Chapter 17

17

Thinking Straight: Spelling, Grammar, Reading, and Writing

Grammar: The fundamental rules of each subject.
Logic: The ordered relationship of particulars in each subject.
Rhetoric: How the grammar and logic of each subject may be clearly expressed.

—Douglas Wilson, Recovering the Lost Tools of Learning

SUBJECT: Spelling, grammar, reading, and writing, grades 5–8 TIME REQUIRED: 5 to 10 hours per week

In the grammar years, your child learned to spell, to name the parts of speech and assemble them into properly punctuated sentences, to gather information through reading, and to write simple compositions—letters, descriptive paragraphs, book reports. She absorbed the basic rules and skills of language use.

Now, in grades 5 through 8, she will shift focus. Acquiring information is still important, but instead of simply absorbing facts about language use, the middle-­grade student will learn to analyze language. Now that she knows “the fundamental rules” of language, as Douglas Wilson puts it, she’ll start to learn language’s “ordered relationships”—the way the lan­guage fits together. She’ll ask why, instead of simply memorizing rules. She’ll pull English apart and find out how it works. And when she’s fin­ished, she’ll be prepared to use language with precision and eloquence— she’ll be ready for rhetoric.

Grammar-­stage language study was organized around four subjects: spelling, grammar, reading, and writing. In the logic stage, the student will make the transition from spelling (learning how words are put together) to word study (discovering why words are formed the way they are). She’s already studied the names and qualities of parts of speech; now she’ll con­centrate on how those parts of speech are put together. She’ll begin to look at her reading assignments with a more critical eye: Why did this character act the way he did? How did the writer construct this particular plot? Is the argument in this essay sound? And in writing, she’ll begin to construct longer compositions—well­-reasoned essays, stories with coherent plots.

Like the elementary student, the middle-­grade student will spend a good part of her study time working with the English language. Plan on a mini­mum of an hour per day, with extra time allotted for writing at least twice a week (often this writing will overlap with history or science work) and a separate time for imaginative reading.

HOW TO DO IT

Organize the middle-­grade student’s work in a 3­inch three­-ring English notebook.

Divide this notebook into six sections:

1. Spelling

2. Word Study

3. Grammar

4. Reading

5. Memory Work

6. Writing

7. Dictation

You’ll still need plenty of art supplies, but as the child grows older, you’ll shift away from stickers and glitter, and lean toward high­-quality colored pencils, watercolors, and other “real art” materials.

As in the grammar stage, students may be at different levels in spelling and word study, grammar, reading, and writing. We’ll discuss each lan­guage skill separately, providing a year-­by-­year schedule at the end of the chapter.

SPELLING AND WORD STUDY

Try to follow this pattern for spelling and vocabulary:

Fifth grade	Spelling Workout F and G
Sixth grade	Spelling Workout G and H
Seventh grade	Vocabulary from Classical Roots A and B
Eighth grade	Vocabulary from Classical Roots C and D

The fifth grader should already be familiar with the basic rules of spelling and the common exceptions. In the logic stage, she’ll begin to study words that are unusual because they come from outside the English spelling sys­tem—they’re derived from other languages. Spelling these words correctly requires an understanding of their meaning and origin.

At first, you’ll continue with the Spelling Workout books, just as you did in fourth grade. By fifth grade, you should be doing (or be close to doing) Spelling Workout F. Spend fifteen minutes per day working through the lessons. Continue to keep a list of frequently misspelled words in the Spelling section of the notebook, along with a copy of any spelling rules that the child has trouble applying.

Be aware that many of the rules in the more advanced Spelling Workout books are concerned not with spelling, but with meaning. “The prefixes em and en,” begins one rule in Spelling Workout F, “mean in, into, cause to be, or to make.” Any fifth grader who’s studied Latin already knows this; she can also figure out that embitter (one of the spelling words for this lesson) means “to make bitter.”

Because of this, when you begin Spelling Workout F, start keeping a list of prefixes, suffixes, and their meanings in the Word Study section of the notebook. Entitle a notebook page “Prefixes and Suffixes,” and structure your list like this:

Prefixes and Suffixes
Prefix	Suffix	Meaning/function		Language (if given)
contra­		opposite, against		Latin
	­able	makes an adjective out of a noun
mal­		bad		Latin
pan­		all		Latin
myria­		countless		Greek

Spelling Workout G introduces Latin, French, and Spanish word roots; Spelling Workout H adds Greek roots and origins. List these as well, but on a separate page headed “Word Roots.” Follow this pattern:

Word Roots

Root	Meaning	Language
functio	to perform	Latin
cedere	to go forward	Latin
polis	city	Greek
annu	year	Latin

Whenever you make a new English notebook, transfer the lists of spelling rules, the “Prefixes and Suffixes” list, and the “Word Roots” list into the Word Study section of the new notebook. And continue to fill out these lists of prefixes and suffixes and word roots with their meaning and language of origin.

Aim to get at least through Spelling Workout F by the end of the fifth-­grade year; start on G if possible. Ideally, you’ll finish Spelling Workout H by the end of the sixth­-grade year, which will free up the seventh­- and eighth-­grade years for the study of advanced vocabulary and word roots. (But if you’re still in Spelling Workout H in seventh grade, simply finish it before going on to the vocabulary-­development series that comes next.)

As the student moves into Spelling Workout G and H, she’ll be spending less time on spelling rules and more on word derivations. Spelling Workout H is more of a vocabulary workbook than a spelling manual, covering word roots, prefixes, and suffixes from Latin, Greek, and French.

When you finish Spelling Workout H, you’ll have covered all the common spelling rules for English words. Now—somewhere around the seventh-­grade year—vocabulary study will replace spelling as a formal subject. And the best way to build a good vocabulary is by reading a large variety of things. But while your seventh grader is reading, she should also study word origins and meanings to reinforce and sharpen her word skills.

The books in the Vocabulary from Classical Roots series, from Educators Publishing Service, are part reference book and part workbook; they use classical quotes, definitions, and exercises to build vocabulary skills. The core books in the series are Books A through E, and each is sixteen lessons long. If you do one lesson per week, you can easily complete two books per year. The series now has three preliminary books for grades 4, 5, and 6; if you are using Spelling Workout, these will duplicate the work in the later spelling exercises and are unnecessary.

The Vocabulary from Classical Roots series provides exercises, but they aren’t extensive. Instead of doing word study for fifteen minutes a day, as you did for spelling, we suggest that you follow this pattern:

Monday	30–45 minutes	Read through the word roots, definitions, and sample sentences; make 3 ×5 inch flash cards for each Latin root and unfamiliar English word.
Tuesday–Thursday	5–10 minutes	Drill with flash cards.
Friday	10 minutes	Review flash cards; complete exercises; check

Continue to list all new word roots provided on the Word Roots page in the Word Study section of the notebook.

Also, the student should still keep a list of frequently misspelled words in the Spelling section of the notebook. Apart from this, you won’t be doing formal spelling; but transfer the Spelling Rules list into the seventh­-grade English notebook to act as a ready reference.

Aim to do one lesson per week from Vocabulary from Classical Roots. If you’re able to begin Vocabulary from Classical Roots in seventh grade, you’ll complete A and B in the seventh-­grade year, and C and D in the eighth-­grade year. If you don’t finish the Spelling Workout texts until the middle of the sev­enth grade (or later), just stick to this same pattern—one lesson per week.

As noted in Chapter 5, you can substitute Spelling Power for the Spelling Workout series if you wish. However, note that Spelling Power does not do nearly as much word study as Spelling Workout, so if you use this resource, you should plan to use the three preliminary books from the Vocabulary from Classical Roots series; plan on doing the grades 4, 5, and 6 books over the fifth­and sixth­grade years (it isn’t necessary to begin them sooner) and move on to Book A in seventh grade.

GRAMMAR

The logic-­stage student must use a formal grammar program to build the language skills so necessary for good writing. The fifth grader knows what elements make up a sentence (nouns, pronouns, verbs, adverbs, adjectives) and how to string them together (proper punctuation, capitalization, word use). Now she’s ready to study relationships between words—how they combine into clauses and how those clauses relate to form sentences.

These relationships are governed by rules. And as the student encoun­ters these rules, she should memorize them. She should also learn to draw a picture of the rule—through diagramming.

We don’t think diagramming sentences ought to be optional. Sentence diagrams reveal the logic of sentence structure, just as syllogisms reveal the logic of arguments. Diagramming is a hands-­on grammar activity. Visual learners will benefit from “seeing a picture” of grammatical structure, and drawing the diagram will help kinesthetic learners to understand the abstractions of grammar. Most importantly, diagramming prevents the child from simply parroting back rules that she doesn’t fully understand. She may be able to quote the definition of a dependent clause, but if she can’t properly diagram a sentence that contains dependent clauses, you’ll know that she doesn’t really comprehend how they work. And until she under­stands how dependent clauses work, she won’t be able to use them as she writes and talks. The study of grammar has as its goal the creation of a clear, persuasive, forceful, fully equipped speaker and writer.

Don’t be intimidated by diagramming. It starts simply—writing a sub­ject and a verb on a horizontal line and drawing a vertical line between them. Each sentence part has its own place on the diagram. But both you and your fifth grader will get plenty of practice in identifying those parts before you start diagramming them. (And you’ll have the teacher’s book!)

In the middle grades, you should plan to spend forty to sixty minutes per day, working through a grammar text and its accompanying exercises.

Which grammar texts are best?

