Grading High School Essays and Papers

One of the most frequent questions I get asked by email is about how to grade high school essays and papers, so I thought I would share with you what I have learned over the years of homeschooling about this subject.

from a analysis of a play by Katie Bergenholtz

Different essays or papers will have different styles and purposes, so you will need to make it clear to the student why he is writing the paper and who his audience is. Is the paper to persuade, for example, and who are you persuading? Your peers? Adults? Do the people who are reading it already need to have a basic knowledge of the subject or can they come to the paper knowing nothing about the subject?

Style and Form: The Difference Between APA and MLA Papers and Essays

No matter what type of paper or its intended audience, the paper needs to have a clear thesis. It also needs well-reasoned support for the thesis. It should also contain appropriate quotes or paraphrased information from a few different sources (for a high school paper, I usually ask for five, but you can set any number you feel is appropriate). These sources should be cited accurately, which means that you need to decide what style is accurate for any given paper. You may want them to cite sources in a MLA style, APA style or a simplified version. I start out with a simplified version in 9th grade because they are still learning so much about writing, but by the time a student has graduated, he should be familiar with both MLA and APA styles. (A post about these styles, and their similarities and differences can be found here: Style and Form: The Difference Between APA and MLA Papers and Essays.) You will need to set a length for the paper, such as 2,000 words.

from a paper on President Johnson by Sam Bergenholtz

The paper should contain a fully developed  introduction, body and conclusion. If appropriate, it should contain a counter argument and a refutation of that counter argument. The paper should be free of grammar, usage and mechanics errors.

The rest of what I  look for is harder to explain to students. The paper should be written with an appropriate stance, style and tone. For example, the student should avoid using first-person or second -person.

Even if he has written papers before in middle school, you should not expect your student to write an high school level paper to its completion without any assistance from you. To accomplish this without either seeming like you are hanging over their shoulder or the student feeling like he has to get your approval too often before moving on, set dates for three rough drafts before the final paper is turned in.

The first draft is intended to be an exploration of the topic, and so the focus should be on the content, not on grammar or citation.  It should include an introductory paragraph that sets the context of the paper. It should contain a clear working thesis and as many individual points of support as he can think of. He should also attempt to embed at least two different quotes to provide evidence of support. I usually expect this to be half the length of the final draft. If your student is struggling to meet this length criteria, don't let him get hung up by it. He can add notes to himself such as, " I need to find a good source for a definition of this" and have him count this toward his word count. When he turns this in, you should make suggestions that will help him to write his second draft. Focus on the most obvious points and save the fine tuning for future renditions.

Finding Sources for a High School Level Paper or Essay

The second draft, which is due a week or two later, should reflect the changes based on the suggestions you have made. At this point, he may find out that he needs to do additional research. The second draft should contain a clear thesis statement and reflect any narrowing or refocusing of the thesis. It should also contain three solid points to support the thesis. It should contain quotes and citations from at least five sources, including two scholarly sources. (More about the difference between scholarly and other sources can be found here in the post, Finding Sources for a High School Level Paper or Essay.) These quotes and citations could illustrate or bolster a point from a credible source. They could illustrate the counterargument of the issue. They could define a term or concept that is not common knowledge. They could also illustrate a misconception or popular myth about the issue. 

from a paper on price controls by Sam Bergenholtz

The second draft should have clearly stated counterargument and refutations on the issue. It should have a draft introduction paragraph and a draft conclusion paragraph. It should also have a draft of the Works Cited page.

The third draft, also to be turned in a week or two after the second draft, should have an introductory paragraph that sets the context of the paper. It should have a clear thesis statement and clear, separate points of support for the thesis, each matched to an illustrative quote or paraphrase from one or more of the sources. It should include a clear counterargument,  preferably with quoted and cited evidence, and refutation. It also should have a conclusion paragraph. Lastly, it should have a Works Cited page that lists all the sources that are quoted or paraphrased and cited in the essay.

from an Economics paper by Sam Bergenholtz

Have your student think of the third draft as the final essay in terms of the content, because next he should look closely at the paper, addressing issues of grammar, citation, format and the Works Cited page. Help your student to resist the temptation to revise the content at this point, as students that are new to writing sometimes fall prey to over revising, often to the detriment of the paper. This draft should meet the length requirement (I usually set it at at least 2,000 words, not counting the Works Cited page, but you should set the requirement to coincide with your student's ability,  keeping in mind that you want to challenge your student somewhat.)  

from a paper on Ginsberg's poem, America, by Katie Bergenholtz

At this point, your student can turn in his final draft! In grading the paper, your job is to look to see if your student has followed your directions, each step of the way. I grade all of the drafts in order to give the student practice in looking at the different aspects that come together to make an excellent paper. Anytime he does not include what you have asked,  you need to take points off the final grade for that draft, anywhere from 5-15 points depending on what and how much he has left out. For example, if he does not have a clear thesis statement in his second draft, I would take off 15 points because that is a severe problem, and that alone would reduce the grade from a possible 100 points to 85, or a "B" in my grading scale. On the other hand, if the paper contains grammatical, usage or mechanics errors in the final draft, I may take off only 5 points as it is hard for students at this point to catch all of these errors while also trying to focus on the other requirements asked of them. (I even have trouble with this from time to time!) This would give their paper a 95 or an "A" on my grading scale. Of course your student will most likely have multiple things which lower his grade, especially in the beginning,  but any discouragement he may have should be overcome by his applying himself to rectifying the mistakes as he writes the various drafts. His grade will improve! You can decide,  as his teacher, whether you will average all the grades for all the drafts, or whether you will just use his final draft grade as the grade that will be reflected, along with other grades, as his class grade. I tend to use only the final draft grades as the grades for the class, but it can be useful for some students to use all the grades he has received averaged. For some students, if the grade is not reflected in his final class grade, then it doesn't count to them and they will not work hard to improve the drafts, as they should. You will have to determine what works best for both of you. Ninth grade is often a trial and error period as these things are worked out.

