii. New Year’s Eve (one year–singular YEAR…..hmm….”that doesn’t end in an s, so I need to put apostrophe s”)
iv. New Year’s Day

d. North Pole (Remember–you capitalize directions when they are part of a proper noun already–but not when giving directions. No “Turn West at the corner”!)

e. Jesus, Jesus Christ, Messiah–most Christian publications capitalize names for or references to God and Jesus

f. All locations associated with Christ’s birth and life as they are proper nouns already–Bethlehem, Nazareth, etc., and, of course, King Herod, Joseph, and Mary (but not shepherds or wise men)

g. When describing decorations, only capitalize the original proper noun:

i. Christmas tree
ii. Christmas wreath
iii. New Year’s Day dinner
iv. Christmas Eve party

h. Nativity is capitalized when it stands alone or when it is combined with non-proper noun elements

i. Nativity scene
ii. Nativity pieces
iii. Nativity story

i. Advent is capitalized in all contexts

Merry Christmas from the Language Lady!

The post Fix Those Christmas Grammar and Usage Errors! appeared first on Character Ink.

An Introduction to Readability Levels

I began homeschooling over thirty years ago when Ray and I taught my younger sister (who was in eighth grade at the time) in our home. During my first several years of homeschooling, I used early readers when my children were first learning to read, but I did not care for “readers” for older children. I always felt that abridged or excerpted stories were inferior—and that children should read whole books.

This worked wonderfully for my first two (the ones who learned to read at age eight and nine). They didn’t like abridgements and excerpts very much anyway—and could easily read a couple of chapter books a week from ages ten and up. (I should note that they are both real literature buffs as adults, and our son teaches literary analysis of many novels to homeschooled students every semester. All of that reading really paid off!)

Then along came our third child, who begged for everything that I did not think was “best” for learning—workbooks (the more, the merrier, in her opinion); readers with excerpts and short stories; tons of what I had thought were useless pages of worksheets and coloring pages; and more. She was a different type of learner than Joshua and Kayla had been—and desired different learning tools.

So I began my hunt for “older” readers—readers for children beyond the phonetically-controlled ones that I had utilized to teach reading. I found many that I liked—and actually used some of them to read aloud to the kids since we found the stories and excerpts interesting and fun. They even caused my kids to go on and read entire books for themselves that they might have otherwise not known about or read (after reading an excerpted portion in their readers).

So…the moral of this story? Every child is different. Each child has his own learning style, likes, dislikes, etc. And we need to cater to those as much as possible in their learning. In order to choose reading materials for your children, a basic knowledge of readability levels will be a great help. I will detail readability levels and determinations in this month’s newsletter (March) and next month’s. 

When a child is in school, he is likely in a “reading group,” that is a group of children from his class in which all of the students read at about the same reading level. The child’s teacher chooses readers/stories for each group of children based on that group’s (the children in that group’s) reading level.

To practice with your child at home, you will want to do the same thing—but in a one on one, rather than small group, situation. How do you know what level is appropriate for your child?

I will enumerate some tips for choosing books at your child’s reading level, primarily for word-calling purposes. First, though, a small peek at readability levels will help you in determining your child’s reading level.

Readability is based on many factors. Many readability scales use one of a few simple formulae in which the number of words in a passage or story is divided by the number of words—and a readability level is derived based on the number of words each sentence contains (on an average). Other formulae use the number of syllables, considering that a sentence that contains twenty “one-syllable” words is certainly easier to word call than a sentence that contains twenty “three-syllable” words.

In both of those cases, the readability level is based on word calling, which is an accurate portrayal of early readers since children do not focus much on comprehension at that level of reading. (And if a class does focus on comprehension, it is usually just literal comprehension—what happened, who the characters were, etc.)

As students progress in their reading, we want them to not only be able to sound out words in a passage or story, but we want them to derive meaning from those words. Formulae for readability of a text based on comprehension is much more difficult to assess (though definitely counting number of words with longer syllables demonstrates a higher comprehension level than just merely counting the number of words).

