How I Teach Language Arts
1️⃣ Communally
We have weekly slots for Group Language Learning and we fill it with Grammar, Etymology, Library and Reading Skills, Composition, and more.
Learning is communal, and language is communal and LA should not be an exception to the rule of learning in community.
2️⃣ Variety > Linear Instruction
I’ve shared extensively about the importance of variety and the development of the linguistic imagination, and you can take my “Philosophy of Variety” Workshop for an in-depth discussion of that.
But, I prioritize variety in teaching LA.
We use many resources combined and we don’t hyper-focus on any single aspect of language.
I’m not concerned with finishing any curriculum or with a grade-by-grade scope of what “should” be learned.
That’s not actually how language acquisition works.
3️⃣ Organically
However, the ability to communicate well and with a mastery of language does have a natural progression, and we pay mind to that. We spend years orally narrating and then progress to personal narratives and then to different types of formal composition.
4️⃣ Layered
Following this natural progression, of which Charlotte Mason was ahead of her time in advocating, needn’t, however, be a matter of obsession. Because I prioritize communal learning and variety, there are layers upon layers of language acquisition occurring year after year and nothing can really make or break the scope of our LA when the linguistic imagination is being well developed.
A person with a well developed linguistic imagination who doesn’t learn to write a 5 point essay can easily acquire that skill when it’s needed.
The reverse isn’t nearly as true.
📷 Pictured is everything we’re using for LA this year communally and for both boys individually.
💡 I will be resharing some posts about the Linguistic Imagination and LA and saving them to a highlight.
💡 I have two previous “Week of Language Arts” highlights where I show how this looked in previous years.
💡 I’ll be doing a 2024 Week of LA here next week.
💡 I’ll be talking about Composition in this month’s “Raising Communicators” workshop.
1️⃣ Communally
We have weekly slots for Group Language Learning and we fill it with Grammar, Etymology, Library and Reading Skills, Composition, and more.
Learning is communal, and language is communal and LA should not be an exception to the rule of learning in community.
2️⃣ Variety > Linear Instruction
I’ve shared extensively about the importance of variety and the development of the linguistic imagination, and you can take my “Philosophy of Variety” Workshop for an in-depth discussion of that.
But, I prioritize variety in teaching LA.
We use many resources combined and we don’t hyper-focus on any single aspect of language.
I’m not concerned with finishing any curriculum or with a grade-by-grade scope of what “should” be learned.
That’s not actually how language acquisition works.
3️⃣ Organically
However, the ability to communicate well and with a mastery of language does have a natural progression, and we pay mind to that. We spend years orally narrating and then progress to personal narratives and then to different types of formal composition.
4️⃣ Layered
Following this natural progression, of which Charlotte Mason was ahead of her time in advocating, needn’t, however, be a matter of obsession. Because I prioritize communal learning and variety, there are layers upon layers of language acquisition occurring year after year and nothing can really make or break the scope of our LA when the linguistic imagination is being well developed.
A person with a well developed linguistic imagination who doesn’t learn to write a 5 point essay can easily acquire that skill when it’s needed.
The reverse isn’t nearly as true.
📷 Pictured is everything we’re using for LA this year communally and for both boys individually.
💡 I will be resharing some posts about the Linguistic Imagination and LA and saving them to a highlight.
💡 I have two previous “Week of Language Arts” highlights where I show how this looked in previous years.
💡 I’ll be doing a 2024 Week of LA here next week.
💡 I’ll be talking about Composition in this month’s “Raising Communicators” workshop.
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