Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Recommended Resources Middle School English - please help.

I am looking for workbooks my DD will be able to do in her 6th grade LA class this year.
To re-cap - as a fifth grader she has been attending highest level 6th grade LA class (school places by ability)and after a few months has been offered a grade skip. We did not take advantage of a grade skip (long story) so she will be kind of re-doing what she has done last year, with kids of much lesser ability. Not the best situation, but we are determined to make the best of it. There is an option of her taking 7th grade LA in middle school, but last year the teacher was so lousy, that I did not even want to think about it. This year the teacher is new, so I don't know, maybe, but for now I am trying to get my daughter some workbooks that she will be able to work on in class. ^Her 6th grade LA teacher is very well known to me so I am expecting that she wil play along quite nicely. As part of the 6th grade La my daughter will have to submit weekly essays and she will be working on a school paper.
Any suggestions? I know that some private/boarding schools use some great LA/vocabulary building workbooks.

Hi Ania,

Immediately I think, What did your Ghost do in 7th grade? Because clearly his test scores show he either self-taught or maybe the school had something worthwhile.

Second thought is what my kids are using in middle school: Caesar's English. The LA teacher said it was recommended by William & Mary College gifted ed program. It is excellent for vocabulary development (and DS12 says it's fun, too) as well as grammar/usage.

P.S. I know you or maybe it was Lorel also had writing courses you were doing online. Aside from the Microsoft tech issues, we really thought EPGY writing class was valuable, short & sweet (so you could do two in a semester, one being the LA course & one writing, which are supposed to be done together--we didn't do the LA course) I know that's pretty expensive, but just a possibility.

Ghost"s 7th grade LA was a disaster, his high scores indicate only that he reads avidly from many, many different materials (pilot manuals through Steinbeck).
Thanks for the sugestions, will check out the Caesar's English.
Which EPGY course are you talking about specifically? Do they give kids a diagnostic test before or one have to have appropriate test scores?

The course my older DSs took was W10A - Intermediate Expository Writing (see description below). They recommend taking it with EG20, but the boys didn't have time for more.

EG20 Grammar and Style of the Sentence

This is a self-paced grammar course designed to help 7th to 12th grade students understand the grammar of the sentence and make stylistic choices informed by their knowledge of grammar. Topics include effective subject and verb choice, active and passive voice, clause coordination and subordination, sentence fragments, comma splices and run-together sentences, and phrasal modifiers (including verbal constructions or finite verbs). The course runs over the web. We strongly recommend that students enrolled in the W10 or W11 series also take EG20 concurrently.

Completion time: 1 quarter.

W10A, W10B, W10C Intermediate Expository Writing

These courses introduce students to essay composition in the context of critical reading. These courses are intended for students aged 11 through 13, and for students who have completed W09ABC. Please note, however, that course content may not be appropriate for students under age 11. If you would like to request an exception, contact the English Supervisor. Topics include: literary analysis; argumentative essay composition; critical reading of a variety of fiction and nonfiction texts, including poems, short stories, narrative essays, a full-length dramatic work, historical nonfiction, and editorials. (Reading material can vary depending on instructor.)

Virtual classroom is mandatory. We strongly recommend that students take EG20 concurrently. All students must pass W10A with a B- or better as the prerequisite to W10B or W10C. W10B and W10C do not have to be taken sequentially.

Thanks Cym for all the suggestions!
I really like Caesar's English. It is currently a toss between Caesar's, Vocabulary for Achievement and Wordly Wise.
Has anyone here used them? Which is the most friendly for a child to use on its own, without much techer input. I will need to make a decision this week

As for the writing course DD did last spring, I do not think it was so great after all.

The 6th grade Language Arts teacher is allowing DS10 to "test out" of the spelling words for the 9 wks. He gets an opportunity to study them for a few days and then test. Some pretty tricky words...my spelling has really gone to pot as I age. She'll have him do Caesar's English and another book called "The Word Within the Word" by M.C. Thompson (Royal Fireworks Press) that was recommended by William & Mary College. I'm looking at it now, because she said I could take it home for a few days. It's very good--maybe too advanced because it reminds me of SAT questions, analogies, etc. I think it's pretty intimidating (maybe my sophomore could benefit from it), but we'll see what happens.

Write more about testing out of spelling please...does it mean he test out of all the words that kids are doing weekly for nine weeks? DD class gets 20-25 words a week, but this could be a neat idea.
I think that DD class is already using a Word Within a Word book, but without workbooks. How is Caesar's English different from this one?
I am stopping by the the LA class today, will have a talk with the teacher.

It was the Write Guide
http://www.writeguide.com/
It is very inexpensive to try it out, so I recommend you do this before deciding that it is not worth it based on my opinion.

My impression is that the tutor was giving DD examples that were totally unrelated to the piece she was writing, occasionally way above her level of comprehension - like pluggin in the text that the tutor already had prepared for someone else.
But I really encourage you to try it out before forming your own opinion . It is like $50 a month or so, and the student can write to tutor daily.

Since you are familiar with both :Caesar's and Word within..., which one do you like best? Caesar's seems to be more clear to me for some reason.
DD is doing Word within... at school.
Cym, I am awaiting eagerly to hear from you...

I had a look at the Word within....last night. It was a student book, and it did not make much sense to me, meaning it was not very clear how to follow this book along. Maybe I will ask for a Teacher Manual today and the two of them will make more sense?
So far Caesar's seems to have a much more logical approach.