So many things come into play when considering readability of, say, a chapter book of 150 pages. A book might be short but extremely difficult to comprehend due to the vocabulary used (which some formulae do not consider). Likewise, a book can be very long but have extremely immature vocabulary and not be difficult to comprehend at all.

In our language arts and composition books, we give students passages to write from at least half of the time for factual writing in the early grades, lessening as students learn to find appropriate sources themselves, etc. In choosing these passages to write from, comprehension is extremely important. In order to write from source material, a much higher level of comprehension must be realized than merely that of sounding out the words. In choosing passages for students to read, take notes from, and write from, we consider readability in terms of word calling first, then we consider sentence structure. Sentence structure includes the length of the sentence, the type of sentence (i.e. what we learned as compound, compound-complex, etc.), the type of and length of sentence openers a sentence contains (prepositional phrase openers, adverb openers, etc.), and finally, the vocabulary of the passage.

How does this apply to your reading with your student? Consider the list of ascending skills below concerning readability and readers:

Readability and Readers

1. In the early grades, you will be concerned with readability in terms of decoding, phonics, sight words, etc. That is, can your student read the words?

2. If your child already reads well in terms of decoding (sounding out words), and can “pick up anything and ‘read’ it,” you will want to focus on content—comprehending what he reads, discussing it, etc.

3. As students progress in reading, homeschooling moms and teachers in school often forsake the practice of reading aloud with children, noting that the child can word call anything, so there is no need to check for word calling skills/application of phonics. However, we advocate reading aloud with your child for some years, at least a couple of times a week. No, you will not be checking for word calling anymore (though my older boys will still say something like, “How do you pronounce this word—m-y-r-i-a-d?” when they are reading something to themselves), but reading involves word calling AND comprehension. A child who can “read anything” but not comprehend it is like a child reading “There’s a Wocket in My Pocket.” To say that a child in fourth grade can read at a ninth grade level because he can decode all of the words in a passage that is rated at a ninth grade readability level is like saying he can read the “Wocket” tale by Dr. Seuss. He might be able to word call it, but is he “reading” if he cannot comprehend what he reads?

4. Oral reading together with Mom or Dad at upper elementary grades is for comprehension—you will not necessarily be checking on the application of his decoding skills, but you will be checking on his comprehension, vocabulary recognition, etc. You will hopefully be guiding him through his reading, discussing it, answering questions about vocabulary words (i.e. words he can easily sound out but does not know the meaning of), etc.

5. If your child is beyond the beginning phonics instruction, you may not need books that are “graded” in terms of readability. Perhaps he already enjoys reading a certain picture book series or early junior fiction series. These can then become his “readers” to read with you.

6. Consider the differences in “readability” in the materials he reads with you vs the materials he reads to himself:

 
a. Be sure the material he reads aloud with you is somewhat challenging (i.e. he needs some help with words here and there but the books do not leave him in tears).

 
b. Be sure that what he is reading to himself is not so difficult that he needs cueing or instruction as he reads it.
 

 
c. Keep in mind that there are other things that affect readability besides syllable count, numbers of pages, sentence structure, and vocabulary. Interest is a strong factor in determining readability. (That is why I recommended the Saxon Bold Intervention+ for older students who need remedial reading on our Positive Parenting blog.The materials that they read from are high interest for older students—not childish or primary stories.) This is the reason that children who would not read their science or history book in fifth grade are picking up huge books of Harry Potter and these vampire books (not sure of their titles). Whether we like them or not, many children out there are reading these tomes simply because they are interested in them—despite the fact that those kids are not “at that reading level” and would never have picked up a book over two hundred pages prior to these books being released. (If you have an older student who is working on remedial reading, ask your librarian specifically for high interest/low readability materials for older students. Some of the adult literacy materials are extremely high interest with lower readability levels, as well.)