paper by Sam Bergenholtz

I hope this explanation of my process of teaching writing and how I grade papers helpful. Remember that learning to write and practicing writing takes time. Many mistakes will be made in the process by both student and teacher, but time and effort applied to it will reap results and prepare your student for whatever they choose to do in their future. 

If clarification of any point is needed, feel free to leave a comment and I  will try to answer any questions you might have. 

The Multi-Paragraph Report

The beginning research multi-paragraph report is often called the 5-paragraph essay or report because it has an introductory paragraph, three paragraphs covering three parts of the essay and then a concluding paragraph. It is a formula which doesn't necessarily work for advanced papers as not all subjects have three divisions, but it good for beginning writer. So, for this first paper, have your student pick a topic he really likes that can be divided into three parts. Make sure it is a topic if of his own choice.

Now, take a trip to the library and have your student check out one few books from the library on the topic of choice. Have him look through the books he has checked out to find the one that is the most suitable.  

Have your student read the book and write an outline, using the chapter titles as the main headings. Look at what he has written together and have a discussion about what he has learned from his studies and what direction he wants to take with his report. Can the report be organized around the three topics he had originally thought of? 

Now, have your student complete additional research. Have your student use his original resource, and also three or four internet sites and additional books as needed and find quotes that would work in his report. On index cards, have your student write each quote and at the end, cite, for books,  the name of the book, author, date of publication, publisher and date of publication. For for each internet site, cite name of article, name of website, author or organization  and web address. 

In addition to the quotes, have your student summarize chapters or sections from the books and websites in order to provide the necessary information for the report. Make sure this is hand written and have your student cite the book or website he used for the summary to avoid plagerism.

Now he can organize the index cards in piles according to the topic divisions. Some students can work from the piles to organize their paper, but others will need to use a graphic organizer to keep the ideas in order. And still other students will need to turn that graphic organizer into a final outline.

Before he begins writing, however have him create a works cited page, listing all the materials he has used to create his outline. Using the citation format he used on the index cards, he needs to cite all of the materials he used alphabetized by author’s last name or website name write a reference list. 

Using whatever organizational tools the student needs, now it is time for him to start writing the paper. He should begin with writing the introduction paragraph for the paper. Since he has had practice writing paragraphs, he should be able to do this, but you may want to remind him or guide him to start with a sentence that introduces the topic of the paper, but also grabs the readers' attention. He then could state why he is studying the subject or what the paper will cover. He can end the paragraph with a concluding sentence. Anytime he refers to any of the materials he used in his research,  whether it be a direct quotation, a paraphrase or a summary, he needs to follow it by a number which will match up to the works cited page once he has finished writing the paper.

Now following the organization of the piles of index cards, the graphic organizer or the outline, have your student write at least one paragraph but no more than one page on each of the three topics of his report. 

Now, it is time for your student to write a conclusion paragraph. If your student has difficulty writing this paragraph, you can help him through it by telling him to write a sentence that states what the paper discussed (referring to the topics mentioned in the introductory paragraph.) Next, tell him to write a few sentences stating his opinions or a call to action. 

Print out a copy of the paper, and read it over together. Circle spelling or grammar errors, but do not be too discouraging if there are many errors. Note the most important ones, and save the other errors to address in future papers. There is time to correct mistakes. Make sure there are citations at the end of each paragraph. 

Have him make changes and print a final draft.

Sources and Resources:

• Essay Writing for Reluctant High School Writers,7 Sisters Homeschool
• Essay Writing: Simple Ways To Help Your Child Improve Their Essay Writing, Integrated Learning Strategies Learning Corner
• Five Paragraph Essays, Layers of Learning
• The Five-Paragraph Essay: What, Why, and How for Homeschoolers, Annie and Everything
• Writing a Research Paper PORTFOLIO: Grades 8-12
• How to Write an Essay in 5 Easy Steps,Union Test Prep Blog

Beginning Writing : Summarizing, Annotating, Paraphrasing, Quoting and Plagiarism

What is the difference between summarizing, annotating, paraphrasing and quoting from a text and how can you help to prevent your student from plagiarizing?

Summary

A summary is the main idea of a text put into the student's own words. Begin by asking your student, "what is the text about?" My students sometimes found it helpful to circle the key words first before writing their summary. Book report writing is a good way of using summaries.

Annotating

Annotating is a type of summary that also includes the student's own opinions about the text. To begin helping the student begin writing an annotated bibliography, have him include in his summaries of the texts he is going to use for a paper and the reasons why the each text would be good for his report or why support what he is saying in his report or whether the text is faulty in some way.

Paraphrase

A paraphrase is a shorter, more condensed form of the entire section of a text put into the student's own words. Your student will want to paraphrase, as an alternative to a direct quotation, to support his claims or provide evidence for his writing. He must use different vocabulary but retain the same meaning of the original text. Make sure your student doesn't just use synonyms but also changes the order of the words and/or uses a different grammatical structure. Also, make sure he doesn't change the meaning of the text by adding his own views.

