Episode Details
Back to EpisodesTeaching English Doesn’t Have To Take All Day
Description
Are your students more like the tortoise or the hare when it comes to learning English? Some homeschoolers find that grammar, writing, spelling, vocabulary, and literature take so long that it feels like they just can’t win. Others find that their kids breeze through English lessons so quickly that they may not be accomplishing the goal of being competent readers and writers.
Fortunately, learning English doesn’t have to take all day. In fact, there’s a way to teach it that’s so enjoyable that you and your kids will want to do it. As a former homeschool mom of six who also taught English to her friends’ kids, I’m going to get you on the fast track to English teaching success. Ready? Let’s go!
#1 Use Stories
The first step to teaching English quickly and effectively is to use stories. In fact, if all you do is read your kids a story every day, you’re making progress in all the language arts. Stories are one of the best ways to teach vocabulary—which also happens to be the best predictor of academic achievement and life success. Using stories that include advanced vocabulary words like those in Grammar Galaxy will give your kids exposure to the words. Exposure to the words is more effective for building vocabulary than having kids write out definitions—something most students don’t like doing.
In addition to vocabulary, stories teach grammar through exposure. Although some grammar has to be explicitly taught, other grammar is mastered through listening to it used correctly in conversation and story.
Stories can be used to teach literary concepts of course, but they also help students become better writers. Most writers were voracious readers in childhood. They learned how to use the English language to express themselves by reading their favorite authors.
The added benefit of using stories to teach is that they are memorable. A lecture or nonfiction paragraph is forgettable. But stories stick with us and beg to be shared. That’s why I wrote Grammar Galaxy—to use story to teach language arts concepts.
Ask many adults what a prefix is and they won’t know. But in Grammar Galaxy, Prefix is an evil programmer who introduces the re- virus into the galaxy’s computer system. As a result, movies keep rewinding and people keep repeating themselves. Students are guardians of the galaxy who correct the chaos Prefix and his Gremlin accomplice caused. If you’d like to try a free sample of Grammar Galaxy, click here.
#2 Skip spelling and vocabulary busywork
If you’re using story to teach English, you’ve already come a long way. But now let’s take a shortcut. When I first started homeschooling, I thou