After reviewing a number of grammar texts, we think that the Rod & Staff grammar series, which now extends through tenth grade, is the most thorough. The fifth-­grade book, Following the Plan, builds on the material taught in the fourth-­grade book we recommended in Chapter 5. The stu­dent can continue on with Progressing with Courage (sixth grade), Building Securely (seventh grade), and Preparing for Usefulness (eighth grade). Each nonconsumable text contains clear explanations of grammatical concepts, plenty of exercises for practice, and well­-constructed writing exercises that teach sentence construction, paragraph development, outlining, and writ­ing short essays from outlines. (Sample essays and outlines are also pro­vided in the teacher’s manual, to help you evaluate your student’s work.) These texts take a rigorous, systematic, old­-fashioned, and very effective approach to building expository writing skills.

Although the writing exercises in the middle­-grade books should be completed, don’t feel that you have to complete every grammar exercise. If your child understands the concepts and is able to put it into practice, there’s no need to be compulsive about finishing the page. In addition, you should feel free to adjust the topics of the assigned essays so that they match the student’s history or science learning. (For example, the seventh-­grade book asks students to develop a paragraph for the topic sentences, “The life cycle of a butterfly is a marvelous process,” but if the student is working through an astronomy course, he could substitute, “The life cycle of a star is a marvelous process” and go on to describe the birth and death of a star.)

Rod & Staff is a Mennonite press, and the examples and exercises some­times refer to Biblical passages and Christian theology. If you prefer a non­sectarian text, you can choose one of the following options instead:

(1) Voyages in English is a grammar text published by Loyola Press. Originally designed for Catholic schools, it was revised for use in all class­rooms. It is not quite as thorough as Rod & Staff, and the writing exercises are not as strong in building expository writing skills. If you use Voyages in English, you’ll need to eliminate the writing exercises and use one of the writing programs recommended in the “Writing” section of this chapter.

(2) Shurley English: Homeschool is a grammar program originally designed for classroom use and adapted for home schooling parents. This program takes a very different approach than Rod & Staff or Voyages in English. Rather than using a textbook with written exercises, Shurley English is a scripted teacher’s manual. The parent-­teacher is instructed to write examples on a blackboard or on notebook paper, and is given a set of questions and answers to go through with the student. This “Question and Answer Flow” is designed to show students how to identify and use parts of speech. Shurley also provides memory jingles to help students memorize definitions.

Generally, we feel that grammar (which is a skill intended to help you write well) is best practiced in the context of written language—including plenty of written exercises. Also, Shurley Grammar does not use diagram­ming; instead, students are taught to label the parts of speech in sentences, which does not teach them relationships between words and phrases (an essential part of logic-­stage learning). And the writing element of Shurley is weak, especially in building expository skills.

However, the script Shurley offers has been helpful to parents who have difficulty in teaching grammar using a textbook. If you have tried Rod & Staff or another good textbook grammar program, and your student still shows no understanding of grammatical concepts, Shurley can give you guidance in explaining grammatical concepts clearly.

If you do decide to use Shurley, you will need to use a separate writing program (as described above for Voyages in English). You’ll also need to add an outlining program (such as the Frank Schaffer Note Taking & Outlining series recommended in Chapter 5, as well as Mary Mueller’s Study Skills Strategies: Outlining) and a diagramming resource (such as The First Whole Book of Diagrams or the Better Sentence Structure Through Diagraming series listed in the Resources at the end of this chapter). In addition, you might want to ask another Shurley user to help you get started; the program setup can seem confusing to new users.

As you progress through your grammar program, have the student write down any grammar or punctuation rule that gives him particular trouble. (For example, “Periods and commas go inside the closing quotation marks.”) Keep a list of these “Trouble Rules” in the Grammar section of the language notebook. Also use these sections to file grammar exercises done on notebook paper. Composition assignments should be filed in the Writing section of the notebook.

Grammar Choices: Summary
Grade	Option
Fifth	Rod & Staff English: Following the Plan A Beka: God’s Gift of Language B Shurley English: Level 4
Sixth	Rod & Staff English: Progressing with Courage Voyages in English: Grade 6 Shurley English: Level 5
Seventh	Rod & Staff English: Building Securely Voyages in English: Grade 7 Shurley English: Level 6
Eighth	Rod & Staff English: Preparing for Usefulness Voyages in English: Grade 8 Shurley English: Level 7

If you’re just beginning formal grammar with an older student, you can simply start right at grade level, with one exception: Seventh­- or eighth-­grade students just beginning in Rod & Staff should start with the fifth-­grade book, Progressing with Courage.

READING

Follow this schedule:

Fifth grade Ancients (5000 B.C.–A.D. 400)
Sixth grade Medieval–early Renaissance (400–1600)
Seventh grade Late Renaissance–early modern (1600–1850)
Eighth grade Modern (1850–present)

During the logic stage, plan to spend thirty to sixty minutes, four days per week, reading and creating narration pages and reports.¹

As in the grammar stage, reading is keyed to the historical period being studied. The student should place narrations of historical novels and other imaginative literature in the Reading section of the notebook.

However, she can put narrations of any great books—original literature written during the historical period under study—in The Arts and Great Books section of the history notebook. If she reads a novel about the Borgia in seventh grade, she should put it in the English notebook under Reading. But if she reads Gulliver’s Travels, she can put this in her history notebook. In a way, it’s a primary source, written by an eyewitness to the history she’s working on.

You shouldn’t feel that you have to confine the child to stories during her reading time. Although the fifth grader should be reading tales from ancient Egypt, if she shows interest in a biography of Tutankhamen, let her read that, too. She needs to read a version of the Iliad and Odyssey, but she can also read nonfiction books about Homer or Socrates or the wars of Alexander the Great. Reading and history will inevitably overlap. Just try to keep a balance: at least one work of imagination for every biography or book of history. Historical novels are fine, but make sure that the child also reads versions of the classics, if not the classics themselves.

During the logic stage, you’re preparing the child to think critically about literature by conversing with her about it—carrying on a dialogue about what is or isn’t important in plots, about whether characters are heroes or vil­lains, about the effects that books have on readers.

Does this mean you have to read the book yourself?

Yes.

We’ve done our best, in this book, to guide you toward books and work texts that don’t demand unnecessary preparation. But if you’re going to dis­cuss books with your child, you must (at the very least) skim through the

story yourself. (You don’t have to do this with every book the child reads, just with those for the “structured reading” of language study.) During the logic stage, your conversations with the student will guide her as she begins, for the first time, to think critically about what she reads. (And think of all the great literature you’ll catch up on.)

What questions should you ask?

There’s nothing wrong with relying on the summaries and questions provided by Cliffs Notes, that great college standby (for a complete listing, call a local bookstore). Most fifth graders won’t be reading on a Cliffs Notes level yet, but glancing through the review questions at the end of the book­lets can help you formulate your own questions. You can also use any ques­tion from the following list to begin your dialogue. As you grow more comfortable with the process, you’ll think of others.

For a novel or story:

Whom is this book about? (central character[s])
What do the central characters want?
What keeps them from getting it?
How do they get what they want?
Do they have an enemy or enemies? Is there a villain?
What does the villain want?
What do you think is the most important event in the story?
What leads up to this event?
How are the characters different after this event?
What is the most important event in each chapter?
How many different stories does the writer tell?

For a biography:

What kind of family did the subject come from?
What were his parents like?
Where did he go to school?
What did he want the most as a child? As a grown­up?
How did he go about getting it?
Name three or four important people in his life.
Did he get married? To whom? When?
Did they have children?
What was the most important event in his life?
Name three other important events in his life.
Did he get what he wanted in life? Why or why not?
Why do we still remember this person?

For evaluation:

What was the most exciting part of the book?
What was the most boring part of the book?
Did you like the character[s]? Why or why not?
Did you hope that she would get what she wanted?
Did any part of the book seem particularly real?
Did any part of the book seem unlikely to you?
Did you hope it would end in another way? How?
Would you read this book again?
Which one of your friends would enjoy this book?

You should aim to spend at least four days per week, thirty to sixty minutes per day, on reading—that is, reading the books, talking about them, con­structing a narrative, and then writing up that narrative in the child’s best handwriting.

It is normal for a fifth-­grade student to struggle with these questions at first. Putting thoughts into words and articulating them clearly to someone else is hard work. However, students who show ongoing frustration, or who come into fifth grade without any experience in narration and sum­mary writing, may need to do some structured catch­-up work in reading and comprehension skills. A useful remedial series, Basic Skills: Language Arts, can be purchased from Frank Schaffer Publications. The reading selec­tions in these workbooks are not wonderful literature, but the series pro­vides direct instruction in genre recognition, understanding characters, setting, and point of view, distinguishing main ideas from details, and so on. We suggest that during the fifth-­grade year, you complete the follow­ing books in this order:

Story Elements, Grades 5–6
Summarizing, Grades 5–6
Reading for Understanding, Grade 6
Reading for Understanding, Grades 7–8

(Don’t be intimidated by the grade designations—the workbooks are short and the difficulty level low.)

In the meantime, the student should continue to read from the fifth-­grade list that follows, but you can delay discussing the books with him until he has finished the Basic Skills workbooks.

Throughout the logic stage, don’t forget to provide a full hour (at least) some other time during the day for free reading. Children need to be encouraged to read for fun on a regular basis—and they should not have to report on every book they read. Visit the library regularly (many home­-schooling families make library visits a weekly school activity), and help your fifth grader choose good novels and nonfiction books on interesting subjects. Consider requiring your child to pick out two science books and two history books on each library trip.

We’re strong believers in parental censorship. Realize that not all Calde­cott or Newbery winners are suitable for all children. Skim through books you aren’t familiar with; just because a book is recommended by a librarian doesn’t mean that it will provide age­-appropriate entertainment.

