August 20, 2005
I am solidly in the camp of those who believe that very young students do not need a lot of academic work. In thinking over my English Guide one night, it occurred to me that the list of concepts for first and second grade might cause a parent to feel that this is not the case. The truth is that, although they are foundational and really should be taught early on, most of the concepts mentioned in these early grades can be taught in a very informal fashion. For example, it is really not necessary to sit your first-grader down at his desk or the kitchen table, tell him, “Today we are going to learn about ‘Predicting the Outcome’”, and proceed to have a lesson about “Predicting the Outcome.” Surely you are already reading with your child. When you are in the midst of a story, pause and ask your child, “What do you think will happen next?” You have just asked him to predict the outcome. Congratulations, you have just had your English lesson for the day/week.
August 15, 2005
A friend recently commented that she would not be using KISS because she wasn’t able to sort out the site. This is understandable, as there is so much information there! It’s a shame, though, to have to find something else as a result of nothing but navigation. I hope that the following “table of contents” will make the KISS Grammar site less mysterious.
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Start with The Syntactic Rules of the Game. This is the overview of the entire program and you will want to familiarize yourself with it.
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This next section is the portion you will refer to routinely as you teach. No one section is longer than 4 printed pages, so it should not be too overwhelming.
(Introduction)
3rd Grade ] (There is also some extra instructional material here.)
4th, 5th, 6th Grades
7th, 8th, 9th Grades
10th Grade
11th Grade
(Conclusion)
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If you go to the Self Paced Course and print out just the exercises for each level, it will give you a quick overview of the sentence-marking method. (This is a great quick-reference.)
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As a teacher, you will probably want to read The Structure of English Sentences for background, but it is not something you will need/want to work through step-by-step as part of the curriculum. Think of it as the author’s preface or introduction. You read it when you first get the book, but you don’t refer back to it regularly during your teaching. I also like The KISS Difference as background. It explains not only how, but why.
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This is not a hard-and-fast rule for how you must use the site; it is simply my personal preference. There is a wealth of information available there, and I recommend that you set aside time to browse and read most, if not all, of it. The above suggestions, however, should make it simpler for you to use the site for teaching purposes. Please let me know if this information has been helpful.
(reading chronologically)
