| Should you have questions not covered in these FAQs, please don't hesitate
to contact Robin Finley personally at rfinley@analyticalgrammar.com.
Junior Analytical Grammar was created in response to parent requests
for grammar materials for younger students. It covers the same material
found in the first ten units of Analytical Grammar, but the exercises are
shorter and the reading level is lower. It is also more "interactive" as
far as the parent is concerned. Rather than the student reading notes,
the "notes" are really a series of questions and activities designed
to help the child understand the grammatical concepts.
It concentrates on the grammar basics, without going into the more complex
concepts such as phrases and clauses. All the parts of speech (nouns, articles,
adjectives, pronouns, prepositions, verbs, adverbs, and conjunctions) and
the functioning parts of a sentence (subjects, verbs, modifiers, direct
and indirect objects, predicate nominatives, and predicate adjectives)
are covered.
It is between second and third grade. I recommend that
it be used with third, fourth, or even fifth graders. The easy reading
level is to enable all children to learn the concepts without struggling
with comprehension. There are 11 units in all, each succeeding unit is designed
to utilize and build on knowledge acquired in preceding units. The units
are themed around family, school, neighborhood, which are familiar to
the child. · There is a page of "notes" at the beginning of
each unit, which is really a set of "talking points" for
teachers. I have tried to focus this informational part of the program
on questions designed to help children access what they already know
about grammar (which is considerable or they wouldn't be able to put
sentences together coherently!). · There are three exercises in each unit containing sentences
on which the children can practice their new knowledge. · Each unit has a "comprehension assessment" which
is designed to let the teachers, parents, and children know at what
level (mastery, probationary, etc) they have internalized the material. · At the end of each unit in Junior Analytical Grammar, there
is a writing assignment called "Playing With Words." This
gives the younger students a chance to develop more fluency in their
writing as they reinforce the concepts being taught in the unit. It
is highly recommended that this part of each unit be covered. A teacher could easily cover the entire program in eleven weeks, with
plenty of time left over for other language activities. Once covered, it
would be very easy for the teacher to reinforce the grammar concepts by
having students "parse" sentences which they encounter in their
other work. It would also be a good time then to discuss such things as
what is and is not a sentence and how to use various punctuation marks. |