Other reading links:

Phonics Program Roundup for Reading Instruction

Using Word Cards for Reading Instruction

Reading Round Up: Tips for Teaching Your Child How to Read

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The post Readability Levels and Formulas for Homeschooling Parents appeared first on Character Ink.

I have a lot of material at the blog about reading aloud to your kids—unit studies, morning read aloud, Bible time, story time, family read aloud, and more. We did them all…nearly every day for twenty-five years….and I wouldn’t trade those hours for anything!

But there are logistics…especially if you are trying to do this with a large family…multiple ages and interests, etc.

Those are some of the things that I tackled in my latest Facebook Live video about Read Aloud Time!

Check it out…..and check out the links below for some fun readers and a darling chapter book!

Click on the pictures below to see my Sound it Out, and Read a Chapter beginning reader books!

PIN IT FOR LATER!

Sound It Out, Baloo!

PIN IT FOR LATER!

Read a Chapter, Mowgli!

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“I would be most content if my children grew up to be the kind of people who think decorating consists mostly of building enough bookshelves.” ~Anna Quindlen, “Enough Bookshelves”

During my graduate studies (in Reading Specialist) at Ball State University, I did a master’s thesis about children who learn to read without any reading instruction. That is, the kids just suddenly started reading books without ever having phonics lessons, basal readers, or other “formal instruction.” It was a challenging thesis simply because there is so little data about it because of our “early school attendance age.” Seldom does a child learn to read “naturally” before age six or seven, and with kids going to school at age five (and often beginning reading instruction in kindergarten), the research was sparse concerning these “instruction-less” readers.

I did find enough, however, and I was also blessed to find a family who had a natural reader to compare the printed data with. My observations, coupled with the studies in teaching journals, etc., led me to find what I called the “environment” in which natural readers are raised. This led me to other lines of thinking—if a child can learn to read with absolutely no instruction in a literary-saturated environment, wouldn’t this environment be conducive to helping those who DO receive instruction learn to read better, more easily, and more naturally?

The answer, of course, was yes. Study after study shows the type of environment that causes kids to learn better. Duplicating the “natural reader’s” environment can only help our kids learn better. Maybe our creating this “literary atmosphere” will not automatically make our six year old pick up a book and begin reading, but if it makes the learning process (actually any/all learning processes) easier, more enjoyable, and less stressful, why wouldn’t we want to duplicate it in our homes for all of our kids?

So what were the commonalities I found in studying the environment of “natural readers”?

Common Characteristics of Natural Readers

1. Interaction with adults—these kids were with adults a lot—and definitely not around peers more than adults. They had adults on hand to discuss things with, to answer their questions, and to provide examples of proper speech patterns, etc.

2. Much book handling by the child—these children were surrounded with books that they were permitted to interact with. They were often found at very young ages with stacks of books around them, just looking at the pictures, making stories in their minds from the pictures, etc.

3. Print abounds and interest in print is evident by itself—not only did the homes of natural readers contain books themselves, but they also contained all type of print. The parents of these children read magazines, journals, newspapers, etc. I think the “interest in print” part probably began with something like a parent saying, “Honey, look at this whale they found beached on the coast of Florida,” as he or she brought the little one up on to her lap to see the picture that was provided with the article in today’s newspaper, etc. This type of activity causes a child to become interested in print.

4. Audios and books are used—This is the reason why I began using book and tape sets a few times a week for my preschoolers and elementary children—and why we have used audios (talking books, radio dramas, etc.) every week of our lives since our oldest was one year old. Audios and books show our children the benefits and “fun” that reading provides.

5. Memorization takes place—these natural readers often followed a certain pattern—they memorized a picture book (usually many), then through the memorization, they began making print-sound-word connections. That is, when they turned the page and recited, “If you give a mouse a cookie,” they began to understand that i-f says if and y-o-u says you. Natural readers were experts at memorizing large portions of text.