The easiest way to prepare a text for paraphrasing is to first number the paragraphs so that they can be referred to easily. Next teach your student to underline and circle portions of the text with purpose. Depending on what he is planning to use the paraphrase for, he can underline claims or points to support an argument he wants to make within a paper or he can underline imagery within a poem. He can circle key terms. He will then need to use his markings to write his own paraphrase of the text he has chosen to use.

Quotation

A quotation is a word-for-word section of a text in which your student begins and ends with quotation marks. Teach your student the four ways to use a quotation : 1) introduce the quotation with a complete sentence followed by a colon. 2) introduce a quotation with a explanatory phrase followed by a comma, 3) write a sentence using only short quotes. 4) introduce a quote by paraphrasing it first. I usually begin by suggesting that the student introduce the quote, add the quote and then explain the v quote or why it is in the paper.

Plagiarism

For all of these types of writing, your student needs to cite everything that is in his paper that is not common knowledge. For his first writings, he can just cite the book's name and author's name and the page of the text he is referring to. He can add to this as his papers become more complex until he is using a MLA or APA citation format.

Beginning Writing : Making an Outline

This is the first draft of an outline my son James made. Later versions contained Roman numerals and letters to differentiate the levels of information. Using just Arabic numerals can make an outline confusing.

Making an outline is one of those skills that I  teach in several different ways before expecting them to create one on their own. They can then learn how making outlines can be used as supporting skills for larger projects such as a research paper.

I start teaching my students about outlines by writing them on the board as we go through a history or science lesson. They can easily learn the structure of going from the main topic to supporting topics and the use of numbers and letters. Start out simple with just a topic sentence or phrase which you number with a Roman numeral. Then add supporting sentences below, indenting and labeling each with a capital. Build as you go, including Arabic numerals and lowercase letters and further indenting, letting them know why you have added anything new as you do so. Learning this structure can begin at a very young age and it only takes a minute or less to explain.

Once you have shown the outline format for some time, have your student begin copying the outlines in his history and science notebooks as part of their copywork. Don't be surprised, especially if your student suffers from lack of executive functioning skills, that your student will suddenly and inextricably be unable to write it just like it is written on the board, even though they can apparently read them. Just remind them of the formula.

Next, have your student begin making his own outlines. I usually use their history or science texts for this,  but you could use anything as long as it has clear topic sentences and supporting information. Have them make simple outlines at first, and don't move on to expecting more complicated outlines until Middle School. Sometimes students will transition to more complicated outlines on their own. For his first couple of outlines, he can copy the information word for word from the text, because he needs to be able to focus his attention on the format. For these outlines, have him cite where he obtained his information at the end of the outline with the words "taken from" and then citing the tile and author of the book, so that he begins to learn that using someone else's words without proper citation is plagiarism. Explain that in an actual report if he uses someone else's words he must use quotation marks. As soon as he can, have him begin writing the outline in his own words. He still needs to cite the source, by stating the title and author of the book used at the bottom.

Once he becomes comfortable with writing his own simple outline, he can begin writing his own short one page paper, which is really more a summary or paraphrasing of the text than a paper. These summaries/paraphrases will get larger as the outlining becomes more complicated.

Once he masters this type of outlining, you will want to help him learn the new skill of creating notes from a lecture. As you give a history or science lesson, pause after you have given them a bit of information and then ask them to tell you back what was the main topic and what were some supporting topics you have just told them. Help them through making an outline by writing his responses on a white board for him. Once he is able to do this, have him come up and outline the material himself. You can lengthen the amount of material and transition him to making the outline in his notebook instead of on the board.

Once he masters these steps, he will have some of the skills he needs in order to create an outline for a multi-sources research paper, but first let's focus a bit on summarizing, paraphrasing and quoting (what are the differences between them and how to avoid plagiarism) which is the topic of my next beginning writing post.

Beginning Writing : Writing Paragraphs

After your students can write a good sentence, it is time to introduce paragraph writing. This is something that can be taught in the elementary years, but should also be reviewed as they get older and the paragraphs get more complex.  Whether simple or complex, paragraph construction has a certain structure that can be taught.

Paragraph Structure. Every paragraph begins with a topic sentence, which relays the main idea of the sentence. The next sentences, which form the body of the paragraph, are the supporting sentences. For the beginning writer,  the sentences can all just be supporting details. As the student's paragraph writing gets more sophisticated, the supporting sentences can provide textural evidence or a detail and then examples or explanations of the detail. The paragraph then ends with a concluding sentence that wraps up the paragraph and refers back to the topic sentence.

Mentoring paragraphs.  Just as we worked with mentoring sentences to learn sentence writing, we work with mentoring paragraphs to learn how to write paragraphs.  Find good, solid paragraphs in literature, science or history texts to use. Have them get small post-it notes to label the parts of the paragraph. Alternatively, you can provide the student with a copy of a paragraph so that he can write directly on the page. He can identify the parts of the paragraph using differently colored highlighters. This is the beginning foundation of annotation, which we will discuss in detail in another post.

Paragraph Puzzles. Another way to have students work with paragraph construction is for them have the separate sentences of a paragraph before them and they have to order them into a cohesive paragraph. You can do this by typing out the sentences of a good paragraph and then cutting them out for him to reassemble.