A good annotated list of books for young readers is found in Books Children Love by Elizabeth L. Wilson (Wheaton, Ill.: Crossway Books, 2002), available at most bookstores. Many libraries keep their own lists of recom­mended books for middle­-grade readers; ask your librarian.

Fifth Grade: Ancients (5000 B.C.–A.D. 400)

The fifth grader returns to the Ancients. In first grade, you read myths and fairy tales to your beginning reader. Now she can read them for herself. She’ll begin the year with tales of ancient Egypt and end the year with the works of the Romans. Plan on spending a minimum of thirty minutes— sixty is better—on reading. Since her history curriculum is also centered on the Ancients, the history and reading curricula will reinforce and strengthen each other.

As in the grammar stage, avoid “reading textbooks.” Go to the library, and check out the many middle­-grade versions of classic literature—myths, legends, the works of Plato and Confucius, the tales of Homer and Virgil. At the end of this chapter, we’ve listed a number of adaptations suitable for fifth graders. We’ve also listed historical novels that can give the student an excellent picture of the ancient world.

Don’t limit yourself to our suggestions, though. Go to the library cata­log or children’s librarian with the following chronological list, suitable for fifth to eighth graders (adaptations, biographies, and historical novels):

Confucius
Chinese folktales
Japanese folktales
ancient Chinese poetry
ancient Japanese poetry
myths of ancient Egypt
tales of the pharoahs
the Bible
Moses
Abraham
David
Solomon
Esther
Ruth
Homer
Buddha
Socrates
Plato
Aristotle
Alexander the Great
Roman emperors
the Iliad and the Odyssey
Greek and Roman myths
Aesop’s fables
Indian folktales
African folktales
Cicero
Virgil

The fifth grader should continue to write one-­half-­page to one-­page summaries of each book read during reading time. As she moves on to longer and more complex books, she may take a week or so to read a sin­gle book and write a one-­page summary. Try to enforce the one-­page limit even though this is difficult for longer books (the child typically wants to include every detail in her summary). Before she writes, talk to her about the book. Ask her to tell you the story (or relate the information, in the case of a nonfiction book). Help her to evaluate each detail by asking ques­tions: “Is that important later on?” “Would the story still make sense if you left that part out?” “Does that character show up again at the end of the book?” “What does he do?” “If you leave him out of your report, will the story end the same way?” Talk about the book together until the child has pinpointed the most important events and is able to weave them into a narration.

At the end of the narration, ask the child to write a one­- or two-­sentence evaluation of the book that includes specific reasons why she did or didn’t like the book. “I liked the Odyssey because Odysseus came back home to Penelope and she didn’t have to marry someone she hated” is acceptable; “I liked the Odyssey because it was interesting” is not. Again, talk through this paragraph with your child. Ask: “What was your favorite part?” “Who was your favorite character?” “Why?” “Did you find this boring?” “How could it have been more interesting?”

This process of selecting, evaluating, and criticizing will move the fifth grader from grammar-­stage reading (where she simply repeats what she reads back to you) into logic-stage reading. During the logic stage, the stu­dent thinks about what she’s read: “What makes it interesting?” “What parts of it are most important?” “Why do I react the way I do?”

As the logic stage continues, Writing Strands and other texts will help the child’s developing critical faculties.

Sixth Grade: Medieval–Early Renaissance (400–1600)

In sixth grade, the student will concentrate on literature from and about the Middle Ages and early Renaissance, a period that coincides with her study of history. If she’s a good reader, she can tackle a few originals this year (many sixth graders are capable of reading some Malory, Chaucer, and Beowulf in modern English translation as well as scenes from Shakespeare).

Sixth grade is the first year the student will actually complete a reading list. Aim to read the following works in the following chronological order:

1. Robert Nye, Beowulf: A New Telling (New York: Laurel Leaf, 1982).

A good (and very exciting) adaptation for sixth graders.

2. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, verse translation by J. R. R. Tolkien (New York: Del Rey, 1979).

Not a scholarly standard, but wonderful verse.

3. Geoffrey Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales, retold by Geraldine McCaugh­rean, Oxford Illustrated Classics series (New York: Puffin, 1997).

An accessible prose retelling.

4. Geoffrey Chaucer, “Prologue” to The Canterbury Tales.

A good modern English version, easily available, is published by Penguin Classics (translated by Nevill Coghill), 2003. The explana­tory notes, annoyingly, are at the back of the book.

5. Dante Alighieri, Inferno, Cantos I–V.

The standard translation is Allen Mandelbaum’s, but for reading aloud we like the new translation by former poet laureate Robert Pinsky (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1997).

6. Edmund Spenser, Saint George and the Dragon, from The Fairie Queene.

A fun edition is Margaret Hodges’s retelling (New York: Little Brown, 1990), which is really too simple for sixth graders. But Geraldine McCaughrean’s retelling is unfortunately out of print (check your library for it—you might get lucky).

7. Thomas Malory, a version of Le Morte d’Arthur.

Malory himself is pretty thick even for high­school students, but choose one (or more) of the following:

a. The Boy’s King Arthur: Sir Thomas Malory’s History of King Arthur and His Knights of the Round Table, edited by Sidney Lanier, orig­inal illustrations by N. C. Wyeth (New York: Dover, 2006). Pardon the sexist title, but this is a classic adaptation of Malory, and the Wyeth illustrations are spectacular.

b. Rosemary Sutcliff, The Sword and the Circle: King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table (New York: Puffin, 1994). Paperback retelling of Malory.

c. T. H. White, The Sword in the Stone (New York: Philomel, 1993). This is the first in T. H. White’s four­novel adaptation of Malory. All four are collected together into The Once and Future King (New York: Ace, 1987). A classic in its own right.

d. Le Morte d’Arthur, abridged (Minneapolis, Minn.: Highbridge Company, 2005). This audiobook version, read by Derek Jacobi, is an excellent introduction to Malory.

8. Leon Garfield, Shakespeare Stories (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1998).

These narrative retellings of twelve plays include much of the orig­inal dialogue.

9. If your sixth grader is a good reader, also include a Shakespeare play.

Choose one of the following Shakespeare plays, using the Oxford School Shakespeare editions, Oxford University Press— wonderfully clear texts (see the discussion below on selecting the first Shakespeare play): Macbeth, Henry V, A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

The above are excellent introductory texts. Try to find the editions we’ve specified (nothing turns a reader from Shakespeare faster than a wrinkled, tiny­-print edition with no explanatory footnotes). Our recommended edi­tions should be readily available at libraries and bookstores (see Resources for mail-­order information).

For Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, the “Prologue” to The Canterbury Tales, and the introduction to the Inferno, we strongly recommend reading the texts aloud with your child (poems that seem obscure on the page come to life when read out loud). Also look for audiobook versions; the whole fam­ily might enjoy Derek Jacobi’s reading of Le Morte d’Arthur on a long drive.

What about Shakespeare?

Sixth grade is the earliest that Shakespeare is taught. If you think your sixth grader is ready, try an original play. Otherwise, stick with the Garfield retellings, Shakespeare Stories (which should be read in any case). Rely on your own judgment, and don’t force an unready sixth grader to read Shakespeare. The goal of early Shakespeare studies is to create love, not loathing.

When you tackle Shakespeare for the first time, follow this three-­step process:

1. Read a summary of the play’s plot. For each play, the Oxford School Shakespeare editions provide a synopsis, a summary of each act, and a character list.

2. Now that you know what’s going on, go to or watch at least one staged production. Shakespeare was written to be watched. Rent a video, and eat popcorn.

3. Now read the text.

Which play should you choose?

Romeo and Juliet is the high-­school standard, but the sexual elements make it unsuitable for many sixth graders, who will be either embarrassed or bored. We suggest you choose Macbeth (tragedy), Henry V (history), or A Midsummer Night’s Dream (comedy). A Midsummer Night’s Dream is the eas­iest of the comedies to follow, but the video versions are so­so. Good video versions of Macbeth and Henry V are available, and the plays are about equal in terms of difficulty. Both require a fair amount of background historical knowledge (provided in the Oxford School Shakespeare editions). Susan leans toward Henry V because the Kenneth Branagh movie is one of the best introductions to Shakespeare for any young student—it’s got sword fight­ing, romance, comedy, and moral dilemmas.

Continue to discuss these books, as outlined under “Fifth Grade,” and to prepare one­page summaries and evaluations. You can also use the Writing Strands method for book reports and evaluations (taught in Lesson 6 of book 6—see page 358). Because these books actually originated in the time period under study, file the summaries and book reports in the history notebook under The Arts and Great Books.

Besides following the list above, you should explore the library. Consult the catalog or ask your librarian for sixth­- to­-eighth­-grade books (adapta­tions, biographies, historical novels) by and about these writers and thinkers (listed chronologically):

Saint Augustine

Geoffrey Chaucer

Erasmus

Edmund Spenser

Sir Thomas More

John Donne

William Shakespeare

Martin Luther

Sir Thomas Wyatt (try stories of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn)

Dante Alighieri

Sir Thomas Malory

John Knox

John Calvin

René Descartes

Search for adaptations or versions of these specific works:

Beowulf

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

The Canterbury Tales

The Fairie Queene (including “Saint George and the Dragon”)

Inferno

Le Morte d’Arthur (”The Death of Arthur”) or anything based on this

work
the plays of Shakespeare

In sixth grade, try to spend at least four days per week, forty to sixty min­utes per day, on reading—reading the books, talking about them, writing about them. As in fifth grade, provide an extra full hour (at least) during the day for free reading of a work that the child chooses herself.

