Grammar, Reading, Vocabulary, Spelling, Patriotic Songs & Poetry, Oral Presentations, Tall Tales/Folk Tales, and Composition. Debbie Strayer, author.

Customer Review

 
Paloma B. from Michigan wrote the following on 03/31/2008:
I've used Learning Language Arts Through Literature's purple book over the last three years for my two daughters and found it a nice variety to the other curriculums we've followed. The Purple Book (LLATL) is a fifth grade curriculum put out by Common Press based on the idea that grammar, spelling, reading and writing can best be taught simultaneously through exposure to and application of good literature. The year is divided into 36 lessons corresponding with the weeks of the average school year. Each week's lesson is divided into 5 parts, one for each day of the school week. These daily segments are extremely short. For my kids the daily assignment averaged 20 minutes work. A typical lesson begins with a reading selection from a book or a piece of poetry. The year covers novels, biographies, tall tales and poetry characteristics. These include "America", Mr. Popper's Penguins, Trumpet of the Swan, "America the Beautiful", David Livingstone; Foe of Darkness, Strawberry Girl, Amos Fortune and "The Star-Spangled Banner". These selections are then dictated to the student for penmanship, spelling and punctuation exercises. The rest of the lesson consists of teaching grammar, writing and spelling rules brought out of the literature passage. Every eight weeks, or so, the lesson is a book study. Farmer Boy, Caddie Woodlawn, Meet Addy (American Girls) and Trumpet of the Swan are used for book studies which include character sketching, book reports, new vocabulary words and discussion of the plot and book outline. This program includes assessments and review work for the students to keep track of progress. The full program comes with a student book (consumable) and a teacher's handbook. It's possible to teach the lessons using only one or the other. I tried both options. Using only the handbook involved a lot of time on the teacher's part in active teaching but also allowed for better guidance as the basis of the curriculum is seeing what you know and building on it. For example, spelling words are chosen from those written incorrectly during dictation. Using only the student workbook is easy and it also includes some enrichment exercises in spelling and critical thinking that aren't part of the handbook. I found the workbook easy to correct without the handbook, but a bit awkward to give dictations from while having my daughter write in it at the same time. I think on the whole using both together, as they are meant to be used, is best as you teach the lesson rather than slip into letting the child go at it on their own. In general, this book is a good options for those who want to give their kids a feel for proper writing, but it doesn't require much in this grade in the way of putting those skills to use. Students are not expected to write much. It also doesn't cover more than a very elementary diagramming of subjects and predicates which I feel is a bit below this level. Skills are not given much drill work. This can be practical for kids who catch things quickly and frustrating for those who don't. Students are expected to remember the grammar taught by the assessment. I found myself re-teaching the grammar during reviews until I added some extra notebook work to the existing lessons to make them more long-term-memory friendly. As a stand alone I think this book makes a fairly weak fifth grade text, but it could serve as a very good supplement to another curriculum or with a bit of extra grammar and writing added to it. It's also a nice way to teach kids to apply their reading and does get them interested in reading the literature their dictation comes from. It also has a fair amount of activities sprinkled throughout to teach concepts. These are useful to children who need a bit more spontaneity and hands-on in the classroom. Overall it's a fun break from traditional grammar and my daughters did enjoy their years with it.