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Saxon Grammar and Writing

Saxon Grammar and Writing

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Stephen Hake, co-author of some of the Saxon math texts with John Saxon, helped produce this grammar and writing series for grades five through eight. Saxon Grammar and Writing uses the same educational methodology that has popularized the math books. Books are designed so that students can do much of their work independently. New concepts are taught in small increments. Also, continual review and building upon prior concepts in a spiral fashion helps students retain what they have learned.

There are three components for each level: Student Edition, Student Workbook, and Teacher Packet. Both the Student Edition and Student Workbook serve as worktexts with instruction, exercises, and assignments.

The Student Edition, the largest of the three books (with 107 to 112 lessons per volume) is the starting place. A brief introduction succinctly describes course content. In the Student Editions for grades 7 and 8, a few vital lines have been added to direct students to dictation and journal topics in the back of their books. At the top of the first page of each lesson is a box that says"Dictation or Journal Entry" followed by "Vocabulary"—a few words with definitions and sample sentences. Without instruction, students would not know that there are dictation passages for each week at the back of their Student Edition. They copy these on the first day they begin the next group of lessons, study them on remaining lesson days until they reach a test day. Then they write the passage out from oral dictation as part of testing. Spelling and punctuation are learned primarily through the dictation exercises.

Each Student Edition also has 100 journaling topics at the back. Students should write on these topics between the first day when they copy the dictation and test day, although they are not assigned for particular days. The bulk of the book is dedicated to instruction, examples, and exercises in grammar. Lessons follow a standard format of instruction accompanied by examples. This is followed by some practice exercises on the the new concept and the vocabulary for that lesson. The review set is where students find the bulk of the exercises. These tackle previously taught concepts. (Italicized numbers next to each question indicate which lesson/s taught the concept in case students need to review.) While many students will like the variety in these exercises, others might prefer exercises all on one topic such as we find in Easy Grammar.

This is a fairly comprehensive English program covering grammar, writing, spelling, punctuation, and vocabulary. Literature/reading is the only thing missing. Grammar instruction is very challenging and includes sentence diagramming. Students coming into this program in sixth through eighth grades, might need to back up a level to keep from getting overwhelmed. The program does review and repeat through each level, so it is possible for a student to begin at sixth, seventh, or eighth grade level.

Saxon Grammar and Writing has a stronger composition component than many other comprehensive programs. In addition to the dictation and journal assignments, the Student Workbook focuses mostly upon composition skills. A schedule for the lessons—showing which days students are to do lessons from either the Student Edition or the Student Workbook—is found in the Teacher Packet. I would recommend copying this schedule for students. As far as composition skills, in fifth grade, students work on sentences, paragraphs, essays, personal narratives, chapter summaries, and imaginative stories while also learning how to evaluate their own essays. Sixth grade adds outlining and research papers with a working bibliography. Seventh and eighth grades continue with the above skills at more challenging levels and add poetry.

In addition to the composition lessons, Student Workbooks also have "More Practice" lessons that are to be used in conjunction with Student Edition lessons. (Note that in the Student Editions it says "See Master Worksheets" when there is a companion "More Practice" lesson. Parents might need to come up with an easy system for students to locate the appropriate worksheets when they are required.)

The Student Workbooks also include a few supplemental activities that are similar to Mad Libs where students come up with a list of words that fit designations such as "abstract common noun," "preposition," or "nominative case personal pronoun (feminine)." They then slot these "parts of speech" into a pre-written story in the workbook, and the result is bound to be silly. This is a great way to review grammatical terms.

The content of the lessons sometimes integrates information about literature, history, geography, and character building. While American history gets some attention at all levels, the eighth grade text brings in American history and government even more through examples, exercises, dictation, and journal topics. This makes it an excellent companion to a study of American History for social studies/history at the same time. Although the content is not Christian, it supports those with a Christian worldview.

Beginning after the first ten lessons in the Student Edition, there is a test after every five lessons. This does not follow a predictable schedule such as testing every Friday since there are five Student Edition lessons and sometimes one or more Student Workbook lessons between tests. Tests and answer keys for all components are in the Teacher Packet. (The Teacher Packet is actually a book rather than loose pages.)

All three components for each level are printed in black-and-white in soft cover books. There are no graphics other than those required for diagramming or other exercises. The weight and type of the paper in these books is close to newsprint quality, so these are definitely meant to be consumable books. Students might complete most of their exercises directly in the Student Edition, but occasionally they will need more space for such tasks as rewriting sentences or diagramming. Thus, students will also need to maintain a notebook for some of their exercises as well as for composition assignments.

Saxon Grammar and Writing seems comparable to A Beka in the grammar department, but better on composition. It's both stronger and more challenging than Easy Grammar. And the inclusion of diagramming distinguishes it from many other options. The distinctive Saxon incremental teaching and review approach will also attract fans as well as put off those who prefer more concentrated coverage of each topic in each lesson. I suspect parents will like this program since students can complete most of their work on their own, and even with composition assignments, students learn to self-evaluate to a certain extent. The content appeals to a broad audience that might be either secular or religious.