Seventh Grade: Late Renaissance–Early Modern (1600–1850)

The seventh grader will read literature from the late Renaissance through the early modern period.²

With an extra year under her belt, the seventh­-grade student can read even more originals than she did in sixth grade, starting with the simpler novels of the writers she’ll meet again in eleventh grade. Specific editions are important only where we’ve noted it; otherwise, an easily located edi­tion such as a Penguin Classic or Dover Thrift will do. Try to complete the following reading list in order:

1. Miguel de Cervantes, Don Quixote, abridged.

Try the Dover Children’s Thrift Classics: Adventures of Don Quixote (New York: Dover, 1999).

2. Charles Perrault. Perrault’s Complete Fairy Tales. Trans. A. E. Johnson (Hertfordshire, U.K.: Wordsworth Editions, 2004).

3. Jonathan Swift, “A Voyage to Lilliput” and “A Voyage to Brob­dingnag,” from Gulliver’s Travels (New York: Dover, 1996).

4. John Bunyan, The Pilgrim’s Progress.

Any edition is fine, but a decent paperback is put out by Barbour (1993). If your seventh grader finds Bunyan tough going, try The Pilgrim’s Progress: A Retelling, by Gary D. Schmidt (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Eerdmans, 1994).

5. Daniel Defoe, Robinson Crusoe (Penguin Classic paperback, 2003).

Or read the more expensive hardback with N. C. Wyeth’s illus­trations, published by Simon & Schuster (1983).

6. William Wordsworth, “We Are Seven,” “Lines Written in Early Spring,” “Lines Composed a Few Miles above Tintern Abbey,” “Lucy Gray,” “Composed upon Westminster Bridge, September 3, 1802,” and “I Wandered Lonely As a Cloud,” in Favorite Poems (New York: Dover, 1992).

7. Samuel Taylor Coleridge, “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner,” in The Rime of the Ancient Mariner and Other Poems (New York: Dover, 1992).

8. Washington Irving, The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and Rip Van Winkle (New York: Dover, 1995).

9. Robert Browning, “The Pied Piper of Hamelin,” in My Last Duchess and Other Poems (New York: Dover, 2003).

10. Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm, Grimm’s Fairy Tales (New York: Puffin Classics, 1996).

11. Benjamin Franklin, “The Way to Wealth,” in Benjamin Franklin: The Autobiography and Other Writings (New York: Penguin, 2003).

12. Christina Rossetti, “Goblin Market,” “A Birthday,” “Sister Maude,” “No, Thank You, John,” in Selected Poems (New York: Dover, 1994).

13. Lewis Carroll, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.

Any edition.

14. Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice.

Any edition.

15. Mark Twain, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer.

Any edition.

16. Jules Verne, 20,000 Leagues under the Sea.

Any edition.

17. Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol (New York: Dover, 1991).

18. Alfred, Lord Tennyson, “The Lady of Shalott” and “The Charge of the Light Brigade.”

Any edition.

19. Edgar Allan Poe, “The Raven.”

Any edition.

20. Peter Christen Asbjrnsen, East o’ the Sun and West o’ the Moon: Fifty-­nine Norwegian Folk Tales (New York: Dover, 1970).

21. Frederick Douglass, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, Written by Himself (Clayton, Del.: Prestwick House, 2004).

Most seventh graders will find that this list ranges from fairly simple to extremely challenging. As always, use your common sense. If you glance over a book and think it’s too difficult or if the student begins it and strug­gles for more than a couple of chapters, skip it and move on. Good readers can certainly go on to explore the more difficult works of Dickens, Austen, Twain, and any of the writers listed below. Slower readers can simply skip some of these titles.

Where a particularly affordable and/or readable edition exists, we’ve listed this as top option; you can also browse through the literature section of your local bookstore and pick up the edition that appeals to you. Keep an eye out for the Dover Thrift editions, which are cheap and readable (but minus scholarly footnotes, which no seventh grader really needs anyway) and cost only $1.00 to $3.00. Most bookstores carry a good selection and can order any title in the series.

Continue to discuss these books and to prepare one-­page summaries and/or book reports. File the book reports in the history notebook under The Arts and Great Books. Also explore the library for seventh- ­to ninth-­grade-­level books, adaptations, biographies, and historical novels by and about these writers and thinkers listed here in chronological order:

Daniel Defoe

Jonathan Swift

John Bunyan

Alexander Pope

John Milton

William Blake

Alfred, Lord Tennyson
William Wordsworth
Robert Browning
Elizabeth Barrett Browning
Charles Dickens
Jane Austen
Edward Lear
Percy Bysshe Shelley
Mary Shelley
Christina Rossetti
Lewis Carroll
Mark Twain
James Fenimore Cooper
Frederick Douglass
Jules Verne
Herman Melville

This is a bare outline—any literary figure encountered during the student’s exploration of the years 1600 through 1850 is acceptable. Aim to spend at least four days per week, forty to sixty minutes per day, on reading the books, talking about them, writing about them.

Continue to require a full hour (at least) of free reading (no video games or computer projects or anything other than print on a page).

Eighth Grade: Modern (1850–Present)

The eighth grader will read literature from the modern period. A complete reading list for this period would take a lifetime to work through, so con­sider the following a skeleton that you can clothe with any number of addi­tional authors and books. The goal of the list is to introduce the student to a wide range of genres—adventure, poetry, mystery, science fiction, short stories—spanning a century and a half. Each list (fiction, poetry, and drama) is organized in chronological order. The more challenging works (and more difficult authors) of this period will be read in the senior year of high school, when the student encounters this period for the last time. We haven’t sug­gested specific editions since these titles are so widely available, but we’ve provided several mail-­order sources in Resources, at the end of this chapter.

Classical education demands a great deal of reading—ideally, the eighth grader will read every title on the list. But because the list is long, we’ve divided it into fiction, poetry, and drama. If you’re unable to complete the entire list, make sure you select titles from each category.

Fiction

1. Robert Louis Stevenson, Kidnapped or Treasure Island

2. Edward E. Hale, “The Man without a Country”

3. Louisa May Alcott, Little Women

4. Arthur Conan Doyle, any of the Sherlock Holmes stories or The Hound of the Baskervilles

5. Rudyard Kipling, The Jungle Book

6. H. G. Wells, The Time Machine or The War of the Worlds

7. Jack London, The Call of the Wild

8. G. K. Chesterton, any of the Father Brown stories

9. Baroness Orczy, The Scarlet Pimpernel

10. O. Henry, any of the short stories

11. Lucy Maud Montgomery, Anne of Green Gables

12. Agatha Christie, Murder on the Orient Express

13. Dorothy Sayers, Strong Poison

14. Margaret Mitchell, Gone with the Wind

15. Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, The Yearling

Poetry

1. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, “The Song of Hiawatha”

2. Robert Frost, “The Road Not Taken” and other poems

3. E. E. Cummings, collected poems

4. Walter de la Mare, Poems 1919–1934, any selections

5. Langston Hughes, The Dream Keeper and Other Poems or The Block: Poems

Drama

1. Oscar Wilde, The Importance of Being Earnest

2. George Bernard Shaw, Pygmalion

3. Arthur Miller, The Crucible

4. Robert Bolt, A Man for All Seasons

Discuss these works with your student. After you’ve talked through them, ask her to prepare one­- to two-­page book reports, and file them under The Arts and Great Books in the history notebook.

Although this list ought to keep you busy all year, you can also look for biographies on and works by the following writers listed chronologi­cally:

Beatrix Potter

Laura Ingalls Wilder

Frances Hodgson Burnett

J. D. Wyss
Gerard Manley Hopkins
Alexandre Dumas
Willa Cather
Wilfred Owen
Thomas Hardy
Carl Sandburg

A. A. Milne

W. Somerset Maugham

T. S. Eliot
Ezra Pound

F. Scott Fitzgerald
Sinclair Lewis
Amy Lowell
Ernest Hemingway

W. B. Yeats
Pearl S. Buck
Robert Lowell
Isaac Asimov
Isaac Bashevis Singer
Toni Morrison

The eighth grader should plan on spending an hour per day, four or five days per week, reading, discussing, and writing about literature.

Free reading should continue. This is a good time for the student to go on with the novels of Agatha Christie, Thomas Hardy, Isaac Asimov, or another newly discovered writer she enjoys.

Memory Work

Each year, ask the student to select and memorize three to five favorite poems or passages from her reading. She should recite these for you before the end of the school year. Keep a page entitled “Memory Work” at the back of her notebook; write down the names of the pieces she has memorized and the dates she recited them for you. Fifth graders can choose English translations of classical poems or dramatic passages; sixth graders, pas­sages from Chaucer or Dante; seventh graders have a wide range of choices, including poems of Wordsworth, Rossetti, and Poe, as well as Lewis Carroll’s “Jabberwocky”; eighth graders have the entire range of modern poetry to choose from. Allow flexibility—the student ought to be able to memorize something that interests and attracts her.

WRITING

The student has been practicing narration and dictation in the early grades, and during fifth grade you should continue to do dictation twice per week. Use more complex sentences, and progress to short paragraphs as soon as the student is able to write well-­crafted complex sentences from your dic­tation. Choose sentences from the books she’s reading, either novels or her history and science. File the completed assignments in the Writing section of the language notebook.

This dictation, along with narration, the writing of summaries, and the outlining recommended in the history and science chapters all work to build the student’s writing ability. However, a formal writing program is also an important element of good writing instruction.

