{"id":57614,"date":"2020-02-15T06:31:28","date_gmt":"2020-02-15T06:31:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/xenodochial-archimedes.45-76-20-142.plesk.page\/mrbix12020x102x1booksharks-natural-language-arts-htmlx1index\/"},"modified":"2022-11-29T17:52:50","modified_gmt":"2022-11-29T17:52:50","slug":"booksharks-natural-language-arts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mrsbishop.com\/2020\/02\/booksharks-natural-language-arts.html","title":{"rendered":"BookShark’s Natural Language Arts Approach for a Struggling Writer"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

*I receive the BookShark<\/a> curriculum in exchange for sharing our Homeschool journey with you. All opinions are my own.*<\/em><\/p>\n

I\u2019m a lover of worksheets! When I was younger, the more worksheets you gave me, the better. Writing, letters, sentences- I loved it all! Maybe that\u2019s why I became a writer? But, my son- he struggles with lots of writing. He\u2019s good at it, but he absolutely hates<\/strong><\/em> it. Language Arts became a big struggle for us, because anytime he had to write, he threw a fit. And school would become an argument instead of a learning experience. <\/p>\n

BookShark<\/a> takes a natural approach to Language Arts. They use \u2018multi-sensory approaches to teaching letter sounds, phonics, spelling, dictation, and a complete creative expression\/pre-writing program.\u2019 This means that they use lots of different methods to teach your child about writing- without having to write every single day. I LOVE THIS! Language Arts doesn\u2019t have to be such a big fight anymore.<\/p>\n

4-Day Language Arts<\/h4>\n
\"BookShark<\/figure>\n

BookShark Language Arts<\/a> (we us the Level 2 intermediate<\/a>) is broken up into 4 day school weeks, just like the rest of their curriculum. On the first day of each week we learn a new spelling rule and introduce our spelling words. My son reads a few pages in one of his readers and then does a copywork<\/a> passage from that day\u2019s reading. So, yes on Mondays he does have to write a few sentences. But, it\u2019s a gentle approach. It\u2019s only 2 or 3 and then he\u2019s done!<\/p>\n

\"reading\"<\/figure>\n

On the second day of the week we expand on what we learned the day before, and use the previous day\u2019s copywork <\/a>passage as a jumping off point to learn even more. This is called Copywork Application<\/strong>. The curriculum really builds on itself and you learn more and more in little sips. It focuses on a new goal each week. Maybe it\u2019s recognizing a new spelling rule, conjunctions, a new type of writing\u2026but each week focuses on one thing. Like this week- we\u2019re talking about contractions and the proper use for apostrophes. We\u2019re also using these tips to learn how to write a persuasive letter. <\/p>\n

The 3rd day of the week is really spent brainstorming what we\u2019re going to write on the 4th day. This is where we gather all of our ideas together. A lot of times, this doesn\u2019t even mean that your child will be writing. This is a gentle discussion on what you\u2019ll be doing the final day. This allows my son to know- \u201chey, we will be doing a writing assignment tomorrow, but let\u2019s gather our thoughts and get them all in one place so it makes the writing easier.\u201d A lot of times I just write all of the things he comes up with on our white board or a sheet of paper so that he can use it as reference on his big writing assignment. Other days we use a flow chart or Diamond Notes <\/a>(more on these in a moment). <\/p>\n

The 4th day of the week is the big writing assignment for us. Where he takes all of his ideas and puts them together to form, usually a paragraph. Yes, this day takes him the longest. But, he knows what I expect of him- there\u2019s even a rubric that you use to grade how well they do their assignment. Sometimes I even show my son the rubric so he knows exactly what I\u2019m looking for in his writing. While writing a paragraph can be a struggle- sometimes I make it easier by helping him. We\u2019ll figure out what he wants to say and I\u2019ll write it on the white board for him to copy. This makes it a little easier for him to keep his thoughts chronological. It\u2019s totally okay to take your curriculum and make it work for you!<\/strong><\/p>\n

Diamond Notes<\/h4>\n
\"diamond<\/figure>\n

One of my favorite tools that we added to our Language Arts this year was the Diamond Notes<\/a>. They are a tool used to help your child in their writing by breaking up their paragraph into smaller sections, using a baseball diamond. On the pitcher\u2019s mound they write the subject\/main idea of what they\u2019re going to write about. On the 3 bases they place their 3 supporting ideas, in order of importance. You start by doing something like, \u201cIce Cream Flavors\u201d on the pitcher\u2019s mound. Then they\u2019ll place their favorite flavors on each base in order of their most favorite to least. It expands from there. Eventually these bases will become whole sentences supporting the main idea. Finally, the home plate summarizes the whole paragraph. <\/p>\n

\"Diamond<\/figure>\n

By looking at what they\u2019ve written on the Diamond Notes<\/a>, your child can use each piece to write a whole paragraph when it\u2019s put together. It\u2019s just a fun way to teach your student paragraph structure without being too technical. And my baseball loving little boy is a huge fan! I\u2019m so thankful that BookShark<\/a> introduced us to this writing tool, because it has made Language Arts time so much less stressful! <\/p>\n

Natural Approach<\/h4>\n

There are a lot of skeptics when it comes to a more natural, gentle approach to Language Arts. But, I have to say it is working wonders for us. Language Arts<\/a> has gone from a fight to a mostly pleasant experience. So, if you have a struggling writer like I do- give BookShark\u2019s approach to Language Arts<\/a> a try!<\/p>\n

What are some ways you help your struggling learners?<\/p>\n

You may also like: Why We Homeschool<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n

Pin it<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\"language<\/figure>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BookShark takes a natural approach to Language Arts. Which is perfect for my struggling writer! This approach helps Language Arts to not be a fight!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":59147,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-57614","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-homeschool","category-uncategorized","has_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mrsbishop.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57614","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mrsbishop.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mrsbishop.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mrsbishop.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mrsbishop.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=57614"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mrsbishop.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57614\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mrsbishop.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/59147"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mrsbishop.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=57614"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mrsbishop.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=57614"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mrsbishop.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=57614"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}