Dana, I read in a year-old post on this forrm that you used Shurley Grammer, level 7, for your high schooler's grammar instruction, but used the TOG writing component. I am choosing between Easy Grammar Plus and Shurley for my 9th-grader, but only have a high-level understanding of Shurley at this point (haven't had time to review it in-depth). Here's my q: aren't the writing assignments in Shurley pretty much interwoven with the grammar instruction? What approach did you take to teaching grammar only with Shurley, and composition with TOG? Am feeling the weight of this decision. Your wisdom would be greatly appreciated.

Also, anyone else have ideas on this?

Thanks so much!
Laura, momoffour

Hi Laura,
If your student needs in-depth grammar instruction in 9th grade, I would recommend Shurley over Easy Grammar Plus. All I did was skip the writing assignments in Shurley; they aren't integrated into anything except a few of the workpages here and there, so it was easy.

Now, that said, Shurley is considerably more teacher-intensive than Easy Grammar. If you decide to do it, be prepared to spend some time, especially at first, with your student a couple of times each week. After that, you'll get into your "groove" and know what parts of the teacher script you can skip. (We skipped reviewing the previous worksheet orally every single time.)

Blessings,

Hi Laura,

If you haven't made your decision yet, I would like to suggest Rod and Staff English. I love this curriculum! IF your student is weak in grammar, you might consider starting in level 6. Levels 7 and 8 (esp 8) are very high school worthy, in my opinion.
Happy deciding!
April

quote:

Originally posted by DanaCinTN:
Hi Laura,
If your student needs in-depth grammar instruction in 9th grade, I would recommend Shurley over Easy Grammar Plus. All I did was skip the writing assignments in Shurley; they aren't integrated into anything except a few of the workpages here and there, so it was easy.

Now, that said, Shurley is considerably more teacher-intensive than Easy Grammar. If you decide to do it, be prepared to spend some time, especially at first, with your student a couple of times each week. After that, you'll get into your "groove" and know what parts of the teacher script you can skip. (We skipped reviewing the previous worksheet orally every single time.)

Blessings,

Hi Dana,

I read your older post that you recommend Shurley over Easy Grammar for 9th grade. We just finished 1st grade (First year with TOG and we used Shurley 1). I like the Writing Aids component in TOG over Shurley's writing and am considering switching to Easy Grammar but am concerned that it is not as thorough as Shurley. I don't want to keep switching back and forth since the programs come from totally different approaches. Do you recommend Shurley even in the lower levels or does it matter? My daughter thought Shurley 1 was extremely easy and if I switch to Easy grammar I don't know what level to put her in. Thanks for your advice.

Tammy

Tammy,

We used Shurley with our children and found it to be very beneficial. We did not do the writing portion in Shurley. Although, it does have great resources and can be a good reference if you are having trouble explaining something. If you stick with Shurley, here are a few ideas to consider

1. Don't do every level of Shurley. There is a ton of repetition at each level. If your child learns the concepts and understands what is taught, you can easily skip books and do every other one.

2. Do use the jingles for younger students. They are a bit hokey, but it does help to file that information away using the chants.

3. Once your child has a good foundation, you will become comfortable skimming through the teaching script and focusing on what they need each week. We don't do everything, but cover enough to enable them to complete the main test each week. We omit the writing portion of the tests.

Here's what it looked like for my kids. They were in a private school for the beginning and then came home. They did Shurley in the classroom at their school, so we just continued at home. I know each child is different in how they learn and what works for them, but here's a glance into our sequence and how we used Shurley to work well for our family.

DS

2-5 Shurley at school
6th-We did Abeka for 8th grade, using the grammar sections only. We did not enjoy this program, but he was well prepared for it after using Shurley for so many years. A teacher at his school suggested we transition to Abeka 8 (which is Comp II I think).
7th-no grammar at home, we just focused on writing
8th-Completed Shurley 7 in half a year for review and to be sure we had covered it all.
9-12-We plan to use Annalytical Grammar review books for highschool, to keep those skills sharp. AG uses traditional diagramming, but he learned that in Abeka so we should be ok.

DD
2nd-Shurley at private school
3rd-Shurley Level 4-we jumped a level because the scope and sequence convinced me level 3 would be only review and she had learned her material well. We did grammar 2x per week and then she tested on Friday. We did not use Shurley for writing.
4th grade-took a year off from grammar and focused on writing with TOG
5th grade-level 6 in Shurley-We do grammar 3 days a week and she tests on Friday. We added the vocab this year, thus we needed an extra day to write definitions and study the terms. The vocab was too easy in level 4, but level 6 had great words and we added that to our course.
6th-undecided at this point. May take time off and then do Shurley 7 light over 2 years. She has a strong grasp of all that she's covered, but will forget things if we don't review now and then.

HTH,
Eia

I've been checking out Shurley grammar for my kiddos. I really like what I've seen so far. (just samples online )

For those of you that have transitioned INTO Shurley from another program, how does the level compare?

I have one child that is completing BJU English 2; one that is completing BJU English 6 and one that is working on Easy Grammar Plus.

Thanks!
Amy

Hi ladies,
Personally I found that using Easy Grammar all of the way up to Easy Grammar Plus (turned out to be 7th or 8th grader depending on the child), and then going straight into Shurley 7 worked just fine.

Either way though, I definitely agree with Eia that it's not necessary to do every level of Shurley. And, to answer your question, Amy, it's easy to transition into Shurley at any level if that's what you decide.

And ladies...just to give you a sneak peek into Bookshelf Central's May special...all of our language arts products will be on sale: Spelling Power, Easy Grammar, and A Reason for Writing (which is handwriting).

Blessings,

Thanks Dana!!

If I need to take this discussion to another place on the forum just let me know...I don't want to derail the original poster's question.

So, do the Shurley levels coincide with grade levels? How does one decide what level to place their child??

Thanks!!