6. Interest in writing words and “language experience” activities—many years ago, there was a movement in education to replace phonics instruction with “language experience” activities (also called a “whole language approach”). Phonics proponents everywhere were up in arms at the thought of “activities” of writing what the child said (dictation) for him, making little homemade books, etc. taking the place of phonics instruction. While I am a strong phonics proponent, I believe that these “language experiences” and “whole language” activities augment reading instruction greatly. And, of course, the natural readers in the research were exposed to these types of activities early and often. These kids were the ones who dictated thank-you notes to Mom to go to grandparents and colored a picture to send along with it; they were the ones who had a chalk board in the kitchen in which Mom or Dad wrote the day of the week each morning; they were those who “said” stories aloud and parents copied it in little “journal” books for the child. And on and on. Why wouldn’t these types of experiences and activities increase a child’s relationship with print and love for learning?

7. Experiences related to literacy and books—these obviously include the types of activities listed in number six, but these kids knew from birth that books and reading were important. They were the ones in a double stroller at the library lawn sale as toddlers—child in front seat with back seat full of picture books. They were the ones who had their own “book basket” in the corner of the nursery almost from birth. In other words, they were immersed in literacy and books from an early age.

8. Self-regulated behavior and risk taking—This characteristic related to how they “organize” their little lives. These kids would pull all of the Curious George books off the shelf and stack them up to look at after lunch. They often had little learning systems in place at ages four and five. And they were not afraid to be wrong. This, of course, stems from not being talked down to or made fun of when they did ask questions. These kids were risk takers because taking risks in learning (“Mommy, is this word (dapper) ‘Daddy’?”) yielded information that helped them in their quest to learn. The questions did not yield put downs or “you should already know this.”

9. Read to often—Obviously, a link has to be made from the squiggles on the page to the sounds that those squiggles make in order for a young child to teach himself to read. Thus, a child must be read to (or follow along with books and tapes) in order to learn to read without formal instruction. Now, this is not to say that a child who is read to will automatically learn to read early and on his own. I read aloud to our first three kids three to five hours everyday for years and years—and not one of the three was a natural, or early, reader! But it certainly created a love for print and learning in my children!

Children who learn to read naturally, without reading instruction, are raised in an environment that is conducive to learning to read naturally—an environment that creates a love for learning and a very perceived need to learn.

While I have never had a natural reader myself, I tried all throughout my children’s learning days to create this type of environment. It has created outstanding learners and avid readers in the Reish home.

One of the “rules” that Ray and I had for our children’s early education was that if something could be taught informally (and painlessly), we would teach it that way (as opposed to using workbooks or “curriculum” for something that can just as easily be learned while driving down the road or snuggling on the sofa).

That is one thing that I truly loved about the “natural reader learning environment.” Why get a workbook to teach capital letters when you can teach them while you are running errands (from all of the store signs)? Why get a program for rhyming words when nursery rhymes, silly songs, and I spy games on the road can do the job without the stress? The “natural reader learning environment” fit how we thought young children should be taught—regardless of whether our kids truly became natural readers or not.

Here are just a few of the skills that the research on natural readers indicated are learned/enjoyed by kids in this environment:

1. Contact with print

2. Thinking skills

3. Comprehension (especially when a wide variety of materials is presented and discussion follows)

4. Expanded vocabulary

5. Enunciation and pronunciation

6. Love of and need for reading

7. Sentence patterns

8. Relationship between parent and child—the most important one of all, of course!

Create a “natural reader learning environment” in your home—regardless of your kids’ ages….and watch the interaction with print increase; the love for learning grow; and the positive relationships bloom.

Whether you have a five year old who taught herself to read or an eight year old still struggling with primers, I encourage you to create a reading environment–and build life-long readers and learners! Blessings on your teaching and children!

The post Back to School Tip III of XII: Create Reading Environment appeared first on Character Ink.

School is well underway for most homeschoolers—and there are lots of kinks to work out here and there. That is fine. Just solve one problem and then move on to another. Tackle the thing that is the most bothersome, then the next most bothersome.

