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Essentials: Multi-Level Reading, Spelling, Grammar & Vocabulary Teacher's Guide Volume 1
625 pages, Hardcover
Published January 1, 2015
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abandoned
October 4, 2022This is a wonderful textbook and approach, in principle, which I wanted to love but absolutely did not work for us.
Please understand this is not a negative review of LoE, only some (I hope) helpful information to others considering the product. I'll add further context on our situation in a footnote.
1. It turns out that I cannot make a scripted curriculum work.
I bought LoE Essentials specifically *for* the scripts! =D We're dealing with massive anxieties in math & I knew I needed to overprep for that... so for ELA I decided to buy open-and-go products. But I can't deliver them. I just can't. Our son hates watching me read a script, I don't enjoy constantly checking side notes and whatever. And there are so many moving parts for each lesson that I can't keep the "gist" of the arc in my mind.
I want to clarify that we also tried a couple of other scripted ELA curricula, and a video-based composition class, and they don't work here, either. They just don't.
2. Level C word lists do not correspond much to the spelling rules.
Our son is rather an intuitive reader/decoder. I knew this before investing in ELA curricula -- but because he has grown up in a place where English is not a major language, and attended schools in languages other than English, I feel the need to fill gaps in fundamentals before he progresses to middle school. I have noticed that complicated vowel mixes & the various schwa+L sound endings give him trouble on the spelling side, and was hoping a more formal grounding in phonics would address this.
I liked the multi-level structure of Essentials. I spent a lot of time hemming and hawing, but ultimately chose this for its flexibility, since I am uncertain exactly where the gaps are. Level C adds morphemes, so if he was grasping the unit's phonemes & spelling rules quickly then we wouldn't be wasting his time. We took the pre-test, and he scored well into Level C.
In practice, unfortunately, the spelling lists at Level C are organized around the morphemes, not the unit's phonemes and spelling rules. This makes sense in the context of the program as a whole, which is intended for reuse in consecutive years, but I failed to catch the discrepancy... I assumed Level C would reinforce both. That's my mistake. So I wouldn't recommend jumping in to the program at this level.
3. The script & structure is not easily adapted from classroom delivery to home delivery. Again, my mistake. Not a problem with the program, but with how easily I thought it would play at a dining room table.
Context on the review: 9yo son; growing up in a country where English is maybe 4th most common language; speaks and reads well due to our home environment, but he did not receive native-level English instruction at school. He likes to read, he's a capable reader, we read aloud to each other daily (even during his school years). However, his spelling is not great. Due to an international move, we are homeschooling P4 but somewhat likely to enroll him in school for P5. Our new locale uses English as official language and as the cross-cultural lingua franca, so school expectations for him as a native English speaker will be high. This all requires a "fill the major gaps" focus on the skills side of things this year.
Please understand this is not a negative review of LoE, only some (I hope) helpful information to others considering the product. I'll add further context on our situation in a footnote.
1. It turns out that I cannot make a scripted curriculum work.
I bought LoE Essentials specifically *for* the scripts! =D We're dealing with massive anxieties in math & I knew I needed to overprep for that... so for ELA I decided to buy open-and-go products. But I can't deliver them. I just can't. Our son hates watching me read a script, I don't enjoy constantly checking side notes and whatever. And there are so many moving parts for each lesson that I can't keep the "gist" of the arc in my mind.
I want to clarify that we also tried a couple of other scripted ELA curricula, and a video-based composition class, and they don't work here, either. They just don't.
2. Level C word lists do not correspond much to the spelling rules.
Our son is rather an intuitive reader/decoder. I knew this before investing in ELA curricula -- but because he has grown up in a place where English is not a major language, and attended schools in languages other than English, I feel the need to fill gaps in fundamentals before he progresses to middle school. I have noticed that complicated vowel mixes & the various schwa+L sound endings give him trouble on the spelling side, and was hoping a more formal grounding in phonics would address this.
I liked the multi-level structure of Essentials. I spent a lot of time hemming and hawing, but ultimately chose this for its flexibility, since I am uncertain exactly where the gaps are. Level C adds morphemes, so if he was grasping the unit's phonemes & spelling rules quickly then we wouldn't be wasting his time. We took the pre-test, and he scored well into Level C.
In practice, unfortunately, the spelling lists at Level C are organized around the morphemes, not the unit's phonemes and spelling rules. This makes sense in the context of the program as a whole, which is intended for reuse in consecutive years, but I failed to catch the discrepancy... I assumed Level C would reinforce both. That's my mistake. So I wouldn't recommend jumping in to the program at this level.
3. The script & structure is not easily adapted from classroom delivery to home delivery. Again, my mistake. Not a problem with the program, but with how easily I thought it would play at a dining room table.
Context on the review: 9yo son; growing up in a country where English is maybe 4th most common language; speaks and reads well due to our home environment, but he did not receive native-level English instruction at school. He likes to read, he's a capable reader, we read aloud to each other daily (even during his school years). However, his spelling is not great. Due to an international move, we are homeschooling P4 but somewhat likely to enroll him in school for P5. Our new locale uses English as official language and as the cross-cultural lingua franca, so school expectations for him as a native English speaker will be high. This all requires a "fill the major gaps" focus on the skills side of things this year.
Displaying 1 of 1 review