Supported Paragraph Writing. For the first paragraph I have my students write, I choose a topic that relates to a current or recent area of study, usually in their science or history studies (although I add literature as well.) I will write the topic sentence on a whiteboard that addresses the topic. I have my student then brainstorm on a piece of paper a list of information that would support the topic sentence. For the first time or even the first few times, I will conclude the lesson there. Once he feels confident in making these lists, he can then move on to writing supporting details for each of bits of information he has listed for a topic. Once he becomes proficient in this step, he can begin to write a paragraph on a topic, using the lists he can generate as a skeletal outline. (I will post more about making outlines later.) At this point, your student may need help by your illuminating irrelevant supporting details, but be gentle and helpful with this. Do not seem as if you are correcting the piece, but more like you are guiding. In other words, if he insists on keeping details that you feel are irrelevant, let it go. He will get better over time.

Writing the Topic Sentence. Give your student short answer questions taken from his history and science studies. Make sure he always starts by generating a list. Then, teach him how to restate part of the question and then how to add to it to form the topic sentence of the answer paragraph. He then can provide evidence for the answer, by the details he adds to the paragraph from his information lists. You can also begin teaching transition words or phrases such as first, next and finally.

Writing a Concluding Sentence.  I save the teaching of this until after the student has written some from brainstorming outlines because I have found that concluding sentences are the trickiest part of paragraphs for students to master. They have to learn how to refer to the topic sentence but at the same time making it a different and, hopefully, strong sentence. Be sure to look at pairs of topic and concluding sentences thoroughly before having him attempt to write one himself. You can look back at the paragraphs he has annotated for this.

Practicing. With this background, now your student just needs lots of practice. You can begin giving him daily opportunities to write across the various subjects he studies. As he does this, you can gently teach the areas in which he is weak, such as elaborating, improving word choice by using active verbs or synonyms or strengthening transitions. Once he has done this for some time, he will be ready for a multi-paragraph report.

Beginning Writing: Sentence Writing

 

While you are still getting your student to write lists, but when you feel that they are soon ready to move on, begin working on sentence writing. Again, this is for students of all ages, from elementary to high school level. The example sentences and your expectations for your student may be different according to their grade or age level, but the process is essentially the same. This process has to be done over and over again, revising it from time to time, incrementally more complex. The idea is to mentor your students, not either feeding them answers nor testing them to see if they understand with a sea of writing assignments that end up being filled with red marks. That is why this process is often called, "mentor sentences" but the process is not new as Charlotte Mason wrote about these concepts in the late 19th century. However you want to look at it, the essential steps are as follows:

1. You will need to find a sentence in a good book that you want to use as your example sentence. These sentences can be the beginnings of a commonplace book. Alternatively,  you can write your own sentences.

2. You and your student look at the sentence,  noting things that make it an exceptional sentence. You may have something you have been working on that you may bring to his attention, but you might also want to introduce other concepts that you are planning on working on later. In schools this step is sometimes left to the students to figure out because of the idea that a student will remember a concept better if he discovers it himself.  It is also used in group settings in order to assess the knowledge level of each of the students. I have never found that method to be good as either a learning or assessment tool in homeschooling,  so I  guide him through this step. Don't be afraid of giving him too much because you are giving him the tools right now, not testing him.

3. Di-sect the sentence, looking at the grammar and/or punctuation. Review the concepts he already knows. Introduce a concept that the sentence uses. Think about this step when you pick your sentence to use.

4. Once you have thoroughly gone through the sentence, word by word, you can give the sentence for dictation. For younger students, you can print out the sentence, cut the words out separately, and have your student rebuild the sentence instead.

5. Now that he is very familiar with the model sentence,  he can play with the words in the sentence. What are some synonyms for some of the words used? Getting out a thesaurus can be fun. How about rearranging the words in the sentence? How about starting the sentence off with a dependent clause? How do the manipulations change the sentence? Do they make the sentence more exciting or more clear or does it change the meaning of the sentence? Take as much time with this step as you can for much can be learned by sentence manipulating.

6. Can your student now write a different but similar sentence? Change the subject of the sentence, or perhaps the predicate, or both. This is the step where you can really begin to see the rewards for all the efforts you both have put into this.

7. Armed with what your student has learned,  can he now go back and rewrite some of the lackluster sentences he has written in the past? Help him by picking out a sentence or two from his previous work that you feel lends itself to this editing. Encourage him to approach this step not as fixing something that is broken, but as an exciting application of what he has learned - a "now we can do this" attitude.  Do not use any red pens or anything that strikes one as correction. This should be fun.

8. Now it is time to start the process with another concept and another sentence.

Resources:

• Ideas by Jivey has a good post called Step by Step: The Why and How of Mentor Sentences.
• Buzzing with Mrs B has a good packet called Mentor Sentences Grammar Notebook that uses a similar method.
• Teaching My Friends! has an interesting  post about manipulating sentences called Crafting Power Sentences, in which she uses a chart to break down the words in the sentence.
• Making Meaning with Melissa has a post entitled, Why I use Mentor Sentences to Teach Writing in my High School English Classroom.

