English common core here seems a bit thrown together. The teacher mentioned they used to teach nouns and verbs in 8th grade, and now they are doing it in 6th in GT. (Seriously! And no other parts of speech????--now I have to go find the standards because 6th seems way too late if there's any "rigor" going on). And the literature is themed-- coming of age, courage, and perseverence? No more historical fiction, fantasy, autobiography?
My younger kids (4th/5th) have been doing parts of speech since first or second grade. I don't know if their school will get heavy into grammar in 6th grade. When I was a kid in a public school system in New Hampshire, we started serious studies of grammar in 5th grade and continued through 10th.
My eldest has had next to no grammar instruction (apart from in French at a French immersion school that follows the French national curriculum). We found a CTY course that's advertised as focusing heavily on grammar and writing grammatically correct essays. It starts Monday; the textbook is very grammar-intensive.
I find it very odd that schools have de-emphasized this subject.