If you choose to use Rod & Staff, the composition exercises provided can fulfill the middle-­grade student’s need for a writing program. However, if you choose Voyages in English, or Shurley Grammar, you should select a writing program to use in place of the writing instruction found in these curricula. Consider one of the following. (And remember, as we mentioned in Chapter 5, that a perfectly good writing program may not suit a partic­ular student’s learning style; if a program consistently frustrates your child, try another one.)

(1) The Writing Strands program recommended in Chapter 5 focuses on persuasive writing and is simple to use. If you used this program in the gram­mar stage, simply continue on with it now. The entire series consists of seven books: Levels 2 through 7 and the final book, Writing Exposition, which con­tains thirteen lessons that prepare the student for college-­writing assign­ments (story analysis, reaction papers, term papers, evaluations). Writing Exposition also reviews logic in writing (propaganda technique), library use, comparison and contrast, use of the first person in formal writing, and the SAT II writing test. This is a course that can be used any time from eighth grade to senior high. The assignments are demanding, and the student can take three or four weeks per lesson to complete each one of the lessons.

The Writing Strands levels don’t necessarily correspond to grade levels; progress through them at a pace natural to the student. If you’re just begin­ning with the program, follow the guidelines below:

Fifth grade, reluctant writer	Level 3
Fifth grade, average writer	Level 4
Fifth grade, advanced writer	Level 5
Sixth grade, reluctant writer	Level 4
Sixth grade, average writer	Level 5
Sixth grade, advanced writer	Level 5
Seventh grade, reluctant writer	Level 5
Seventh grade, average writer	Level 5
Seventh grade, advanced writer	Level 6
Eighth grade, reluctant writer	Level 5
Eighth grade, average writer	Level 6
Eighth grade, advanced writer	Level 6

(2) The Institute for Excellence in Writing, also recommended for gram­mar stage, focuses on teaching the student to write using models; the pri­mary purpose of the program is to teach parents how to guide children in writing across the curriculum. Many students who find Writing Strands a chore flourish with this approach. You’ll progress through the nine­-unit course each year, increasing the difficulty as the student matures. (See Chapter 5 for a fuller description.)

(3) The three-­book Wordsmith series, published by Common Sense Press, is a particularly good choice for reluctant writers. The assignments are short and clear, broken down into easily understood stages. As a draw­back, there’s not a great deal of practice; once a skill is taught, the student rarely returns to it.

If you’re beginning with a fifth­- or sixth-­grade student, do the three books (Wordsmith Apprentice, Wordsmith, and Wordsmith Craftsman) in order. A sev­enth- ­or eighth-­grade student could begin with Wordsmith unless he is very writing­-phobic, in which case he’d be better off with Wordsmith Apprentice (even if the newspaper-­reporter theme of this book strikes him as childish).

(4) Classical Writing, developed by four home-­school parents, is based on the classical progymnasmata: a set of exercises assigned by ancient and medieval teachers of rhetoric in order to develop their students’ persuasive skills. The original progymnasmata exercises ranged in difficulty from retelling a narrative in your own words through much more complex assignments, such as arguing for the moral worth of a particular law. The progymnasmata were generally given to older students, and in fact serve as the basis of the rhetoric courses we recommend for high school (see Chapter 24). Classical Writing brings the methods of the progymnasmata down to the early grades; the program’s authors suggest that the first level of the program can be taught to third or fourth graders. We think that most younger students are better off tackling the progymnasmata with a few more years of reading and grammar under their belts. However, you could cer­tainly begin the program with a mature fifth or sixth grader. The first two years of the program, Aesop and Homer, are focused on the skills involved in retelling narratives.

Classical Writing has both pros and cons. The curriculum makes very effective use of classical teaching techniques; imitation of good writers is at the center of the method, students are encouraged to incorporate grammar learning, spelling, and editing skills into the daily lessons, and the pro­gram develops the specific writing skills needed to tackle Great Books study. However, the lessons are complex and require the parent to be com­fortable with grammar, spelling, vocabulary, and writing; the parent is responsible for planning the sessions and directing the integration of gram­mar and vocabulary learning into the lessons.

Classical Writing is probably best suited to experienced home­-school par­ents and parents who are competent writers. We suggest that you visit the Classical Writing website (classicalwriting.com). Read the first three sec­tions (The Progymnasmata, The Method, and The Models), the description of the first year of writing (Classical Writing: Aesop), and the sample pages from the Aesop curriculum. If you’re intrigued and interested, the program is for you. If it doesn’t excite you, choose one of the curricula above. But don’t feel pressure to use this program simply because it seems to be the “most classical” of the middle­-grade writing curricula; the progymnasmata will be encountered again in the rhetoric stage of learning.

SCHEDULES

Daily Schedule

Fifth Grade

Spelling/word study	15 minutes	Continue with the Spelling Workout books (by this time, you should be finishing up E or beginning F and G).
Grammar	40–60 minutes	Formal grammar.
Reading	30–60 minutes	Do structured reading for four days (schedule an hour for imaginative reading at another time); you are returning to ancient myths and legends, classics, and books about the ancient writers. Memorize and recite poems or passages, three to five for the year.
Writing	30–60 minutes	Do formal writing assignments two or three times per week, dictation twice per week, letters to friends and relatives at least twice per month.

Sixth Grade

Spelling/word study	15 minutes	Continue with the Spelling Workout books (by this time, you should be finishing up F or G and moving toward H).
Grammar	40–60 minutes	Formal grammar.
Reading	40–60 minutes	Do structured reading (schedule an hour for imaginative reading at another time); read medieval and Renaissance literature and begin to use some originals. Memorize and recite poems or passages, three to five for the year.
Writing	30–60 minutes	Do formal writing assignments three times per week, a history or science essay once per week, letters to friends and relatives at least twice per month.

Seventh Grade

Spelling/word study	45 minutes one day; review 5 minutes other days	Continue with the Spelling Workout books (aim to finish H by the end of this year); then go on to Vocabulary from Classical Roots A.
Grammar	40–60 minutes	Formal grammar.
Reading	40–60 minutes	Do structured reading (schedule an hour for imaginative reading at another time); read late Renaissance through early modern literature. Memorize and recite poems or passages, three to five for the year.
Writing	30–60 minutes	Do formal writing assignments three times per week, letters to friends and relatives at least twice per month.

Eighth Grade

Word study	45 minutes one day; review 5 minutes other days	Continue with Vocabulary from Classical Roots B and C or C and D.
Grammar	40–60 minutes	Formal grammar.
Reading	60 minutes	Do structured reading (schedule an hour for imaginative reading at another time); read literature from 1850 to the present. Memorize and recite poems or passages, three to five for the year.
Writing	45–60 minutes	Do formal writing assignments three times per week, letters to friends and relatives at least twice per month.

RESOURCES

For publisher and catalog addresses, telephone numbers, and other information, see Sources (pages 749–776). Most books can be obtained from any bookstore or library; where we know of a mail-­order option, we have provided it. Where noted, resources are listed in chronological order (the order you’ll want to use them in). Books in series are listed together.

Spelling/Word Study

Adams­-Gordon, Beverly L. Spelling Power. 4th ed. Pomeroy, Wash.: Castle­moyle Press, 2006. $64.95. Order from Castlemoyle Press.

Fifer, Norma, and Nancy Flowers. Vocabulary from Classical Roots series. Cambridge, Mass.: Educators Publishing Service.

Order from Educators Publishing Service.
Vocabulary from Classical Roots, Grade 4. $10.80.
Teacher’s Guide and Answer Key 4. $18.75.
Vocabulary from Classical Roots, Grade 5. $10.80.
Teacher’s Guide and Answer Key 5. $18.75.
Vocabulary from Classical Roots, Grade 6. $10.80
Teacher’s Guide and Answer Key 6. $18.75.
Vocabulary from Classical Roots A. $10.80.

Teacher’s Guide and Answer Key A. $18.75.
Vocabulary from Classical Roots B. $10.80.
Teacher’s Guide and Answer Key B. $18.75.
Vocabulary from Classical Roots C. $10.80.
Teacher’s Guide and Answer Key C. $18.75.
Vocabulary from Classical Roots D. $11.55.
Teacher’s Guide and Answer Key D. $18.75.
Vocabulary from Classical Roots E. $11.55.
Teacher’s Guide and Answer Key E. $18.75.

Modern Curriculum Press Spelling Workout series. Upper Saddle River,

N.J.: Modern Curriculum Press (Pearson Learning Group), 2002. $10.95 for each student edition, $11.50 for each Teacher’s Edition. Order from Pearson Learning. The grade levels are approximate, but will give you a guide as to where to begin with an older student.

Spelling Workout D (fourth-­grade level).
Teacher’s Edition D.
Spelling Workout E (fifth­-grade level).
Teacher’s Edition E.
Spelling Workout F (sixth­-grade level).
Teacher’s Edition F
Spelling Workout G (seventh-­grade level).
Teacher’s Edition G.
Spelling Workout H (eighth­-grade level).
Teacher’s Edition H.

Grammar

Rod & Staff Grammar and Composition. Following the Plan: English 5. Crockett, Ky.: Rod & Staff, 1991.

Order from Rod & Staff.

Pupil Textbook. $15.30.
Worksheets (additional practice). $2.95.
Teacher’s Manual. $21.90
Test Booklet. $1.95

Progressing with Courage: English 6. Crockett, Ky.: Rod & Staff, 1992.

Order from Rod & Staff.

Pupil Textbook. $17.35.
Worksheets (additional practice). $2.95.
Teacher’s Manual. $23.95.
Test Booklet. $1.95.

Building Securely: English 7. Crockett, Ky.: Rod & Staff, 1994.