Don’t do everything at once. And don’t expect perfection!

There are a lot of things that you can do to solve reading problems…here are my top several tips, but most of these tips are spread out in the blog posts, products, audios, and videos that I have listed below for a sort of “reading round up” for you. Hope this helps your reading struggles!

Be sure to contact me with questions—I can answer you via a blog post, a freebie product (!), video, or audio! I love to help homeschoolers!!

Top Tips for Teaching Your Child to Read

(1) Be sure your child is ready! The reading readiness will often break down at the point of “chunking”—putting the sounds together. I talk about this a lot in my reading workshops, but this workshop will especially help you determine readiness (as well as choose phonics programs, readers, and more).

Link: [Podcast] Summer Reading Help for Young Students

(2) Wait for readiness! There are many things you can do while waiting for your child to be ready to learn to read—including read alouds, audios, and more. The pre-reading time is not wasted time!

a. Prepare them: [Podcast] How Do I Prepare My Child to Learn to Read?

b. Reading aloud: [Article] Reading Aloud Together

c. Using audios: [Podcast] Using Audios With Children

d. Story time: [Podcast] Story Time Questions

(3) Use readers widely! Your child should be reading aloud to someone twice a day while he is learning to read.  Use books that are just a little challenging for your child to read aloud to you. This is his instructional level, the level at which he is LEARNING. (For silent reading, have him use independent level readers (books he can read without any coaching from you). 

a. Using the Bob books [Article]

b. My new vocabulary-controlled readers (not phonetically-controlled—listen to number one; these are controlled in the NUMBER of words they contain) [Sound It Out Readers]

(4) Move your child to chapter books by reading aloud together from SHORT chapter books, like this one: Read a Chapter, Mowgli!

(5) Be sure your child recognizes the letters and the typical sounds of each letter on sight—using songs, mnemonics, etc. He shouldn’t have to think too much when trying to recollect a sound

a. Teaching letter recognition with clue word cards:[Product Preview] Letters and Sounds ABC Cards

b. Teaching sounds with clue word cards and song: [Product Preview] ABC Sounds Song Packet

(6) Get advice from those who have taught several children to read (they have a wider experience to draw from). Here’s a recent video I did for reading difficulty helps.

The post Reading Round Up: Tips for Teaching Your Child How to Read! appeared first on Character Ink.

Once I talked on the Language Lady Facebook page about how many times I had said “A paragraph is a unit of thought” in three days of teaching. (Too many to count!) And promised a post about designing paragraphs, paragraph breaks, and general paragraph help. Here you go!

Dividing paragraphs is one of the most challenging aspects of writing for young writers and adults alike (along with many other challenging aspects!). That is why when people who do not write a lot write a full page with no paragraph breaks. That is also why middle school writers start writing and have no idea when to indent–so they randomly pick a spot (“Hmmm….looks like I’ve written enough to change paragraphs now…”) and indent.

While paragraph division isn’t always simple to determine (I admit to looking at a lengthy paragraph and thinking those middle school thoughts myself at times!), there are some tips that can make the process easier.

1. Think of the “main idea.”

Remember all of those achievement tests that had you color in the little oval for a reading selection’s main idea? Well, turns out that is actually a skill you might need!

When you are writing (assuming you don’t have an amazing outline to write from–see next item!), ask yourself what the main idea of the paragraph you are writing is? Then keep writing until you start writing something that is not about that main idea!

I know that sounds simplistic, but it truly is the way to determine paragraph breaks–because, as I mentioned earlier–a paragraph is a unit of thought. When that thought changes, you should change paragraphs. Then you have a new “main idea” of the paragraph.

2. Write from an outline.

I know, outlines are for people who have more time than you have. However, if you want to write clear, concise paragraphs, you should learn to outline. (Stay tuned to Language Lady. I will teach you how to outline painlessly. Honest!)