Medieval Literature Study for Middle School Students: Beowulf

Hwæt! We have been enjoying studying Beowulf. We began our study by using a lesson from Charlotte Mason, which resulted in drawings by the boys to narrate and illustrate the story. They have previously heard Michael Morpurgo's version of the story and so with this familiarity of the story behind them, it was now time that we took a look at Seamus Heaney's translation for it is much easier to study the poetic devices and such with this version. This is a dual language edition, so we can look at the two and therefore are able to pick out a phrase or two from the Old English.

History

We looked at the historical aspects of the story. Beowulf was originally written between 700 and 100 AD in Old English. In the poem is a historical king, King Hygleac, who died in 521 AD, was from Geatland, which is now southern Sweden.

Christian references and Pagan references (wyrd or the pagan term for fate, for example) are entwined in the story.

Vocabulary

The boys learned quite a bit new vocabulary. Some of it had to do with the history in the story and some of it had to do with the poetry of the story. The system of comitatus, in which the warriors, called thanes, would pledge themselves to a lord (ring-giver), protecting and avenging for him in exchange for room and board, weapons and gifts is present in the story. Thanes were both housed and entertained in mead-halls. The entertainment was often provided by a scop, or a singer of lays, a short narrative poem that discusses a particular incident in a hero's life. Meaningful sayings were put into the verses to aid the memory. This is called aphorisms or  gnomic sayings.

Poetic Devices

The boys particularly enjoyed learning about a couple of the poetic devices used in Beowulf. They enjoyed searching for kennings, a poetic phrase in which an adjective and noun or two nouns are put together to form one descriptive term, such as whale-path for the sea, or swimming-timber for a ship. They also found epithets, or a descriptive word or phrase that stands in place of the person's name such as Wielder of Wonder for God. The boys were assigned to make up a few kennings and a few epithets of their own.

One of the most important (and most fun) features of the poem is the use of alliteration rather than rhyming. Alliteration is the repetition of sounds, rather than letters, of words that are close to one another. The boys enjoyed picking out the alliteration, and in fact, had trouble stopping, it was so much fun. 

Not only does the poem have alliteration, but the alliteration becomes an important part of its structure. Each line of the poem consisted on two half-lines with a break, or caesura in the middle. Each half-line contained two stressed syllables. The amount of unstressed syllables vary. I encourage you to use Beowulf as a read-aloud because it is really meant to be heard. These features make it so much fun to read and fun to hear. We went over the mechanics of this only briefly, as I wanted them just to enjoy the poetry. We will get into more detail on the poetic devices this once they reach high school literature analysis.  

related posts:

• Medieval Art and Literature: Part I: Introduction and Beowulf
• The Barbarians
• History and Geography Meme: Original Illustrations, Example Using Beowulf

Helping an Autistic Child to Write a Letter

I have the best sister-in-law ever. She thinks of brilliant ideas for building relationships with my kids. Her place is the first stop on our Camp Bergenholtz trips. When she heard about our plans for Countdown to Camp Bergenholtz, she asked if she could join us in our activities, completing some of the projects at her house, while we do them at ours. If that wasn't wonderful enough, she came up with the idea that each of the kids would "mentor" her with the crafts, emailing questions and pictures back and forth, asking for suggestions and exchanging ideas...and building relationships.

She started off with Alex, my 20 year old autistic son. Here is the email she sent him.

Hi, Alex.  I need your help with the summer treat packets we are making today.  First, are we using the watermelon design or something else?  Also, what kind of goodies should I put inside? 

Thank you, Aunt Brenda

I had him read the email, but he was not able to make the leap to answer the question on his own. So, I had to help him by giving him some options of what people might expect for the answers.

I made two basic categories for him, toys and candy, which were reasonable answers to the question, and wrote them on slips of paper. I then made up slips of paper with possible things that fit in those categories.

First, just to get his mind thinking, I had him decide which of the two categories the items on the different slips of paper went under. He had no problem doing that.

Then I read the question to him again, and he then understood that he could pick from the possible items. We took one category at a time and he picked his favorite from the choices. Then we went to the second category and he picked a few more choices. He was having a great time with this activity.

I then left the slips of paper he had chosen on the table and showed him how Aunt Brenda had started the letter with his name, and that he should start his letter with her name, to let her know that the letter was for her.

I then had him read the question she asked again, and he answered by listing all the choices he had made. I then I showed him the wording of the question, "what kind of goodies should I put inside?"  I reminded him that the answer to a "what do you think I should put" question should be answered by "I think you should put", so he wrote that down. Then he listed all the things he had picked out before. Then I reminded him that he needed to put "in the goodie bags" because she needed to know where to put these things. Alex has difficulty with prepositional concepts so I was not surprised that I needed to help him add that to the sentence. Then I told him that he needed to tell her why that was his suggestion. He didn't know what I was asking him, so I needed to coach him on some possible answers, and I gave him a few including some ones that were silly, so I could see if he was really picking. He laughed at the silly ones so I could tell he was paying attention and he picked one and wrote that next. 

I then showed him how Aunt Brenda had concluded her letter and said that he needed to tell who the letter was from, so he added "love, Alex" which finished his letter.

Aunt Brenda-
I think you should put stickers, a rubber ball, pencils, chocolate,
Skittles, gummy bears in the goodie bags. They are what I like best.
Love,
Alex

Brenda wrote back:

Alex, thank you for the letter with those great ideas.  Now I know what goodies you all like and will make sure some of those favorites are in my treat packet.   When I am working on this project, I will send you a picture to get your opinion, okay?  But, the goodies inside will have to be a surprise!  Talk to you soon.

