How to Create Simple but Effective Homeschool Language Arts Lessons?4 min read

Introduction

One of the greatest ways to teach native tongue arts lessons is to use an integrated approach. Learn how to quickly and easily develop literature-based classes. We as homeschooling parents have a tendency to make learning more difficult than it needs to be. We lose sight of children’s inherent curiosity and the fact that much of the material we seek to teach is already part of our daily lives.

We believe, for example, that we must put together the ideal spelling, phonics, handwriting, vocabulary, and grammar programs. (Guilty.) Most of us, on the other hand, probably have all we need for a wonderful home-school language arts session on one of our many bookshelves.

And we’re only talking about books you already have. They’re the ones you cuddle up with at night for bedtime stories. When your eager reader is supposed to be asleep, she devours them. And the ones that the entire family listens to at the family read-aloud time.

Integrated Language Arts

Create an integrated language arts lesson using some of your family’s favorite books – or ones you’ll be reading for history and science. Students are immersed in reading, writing, spelling, and grammar across all subject areas in an integrated language arts curriculum.

For starters, research suggests that teaching these abilities as separate topics is far less effective than teaching them as integrated language arts.

Second, it helps you save both time and money. Instead of purchasing and then bringing out all of the vocabularies, grammar, linguistics, writing, and grammar curricula (and, yes, people have favorites – it’s hard to resist shiny), you just pick out the biography, classic literature, or historical fiction novel your child is now reading.

Third, using an integrated language arts approach helps you to tap into your students’ passions. Do you have a fan of Little House on the Prairie? Isn’t it Star Wars? What about the Boxcar Children? Is there a Magic Treehouse? When you start with something they appreciate, it’s a lot easier to get them interested in the lesson you’re attempting to teach.

How to Build a Literature-Based Language Arts Lesson

It’s simple to create a language arts lesson based on your family’s favorite books. A shift in mentality and a commitment to plan ahead are the two most important needs.

It’s up to you, Mom or Dad, to make the mental transition. Don’t transform their favorite books into a school with gloomy music. Instead, consider integrated language arts as a way to demonstrate to your children that what they’re learning is already a part of their daily life.

SPELLING AND PHONICS

Make a point of pointing out and reinforcing phonics and spelling rules in the books you’re reading. When you’re looking for an example, you’ll be astonished at how many you’ll find. There are a few ways to work on phonics and spelling without interfering with the story’s flow.

Pre-reading the chapter for terms that follow the writing or phonics rules your child is working on is one method. Make a list of those you come across, including page numbers if necessary. After reading the narrative, you can go back and point them out to your youngster. Alternatively, you can go over your list with your child before reading and have him look and listen for those terms as you read.

Another option is to give your child the list after you finish reading so that he can search the passage for them. Make it a scavenger hunt to see how many he can discover in a certain amount of time. Finally, if your child is reading autonomously, he or she can create his or her own list by scribbling down words as they come up or scanning for them after reading.

VOCABULARY

Similar strategies can be used to extract vocabulary words from the books you’re reading. Pre-read for them yourself, or ask your children to point out or jot down unusual words.

Using an index card as a bookmark is a fantastic suggestion for kids who are reading independently.

Then, while they read, they can make a list of unusual words and check them up later. Stop reading and define words only if the reader can’t figure out the gist from context or if it impairs the passage’s grasp.

GRAMMAR, WRITING, AND PENMANSHIP

Observing language and writing in action is the best way to learn them. No matter what component of speech you’re learning, you’ll find it on the pages of the books you’re already reading. After you’ve completed reading, choose a page and make a list of all the descriptors, common nouns, grammatical structures, or prepositions.

Do you want to get a better understanding of capitalization and punctuation? On any page of a book, there are a dozen examples! These suggestions aren’t just for kids in elementary school. In a biography or other non-fiction work, high school students can see instances of higher-level competencies including quoting sources, using footnotes, creating a bibliography, and composing conversation.

Using the books your children are reading as a source of copy work, narration, or dictation is a terrific method for them to improve their grammar, spelling, and handwriting.