In the fifty curriculum books that I have written over the past dozen years, every single writing project I have created has a student commit to the paragraph’s topic in an outline before anything else. I use dozens of outlining techniques in my books–Paragraph House for second graders, split paper technique for comparing/contrasting writing, formal outline for research papers, scene outlines for stories. But every type of outline I teach has one common characteristic: the Topic of Paragraph line.

When you create a paragraph-by-paragraph outline, you learn to write strong paragraphs without even realizing that you are learning to write strong paragraphs. Why? Simply because you are committing to what each paragraph will contain right off the bat. And you are forced to change paragraphs (start a new one) at the right time. Try it!

3. A paragraph generally contains three or more sentences.

I say generally because nowadays, especially on blog posts and inspirational writing, this rule of thumb is broken all the time. However, for those in school turning in reports and essays, it is still an important rule of thumb.

A paragraph might contain three or four sentences, or might contain eight or nine, but generally, a paragraph of fewer than three sentences is not truly a paragraph. And a paragraph of twelve sentences probably needs to be broken into two paragraphs (with the first paragraph being Part I of the topic and the second paragraph being Part II of the topic!).

This rule of thumb is a help to a new writer on the shorter end of the spectrum. A new writer needs to know that he can write three or four sentences for a paragraph, and it will still be a paragraph. (Let’s give those new writers every break we can!)

4. Teach very new writers to write the “paragraph is a unit of thought” way by having them write on a subject with clear paragraph topics.  

I know some of you adults are tuning me out here, and I understand! Language Lady has a diverse audience of adults who want to know where to put commas in and how to speak and write eloquently in the work place to teachers and homeschooling parents and students! So I will try to give you a little of everything!

In this instance, though, if you are a parent or a teacher (or both), this little tip can really help your young writers. (I’m all about making learning easier for young ones!) In my younger books, I like to expand from one paragraph writings to multi-paragraph writings by taking a topic that is simple to divide: Three Best Pets, Four Great Presidents, Five Zoo Animals.

By making the paragraph breaks so obvious, a new writer can’t go wrong! He is not going to write about cats in his dog paragraph. In this way, it is really like writing three one-paragraph reports and “squeezing” them together. It starts new writers out in a fool-proof method–and gives them immediate success.

So whether you are a teacher instructing a little guy in his first two

-paragraph essay or a college student writing eighteen pages of a final

research paper, always keep in the forefront of your mind that a paragraph is

a unit of thought. (And don’t forget to outline!) Smile…)

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1. They use my Directed Writing Approach!

In my Directed Writing Approach, every detail of every project is laid out for your student. None of my writing projects are “writing ideas” or “writing prompts.” Every writing assignment contains step-by-step instructions with much hand-holding along the way. The student is “directed” in how to write and what to write at all times—from brainstorming to research to outlining to rough draft and finally to revising.

My Directed Writing Approach takes the best methods I have discovered in order to teach each type of writing—color-coded research for research-based projects, “Topic of Paragraph” commitment for teaching paragraph breaks, The Three P’s of Persuasion for persuasive writing, the “section-paragraph-sentence” method for longer papers, story writing mapping, Paragraph House for young writers, 1-3-1 essay outlines, my Checklist Challenge for revising, and much more. Each Directed Writing Approach “method” is tried and true after fifteen years of my writing one hundred books and over fifty thousand pages!

Click on the picture above to view free samples of these books!

2. They contain a combination of projects—those with “given material” to write from and those that are completely original (in which student finds material on his own to use as his source).

Students are taught a wide variety of outlining methods in all of my books—Key Word Outlines From Given Material, Directed Brainstorming, Persuasive Mapping, The Paragraph House Outline, Split Paper Technique, Sentence-by-Sentence (S-by-S) Outlining from original sources, Q and A Outlines, Five W’s outlines, Scene Outlines for Story Writing, Formal Outlines for research, and much more.