Love, Aunt Brenda

So, now we have another letter to write!

(A post about the summer treat packets coming up soon.)

Simple Grammar: Free Charlotte Mason Style Grammar Curriculum for Elementary and Middle School Students

source

A few of you have been interested in my grammar lessons from this past year. I decided that if I organized the lessons into a format that people could use, that perhaps it would benefit those look for a free grammar curriculum. I used this with my 4th and 6th grade students, but it could be used with a wide range of grades. We completed about one lesson a week. The 33 lessons leave room for review to make sure that each student fully understands each concept. All you need for the lessons is a blank notebook and a pencil for each student.

Simple Grammar: Free Charlotte Mason Style Grammar Curriculum for Elementary and Middle School Students

Introduction
Teaching Grammar using History and Science Texts

Our lesson on common and proper nouns from our history study of Mesopotamia. These lists were later used to help them write their narrations.

You may use this method with students of varying ages/grades at the same time. I worked on the same part of speech for both of my younger boys, but I will take the concepts to a more complicated level for my 6th grader than for my 4th grader. For example, if the part of speech we are going to look at this week is verbs, I may go over with the both of them conjugating present, past and past participle verbs or singular and plural forms of verbs or the difference between helping and linking verbs. For James, I would also include irregular verbs and often misused verbs, or subject-verb agreement.

How do you use history or science text in grammar studies?

• Look at a current passage in our history or science lesson for grammar lesson material.

Whatever concept we are going over for the day, we look for in our history and/or science texts. For example, for verb tenses, we would search for verbs in our history text, and then I would ask them to write down the present, past and future tenses of the verbs in columns. From the First City States section of The Ancient World, we found these verbs: swelled, flooded, trapping, irrigate, carry, covered, stayed and lived.  We wrote them down in a list form and looked at them. We noted that most of the verbs were in their past tense form, which makes sense for a history text. I then made a chart for them to fill in, with the headings Present, Past and Past Participle. I then had them tell me the form of each of the verbs and put them in the proper column. Then they were to tell me the other forms for that verb, to complete the chart. For example, for the word swelled, they told me that this was the past form of the verb swell, and they filled it in under the past column. They then filled in swells under the present column and has swollen under the past participle column. They did this for each of the verbs.

• Pick out a sentence for copywork.

You pick out a sentence or two (or more) from their history or science texts that illustrates the concepts you have been working on. Each week I usually have them working on one grammatical and one punctuation concept. For this piece, you will make sure that they correctly accomplish whatever grammatical or punctuation concepts you are working on. Do not work on everything at once, however tempting this may be. You can expect them to maintain any concepts you have been over in the previous lessons as well as the current concepts you are working on, but do not expect them to get them all every time. Sometimes there is a lot for them to remember all at once. If they consistently drop a past concept, I know we need to review this again.

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• Have them complete a narration at the end of the week, and hold them responsible for the concepts learned. 

Often I will help them with their narrations with outlines they have taken from their texts while working on the grammatical concepts. For example, I gave them the list of verbs we had generated in order to make a narration for the First City States. This reinforces the grammatical concepts and gives them a place to start, so they are not starting cold on their narrations. A blank page can be scary, but it is less scary with a list of verbs for a crutch to fall back on.

• Writing to practice concepts learned.

Sometimes I will give them writing assignments to practice the concepts they have just learned to answer the question of whether they have internalized the concepts and can apply them to other pieces of their writing. These can be anything from a general knowledge question to a review from last year question to a creative writing piece. For example, one of these might be their assignment for the week.

• Write about 6 things you like to do in your spare time.
• Write a definition of the word reflection and tell about at least five places where reflection could appear.
• Write a short story that begins, "While digging under some rotting leaves..."
• Describe a good deed you did for someone, and write about how you felt after you did it.

For any of these, prior to their beginning to write, I remind them of the grammatical concept that we have been working on. For example, I might say, be sure to have strong verbs in their right tenses and not just to-be verbs.

This is how we accomplish our English studies without ever using a grammar worksheet that would just get thrown away at the end of the year. These lessons are something they are proud of as they can see concrete evidence of learning and how their writing has improved as the year goes on.

Lesson 1: Nouns

This may be review, but be sure to cover the different ways a noun can be used. If this is new material, it may take you a bit longer than a week.

• Proper Nouns
• Common Nouns
• Abstract Nouns
• Collective Nouns

Lesson 2: Nouns Used as Subjects

The subject of a sentence is whoever or whatever a sentence talks about. We talked about how a sentence is a complete thought expressed in words.

• Simple Subject: The noun or nouns talked about.
• Complete Subject: The noun or nouns talked about plus all the words that describe them.

Lesson 3: Verbs

The verb is another of the eight parts of speech. A verb tells what a person, place or thing does or is. It declares the action or being of a noun. There are two general types of verbs:

• Transitive verbs: A transitive verb must have a noun following it to complete its meaning. This noun experiences the action of the verb.(example: John wears...what?)
• Intransitive verbs: An intransitive verb does not require a noun following it to complete its meaning. (John runs.)Some verbs may be transitive in one sentence and intransitive in another. Their task was to pick a paragraph in their history text and find all the verbs. We discussed whether they were transitive or intransitive and why.

Lesson 4: Verbs as Predicates

The action or state of being of a noun subject or subjects is the Predicate. As with subjects, there are two types of predicates:

• Simple Predicates: The verb which tells about the subject.
• Complete Predicate: The verb which tells about the subject, plus all the words which go with the verb to give an more detailed picture.

