It is no secret. I have LOVED everything that has ever come
my way from Apologia Educational
Ministries. For the last little while, we have been reviewing the brand
spankin’ new Readers in
Residence Volume I (Sleuth) Full Set by Debra Bell.
You might recognize Debra Bell from the review I did a while
back of her very excellent Writer’s in Residence.
Readers in Residence was created to teach students “how to
read to learn.” It is intended for grades 4-and up. It can also be used for
students who are a bit older, but need additional help with the skills covered
in the program OR struggle with reading comprehension.
In this program students will:
Learn to recognize literary elements
Make inferences
Build a diverse vocabulary
Learn to decode unfamiliar vocabulary words
Work with punctuation, capitalization, grammar and usage all
as it helps clarify a story
And much more!
You can use this program along with Writer’s in Residence or
by itself. Both programs working together are intended to give you a full year
of rich and rewarding language arts instruction.
One of the BIG draws for me with this program was the choice
of literature. Debra uses Sarah, Plain
and Tall, Charlotte’s Web and Because
of Winn Dixie for this program. Students will get to choose 3 additional
books to read, as well. What’s more (and this was a biggie for me) is that the
student reads the ENTIRE book. I don’t really care for those literature courses
that only feature bits and pieces of a work. I don’t think that is what the
author intended and we lose so much enjoyment by reading bits of chapters here
and there.
With the Readers in Residence full set you receive a student
book….which is the “main show.” It is a large, spiral bound book that is sturdy
enough to be drug around from couch to table. The Answer Key book is pretty
much self-explanatory. I appreciate the Answer Key book because I didn’t have
to search in the dark for what the curriculum might be expecting from a
particular question or activity.
The Student Workbook contains a suggested daily schedule. It
follows a 32-week school year. Along with the study there are suggestions for
book clubs and parties. The curriculum also uses rubrics to help students learn
to evaluate their work. Those rubrics were a great help to me, as well.
Readers in Residence is a Biblically based curriculum so I
loved that Scripture was used to help us view the literature from that
particular viewpoint.
How We Used
It
I was one of those parents of a “struggling older student”
who asked to review Readers in Residence. As you might know, Josiah is dyslexic
and much of his formal training as been in the actually discipline of reading
the words on the page, themselves. He has been able to do little actual reading
on his own for pleasure.
Now we have used “read alouds” and “audio books” to fil in
that gap, but I really feel like he is at that point in his education that he
can handle easier (but equally enjoyable) books. I also wanted to see if this
program would help him achieve success in Independent Study.
I first need to say that I am BLOWN away by the thoroughness
of program. Each section is excellently crafted and fairly easy to follow.
Here is how we managed it. For the first few chapters, Josiah
and I read Sarah, Plain and Tall
round robin style. He would take a section then I would take a section. Then I
began to assign bigger chunks of the book independently. For example, I set the
timer for 10 minutes or assigned so many pages.
I was curious to see how much of the material he was
comprehending.
Would you know that eventually Josiah decided he could read
farther than I had assigned? He even read 2 chapters completely on his own one
day. This was a huge step for him. It wasn’t required by the curriculum, but he
wanted to know what was going to happen next!
The curriculum itself has a lot to it. For most students, I
think that it would be perfectly acceptable to have them work through it
independently…except for the discussion areas. Books need to be discussed with
a party other than oneself!
For our part, I read much of the text out loud to Josiah,
then we discovered the book together. Some sections I was able to assign for
him to work on independently. I also reduced some of the activities to
manageable sections for him. For example, he was required to list character
qualities for each character. The list was a bit overwhelming for him, so I
narrowed it down.
What I so appreciated about the program was that it explained
literary elements in a way that was easily understood. It allowed Josiah to
draw from his own life…which made the whole experience easier to grasp for him.
I did shorten lessons and didn’t use the suggested
schedule. I was, however, a big fan of
all the practical grammar usage and capitalization/punctuation activities
included. I think it helped Josiah see it better in the context of the book he
was reading.
I do need to mention one thing. My first copy of the student
book (you read that correctly) doesn’t contain the last section. I received a
defective book. I haven’t been able to look at all the goodies located in that
last section. I am POSITIVE they are super. Apologia has been nothing but
gracious and I should be getting my new copy (and complete) any day now. Yay
for great customer service!
Another mention I need to make is that the curriculum DOES
NOT come with the assigned books. We did have all 3 mentioned, but I wound up
having to order Sarah, Plain and Tall.
They use a particular printing of the book and I didn’t want Josiah to get
confused with different page numbers.
In fact, I ordered 2 copies of the book (they were really
cheap) so that we could read together. In my opinion, no one can have too many
copies of Sarah, Plain and Tall.
This is an awesome curriculum. You won’t be disappointed.
Just be prepared to be flexible if you have a struggling learner. It will work
with you!
You can connect with Apologia via the following social media
outlets. Don’t forget to click on the banner below for more reviews.
Facebook: www.facebook.com/apologiaworldInstagram: www.instagram.com/apologiaworld @apologiaworld
Twitter: www.twitter.com/apologiaworld @apologiaworld
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/apologia/
No comments:
Post a Comment