Order from Rod & Staff.
Pupil Textbook. $17.45.
Worksheets (additional practice). $2.95.
Teacher’s Manual. $23.95.
Test Booklet. $1.95.

Preparing for Usefulness: English 8. Crockett, Ky.: Rod & Staff, 1994.

Order from Rod & Staff.
Pupil Textbook. $18.05.
Worksheets (additional practice). $2.95.
Teacher’s Manual. $23.95.
Test Booklet. $1.95.

Shurley English Homeschool Edition. Cabot, Ark.: Shurley Instructional

Materials Inc., 2003. $70.00 per kit (each kit includes a teacher’s manual, student workbook, and audio CD). Order from Shurley Instructional Materials. Additional student workbooks are available for $12.00 each.

Level 4 Kit.
Level 5 Kit.
Level 6 Kit.
Level 7 Kit.

Voyages in English. Chicago, Ill.: Loyola Press, 2006. Order from Loyola Press.

Voyages in English, Grade 5, Student Edition. $44.95.
Grade 5, Student Edition, Extra Practice Book. $8.95.
Grade 5, Teacher Guide. $75.95.
Grade 5, Answer Key, Extra Practice Book. $15.95.

Voyages in English, Grade 6, Student Edition. $49.95.
Grade 6, Student Edition, Extra Practice Book. $9.95.
Grade 6, Teacher Guide. $79.95.
Grade 6, Answer Key, Extra Practice Book. $18.95.

Voyages in English, Grade 7, Student Edition. $49.95.

Grade 7, Student Edition, Extra Practice Book. $9.95.
Grade 7, Teacher Guide. $79.95.
Grade 7, Answer Key, Extra Practice Book. $18.95.

Voyages in English, Grade 8, Student Edition. $49.95.
Grade 8, Student Edition, Extra Practice Book. $9.95.
Grade 8, Teacher Guide. $79.95.
Grade 8, Answer Key, Extra Practice Book. $18.95.

Supplementary Grammar Resources

Basic Skills: Language Arts. Grand Rapids, Mich.: Frank Schaffer Publications. $6.99 each. Order from School Specialty Publishing.

Better Sentence Structure Through Diagraming 1.
Better Sentence Structure Through Diagraming 2.

Daly, Mary. The First Whole Book of Diagrams, rev. ed. Garretson, S.D.: Hedge

School, 2002. $26.00. Order from the Hedge School or from Emmanuel Books. A won­derful, complete guide to diagramming every part of speech.

Elementary Diagramming Worktext. $10.00 when ordered along with the text above. Provides students with plenty of practice.

Mueller, Mary. Study Skills Strategies: Outlining. Portland, Maine: Walch

Education, 2003. $24.99. Order through any bookstore or from Walch Education (you can also read samples at www.walch.com). High-­school skills.

Pearce, Q. L. Note Taking & Outlining. Grand Rapids, Mich.: Frank Schaffer

Publications, 2003. $6.99 for each book. Order from School Specialty Publishing. Each stu­dent will need her own book.

Note Taking and Outlining, Grades 3–5.
Note Taking and Outlining, Grades 6–8.

Reading Remediation

Basic Skills: Language Arts. Grand Rapids, Mich.: Frank Schaffer Publications. $6.99 each. Order from School Specialty Publishing.

Reading for Understanding, Grade 6.

Reading for Understanding, Grades 7–8.

Story Elements, Grades 5–6.

Summarizing, Grades 5–6.

McGuinness, Carmen, and Geoffrey McGuinness. Reading Reflex: The Foolproof Phono­-Graphix Method for Teaching Your Child to Read. New York: Fireside, 1999.

$17.95. Order from any bookstore.

Reading

These are listed in order of use. Remember, you don’t have to read all of these. But you can choose reading assignments from among the following names. Note that this list—especially the early-­modern and modern sec­tions—is merely a starting place. There are many other authors and books worth reading, and you’ll discover them as you explore your library. Rather than organizing these books and authors alphabetically, we have listed them in chronological order, and we suggest that you read them in this order; we have also included a few historical novels where appropriate. In most cases, you can find various versions of these stories. We have sug­gested a few specific editions that we particularly like.

For fifth grade, we have provided a number of different retellings of Greek myths and stories; pick one or several. From sixth grade on, the lists are divided into two parts. The first part, the formal reading list that we describe in detail in the chapter itself, is listed in chronological order. The supplementary list, containing books and novels that you can use to sup­port the reading list, is listed alphabetically by author.

Ancients, 5000 B.C.–A.D. 400 (Fifth Grade)

Work through these books and authors in the following order.

Green, Roger Lancelyn. Tales of Ancient Egypt. New York: Puffin, 1996. $4.99. Order from any bookstore. A minor classic in its own right. Green’s retelling is clear and vivid.

McGraw, Eloise Jarvis. The Golden Goblet. New York: Scholastic, 2000. $6.99. A young Egyptian boy solves the mystery of a goblet stolen from the City of the Dead.

———. Mara, Daughter of the Nile. New York: Puffin, 1990. $6.99 An Egyptian slave girl gets involved with rivals who battle over the throne.

Birch, Cyril. Tales from China. New York: Oxford University Press, 2001. $12.95. Part of the Myths and Legends series. Engrossing and well-­written stories.

McAlpine, Helen, and William McAlpine. Tales from Japan. New York:

Oxford University Press, 2002. $12.95. Part of the Myths and Legends series. Engrossing and well-­written stories.

Gray, J. E. B. Tales from India. New York: Oxford University Press, 2001. $12.95. Part of the Myths and Legends series. Engrossing and well­-written stories.

Arnott, Kathleen. Tales from Africa. New York: Oxford University Press,

2000. $12.95. Part of the Myths and Legends series. Engrossing and well­-written stories.

Evslin, Bernard. Heroes, Gods and Monsters of Greek Myths. Illus. William Hofmann. New York: Bantam, 1984. $6.50. Vivid retellings of the “greatest hits” of Greek myth.

Coolidge, Olivia. Greek Myths. Boston, Mass.: Houghton Mifflin, 2001. $5.95. Order from American Home-School Publishing. A classic retelling.

Colum, Padraic. The Golden Fleece and the Heroes Who Lived before Achilles. New York: Aladdin, 2004. $9.95. Order from American Home-­School Publishing. A classic retelling.

Green, Roger Lancelyn. Tales of Greek Heroes. New York: Puffin, 2002. $4.99. Order from American Home-School Publishing. A minor classic in its own right. Green’s retelling is clear and vivid.

———. The Tale of Troy. New York: Puffin, 1995. $4.99. Order from American Home­-School Publishing. A minor classic in its own right. Green’s retelling is clear and vivid.

Coolidge, Olivia. The Trojan Wars. Boston, Mass.: Houghton Mifflin, 2001. $6.95. Order from American Home-­School Publishing. A classic retelling.

Colum, Padraic. The Children’s Homer: The Adventures of Odysseus and the Tale of Troy. Illus. Willy Pogany. New York: Aladdin, 2004. $9.95. Order from any bookstore. A classic retelling.

Sutcliff, Rosemary. Black Ships before Troy: The Story of the Iliad. Illus. Alan

Lee. New York: Delacorte Press, 1993. $19.95. Order from any bookstore. An excellent retelling with eerie, vivid illustrations.

Lively, Penelope. In Search of a Homeland: The Story of the Aeneid. Illus. Ian

Andrew. London: Frances Lincoln Children’s Books, 2007. $19.63. In print, but expensive; try your local library. This is one of the few retellings of the Aeneid available, and it’s a good one, with excellent illustrations.

McGovern, Ann. Aesop’s Fables. New York: Scholastic, 1990. $4.50. Order from Greenleaf Press. A good retelling of sixty fables, illustrated.

Plato. The Last Days of Socrates. Trans. Hugh Tredennick. New York: Penguin,

2003. $12.00. Order from any bookstore. Contains the two dialogues “On Piety” and “The Death of Socrates.” Most fifth graders can read this if you take one of the parts.

Coolidge, Olivia. Caesar’s Gallic Wars. North Haven, Conn.: Linnet Books,

1998. $23.50. Based on Julius Caesar’s Commentaries, the story of Caesar’s wars in Gaul, 58–51 B.C. The only retelling of Caesar we’ve ever seen, dif­ficult to find, but try your library.

Vennema, Peter. Cleopatra. Illus. Diane Stanley. New York: HarperTrophy, 1997. $7.99. Well­-researched and beautifully illustrated life of the Egyptian queen.

Speare, Elizabeth George. The Bronze Bow. Boston, Mass.: Houghton Mifflin, 1997.

$6.95. A Jewish rebel in first­century Galilee encounters the itinerant preacher Jesus. A Newbery Medal winner.

Sutcliff, Rosemary. Outcast. New York: Sunburst, 1995. $7.95. A Roman infant is rescued from a shipwreck and raised in a British village.

———. The Eagle of the Ninth. New York: Sunburst, 1993. $7.95. In A.D. 119, a Roman legion disappears in the wilds of Britain. Fifteen years later, the commander’s son sets out to find the missing company.

———. The Silver Branch. New York: Sunburst, 1993. $7.95. In the sequel to The Eagle of the Ninth, Saxons raid Britain, and the Roman provinces fight for their land.

Horowitz, Anthony. Myths and Legends. Illus. Francis Mosley. New York:

Kingfisher, 2007. $6.95. A useful and fun­to­read collection of ancient stories from China, Polynesia, North and South America, and other parts of the world, as well as the usual Greek and Roman retellings.

Medieval/Early Renaissance, 400–1600 (Sixth Grade)

Formal Reading List

Work through the list in this order. Titles can be ordered from any bookstore.

