Core Curriculum
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English Levels 1-8
Grade Level 1
The first-level English material reviews consonant and vowel sounds and introduces
reading and writing of word families and sentences. As students develop reading
comprehension skills, they find satisfaction and success in reading, writing, and
spelling.
Grade Level 2
Students are introduced to punctuation and parts of speech. They also study word
meanings and order, compound words, and rhyming words. The curriculum develops visual
discrimination and increases reading comprehension skills.
Grade Level 3
This level concentrates on verbal skills. The material covers types of sentences, parts
of speech, confusing word pairs, and simple punctuation. Cursive writing is emphasized
so that students may achieve penmanship excellence. Students expand their knowledge of
poems and rhyming words, and creative writing is encouraged.
Grade Level 4
This level covers three basic sentence types with an emphasis on usage and the writing
process. Students study the eight parts of speech along with more confusing word pairs.
The material touches on proper telephone manners and the writing of friendly and
business letters.
Grade Level 5
Level 5 includes exercises and review of capitalization, punctuation, and sentence
structure. The eight parts of speech are covered more extensively as well as synonyms,
antonyms, homonyms, and heteronyms. Students learn sentence diagramming, agreement of
subject and verb, conjugation, and sentence elements. Letter writing and dictionary
work are also a part of this course.
Grade Level 6
Students continue studying grammar concepts and developing skills in sentence
diagramming. There is special emphasis on sentence patterns, clauses, and kinds of
sentences. The material reviews punctuation, outlining, letter writing, and paragraph
structure and writing. Students learn to express themselves clearly and must apply
principles of composition learned earlier.
Grade Level 7
Students continue to work at identifying, reviewing, and diagramming simple, compound,
and complex sentence patterns. They review principal parts of regular and irregular
verbs. Verb study involves perfect tenses as well as conjugation of all six tenses.
Progressive verb forms, troublesome verbs, transitive and intransitive verbs are
studied as well. Noun and pronoun study becomes more intense. Infinitives, participles,
and gerunds are introduced. There is opportunity to develop writing and communication
skills through use of sentence variety, outlining, paragraph writing, composition
writing, and proofreading.
Grade Level 8
Sentence patterns and parts continue to be emphasized. Action and linking verbs are
reviewed, as well as verb tenses, conjugations, the progressive form, and the emphatic
mood. Diagramming concentrates on pronouns, adjectives, adverbs, prepositional phrases,
and sentence patterns. Students continue to develop writing skills, which include topic
sentences, outlining, and paragraph development. They learn to recognize sentence
fragments and run-on sentences and are guided in writing several short biographical
sketches.
Basic Literature Study Guides are completed in conjunction with even-numbered English
PACEs beginning at Level 4 and continuing through Level 8. These study guides contain
questions, as well as tests and composition assignments for six literature books per
level.