Need help on helping ds12 with R&S grammar 6...

[stephanie]

We're doing Ch. 6 and he didn't do well on his test. He's having a lot of trouble with cases of pronouns, when to use who/whom, and whether the pronoun is a subject, predicate nom, direct object Ind. object or OP. Are there any tricks or easy ways for him to remember the rules or will it be just memorization? He made a 63 on his test and I'm thinking I'm just going to go back to the chapter to those sections and repeat. What do you think?

[Janice in NJ]

We're doing Ch. 6 and he didn't do well on his test. He's having a lot of trouble with cases of pronouns, when to use who/whom, and whether the pronoun is a subject, predicate nom, direct object Ind. object or OP. Are there any tricks or easy ways for him to remember the rules or will it be just memorization? He made a 63 on his test and I'm thinking I'm just going to go back to the chapter to those sections and repeat. What do you think?

Stephanie,

May I ask a question? Do you understand all of the different types - their similarities, their differences, and their uses? I only ask because it really took me a while to realize that if *I* understood this grammar "stuff," my kids had a better shot at figuring it out too. Bummer for me. But it has worked; it was/is worth my time. :)

So if you "get it", then just ignore the rest of this post - work through lesson 72 again, pin-point his issues, and re-teach those lessons.

If you are a bit fuzzy on pronouns - I was, I'm learning - then try to look at the chapter as a whole. Look through the table of contents, glance through this list, and start by focusing on the boxed summary included in each lesson.

The chapter teaches:

Personal Pronouns
Nominative Case
Objective Case
Possessive Case

Demonstrative Pronouns

Indefinite Pronouns
Singular
Plural
Singular OR Plural
Their use as adjectives

Interrogative Pronouns

Relative Pronouns

If you can pin-point his issues, it will help. For us it has been necessary for me to make SURE that I include all of the oral review questions before we start each lesson. Each of the lessons builds on the previous lessons in the chapter. We do all of the review orally EACH lesson (See the "Oral Review" in the teacher's edition). If there are issues, I go back and orally review those items using the Class Practice exercises from the applicable lesson. Then we move on. My kids just can't move forward unless they understand the previous material. We get alllllllllllll kinds of frustrated when I have tried to just plow on ahead.

And I also make sure that they do some written work - parts of the written exercises or a worksheet - at the end of each of our lessons. This way I can judge if they are understanding the material or if I only think they are understanding the material. Oral work can be tricky; I can often fall into the trap of giving away the answers by the way I ask the question. I can be deceived into thinking that they understand something well... until they take the test. BTDT - way too many times! *grin*

Does that help?
Have fun stormin' the castle!!!!!!! :)
(I don't mean to be cheeky! Truly! Grammar tends to put me to sleep, and R&S's snazzy presentation doesn't help much. LOL :rolleyes: But I have learned to LOVE it's direct, systematic, pick-up-and-GO! approach. It took me a while to discover that it needed to be taught though. That oral review, lesson introduction, and lesson outline in the teacher's manual was crucial to success around here. (Think spiral approach!) As soon as I "discovered" the lesson plan in the TE (translation: stopped ignoring it! :o) and realized that I needed to teach this subject rather than expecting the book to be a self-teaching text, my kids took off. Easie-peasie!)

Peace,
Janice

Enjoy your little people
Enjoy your journey

[stephanie]

Stephanie,

May I ask a question? Do you understand all of the different types - their similarities, their differences, and their uses? I only ask because it really took me a while to realize that if *I* understood this grammar "stuff," my kids had a better shot at figuring it out too. Bummer for me. But it has worked; it was/is worth my time. :)

So if you "get it", then just ignore the rest of this post - work through lesson 72 again, pin-point his issues, and re-teach those lessons.

If you are a bit fuzzy on pronouns - I was, I'm learning - then try to look at the chapter as a whole. Look through the table of contents, glance through this list, and start by focusing on the boxed summary included in each lesson.

The chapter teaches:

Personal Pronouns
Nominative Case
Objective Case
Possessive Case

Demonstrative Pronouns

Indefinite Pronouns
Singular
Plural
Singular OR Plural
Their use as adjectives

Interrogative Pronouns

Relative Pronouns

If you can pin-point his issues, it will help. For us it has been necessary for me to make SURE that I include all of the oral review questions before we start each lesson. Each of the lessons builds on the previous lessons in the chapter. We do all of the review orally EACH lesson (See the "Oral Review" in the teacher's edition). If there are issues, I go back and orally review those items using the Class Practice exercises from the applicable lesson. Then we move on. My kids just can't move forward unless they understand the previous material. We get alllllllllllll kinds of frustrated when I have tried to just plow on ahead.

And I also make sure that they do some written work - parts of the written exercises or a worksheet - at the end of each of our lessons. This way I can judge if they are understanding the material or if I only think they are understanding the material. Oral work can be tricky; I can often fall into the trap of giving away the answers by the way I ask the question. I can be deceived into thinking that they understand something well... until they take the test. BTDT - way too many times! *grin*

Does that help?
Have fun stormin' the castle!!!!!!! :)
(I don't mean to be cheeky! Truly! Grammar tends to put me to sleep, and R&S's snazzy presentation doesn't help much. LOL :rolleyes: But I have learned to LOVE it's direct, systematic, pick-up-and-GO! approach. It took me a while to discover that it needed to be taught though. That oral review, lesson introduction, and lesson outline in the teacher's manual was crucial to success around here. (Think spiral approach!) As soon as I "discovered" the lesson plan in the TE (translation: stopped ignoring it! :o) and realized that I needed to teach this subject rather than expecting the book to be a self-teaching text, my kids took off. Easie-peasie!)

Peace,
Janice

Enjoy your little people
Enjoy your journey

Thanks so much and yes, it does help. The problem is that we both understand it during the lesson , I explain it to him, he gets it, he even does the written work and worksheets. However, now that he took his test he's getting confused with all the different types and uses. I think we will go back and re-start. We even do the oral review first! He does very well on his written work, but then messes up on his tests. He tells me that it's so much info. he's sorting at once. I understand him b/c it gets confusing for me. He also is ADHD/SPD so I always take into consideration that it may be too much all at once. Maybe I should stretch his tests out over a couple of days so that it won't be so much. Thanks so much for your help!

[Janice in NJ]

It sounds like you are doing everything well! Maybe more time spent on the last lesson in each chapter would help; it combines everything into one.

And the great thing about R&S is that you get to do it all again next year. So I certainly wouldn't stress about it!!

But it sounds like you are doing an excellent job! It took a while for my oldest to figure out how to test well. Eventually it clicked.

Peace,
Janice