Jensen Vocabulary and Punctuation

[Brindee]

I can't find threads about this, so I thought I'd start one.

Has anyone used these? I'm thinking of them for my ds14. He's sloppy with punctuation, and I'm wondering if the J Vocab is decent for SAT prep material?

Thanks for any thoughts and ideas you may offer!

[LaJuana]

...for Jensen's Punctuation. I have found it to be a painless introduction to proper punctuation for students who have a good grasp on grammar. It introduces one basic punctuation rule at a time and provides five practice worksheets for that rule and all the other rules he or she has studied. After studying and practicing a rule, the student takes a test to measure mastery of that rule and the ones studied before it. When the student has finished studying all the rules, the book provides excellent punctuation practice exercises to keep the rules fresh in the student's mind. I have found that using that book once in middle school helps the student learn to punctuate so that we can spend more time writing rather than discussing mechanics later in middle school and in high school.

I use something else for grammar, but I definitely recommend the punctuation book.

[Brindee]

Thanks LaJuana! That is very helpful. I may use it for both my kids that I'm homeschooling! (I have a 16yo that is in a great private school this year. I'm also hsing my 11yo dd). I'm using another grammar that I'm very happy with as well, so was just interested in these two books.

[Merry]

LaJuana, what do you use for grammar?

[LaJuana]

...I use an out-of-print turn-of-the-century book that provides a wonderfully thorough introduction to grammar: Mother Tongue Book II by Kittredge and Arnold. I usually begin teaching it to my children in the fifth grade, and we finish the book in two years. After completing Mother Tongue, the only grammar reinforcement my children need is Latin studies. I love teaching from this book even though I have to make changes to reflect modern punctuation standards and update words or usage here or there. Its exercises include sentences rich with vocabulary and vibrant, precise language. Recently I discovered that Google has put a scan of the book online:
http://books.google.com/books?id=-JgAAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=%22The+Mother+Tongue%22+Arnold

Kittredge was a remarkable scholar and educator, and I admire his work.

[Merry]

The book is lovely and the examples are drawn from excellent literature. I'm not sure if I will actually use it with my children because there's no answer key but it'll make a very good reference. The explanations are clear which will be good for me to fall back on if we struggle with whatever grammar book I choose to use.

[LaJuana]

...Mother Tongue Book II is that the sentences are not so "canned" as you find in modern grammar curricula. Word order is sometimes reversed; poetic language is used, etc. I think it would make a great supplement to another curriculum because you could select some of the wonderfully complex sentences to dissect in order to be sure that a child is not just relying on word order or familiar patterns to determine grammatical function in a sentence. One of the things that I have found to be beneficial for my students is to try to unravel poetry grammatically. It is a wonderful challenge, and besides helping the students solidify grammatical concepts, I think it also helps them to understand poetry with less difficulty.

I will be curious to see what you decide to use for grammar. I wish there were a modern resource with such richness of language as some of these old books have.

[Becky in TX]

We saw a "hole" in our ds's punctuation skills a few years ago. After research we chose to go with Jensen's and have not been disappointed.
I have seen the way they teach specific clause rules come up quite a bit on the SAT, and it helped my ds see it, too. I also really like the passages they read for punctuating-not boring strings of sentences, but an on-going story. We also pepper in some Daily Grams to keep all the grammar he learned earlier fresh. We did have an answer key included in the back of the workbook we purchased.

HTH,
Becky in TX

[Brindee]

Yes it does help, becky, thankyou!