Nye, Robert. Beowulf: A New Telling. New York: Laurel Leaf, 1982. $5.99. A good (and very exciting) adaptation for sixth graders.

Tolkien, J. R. R. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. New York: Del Rey, 1988. $6.99. Not a scholarly standard, but a wonderful verse translation of the original. Fans of Tolkien will enjoy echoes of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings.

McCaughrean, Geraldine. The Canterbury Tales. New York: Puffin, 1997. $3.99.

Chaucer, Geoffrey. “Prologue” to The Canterbury Tales. Trans. Nevill Coghill. New York: Penguin, 2003. $10.00. This edition is in modern English.

Alighieri, Dante. The Inferno of Dante: A New Verse Translation. Trans. Robert

Pinsky. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1997. $20.00. We like this free translation by the former poet laureate. Another standard is Allen Mandelbaum’s translation (New York: Bantam Books, 1992). Read Cantos I–V.

Philip, Neil. Illustrated Book of Myths. Illus. Nilesh Mistry. New York: Dorling

Kindersley, 2007. $12.99. A well­-written and ­researched collection of myths from differ­ent parts of the world, showing the common themes that stretch across cultures.

Colum, Padraic. Nordic Gods and Heroes. Illus. Willy Pogany. New York:

Dover, 1996. $10.95. Myths rewritten in the style of the Eddas, for young readers; excellent.

Hodges, Margaret. Saint George and the Dragon. New York: Little Brown,

1990. $7.99. From Spenser’s The Fairie Queene. A better rendition is Geraldine McCaughrean’s retelling, but it is out of print and difficult to find.

Malory, Thomas. Versions of Le Morte d’Arthur: Jacobi, Derek, narrator. Le Morte d’Arthur, abridged. Minneapolis, Minn.: Highbridge Company, 2005. $34.95. Lanier, Sidney, ed. The Boy’s King Arthur: Sir Thomas Malory’s History of King Arthur and His Knights of the Round Table. Illus. N. C. Wyeth. New York: Dover, 2006. $14.95. Sutcliff, Rosemary. The Sword and the Circle: King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table. New York: Puffin, 1994. $6.99. White, T. H. The Sword in the Stone. New York: Philomel, 1993.

$24.99. White’s illustrated reworking of Malory is marvelous; a “must­-read.”

———. The Once and Future King. New York: Ace, 1987. $7.99. The entire saga of the Round Table. For good, mature readers. Most students will want to read this in high school.

Garfield, Leon. Shakespeare Stories. Boston, Mass.: Houghton Mifflin, 1998. $19.95. A good introduction to Shakespeare.

Shakespeare, William. Oxford School Shakespeare series. Ed. Roma Gill. New York: Oxford University Press.

$7.95 each.
A Midsummer Night’s Dream. 2002.
Henry V. 2001.
Macbeth. 2002.

Supplementary Resources

The Chaucer Coloring Book. Santa Barbara, Calif.: Bellerophon Books, 1991. $3.95. Order from Bellerophon Books. Contains the “Prologue” to The Canterbury Tales in the original Middle English, along with woodcuts from the earliest published editions. A nice introduction to Middle English.

Chute, Marchette Gaylord. Stories from Shakespeare. New York: Plume, 1959. $15.00. Order from any bookstore. All 36 plays in story form; gives a straightforward plot summary along with famous lines from each play. Good for reading along with the plays themselves.

Columbus, Christopher. First Voyage to America: From the Log of the Santa Maria. Whitefish, Mont.: Kessinger Publications, 2007. $18.95. The actual log, abridged for ages 9–12.

de Angeli, Marguerite. The Door in the Wall. New York: Laurel Leaf, 1998. $5.50. A historical novel. The 1950 Newbery winner about a crippled boy who longs to be a knight.

de Trevino, Elizabeth Borton. I, Juan de Pareja. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1987. $6.95. A novel about the painter Velazquez and his African slave.

French, Allen. The Story of Rolf and the Viking Bow. Chapel Hill, N.C.:

Yesterday’s Classics, 2007. $10.95. A classic novel (first published around 1900 and still in print) about a young Viking boy’s search for justice and his murdered father.

Fritz, Jean. Brendan the Navigator: A History Mystery about the Discovery of

America. New York: Putnam, 1999. $6.99. Imaginative biography of the Irish monk who sailed to the New World in A.D. 590.

Gray, Elizabeth. Adam of the Road. New York: Puffin, 1987. $7.99. In 1294, a young minstrel searches for his stolen dog—and his father. A Newbery Medal–winning novel.

Green, Robert Lancelyn. The Adventures of Robin Hood. New York: Puffin, 1995. $4.99. Read this classic retelling when you study the Crusades in history.

Kelly, Eric P. The Trumpeter of Krakow. New York: Aladdin, 1992. $5.99. A Newbery Medal winner about a young fifteenth-­century Polish boy and a mysterious jewel.

Picard, Barbara Leonie. Tales of the Norse Gods. New York: Oxford University

Press, 2001. $11.95. Part of the Myths and Legends series. You can use this as imag­inative reading when you study the Vikings in history.

Pyle, Howard. Howard Pyle wrote a series of modern classics—young adult novels of Arthurian and medieval times. If you can’t find them in a bookstore, you can order them from Greenleaf Press .

$9.95. The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood. New York: Dover, 1985.
$8.95. Otto of the Silver Hand. New York: Dover, 1976.
$10.95. The Story of King Arthur and His Knights. New York: NAL,
1991.
$13.95. The Story of Sir Lancelot and His Companions. New York: Dover,
1991.
$11.95. The Story of the Champions of the Round Table. New York: Dover,
1968.
$12.95. The Story of the Grail and the Passing of Arthur. New York: Dover,
1993.

Shakespeare Coloring Book. Santa Barbara, Calif.: Bellerophon Books, 1985. $4.95. Order from Greenleaf Press. Historical illustrations of famous scenes. A good memory aid.

Sperry, Armstrong. Call It Courage. New York: Simon Pulse, 2008. $5.99. A novel about Mafatu, the son of a Polynesian chief, who must prove that he isn’t a coward.

Sutcliff, Rosemary. The Lantern Bearers. New York: Sunburst, 1994. $6.95. A historical novel. In 450, a Roman soldier in Britain fights against invading Angles and Saxons.

Willard, Barbara. Augustine Came to Kent. Warsaw, N.D.: Bethlehem Books,

1996. $12.95. Order from Greenleaf Press. A historical novel. The story of a Saxon boy who accompanies Augustine on his mission to England.

Late Renaissance/ Early Modern, 1600–1850 (Seventh Grade)

Formal Reading List

Work through this in order. Unless otherwise noted, these are standard edi­tions available at most bookstores or from Amazon.com. Many of the titles can be found in more than one edition. Prices will no longer be noted unless a book is unusually expensive or difficult to find.

Miguel de Cervantes, Don Quixote, abridged. Dover Children’s Thrift Classics: Adventures of Don Quixote. New York: Dover, 1999.

Perrault, Charles. Perrault’s Complete Fairy Tales. Trans. A. E. Johnson. Hertfordshire, U.K.: Wordsworth Editions, 2004.

Swift, Jonathan. “A Voyage to Lilliput” and “A Voyage to Brobdingnag.”

From Gulliver’s Travels. The Dover Thrift edition (New York: Dover, 1996) is cheapest, but any edition will do.

Bunyan, John. The Pilgrim’s Progress. Any edition is fine, but a decent paperback is the Barbour 1993 edition. You can also use The Pilgrim’s Progress: A Retelling by Gary D. Schmidt (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Eerdmans, 1994) if the original seems too difficult.

Defoe, Daniel. Robinson Crusoe. New York: Penguin, 2003. You can also order the hardback with N. C. Wyeth’s illustrations (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1983) from American Home­-School Publishing for $27.00.

Wordsworth, William. Favorite Poems. Try the Dover Thrift edition (New York: Dover, 1992).

Coleridge, Samuel Taylor. “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner.” Found in most collections. You can buy the Dover Thrift edition of this poem and other works (New York: Dover, 1992).

Irving, Washington. The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and Rip Van Winkle. Dover Thrift edition. New York: Dover, 1995.

Browning, Robert. “The Pied Piper of Hamelin.” This is contained in the Dover Thrift edition of Browning, My Last Duchess and Other Poems (New York: Dover, 1993).

Grimm, Jacob, and Wilhelm Grimm. Grimm’s Fairy Tales. New York: Puffin Classics, 1996.

Franklin, Benjamin. “The Way to Wealth.” In Benjamin Franklin: The Autobiography and Other Writings. New York: Penguin, 2003.

Rosetti, Christina. “Goblin Market,” “A Birthday,” Sister Maude,” “No,

Thank You, John.” All are contained in the Dover Thrift edition, Selected Poems (New York: Dover, 1994).

Carroll, Lewis. Alice in Wonderland. Any edition.

Austen, Jane. Pride and Prejudice. Any edition

Twain, Mark. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. Any edition.

Verne, Jules. 20,000 Leagues under the Sea. Any edition.

Dickens, Charles. A Christmas Carol. Any edition. Make sure you don’t get an abridged version by accident— this book is often abridged.

Tennyson, Alfred, Lord. “The Lady of Shalott” and “The Charge of the Light Brigade.” In any Tennyson collection.

Poe, Edgar Allan. “The Raven.” In any collection or anthology.

Asbjrnsen, Peter Christen. East o’ the Sun and West o’ the Moon: Fifty­nine Norwegian Folk Tales. New York: Dover, 1986.