I teach most writing types/projects by giving the student source material to take notes from first—then having the student branch out and write that same type of writing finding his own source. It is this combination of “given material” first followed by student-found material that gives the student confidence to write that type of paper or story. This method keeps the student from becoming too dependent upon given source material while at the same time helping him learn to find source material (or create his own!) after using given passages first. It is a win-win method.

Click on the picture above to view free samples of these books!

3. The skills that are needed for each writing project are taught within that writing project.

To ask a student to write a paper using three sources and two quotations without teaching the student the skills to complete those steps is cruel! When a project is being taught in my books, the student is also taught whatever skills are needed to complete the project.

 
For example, if the student is writing a story about an animal escaping, he will be taught words and vocabulary that describe various sizes and types of animals as well as how to use onomatopoeia to describe animal sounds. If a student is told to write a persuasive paper, he will be taught the elements of persuasive writing first. If he is writing a research report in which quotes are to be cited, he will be instructed first in how to use quotations (in an earlier lesson) then in how to cite them for that particular paper. These many “how to” lessons give students the tools to write whatever they are assigned easily and with confidence.

Click on the picture above to view free samples of these books!

4. Books are tested with over one hundred students each semester!

My books are not written by grammarians behind closed doors or even by experts who seldom work in small groups with students. (While my undergraduate degree in elementary education and my master’s work in reading specialist do help me occasionally, it is homeschooling for thirty-two years and testing my books every year {and writing and rewriting!} that give me my writing credentials.)

 
Character Ink books are written by teachers who write meaningful lessons then take them out and test drive them for two to five years with over a hundred students each semester. (My new 10 II: Four Research Reports has been tested for six years now—and took over a hundred hours to write and perfect the MLA/quotation citation methods lessons alone!)

 
Every year Character Ink has local cottage classes for homeschooled students in which small groups of students (six to ten per class) take either our complete language arts (Character Quality Language Arts) or our composition-only (Meaningful Composition) classes. As we test our books, we make notes in the margins, discuss them with our students (why was this one so hard for you when the last one was easier?), talk among the teachers, then go back and fix the books, tweak the lessons, and even drop lessons that are too confusing or uninteresting to students. You can’t possibly know if a lesson or project is a good one until you have sat across the table from eight junior high boys to watch their expressions (and/or glossed over looks in their eyes!). This is how we know our programs work!

Click on the picture above to view free samples of these books!

5. Student writing samples are provided for all original writing projects and portions of samples are provided for smaller assignments.

Our books have a little extra something that is seldom found in textbooks and certainly never found at the level of ours—student samples! Each of the original projects have a full-length student sample of that project. As a matter of fact, we use the student samples in our books to teach from—starting with Thesis Statements, Thesis Statements “Reloaded,” and other LINK sentences on to paragraph breaks, proper quotation use, scene development in stories, and much more.

 
Students understand the writing project so much better when there are models for them to look at and when they see what the expectations are for the project. Parents love our student samples because it helps them measure their student’s skills in following the instructions for each project (and gives the parent confidence to know if her student is completing the assignment correctly).

 
Our student writing samples are provided in all types of projects—expository essays, biographical reports, research reports, short stories, twice-told tales, persuasive essays, and more. Your student will know from the beginning what each project involves as the book takes him through a sample to see what great project he will be doing! Student samples are invaluable!

Need further evidence? Go to our blog and print off two weeks of free Meaningful Composition samples at each level (or several pages of the downloadable books). Try before you buy! You will be amazed at how quickly your students become accomplished writers—and how pain-free teaching writing really can be! 🙂

*Write On downloadable and print books (Write On, Mowli; Write On, Peter Pan; Write On, Beauty and Beast); Meaningful Composition; Character Quality Language Arts; and other downloadable e-books.

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“Prepositions show position!”

That is where I start. The very basics. Catchy. Easy to recite. Simple to remember.

From there, we branch out to the explanation: Prepositions show position of one thing to something else.

Of course, prepositions show time, space, and direction (among other things) of one thing to another thing. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves.

