Voyages in EnglishCURRICULA REVIEW:
Voyages In English
reviewed by Jessie Wise and Susan Wise Bauer
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Published by Loyola Press
3441 North Ashland Avenue
Chicago, IL 60657
1-800-621-1008
www.loyolapress.com
Voyages in English is a grammar/language arts program published by Loyola Press. Although Loyola is a Catholic publisher, the books are designed for general use and avoid religious examples in the exercises.
The elementary VIE texts (grades 1-4) build early language skills in a thorough, systematic way. The first and second-grade books cover basic skills such as basic punctuation, identifying types of sentences, plurals, putting words into alphabetical order, identifying nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, and pronouns, and using prefixes and suffixes. The format is primarily workbook, fill-in-the-blank in orientation, although there are frequent writing exercises. After reviewing these two books in detail, Jessie thinks that parents are better off with a flexible, primarily oral program such as English for the Thoughtful Child. Much of the work in the VIE texts for first and second grade is classroom-oriented busywork (filling in blanks, drawing lines to match things up, etc.). Two aspects of the books strike both of us as undesirable: children are asked to write book reports beginning in first grade, which seems like overkill; and VIE encourages children to “map” information rather than outline it in a linear fashion. In our opinion, this is a skill that should be saved for the logic stage, when it should be taught through the use of linear outlining, rather than through “mapping.” (This techique doesn’t require the child to put information into order – which is the whole point of using outlining!) Overall, English for Thoughtful Child involves more quality writing assignments and gives the essence of elementary grammar without unnecessary busywork.
For grades 3-8, when we suggest the use of a formal grammar text, VIE is a much better grammar text than the Zaner-Bloser G.U.M. seriesrecommended in The Well-Trained Mind. The books cover all necessary aspects of grammar, teach diagramming and provide good exercise sets. Beginning in fifth grade, VIE also teaches standard outlining, although it builds off the child’s previous experience in “mapping,” which we find extremely unappealing. The VIE writing element is also much stronger than the writing element in A Beka. If you use VIE, you could hold off on introducing another writing program (such as Institute for Excellence in Writing or Writing Strands) until fifth grade. At that point, however, you will need to supplement the writing instruction in VIE with a program that gives extra practice in structuring written arguments. A caution: the VIE exercises require a great deal of “creative” writing (for example, three lessons in the fifth grade book are devoted to “Writing a Fantasy Story.”). Don’t require children to do creative writing unless they want to! Some children are gifted in this area, but forcing children who don’t want to “make up” stories to do creative writing accomplishes nothing. Allow these children to skip the fiction-writing sections of VIE, instead doing extra assignments on such sections as “Writing Opinions About Books” or “The Business Letter.”
Susan dislikes the VIE setup, in which the first half of every book is devoted to writing, while the second half is devoted to grammar skills. The teacher’s manuals tell you to become familiar with the whole book before you begin teaching it, so that you can weave the lessons together yourself: doing one writing lesson, then moving to the grammar lesson that reinforces it, then going back to writing, then moving forward again to grammar. Unfortunately, VIE doesn’t provide you with any guidance as to how you might do this. So be aware that if you use VIE, you will need to put some intensive thought into how best to “interweave” the grammar and writing sections of the book before your school year begins.
We still find A Beka to be the strongest overall grammar program; the A Beka technique of introducing a concept, drilling it, and then returning to it periodically is superior for making those grammar skills second nature. VIE has more “peripheral” activities not directly related to grammar mastery. But the essence of what the student should know is well presented and drilled. There is no sectarian teaching, such as that found in A Beka, making this series the perfect choice for parents who find the A Beka emphasis on Protestant Christianity unappealing. And if you would prefer a text with a little less drill than A Beka, VIE is the best alternative.
A
note about Voyages in English: There is a Catholic set of VIE books
available for Catholic parents, filled with
beautiful
references to Catholicism. We found that the second grade Catholic
version was more straightforward and rigorous than the secular version,
and my daughter appreciated its simpler layout. The third grade (Catholic)
text is even better, and I have no trouble pulling what we need from it
without a teacher's manual.
--
Michelle
We
have used this series for many years. After trying to weave the composition
and grammar exercises together different ways we have settled upon simply
beginning at the start of each section and moving forward in each every
week. One unexpected perk of VIE (we use the popular Catholic
reprinted versions) is that the two sections of the 5th-8th books are laid
out the same. For instance they begin each level's grammar section
with nouns, then pronouns
etc.
We found we could teach the same basic grammar topics to children in those
grades at once, much like we teach the same basic history and science topics
per WTM. After reviewing many different grammar options over the
years we are still pleased with VIE!
--
Kim
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