Details
Course Overview
In this course, students receive structured lessons in the language arts, a discipline that includes literature and comprehension, writing skills, vocabulary, spelling, and handwriting. The purpose of these lessons is to increase reading comprehension, develop fundamental skills in oral and written communication, build vocabulary, and promote a lifelong interest in reading. This course addresses current thinking in assessment standards.
- Literature and Comprehension: Within the 18 units of this program, students will read a variety of poetry, fiction, and nonfiction. The reading selections in each unit share a common theme, topic, or genre. The accompanying lessons will develop students' literal and inferential comprehension skills. Students will read selections from the provided materials and then work online to analyze and examine the selections in more depth. They will work offline to further evaluate the work, make connections among works and the broader world, and apply the skills that they have learned in written assignments and creative projects. Students will also select books that they want to read from a list that is provided and analyze those works. In Critical Skills Practice units, students will practice important test-taking skills by reading passages and answering multiple-choice questions about what they have read. These questions are similar to those found on common standardized assessments and state tests.
- Handwriting: Students will further develop their handwriting skills through Handwriting Without Tears. In Semester 1, students will work in the Cursive Handwriting book. In Semester 2, students will practice cursive on their own as they complete assigned work in other Language Arts programs.
- Spelling: There are 36 units in K12 Spelling. Each unit contains five lessons. The first lesson of a unit introduces new spelling words. In the second and third lessons, you and your students work together to practice the spelling words introduced in the first lesson. These first three lessons are offline. The fourth lesson in each unit is an online review activity. Finally, the fifth lesson consists of an offline Unit Checkpoint that checks students' mastery of the spelling words. Each lesson is designed to take approximately 15 minutes. Students will master the spelling skills needed to read and write proficiently.
- Vocabulary: K12 Vocabulary exposes students to a wide variety of words. Students will learn, review, and practice words online. K12 Vocabulary is made up of 18 units of 10 lessons each. Lessons are entirely online. Each lesson should take about 10 minutes. In the first 8 lessons of each unit, students will study 3 sets of related words. Lesson 9 of each unit is a review of all the words. Lesson 10 is always a Unit Checkpoint, testing students on all the words they studied.
- Writing Skills: Writing Skills units combine online and offline activities to teach students about grammar, usage, and mechanics, as well as how to plan, write, revise, proofread, and publish various forms of writing. For example, in Unit 4, students will learn about combining sentences and strategies for writing a personal story. Most units end with an assessment on language skills, along with rubrics and sample papers to help evaluate students' writing. There are also four Critical Skills Practice units that help students apply their knowledge of language, vocabulary, spelling, and writing strategies to answer questions similar to those on standardized tests, including planning and writing a response to a prompt.
Course Outline
Literature and Comprehension
Unit 1: Lessons Learned
- "The Wind and the Sun," "The Bundle of Sticks," "Why the Larks Flew Away"
Unit 2: Animal Tales
- "Chipmunk and Bear," "The Tiger, the Brahman, and the Jackal," "The Squirrel and the Spider"
Unit 3: Animals and Their People
- "Charlie and Topsy," "Moufflu," "Black Beauty"
Unit 4: Critical Skills Practice 1
- Fiction Passages, Directions, Practical Reading-Forms