Douglass, Frederick. Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, Written by Himself. Clayton, Del.: Prestwick House, 2004.

Supplementary Resources

Brady, Esther Wood. Toliver’s Secret. New York: Random House, 1993. A teenaged girl disguises herself as a boy to carry a message from New York to the American rebels in New Jersey.

Brink, Carol Ryrie. Caddie Woodlawn. New York: Aladdin, 1990. The novel of a pioneer girl and her family, who have to decide whether to stay in America or return to an inherited title in England.

Collier, James Lincoln. My Brother Sam Is Dead. New York: Scholastic, 2005. The novel of a Connecticut family divided by the Revolutionary War.

Dalgliesh, Alice. The Courage of Sarah Noble. New York: Aladdin, 2003. A Newbery Medal–winning novel about a young girl in the Connecticut wilderness, 1707.

Field, Rachel. Hitty: Her First Hundred Years. New York: Aladdin, 1998. This Newbery winner tells the story of the first hundred years in a doll’s life.

Forbes, Esther. America’s Paul Revere. Boston, Mass.: Houghton Mifflin,

1990. A novel of the life and adventures of Paul Revere by the Newbery Medal–winning author.

———. Johnny Tremain. New York: Laurel Leaf, 1987. The classic story of a silversmith’s apprentice caught in the Revolutionary War.

Speare, Elizabeth George. Calico Captive. Boston, Mass.: Houghton Mifflin, 2001.

The story of a young girl, captured by Indians in 1754 and sold to the French. Based on an actual eighteenth­century diary.

———. The Sign of the Beaver. New York: Yearling, 1984. A novel about a boy who learns survival skills from Indians in eighteenth­-century Maine.

———. The Witch of Blackbird Pond. New York: Laurel Leaf, 1978. A Puritan girl in Connecticut makes friends with a suspected witch.

Vernon, Louise. The Beggar’s Bible. Grand Rapids, Mich.: Herald Press, 1971. The biography of Bible translator John Wycliffe.

——. The Man Who Laid the Egg. Scottsdale, Penn.: Herald Press, 2002. The story of Renaissance scholar Erasmus.

Yates, Elizabeth. Amos Fortune, Free Man. New York: Puffin, 1989. The 1951 Newbery Medal–winning novel about an African prince brought to the United States as a slave.

Modern, 1850–Present (Eighth Grade)

Formal Reading List

These are available in standard editions at bookstores or from Amazon.com. Read each section in the order listed.

Fiction

Stevenson, Robert Louis. Kidnapped or Treasure Island. You can order the Puffin Classic editions of both (New York: Puffin, 1995 and 1994, respectively) from American Home­-School Publishing.

Hale, Edward E. “The Man Without a Country.”

Alcott, Louisa May. Little Women. You can order the Puffin Classic edition (New York: Puffin, 1997) from American Home-­School Publishing.

Doyle, Arthur Conan. Any of the Sherlock Holmes stories or The Hound of the Baskervilles.

Kipling, Rudyard. The Jungle Book. You can order the Puffin Classic edition (New York: Puffin, 2002) from American Home-School Publishing.

Wells, H. G. The Time Machine or The War of the Worlds.
London, Jack. The Call of the Wild.
Chesterton, G. K. Any of the Father Brown stories.
Orczy, Baroness. The Scarlet Pimpernel.
Henry, O. Any of the short stories.

Montgomery, Lucy Maud. Anne of Green Gables. You can order the Puffin Classic edition (New York: Puffin, 1996) from American Home­-School Publishing.

Christie, Agatha. Murder on the Orient Express.
Sayers, Dorothy. Strong Poison.
Mitchell, Margaret. Gone with the Wind.
Rawlings, Marjorie Kinnan. The Yearling.

Poetry

Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth. “The Song of Hiawatha.”
Frost, Robert. “The Road Not Taken.”
Cummings, E. E. Collected poems.
de la Mare, Walter. Poems 1919–1934. Any selections.
Hughes, Langston. The Dream Keeper and Other Poems. New York: Knopf, 1996.

Drama

Wilde, Oscar. The Importance of Being Earnest.
Shaw, George Bernard. Pygmalion.
Miller, Arthur. The Crucible.
Bolt, Robert. A Man for All Seasons.

Supplementary Resources

Burnett, Frances Hodgson. Little Lord Fauntleroy. New York: Puffin, 1996. A children’s classic; worth reading.

———. A Little Princess. New York: Penguin, 2002. Another much­-loved classic.

Gipson, Fred. Old Yeller. New York: HarperTrophy, 1995. A fourteen year old tries to run the family farm in Texas after the Civil War. (Much better than the movie.)

Hunt, Irene. Across Five Aprils. New York: Berkley, 2002. Jethro Creighton comes of age during the turbulent years of the Civil War.

Keith, Harold. Rifles for Watie. New York: Harper, 1987. A sixteen year old chooses sides in the Civil War.

Lowry, Lois. Number the Stars. New York: Yearling Books, 1990. A Newbery award–winner. A Danish girl and her family work to save their Jewish friends and neighbors from the invading Nazis.

O’Dell, Scott. Sing Down the Moon. New York: Laurel Leaf, 1997. The story of a Navajo girl captured by Spanish soldiers in 1864.

Taylor, Mildred D. Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry. New York: Puffin, 2004. A sharecropper’s family deals with prejudice and poverty in Depression-­era Mississippi.

ten Boom, Corrie. The Hiding Place. New York: Bantam, 1984. The ten Boom family was arrested for hiding Jews. This is Corrie’s first-­person account of the concentration camps. May be too intense for some eighth graders.

Wyss, J. D. The Swiss Family Robinson. New York: Signet Classics, 2004.

More Imaginative Reading

Ask your local librarian for lists of recommended titles. But also look for these authors, who produced classic tales that have been loved by genera­tions of young readers.

Aiken, Joan
Alexander, Lloyd
Brink, Carol Ryrie
Bulla, Clyde Robert
Burnett, Frances Hodgson

Carroll, Lewis
Cleary, Beverly
Cooper, Susan
de Angeli, Marguerite
Enright, Elizabeth
Estes, Eleanor
Fisher, Dorothy Canfield
George, Jean
Henry, Marguerite
Holling, Holling Clancy
Irving, Washington
Juster, Norton
Kipling, Rudyard
Kjelgaard, Jim
Lawson, Robert
L’Engle, Madeline
Lewis, C. S. (Narnia series)
Little, Jean
Norton, Mary
Nesbit, E.
O’Brian, Robert C.
O’Dell, Scott
Sewell, Anna
Sharp, Margery
Sobel, Donald J.
White, E. B.
Wiggin, Kate Douglas
Wilder, Laura Ingalls

Writing

Cheaney, Janie B. Wordsmith series. Melrose, Fla.: Common Sense Press.

Order from Rainbow Resource Center or The Book Peddler. Wordsmith Apprentice (use anytime between grades 4–6). $16.00. Wordsmith (use anytime between grades 6–8). $16.00.

Teacher’s Guide. $7.00. Wordsmith Craftsman (use anytime between grades 7–10). $16.00.

Classical Writing. The Classical Writing website provides an E­mail con­tact and message board, but no physical address or phone number. You can purchase texts from Classical Writing, through print­on­demand from Lulu.com, or from Rainbow Resource Center. The texts are listed below in order of use; each level is approximately one year’s worth of work and con­sists of a core book and student workbooks or guides. The first two levels also require the purchase of a separate instructor’s guide.

Aesop (grade 5 or older)
Aesop core book. $20.95.
Student Workbook A. $24.95.
Instructor’s Guide A. $16.95.
Student Workbook B. $24.95.
Instructor’s Guide B. $16.95.

Homer (grade 6 or older)
Homer core book. $34.95.
Student Workbook A. $26.95.
Instructor’s Guide A. $16.95.
Student Workbook B. $26.95.
Instructor’s Guide B. $16.95.

Diogenes: Maxim (grade 7 or older)
Diogenes: Maxim core book. $26.96.
Student Guide. $26.95.

Diogenes: Chreia (grade 8 or older)
Visit the Classical Writing website for pricing information.
Diogenes: Chreia core book.
Student Guide.

Institute for Excellence in Writing series. Atascadero, Calif.: Institute for

Excellence in Writing. Order from IEW. Visit the website, www.excellenceinwriting.com, for additional options.

Teaching Writing: Structure and Style.

Video seminar instructs parents on how to teach writing and pro­vides a syllabus. The package includes nine units, the syllabus, and a student workshop/demo class.

Complete Set (for those teaching grades 2–11). $169.00.

Writing Strands. Challenging Writing Programs for Homeschoolers series.

Niles, Mich.: National Writing Institute. $20.00 for each book. The Writing Strands program can be purchased directly from the National Writing Institute o, at a small discount from Rainbow Resource Center. The books aren’t consumable; you do all the assignments on notebook paper, so you can reuse these books for another child.

Writing Strands 5.
Writing Strands 6.
Writing Strands 7.
Writing Exposition.
Evaluating Writing.

This booklet for parents/teachers reviews common problems and how to fix them. A good parent resource.

¹A fifth grader who reads extremely slowly or who struggles with the mechanics of reading may need a review of vital phonics rules; sometimes, reluctant readers are reluc­tant because they have been improperly taught and don’t have the basic skills needed to decode written English. For older students, the best choice for remedial phonics work is Reading Reflex, by Carmen and Geoffrey McGuinness; this resource provides clear and age-­appropriate reading instruction, suitable for students who may already have developed poor reading habits.

²Although some of the titles in this list were written after 1850, we’ve placed them in the early modern period if most of the author’s life passed before mid­-century.

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