The first thing we need to know here about prepositions, as parents, older students, or adults, is the role that prepositions play in writing. So, today we will examine the role of prepositions—and tips, hints, and lists for learning these vital words. (Find all of my preposition teaching methods in the Preposition Practice Packet here!)

Our “grammar theory” here at Character Ink is that we learn grammar to write or speak.

I am a big “purpose for learning” type of teacher. If we know why we need to learn something, we will be more apt to want to learn it (or at least to see the value in learning it).

Thus, phonics is for reading and spelling. (No reason to learn phonics without also reading from a reader at the same time to apply the phonics skills.) And grammar is for writing and speaking.

So it is with preposition learning. Here is the sequence of “reasoning” for learning prepositions:

(1) Prepositions are words that are found at the beginning of prepositional phrases.

The prepositional phrase

a. A phrase—a group of words that does not contain a subject and a verb
b. Prepositional phrase–a phrase (group of words) that begins with a word known as a preposition

(2) The subject of a sentence is seldom found within a prepositional phrase.

Subjects in a sentence (anywhere in a sentence) must match their verbs in tense, number, etc.
Since the subject of a sentence is not found in a prepositional phrase, if you learn to recognize prepositional phrases easily, you can eliminate them (mentally) and easily find your sentence’s subject(s) and verb(s) to be sure they match.

We learn prepositions so that we can find prepositional phrase. One reason we find prepositional phrases is so that we can isolate them and match our subjects and verbs with each other.

A preposition is a word that shows position or time between one item and another. It is the first word of the prepositional phrase.

A prepositional phrase is a group of words that begins with a preposition and ends with the object of the preposition—the word that shows the “position” from or to. In the prepositional phrase, “the angel flew into the clouds,” clouds is the object of the preposition.

Again, we learn prepositional phrases so that we can mentally eliminate them in order to match our sentence’s subject with its correct verb. Recognizing and mentally removing prepositional phrases is a truly “writing worthy” skill as it will help a person write more grammatically correct.

Consider the sentences below that have the prepositional phrases isolated with parentheses. Once you mentally eliminate these prepositional phrases, you can easily match the sentences’ subjects with their verbs.

1. The boy (in the woods) was lost.

a. Isolating “in the woods” with parentheses keeps the writer from thinking that the sentence’s subject is woods—and keeps the writer from writing “woods were,” which is not correct.
b. The sentence’s real subject is boy and needs the singular verb was.

2. (On the outskirts) (of town,) a little house fell down.

a.This sentence contains a double prepositional phrase.

b. This double prepositional phrase is used as a sentence opener—coming before the sentence’s real subject and real verb.

c. By isolating both prepositional phrase openers with parentheses, we find that the sentence’s real subject is house (or a little house—some grammarians consider the one word subject and some consider the entire subject with its describers) and the sentence’s verb is fell.

3. The blonde girl (out of all the girls) was (on key.)

a. This sentence contains two prepositional phrases

i. Out of all the girls
ii. On key

b. By isolating them with parentheses (and thus, not considering them when we find our subject and verb), we can see that the sentence’s subject is girl and verb is was.

c. If we did not isolate “out of all the girls,” we might be tempted to think that “girls” is our subject and use the plural verb “were.”

Re-read the sample sentences carefully. Without isolating the prepositional phrases, would you have been tempted to use the wrong verbs?

Isolating prepositional phrases is one of the most helpful beginning writing skills that a writer can learn. It helps eliminate one of the most common sentence writing errors—that of mismatched subjects and verbs.

I think we can all agree that learning to recognize prepositional phrases is crucial to great writing! 🙂

Some Other Places to Learn About Prepositions:

Beauty and the Beast Preposition Packet

Preposition Practice Pal (with free download!)

Teaching Prepositions (video)

Prepositions List

5 Beginning Prepositional Tips

5 MORE Prepositions Tips from Language Lady

Punctuation Puzzle – Prepositional Phrases and Commas With Dumbo

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