Students learn to compose clearly
and effectively by engaging with short, yet excellent writing samples selected
from time-honored authors. Familiar with Simply Charlotte Mason’s Spelling
Wisdom? This newly updated English, grammar, and spelling program
pulls passages from that course and also adds new content. The study
passages come from literature, ESV Scripture (often the Psalms), quotations,
and even nonfiction (such as speeches). Students learn by engaging with,
imitating, and responding to these samples. Each consumable Student Book
includes 72 lessons with space for answers, a Dictation Journal, and special
fold-out reminders for “How to Study a Book” and “How to Mark a Sentence”
(Levels 4-6). Each lesson provides the passage excerpt, the steps for that
day’s assignments (which often include narration and dictation), and lines to
write responses.
Lesson length varies by level. In
most levels, students work through each lesson following multiple steps. The last
two steps require marking and studying any unfamiliar words to prepare for the
dictation or narration assignments. Occasionally, composition activities are
offered for additional writing practice. The typical schedule is two lessons
weekly, with a maximum of 20 minutes per lesson for your oldest student.
However, weekly total lesson time will vary based on individual needs. For a
complete language arts course, add reading/literature studies (and other skills,
such as handwriting instruction, as your individual child needs).
Students may start in Level 1 if
they can read and transcribe comfortably at a third to fourth grade reading
level. We strongly recommend your student taking the
placement test, which places your student based on their ability to respond
to a handful of assignments. As you work through the various levels, lessons
will become more complicated and include larger and more difficult passages. By
Level 6, the expectation is that students are functioning at about an 8th grade
level in reading and composing skills. Level 7 is a unique “polish your
punctuation” course, designed to be used over 2 school years at a pace of one
lesson per week. See each level’s description for specific content.
Teacher involvement is crucial,
but your time commitment should diminish as your student progresses through the
levels. Once you’re familiar with the lesson setup and the Charlotte Mason
methods used, each course is fairly open-and-go. The Teacher Book provides
the specific directions you’ll need to help your student strengthen narration,
dictation, and composition skills. This book provides step-by-step
instructions, answers, FAQs for using dictation and narration methods,
punctuation helps, and rubrics for grading student writing.