A complete sentence must have a subject and a predicate. Have your student locate the complete and simple predicates of sentences in their history and science texts.

Lesson 5: Simple Subjects and Simple Predicates

After reading in your history or science texts, have your student create a paragraph of narration. Depending on their ability, you can have them do this independently or you can do it with him and have them type it or you can type it up. After they have created their notebook pages on it, you can use it to complete a lesson on subjects and predicates of sentences. Have your student(s) circle the simple subject and underline the simple predicate. Discuss what other words in the sentences could be part of the whole subject and what words would be part of the whole predicate.

Lesson 6: The Present Tense

Have your student(s) locate the complete subjects and predicates in a passage from their History text. We also went over tenses, and particularly the Present tense. Tense expresses the time of action or being. The present tense may be expressed:

• Simple Present (he walks)
• Progressive Present (he is walking)
• Emphatic Present (he does walk)

The form "to be" is irregular in English, as it is in most languages. Never confuse the verb "to be" with the Progressive Present.

Lesson 7: Review/Quiz

Your students should be able to answer these questions, and if they can't, review what they are not sure of.

1. Name the three ways of expressing Present Tense.
2. Give the Present Tense of the verb "to be."

Lesson 8: Personal Pronouns

A pronoun is a word used instead of, or in place of, a noun. Since pronouns replace nouns, they must refer to some noun(s) previously mentioned. Personal Pronouns act:

• as subject or predicate nominatives 
• as object of a verb or preposition
• as possessives

Since pronouns are used in place of nouns, they may be used in the different ways a noun is used. Using the idea from Homegrown Learners, make charts for personal pronouns on a rainbow template. 

Lesson 9: Infinitive

In English the infinitive may be recognized by the little word "to" before the meaning of the verb (to go, to walk, to live, etc.) Have your students find this in your history and science texts.

Lesson 10: Quiz

1. Name the three ways of expressing the Present Tense.
2. Give the Present Tense of the verb "to be."
3. How do you recognize an English Infinitive?

Lesson 11: Direct Objects 

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When you teach students about Direct Objects, you must also review transitive verbs. Have your students locate the Direct Objects in the sentences in their history and science texts, and diagram them as illustrated above.

Lesson 12: Writing Pen Pal Letters

Now it is time for them to do a little writing exercise. I have my kids write pen pal letters, but you can do any small writing project that suits your family. Hold your student responsible for correct grammar for the things they have learned so far.

Lesson 13: Predicate Nouns (or Predicate Nominatives)

1. A predicate noun is used after certain intransitive verbs, but especially after the verb "to be" to describe or define the subject.
2. These nouns are called Predicate nouns because the appear after the verb or in the predicate part of the sentence.
3. Use the following nouns as predicate nouns in sentences. (Pull these nouns from their history or science texts.)
4. Underline any predicate nouns you can find in the passages of your history or science texts or your own narrations.

Lesson 14: Review/Quiz

1. In order to write or say a complete sentence, what two things must you have?
2. Which of the following are complete sentences? (listed a few sentences and a few fragments from their history and science texts.)
3. What is meant by "direct object"?
4. What are three ways you may express the present tense?
5. What three ways of using a noun have you learned?
6. Can the verb "to be" take a direct object?
7. Give one sentence using a simple subject, a simple predicate and a direct object.
8. Can you find a predicate noun in the following sentence? (Sentence from history/science text.)

Lesson 15: Play Games

Take a break from formal lessons to play some games: Scrabble, Bananagrams, Apples to Apples and Madlibs are a few of the possibilities.

Lesson 16: Appositives

1. Form the Possessives of the following nouns (Make a list of nouns from their history or science texts).
2. Use the following words as Appositives in good English sentences (words from their texts).
3. What is the fundamental difference between a predicate noun and an Appositive?
4. Can a predicate noun be followed by an Appositive?

Lesson 17: Prepositions and Prepositional Phrases

With your student(s), pick prepositions out of their history or science texts and talk about prepositional phrases. You might also want to teach them how to make an  outline of a portion of their texts and how to write paragraphs from the outline.

Lesson 18: Indirect Objects
Your students have learned that a noun may be used as a subject, as a predicate noun, as a direct object, as the object of a preposition and after the preposition "in." The sixth use of the noun is as an indirect object. An indirect object  of the verb is a noun used to show to whom or for whom an act is performed. If there is any doubt as to whether a noun is a direct or indirect object of the verb, try the "object test": If a noun answers the questions what or whom directly after the verb meaning, it must be a direct object but if noun answers the questions to whom or form whom after the verb, it may be an indirect object. Notice how nouns are used in a variety of sentences in your history or science texts. Have your student find the direct objects and the indirect objects in these sentences  Often the "to" or "for" may be merely understood, not expressed such as in the sentence, "The soldier told his commander the truth." When the "to" or "for" is expressed, you have simply a prepositional phrase. 

Lesson 19: Exercises

1. Explain how each noun is used in the following sentences (Take sentences from their history and science texts.)
2. Punctuate the following possessives correctly (taken from their texts).
3. Use the following noun (supplied from text) in six separate sentences, as a...
1. subject 
2. direct object
3. indirect object
4. predicate noun
5. possessive
6. appositive

Lesson 20: Exercises

Have your student(s) write the answers to these questions in their English notebooks.

