How to teach Rod and Staff at varying levels

[jenn in nc]

Good morning ladies,

We are switching to Rod and Staff grammar at all levels here, and when I called the office for placement advice they told me to start the kids off much lower than their grade levels. Right now I have a 10th grade boy beginning R&S level 5, an 8th grade boy beginning R&S level 4, and a 5th grade girl beginning R&S level 3. I'm wondering what the daily teaching process looks like for you all.

I'm assuming that with the 5th grader in level 3, we would read through the lesson, do the oral work, and then I assign an appropriate portion of the written work.

Is this the same scenario I would use for my 8th grader and my 10 grader as well? Or do they read through the lesson on their own and then I assign the written work?

Thanks for any help.

Jenn

[StephanieU]

Before I get into how Carrie recommends doing it, I wanted to note that Rod and Staff isn't completely grade based. The goal is to complete Rod and Staff 6 by 8th grade and Rod and Staff 8 by the end of high school for students doing HOD from the beginning. So although they are slightly behind what is int he HOD guides for their age ranges, there aren't as far behind as one would initially think.

Now for how to do Rod and Staff English. Some of it will depend on your schedule and your students' abilities. Normally, Carrie recommends doing about 2/3 orally and 1/3 written. With the younger ages, you sit with them and read the material and then do the portions you plan on doing orally. Then you "send them off" to do the small amount of written work. I would bet this would be the best way to do it if you had 1 or 2 kids even through high school. But, with 3 kids, you might not have the time to do this practically, especially if you decide to try and complete 1 level of Rod and Staff each year. So, you could have them read the lesson themselves and then come to you for the oral portion and then do the written portion later. I definitely would not assign all of it to be written. That would be too much writing, and spread out the day too much. Plus, it would mean probably more work for you in the long run, as you would have a lot of "grading" to do.
So, I would start out with trying to do the teaching and oral portions with each child. If that doesn't work well in your schedule, then I would start by having the oldest read the lesson before meeting and see how that goes. You could then try it with the 8th grader if you desire.

[jenn in nc]

Thanks for your suggestions! I'll give it a try and see how it goes. It seems like the daily lessons may not be very long anyway. I did a little with each of the kids yesterday and it went well. Not sure how it will all work out yet, but wanted to tell you thank you for your advice.

[MelInKansas]

We do a good portion of the lessons orally, as then my DD doesn't find it as tiresome. She is younger than your kids though, but I think there is plenty of other written work and as long as she understands it she doesn't have to write all of the exercises out.

But of course that does take more of your time as the teacher, but they do really go pretty quickly. If you wanted the oldest one to move through more quickly then you could always do two lessons a day instead of one.

In 3 there is stuff in the teacher's manual that is not in the child's book. I do think these lessons (and the oral review) should be done before the child does their written work. It seems best for that to be all in one block, although a high schooler could probably handle doing the lesson with you and then the written work as "homework" for whenever they had the time to do it.

[jenn in nc]

If you wanted the oldest one to move through more quickly then you could always do two lessons a day instead of one.

Yes I was thinking about doing this with both the older boys... so far the lessons seem very simple. Maybe that is only because we're at the beginning of the books and it is probably all still review at this point. But I think I'll double the lessons for at least a few days.

[MelInKansas]

I am 2/3 of the way through R&S 3 (so that's my experience and exposure, not to 4 or 5). It's not that the lessons get more complex, just the concepts I guess. But I feel like R&S covers it all so thoroughly and well that doubling up, while time-consuming, wouldn't make it doubly hard. Keep going with it as long as they seem like they are catching on and doing well!