High School - Part 3

Back to High School for GW!

In addition to the ESL teacher's suggestion to have GW start writing one sentence for each video he watches, she also recommended that we have him listen to and read English together, and then to copy the same thing he just listened to.  This way he hears it, sees it and then writes it all in the same day.  She recommended a site which I wasn't thrilled with due to some of the content, but I found an alternate site at http://www.manythings.org/  There are LOTS of great resources on this page for ESL learners, but the pages we are now using are the ones under Listening and Reading.  Right now, GW is using the History page to practice his listening, reading, and writing (copy work) skills.   What I really like about this is he is learning different subjects while he is learning his English!  The goal for all of this is for him to improve his listening, reading, comprehension, and writing skills all at the same time.

In addition to this reading, GW is also working through Ultimate Phonics.  This is a computer based program which has proper pronunciation of all the letters, blends, dipthongs (and other odd parts of words!) so he can HEAR it properly and practice it.  There is a book that you download that has words and sentences for each lesson that only use the sounds he has learned up to that point.  After listening to the lesson, he goes and reads the words and sentences to CP to work on his pronunciation.  We also have him reading from the McGuffey Readers.  This is just more reading practice for him.  I really like the McGuffey Readers for older ESL students because the material is not childish, but the reading level is appropriate.

For math, we are continuing with our old reliable Saxon Algebra 1.  He could probably do Algebra 2, but I'm content to make sure he doesn't have any gaps.

We also are using Rapid Typing for typing.

For vocabulary, we are doing two things.  First, whenever GW comes across a word in his McGuffey reader that he doesn't know, I have him write it down in his vocabulary notebook.  I then have him look it up on the iPad using the Pleco app.  This is a free app that allows him to type in the English word and gives him the Chinese characters as well as pinyin.  Most of the time, he knows the word in Chinese, just not in English.  In addition to this, we have just recently added English from the Roots Up for the five oldest. I liked the vocabulary we were using, I just think it was missing out on the fact that most English words are "put-together" words (you know - prefix, root, suffix).  EftRU fills in that missing piece.  I also think that by helping GW realize that English words are made from parts, that he will grow his vocabulary at a much faster pace.  We only do one word a day, but by having them put the words together, they learn a multitude of words by just knowing the parts!

After we finish the Financial Peace University classes, I will have GW (and JA) start watching the American Heritage Series.  As with the videos, I'll have him write about this also.  Eventually, I plan on adding some Economics and Science videos from Khan Academy to his lessons, but right now, I think he has more than enough on his plate!