[ High School and Self-Education Board ]
Posted by OC MOM on 11:02 Sep 5
In Reply to: Can I get some grading help (writing)? posted by Pamela
I noticed that there were some sentences with incorrect punctuation, especially in the first two paragraphs. There are missing commas, and heavy use of semi-colons when a comma would be correct. I'd suggest starting with Rod and Staff level 6 - this should give them a good understanding of sentences parts and correct punctuation. (If they've never done R&S grammar, anything higher than grade 6 would be too challenging. My dd did grade 6 and still found grade 7 a challenge.)
I don't really like R&S' writing assignments, so you could do an IEW course for writing as you get started with R&S grammar. I like Lori Verstegan's courses offered by IEW, since they are so easy to teach. Since your students haven't used IEW before, it would be appropriate to start them in her middle ages course (which is for upper-grammar/lower-jr high level), or the first US history course which is for jr. high.
I agree with you that they should be able to do more by this age. R&S and IEW are great programs, and I think if you started right away with grammar and writing work every day, that they would be really improved by the end of the year