Unit 5: Weather or Not
- "Forecasting the Weather," "Let It Rain," "Winter Storms," "Wind," "Storm Chasers"
Unit 6: Animal Friends Poetry
- Poems about Cats and Dogs, "The Elephant," "The Silent Snake"
Unit 7: Critical Skills Practice 2
- Nonfiction Passages, Poetry, Fiction Passages
Unit 8: George Washington: Soldier, Hero, President
- George Washington: Soldier, Hero, President by Justine and Ron Fontes
Unit 9: Critical Skills Practice 3
- Nonfiction Passages, Fiction Passages, Paired Passages, Poetry
Unit 10: Semester Review and Assessment
Unit 11: Stories That Teach
- "The Necklace of Truth," "The Stone in the Road," "Bruce and the Spider," The Calabash Kids
Unit 12: Nature's Way
- Songs and Secrets, Castles in the Air, Nature's Metaphors
Unit 13: Critical Skills Practice 4
- Directions, Fiction Passages, Nonfiction Passages, Write About a Fiction Passage
Unit 14: Folk Tales of Many Lands
- "The Leak in the Dike," "William Tell," "The Stone-Cutter," "Aladdin and the Wonderful Lamp"
Unit 15: Critical Skills Practice 5
- Nonfiction Passages, Poetry, Paired Passages, Write About Paired Passages
Unit 16: Greek and Roman Myths
- "Mount Olympus and Its Inhabitants," "Naming of a Great City," "The Greater Gift," "The Story of Arachne," "The Story of Proserpina," "Flight through the Sky"
Unit 17: The Glory of Greece
- The Glory of Greece by Beth Zemble and John Holdren
Unit 18: Semester Review and Assessment
Handwriting
- Cursive Writing
- Appropriate pencil grip
- Proper stroke formation and letter connections
- Lower- and uppercase letters
- Writing dictated letters, numbers, words, and sentences
- Consistent, grade-appropriate size
- Placement on baseline
Spelling
Includes:
- Heart Words
- Short Vowel Sounds
- Suffixes -s & -es
- -ng & -nk Words
- Long a Spellings
- Long i Spellings
- Long o Spellings
- Long e Spellings
- Long u Spellings
- Double o Spellings
- /ow/ & /ou/ Spellings
- /ur/ Spellings
- Long e and Long i Spelled y
- Vowel Suffixes on Words Ending in y
- Dropping Silent e Before Vowel Suffixes
- Doubling Consonants Before Adding Vowel Suffixes
- Soft c & g Spellings
- /aw/ & /z/ Spellings
- Triple Consonant Blends
- Digraphs and Trigraphs
- Contractions and Consonant Suffixes
- Consonant Suffixes
- Prefixes
- /l/ or /ul/ Spellings
- r-Controlled Vowels
- /aw/ Spellings
- Suffix -ed
- Suffix -ing
- Silent Consonants
- Words Ending in ic
- Homophones
- Sounds of the ea Spelling
Vocabulary
Unit 1: Compound Words and Math Words
- Introduce Compound Words
- Practice Compound Words
- Introduce Math Words
- Practice Math Words
- Unit Review and Checkpoint
Unit 2: Homographs and Aquatic Words
- Introduce Homographs
- Practice Homographs
- Introduce Aquatic Words
- Practice Aquatic Words
- Unit Review and Checkpoint
Unit 3: Synonyms, Dictionary Skills, and Abbreviations
- Introduce Synonyms
- Practice Synonyms
- Introduce Dictionary Skills
- Practice Dictionary Skills
- Introduce Abbreviations
- Practice Abbreviations
- Unit Review and Checkpoint
Unit 4: Antonyms, Prefixes, and Multiple-Meaning Words
- Introduce Antonyms and Prefix -in
- Practice Antonyms and Prefix -in
- Introduce Multiple-Meaning Words and Parts of Speech
- Practice Multiple-Meaning Words and Parts of Speech
- Unit Review and Checkpoint
Unit 5: Suffixes and Homophones
- Introduce Suffix -able
- Practice Suffix -able
- Introduce Homophones
- Practice Homophones
- Unit Review and Checkpoint
Unit 6: Weather Words and Suffixes
- Introduce Weather Words
- Practice Weather Words
- Introduce Parts of Speech and Suffix -or
- Practice Parts of Speech and Suffix -or
- Unit Review and Checkpoint
Unit 7: Suffixes and Contractions
- Introduce Suffixes -er and -est
- Practice Suffixes -er and -est
- Introduce Contractions
- Practice Contractions
- Unit Review and Checkpoint
Unit 8: Suffixes and Shades of Meaning
- Introduce Suffix -tion
- Practice Suffix -tion
- Introduce Shades of Meaning
- Practice Shades of Meaning
- Unit Review and Checkpoint
Unit 9: Solar System Words