1. Write eight interesting sentences using one noun in each, in the ways listed below. Underline the nouns.
1. as a subject
2. as a Possessive
3. as an indirect object
4. as an Appositive
5. as a predicate noun
6. as an object of a preposition
7. as a direct object of a verb
8. as the subject of a plural verb
2. Remembering that all proper nouns are capitalized, that all sentences begin with capitals, the rules for possessives and how appositives are used, punctuate the following paragraph. (Paragraph taken from their history/science texts, with the capitalization and punctuation removed.)
3. Can you explain the use of every noun in these sentences? (Sentences from texts.)

Lesson 21: Exercises

1. A verb agrees with its subject in number (singular or plural) and person (First, Second or Third). Give the correct verb forms for the following sentences. (Supply sentences from their history and science texts.)
2. Fill in the blanks with the correct verb forms. (Supply sentences from their history and science texts.)
3. Negative contractions must be carefully punctuated. An apostrophe takes the place of the missing letter(s). Fill in the blanks with correct contractions. Notice that these are all Emphatic Present Tense. (Supply sentences from their history and science texts.)

Lesson 22: The Compound Sentence

This week work on compound sentences and the punctuation related to them. In addition to the simple sentence with one subject or group of subjects and one predicate or group corresponding predicates, there is also the compound sentence. A compound sentence is made up of two or more simple sentences, joined by a coordinate conjunction (joining word) or a semicolon (;). A conjunction is another important part of speech. It connects words or groups of words and joins them together. The most common coordinate conjunctions are:

• and
• but
• or
• nor

Simple sentences joined to form compound sentences are called independent clauses. A clause is a group of words with subjects and predicate; they are independent because they are complete in themselves.

A clause must have a subject and a predicate. A phrase, on the other-hand, is a group of words without a subject or predicate.

Notice that if there is a conjunction between the simple sentences or clauses, you must use a comma at the end of the first clause, before the conjunction. If there is no conjunction, a semicolon must be used to separate the clauses.

Lesson 23: Exercises

1. Name all the parts of speech you know in the following paragraph. (Paragraph taken from their history or science texts.)
2. Choose the correct verb forms in the following sentences...(Sentences taken from their history or science texts.)

Lesson 24: Questions and Interrogative Pronouns

An interrogative sentence asks a question. The word "interrogative" comes from the Latin verb "rogare," meaning "to ask." An interrogative sentence, therefore, is a question and must be punctuated with a question mark. There are two kinds of questions...

• inverted word order: the verb is turned around and put at the beginning (Are you going home early?)
• introduced by an interrogative or questioning word (Who is at the door?)
• Interrogative pronouns:
• Who (person) or What (thing) for subject
• Whose (for possessive)
• Whom (person) or What (thing) for object of verb or preposition

Lesson 25: Exercises and Pronoun Review

Ask your student the following questions:

1. How many parts of speech have you learned? How many are left?
2. Give the definition of a pronoun.
3. What are the two kinds of pronouns you have learned?
4. Write the correct pronouns in the following sentences. Remember that you have to have the correct gender and number.  (Sentences taken from their history and science texts.)
5. Remember  that each pronoun has a certain use or duty in the sentence. Fill in the blanks with the correct interrogative pronouns. (Sentences taken from their history and science texts.)
6. How do you ask a question without an interrogative word?

Lesson 26: Adjectives
An adjective is a word that modifies or describes a noun. Have your student identify adjectives in his history and science texts. Have him underline them in his narrations.

Lesson 27: Writing Exercise

Have your student(s) list ten of their favorite adjectives and then have them write an original sentences using each of the ten adjectives.

Lesson 28: Writing Exercise

Take five nouns from your history or science texts and then write a true and original sentence for each one using two good adjectives in each sentence.

Lesson 29: Adverbs

• The seventh part of speech is the adverb. Adverbs add to the verb by telling how, when or where something is done. 
• The adverb modifies a verb, and adjective or another adverb by answering the questions, how, how much, when and where. (The actual words how, when and where are adverbs, too, when used as interrogative words to introduce questions.) 
• Adjectives to which "ly" has been added become adverbs.
• Time adverbs are easy to recognize as they answer the question, "when?"
• Adverbs may modify adjectives and other adverbs by answering those same questions, "how, " "when" and "where."
• Have your student find adverbs in their history or science texts and tell what questions they answer.

Lesson 30: Exercises

• Have your student find adverbs in their history and science texts and write original sentences using them.
• Underline all the adverbs in their own narrations. If their narrations are lacking in adverbs, see if your student can add appropriate ones to the sentences.

Lesson 31: Simple Diagramming Sentences

Your student, by this time, has learned the most important parts of speech:

• noun
• pronoun
• verb
• adverb
• adjective
• preposition
• conjunction

Find some interesting sentences in your history or science texts and have your student diagram them.

• First divide the sentence in half, putting the simple subject on one side, and the simple predicate on the other side. 
• Put under the subject the adjectives that modify it.
• Put under the predicate the predicate nouns, predicate adjectives or the direct object.
• Put any other adjectives and adverbs under the words they modify or describe.

Lesson 32: Interjections

Interjections may be hard to find in history and science texts, so you may have to teach this without the use of those books. You might want use stories instead, or teach the lesson without the use of a text at all.

Lesson 33: General Review 

Pick a paragraph from your history or science texts and point to various words and ask your student what part of speech this is and how it is used in the sentence.