- Introduce Solar System Words
- Practice Solar System Words
- Unit Review and Checkpoint
Unit 10: Compound Words, Acronyms, and Abbreviations
- Introduce Compound Words
- Practice Compound Words
- Introduce Acronyms and Abbreviations
- Practice Acronyms and Abbreviations
- Unit Review and Checkpoint
Unit 11: Latin Roots and Homographs
- Introduce Latin Roots
- Practice Latin Roots
- Introduce Homographs
- Practice Homographs
- Unit Review and Checkpoint
Unit 12: Synonyms and Abbreviations
- Introduce Synonyms
- Practice Synonyms
- Introduce Abbreviations
- Practice Abbreviations
- Unit Review and Checkpoint
Unit 13: Prefixes and Multiple-Meaning Words
- Introduce Prefixes pre- and mis-
- Practice Prefixes pre- and mis-
- Introduce Prefixes re- and dis-
- Practice Prefixes re- and dis-
- Introduce Multiple Meanings and Parts of Speech
- Practice Multiple Meanings and Parts of Speech
- Unit Review and Checkpoint
Unit 14: Suffixes and Antonyms
- Introduce Suffixes -ful and -less
- Practice Suffixes -ful and -less
- Introduce Antonyms with the Suffix -ly
- Practice Antonyms with the Suffix -ly
- Introduce Suffixes -y, -er, and -est
- Practice Suffixes -y, -er, and -est
- Unit Review and Checkpoint
Unit 15: Categories and Homophones
- Introduce Categories
- Practice Categories
- Introduce Homophones
- Practice Homophones
- Unit Review and Checkpoint
Unit 16: Dictionary Skills and Contractions
- Introduce Dictionary Skills
- Practice Dictionary Skills
- Introduce Contractions
- Practice Contractions
- Unit Review and Checkpoint
Unit 17: Suffix -ous and Shades of Meaning
- Introduce Suffix -ous
- Practice Suffix -ous
- Introduce Shades of Meaning
- Practice Shades of Meaning
- Unit Review and Checkpoint
Unit 18: Literal and Nonliteral Meanings and Latin and Greek Roots
- Introduce Literal and Nonliteral Meanings
- Practice Literal and Nonliteral Meanings
- Introduce Latin and Greek Roots
- Practice Latin and Greek Roots
- Unit Review and Checkpoint
Writing Skills
Includes:
- Journals
- Sentences
- Paragraphs
- Sentence Combining and Personal Story
- Critical Skills Practice
- Share Information in a Letter
- Nouns and Informative Essay
- Verbs and Persuasive Essay
- Turn a Persuasive Essay into a Business Letter
- Quotations and Short Research Project
- Pronouns and Book Review
- Book Review Presentation
- Agreement and Plan a Research Report
- Adjectives and Write a Research Report
- Adverbs and Research Report Presentation
- Capital Letters, Punctuation, and Forms
- Verb Tense and Plan a Short Story
- Other Parts of Speech and Write a Short Story
- Semester Reviews and Checkpoints
To use this course, you'll need a computer with an Internet connection. Some courses require additional free software programs, which you can download from the Internet.
Hardware and Browsers (Minimum Recommendations)
Windows OS
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CPU: 1.8 GHz or faster processor (or equivalent)
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RAM: 1GB of RAM
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Browser: Microsoft Internet Explorer 9.0 or higher, Mozilla Firefox 10.0 versions or higher, Chrome 17.0 or higher
- At this time our users are encouraged not to upgrade to Windows 10 or Edge (the new browser)
Mac OS
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CPU: PowerPC G4 1 GHz or faster processor; Intel Core Duo 1.83 GHz or faster processor
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RAM: 1GB of RAM
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Browser: Firefox 10.0 versions or higher, Chrome 17.0 or higher (Safari is not supported!)
Using Mobile Devices with the Online School
Unfortunately, many portable devices do not support the software products required to run the Online School. These devices may include (but not limited to): Chromebooks, iPads, iPhones, iPods, Kindles, eReaders, and Andriod phones.
Internet Connections
It is highly recommended that a broadband connection be used instead of dial up.
